Pollution | The Price of Oil

Posts in Pollution

RIP Exxon Valdez
Andy Rowell
Mar26
For some Saturday’s Anniversary would have been a painful reminder of the reckless behaviour of Big Oil. It was on the 24 March 1989, that the Exxon Valdez ploughed into rocks in Prince William Sound in Alaska spilling at least 11 million gallons of oil. Although, the Exxon Valdez’s Anniversary no longer makes the news elsewhere,…
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BP’s Oil “Entered Food Chain”
Andy Rowell
Mar21
At the height of the Deepwater disaster, then CEO of BP, Tony Hayward said it was only a drop in the ocean, so not to worry. BP’s scientists and cronies were quick to argue that the vast majority of the oil had been broken down and dispersed and that there was nothing to worry about….
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$fracking3$
IEA’s “golden rules for the golden age of gas”
Andy Rowell
Mar20
The respected chief economist of the IEA, Fatih Birol, has warned that the world will become increasingly reliant on shale gas and oil from Iraq in the coming decades. In part to help stave off the growing public backlash against shale gas, the IEA is preparing, along with a number of governments, a set of “best…
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“Desperate” Shell Goes to Court Over Arctic Drilling
Andy Rowell
Mar06
Last week I blogged on the landmark legal case against Shell by Nigerians that was being heard in the Supreme Court. That’s not the only court-room Shell was in last week. In an extraordinary preemptive legal strike the oil giant filed suit against more than a dozen environmental organisations that Shell believes might challenge its…
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BP Settlement “doesn’t benefit my clients”
Andy Rowell
Mar05
The saying in the city is that the markets do not lie. And after Friday’s late night deal to reach a settlement with plaintiffs for a reported $7.8 billion, shares this morning in BP are topping the FTSE 100. The company’s share have risen over 2 per cent this morning with some analysts saying the…
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BP Trial “Close to Settlement”
Andy Rowell
Feb27
So the trial of the century may not happen after all. This morning, lawyers representing over 116,000 plaintiffs had been due in court in New Orleans to begin the trial against BP and other defendants resulting from the Deepwater Horizon. The trial could have lasted two years. Documents in the case run to more than…
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The Hidden Danger of the Gas Boom
Andy Rowell
Feb08
The hype surrounding the US gas industry continues to grow as America moves ever closer to its cherished dream of energy independence. Yesterday, Bloomberg reported that “the U.S. is the closest it has been in almost 20 years to achieving energy self-sufficiency, a goal the nation has been pursuing since the 1973 Arab oil embargo…
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EU: Fracking Laws Are Adequate, For Now
Andy Rowell
Jan31
In a decision that will both dismay and worry environmental campaigners and communities facing fracking across Europe, the European commission has concluded that existing laws are adequate to cover the controversial drilling technique. A new report undertaken for the Commission by the Belgian law firm Philippe & Partners, argues that there is no need for…
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$New-York-anti-fracking-protest$
Fracking Causes Blowouts too
Andy Rowell
Jan17
Another day and yet another reported problem with fracking. Canadian regulators are now investigating the possibility that fracking could have caused a blowout in a neighbouring well which was producing oil several hundred metres away. The country’s Energy Resource Conservation Board was alerted last Friday after a landowner saw black fluid spraying fifteen metres into…
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Appeal Court Upholds Chevron Guilty Verdict
Andy Rowell
Jan04
Chevron has been found guilty again. Yesterday, an Ecuadorian appeals court upheld a ruling that the oil giant should pay US$18 billion in damages for polluting the Amazon. It was last February that a local judge had ordered Chevron to pay US$8.6 billion in damages, but the amount was doubled to US$18 billion because Chevron…
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