Pollution | The Price of Oil

Posts in Pollution

Tar Sands: “No Safe Way to Market”
Andy Rowell
Nov30
The top brass of BP and Shell will have not been amused this morning when they opened their Financial Times to see a half page advert staring at them about the ecological cost of the tar sands. The advert, entitled: “Tar sands – 23 per cent more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil” demands that…
Continue reading ‘Tar Sands: “No Safe Way to Market”’.
Chevron Faces Possible Brazil Drilling Ban
Andy Rowell
Nov22
Eighteen months after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, we have another country threatening to ban an oil company after a deep water spill. Yesterday it was Brazil’s turn to say it might ban Chevron from drilling in its deep water oilfields as punishment for the 3,000 barrel oil spill from the company’s Frade project. Chevron has…
Continue reading ‘Chevron Faces Possible Brazil Drilling Ban’.
Oil Spill off Rio Sets Chevron at the Center of Scandal
Traci Romine
Nov17
Chevron is at the center of a scandal over the oil spill in the offshore Campos Basin Frade field about 230 miles from the coast of northeast Rio de Janeiro. Originally the company said that the spill was natural seepage from the field. Well, no, it appears it was not. The scandal began to unravel on…
Continue reading ‘Oil Spill off Rio Sets Chevron at the Center of Scandal’.
New Zealand’s “Worst Maritime Disaster”
Andy Rowell
Oct11
First things first – this is no Deepwater Horizon. But it is still being called a disaster and it looks like its going to get worse. The 47,000 tonne container ship Rena is currently grounded on a reef in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty and it is leaking heavy fuel oil after running aground last…
Continue reading ‘New Zealand’s “Worst Maritime Disaster”’.
“Everything Koch stood for was a lie”
Andy Rowell
Oct04
Ever since Greenpeace outed the Koch brothers as the largest financiers of climate change denial, the secretive brothers have started getting much more media attention. The fact that they are also major backers of the controversial Tea Party movement – with its loathing of environmental protection and dismissal of climate change – has added to…
Continue reading ‘“Everything Koch stood for was a lie”’.
The Flaring Scandal that Shames the US
Andy Rowell
Sep28
Twenty years ago, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was then largely unknown in the west either as an environmental activist or writer, started touring the capitals of Europe to drum up support for the Ogoni campaign against the oil giant Shell. Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni had many issues with Shell – the fact that they had received…
Continue reading ‘The Flaring Scandal that Shames the US’.
$Freedom-fracking-protest$
“It’s a pie in the sky” number
Andy Rowell
Sep26
On Wednesday last week, the hype that has surrounding fracking in the US finally arrived in the UK. The energy firm Cuadrilla, which has been drilling wells in the North West of the country under Lancashire, announced a “huge find” of gas. Cuadrilla announced that that its tests showed there could be as much as…
Continue reading ‘“It’s a pie in the sky” number’.
Gov Report into Deepwater “Spreads Blame”
Andy Rowell
Sep14
After numerous delays, and even the departure of a lead investigator, later today the US government is expected to release the report into last year’s Deepwater Horizon disaster that has been undertaken by the Coast Guard and the Agency responsible for regulating offshore drilling. According to the Wall Street Journal, the federal investigation into the…
Continue reading ‘Gov Report into Deepwater “Spreads Blame”’.
Comeback Kid Hayward Severs Final Link With BP
Andy Rowell
Sep12
Finally after 29 years, Tony Hayward, the former chief executive of BP, will sever all his ties with the oil giant. Although he resigned from being Chief Executive last year in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, Hayward has remained on board of its Russian joint venture, TNK-BP. But it has announced that he…
Continue reading ‘Comeback Kid Hayward Severs Final Link With BP’.
Arctic Spill Would Be “Uncontrollable” Catastrophe
Andy Rowell
Sep06
Following up last week’s news about the tie up between Exxon and Rosneft and the dangers of Arctic drilling, today’s Independent runs a disturbing warning from a distinguished polar scientist about the dangers of a spill in the region. For a long time now, the environmental organisation Greenpeace has been shouting from the roof-tops about…
Continue reading ‘Arctic Spill Would Be “Uncontrollable” Catastrophe’.