Tomorrow sees the final public hearing in the national interest determination process surrounding the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. The proposed 1,700 mile pipeline would bring up to 900,000 barrels per day of dirty tar sands crude to the Gulf Coast from Alberta, Canada if approved by the State Department. The hearing will take place in … Read More
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Europe Labels the Tar Sands “Dirty”
Earlier this year I worked with Friends of the Earth on a report that exposed the extent of Canadian lobbying on the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD), a landmark piece of legislation by the EU which hopes to reduce CO2 emissions from transport fuels. We detailed how there had been a huge number of lobbying events … Read More
A tax break for refiners paid for by school budget cuts: a taste of things to come?
In a chilling preview of what life may be like if Rick Perry were to become president, a commission appointed by the Texan Governor is proposing handing Valero and other Texan refiners a tax refund worth $135 million. That would be bad enough but where will they find the money in these hard times? Around … Read More
“Everything Koch stood for was a lie”
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 … Read More
Nigeria: Shell’s New Human Rights Abuses
Often the story of Shell’s atrocities in Nigeria has focused on its complicity in the death of the Ogoni Ken Saro-Wiwa, or the human rights abuses that were committed in the mid-nineties. But now a great new report from the oil industry watch-dog Platform, and published in coalition with a number of NGOs, has looked … Read More
Myth or Miracle? Are Keystone XL jobs and energy security claims exaggerated?
To hear some people talk about it, Keystone XL is the answer to many of America’s current woes. It will free America of the scourge of foreign oil dependence, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, weaken the enemies that threaten the union, and bring on the good times once again. While the good times may … Read More
The Flaring Scandal that Shames the US
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 … Read More
Britain Backs Canada Over Tar Sands Fight
On a warm summer evening in July this year, in the prestigious and ornate College Garden of Britain’s historic Westminster Abbey, 250 guests listened to a five-piece band. The music was the start of an inaugural summer party organised by the public relations company Hanover Communications. The guest list for the party was impressive, including … Read More
“It’s a pie in the sky” number
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 … Read More
Saudis Slam “EthicalOil” Tar Sands Advert
I’m continuing this week’s tar sands theme. There seems to be no limits to how many people the Canadians will annoy in their attempt to impose the dirty tar sands on the world’s oil markets. There is also no limit to their hypocrisy either. We know the Canadians are using strong-arm tactics to threaten the … Read More