Oil companies continue to profit at the expense of our future

July 27, 2012By David TurnbullBlog Post, Featured 3 Comments

If you believe the press reports, you’d think that the oil industry was hurting of late, what with the headlines coming out of the most recent quarterly earnings reports saying things like, “Exxon and Shell Earnings Disappoint,” and “Occidental quarterly profit lower”, and “Chevron 2nd-Quarter Profit Off 6.8%; Upstream Earnings Fall”.  These headlines paint a … Read More

New EPA Regs Address Fracking…in 2015

April 20, 2012By Karen ShowalterBlog Post, Featured

Some good news: The Environmental Protection Agency issued important rules to address air pollution from natural gas drilling, primarily fracking. Less good news: Bending to pressure from Big Oil, the measures won’t go into effect until 2015. The regulations will require that new wells capture certain smog-forming compounds, as well as methane, which is a … Read More

Beware the Oil Industry’s Voldemort

April 10, 2012By Andy RowellBlog Post

And so it goes on. Any regular reader of this blog will know that the good old boys at the American Petroleum Institute (API) often pluck magic figures out of the air to over-inflate the importance of the oil and gas industry to the economy. They also often distort key debates on offshore drilling and … Read More

UK Gov Dismisses Fracking Inquiry Call

June 13, 2011By Andy RowellBlog Post, Featured

Another day and another review has been ordered into the controversial technique called fracking. Last week, the Governor of Maryland established the “Marcellus Shale Safe Drilling Initiative”, which will review the safety of the drilling technique for natural gas from the Marcellus Shale in Western Maryland. “We are also very concerned about an array of … Read More

Dash for Shale Gas Undermines Wind

May 23, 2011By Andy RowellBlog Post, Featured

The last time that America’s pro-wind lobby came together for its regular get-together was in California in 2007. That time there were 5,000 attendees and the installed wind capacity in the US was 17 gigawatts. Four years later and on the surface it is a success story for America’s pro-wind lobby. Yesterday saw the opening … Read More

France to Say “Non” to Fracking

May 11, 2011By Andy RowellBlog Post, Featured

Just last week, a study by the European Centre for Energy and Resource Security concluded that unconventional gas resources in Europe – such as shale gas – could radically reshape the continent’s oil and gas outlook, and reduce its dependency on Russia and the Middle East. The report said that, in theory “Europe’s unconventional gas … Read More

Who Needs Oil or Nukes Anyway?

May 10, 2011By Andy RowellBlog Post, Featured 2 Comments

In the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan many commentators, including some leading environmentalists argued that despite the inherent risks of nuclear power, it was still a necessary evil in the battle about climate change. They joined other pro-nuclear voices that have been growing steadily over the last few years in arguing that … Read More