Timing, as I have pointed out in this blog before, is everything. Day two of the Cancun climate summit and you would have thought that politicians and companies would be tripping over themselves to portray themselves as clean and green. But not BP. The oil giant is off-loading assets left, right and centre. Just days … Read More
Canada
Shell to Increase North American Output by 40 Percent
BP might be America’s bette noir right now after the Deepwater Horizon spill, but its fierce rival Shell is planning a massive expansion in the region. Shell plans to expand its operations in tar sands and in deepwater in the Gulf of Mexico. So never mind the repeated calls by environmental groups, communities and investors … Read More
Greenwashing Mordor
So Mordor is getting a makeover. Big-time. There is a concerted, multi-faceted public relations campaign going on to greenwash the tar sands. Dirty black is trying to become virgin white, or so that’s what they want. According to three Albertan cabinet ministers, the tar sands are a “Canadian jewel” that should be celebrated and exploited. … Read More
Utah Approves America’s First Tar Sands Mine
For the last eighteen months, Canada has increasingly come under the international environmental spot-light for its catastrophic exploitation of the dirty, polluting tar sands. Grim images of Alberta being strip mined have been beamed around the world as Canada has become the dirty man of the Northern hemisphere. It is said that large parts of … Read More
The Boom Times Are Back
From one disaster to another.. Early on during Deepwater, I blogged on how the Canadians were looking to exploit the spill to push their dirty oil. The fact has not been lost on the industry bible, the Petroleum Economist, (PE) which notes in its July edition that “whisper it, but the US’ misfortune could be … Read More
Clean tar sands and safe deepwater drilling “more PR than reality.”
The industry’s PR response from Deepwater is shaping up nicely. This is the industry message: We will give you improved safety and you give us resumed drilling. The Gulf of Mexico represents energy security and jobs for the boys to boot. The tar sands of Canada also represent energy security, so if you let us … Read More
Investors Warned Tar Sands are a “Slow Motion” Oil Spill
Earlier this month, I blogged how the tar sands lobby was trying to exploit BP’s Gulf of Mexico spill. Well the pro-tar sands argument has once again been blown out of the water by a report from the social investment network, Ceres. It argues that the environmental and financial risks of producing oil in Canada’s … Read More
Putting Tar Sands in Your Tank …
Disaster One. New estimates put the amount of oil per day pouring into the Gulf of Mexico at one million gallons a day. If this is so, BP’s disaster may have spilt more oil than the Exxon Valdez, when at least eleven million gallons poured from the stricken tanker. Disaster Two. There is another ecological … Read More
Avatar director: Tar sands Are “Black Eye” to Canada
When faced with a PR battle, one of the fossil fuel industry’s tactics is to set up a supposed grass-roots organisation or “Astroturf” organisation. So Citizens for the Environment had no citizens in it – it was just a front for big oil and other polluting industries. The Global Climate Coalition was also no such … Read More
When two worlds collide – the chardonnay wins
If you have never been to an oil company AGM it is worth going to watch two parallel words colliding for a few hours. On the one side are the protestors arguing passionately for the company to listen to how their activities are destroying someone’s homeland or are polluting the earth. Up on the top … Read More