You scratch my back and … The latest moves to ease restrictions on offshore drilling off the US coast is being pushed by 17 Republican senators who have received $3 million total in campaign contributions from individuals and political action committees affiliated with the oil and gas industry since January 1, 2007. The Republican energy … Read More
Month: May 2008
The answer is blowing in the wind
Two decades from now Americans could get as much electricity from wind turbines as from nuclear power plants, according to a new government report. The report, a collaboration between the Energy Department research labs and industry, concludes wind energy could generate 20 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2030, about the same share now produced … Read More
Another tribe who face extinction ..
Olav Mathias-Eira is a reindeer-herder. He is a member of the Sami community, one of the largest indigenous groups remaining in Europe, and his family have been herding reindeer in the same stretch of the Norwegian Arctic since the 1400s. But, because of climate change, their lifestyle, unchanged for centuries, is now at risk. So … Read More
EnCana to Split
EnCana Corp, Canada’s biggest energy company, is going to buck the trend in the oil industry of mergers, and split into two separate oil and natural gas firms in an effort to wring out more value with crude prices at record highs. The new oil firm, worth about a third of the enterprise value, will … Read More
“What you have done is totally unethical!!”
Two of the leading climate sceptic organisations are in real trouble over misrepresenting the views of climate scientists. Back in September last year, Dennis Avery from the right-wing Hudson Institute, wrote an article claiming that 500 scientists backed the theory that “most of the recent global warming has been caused by a long, moderate, natural … Read More
Antarctica: Climate Change Exposes “Toxic Soup”
One of the ways climate change will affect us will be in ways we do not expect. We may have climate models, but we cannot predict all the horrors that lie in store. Here is one such horror. The New Scientist has run a story about how “decades after most countries stopped spraying DDT, frozen … Read More
Court Rules BP Blast Victims Rights’ Have Been Violated
A US federal appeals court has ruled that the rights of victims in BP’s fatal Texas City explosion in March 2005 were violated by US prosecutors who reached a secret plea agreement with the UK oil group late last year before consulting victims. The victims insist the plea deal is too lenient and they should … Read More
Democrats Seek Special Tax on Oil Profits
Democrats in the US Senate yesterday called for a temporary special tax on oil companies’ profits and a rollback of $17 billion in oil industry tax breaks as part of an energy package. The proposed 25 percent profits tax would apply just to oil company earnings above what would be considered “reasonable” and only if … Read More
Koalas at Risk from Climate Change
First it was the polar bear, now its the Koala. Both are threatened by climate change. The bears are threatened by the rising level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because it saps nutrients from the eucalyptus leaves they feed on. According to Ian Hume, emeritus professor of biology at Sydney University, the amount of … Read More
Oil Price “May Hit $200 A Barrel”
Do you remember the days when oil was only $100? Although there has been speculation in recent days concerning the oil price, one of the most authoritative predictions so far has the price of crude oil at $200 within as little as six months. The prediction by Goldman Sachs was made as benchmark US light … Read More