Last month a group of pension funds and asset managers filed a resolution asking Royal Dutch Shell to reconsider its controversial involvement in the dirty tar sands. And now the investors are targeting BP asking it not to invest a massive $10 billion in its Sunrise tar sands development.
Canada
Canada’s Reputation “At Risk” Over Tar Sands
Timing, they say, is everything. Click on a copy of Canada’s National Post and one of the banner adverts today is from Shell talking about the “New Energy Future”. Part of Shell’s “new Energy Future” is the Canadian tar sands, where it has been investing heavily (although it may be shifting direction again back to … Read More
“Shock waves of anxiety” over Shell’s tar sands move
Remarks made by Shell CEO, Peter Voser to the Financial Times Energy Editor that his company has “clearly scaled down” its plans for a massive expansion of tar sands production should send waves of anxiety through the Canadian oil industry and a serious rethink among energy security hawks in Washington. Since the middle of last … Read More
Shell’s “Strategic Shift” Away From Tar Sands
For a company that prides itself on long-term planning, Shell sometimes seems to be a company that could not plan its way out of a paper bag. Just over a decade ago it made a big song and dance about moving into renewables, only to beat a humiliating retreat a decade later. For the last … Read More
Hypocrisy and Contradictions at the COP
Oh the hypocrisy. Today is the day that President Obama receives the Nobel Peace Prize, with many arguing that he is yet to bring peace. Today is also the day that Obama’s Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar will address the Copenhagen conference hours after approving oil giant Shell’s highly controversial plans to drill for oil off … Read More
Copenhagen Talks Spell Trouble for the Tar Sands
Critics of the oil industry’s relentless expansion into the Canadian tar sands have been pointing out for a while something that they thought was obvious: the multi-billion investment strategy is completely flawed. They have repeatedly pointed out that exploiting the highly polluting and energy intensive tar sands is extremely financially risky in a carbon constrained … Read More
Big Oil Front Group Fights for Tar Sands
The debate on energy and climate is littered with corporate front groups scare-mongering over action on climate change at the moment. On the blog we have recently talked about the American Petroleum Institute’s astroturf “Energy Citizen” campaign and American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCE)’s fake letter writers.
Canada: The Climate Change Bully
Timed with perfection to undermine the meeting between Canada’s Premier Stephen Harper and Barack Obama, Greenpeace has issued a new report labelling Canada as a “climate change bully” that is doing everything in its power to undermine a new agreement at Copenhagen. Tomorrow will be the second meeting between the two leaders, who are expected … Read More
Chinese in $2 Billion Tar Sands Deal
To paraphrase the great writer Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain: “Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated!” And so it is with the tar sands, one of the hottest debates in the energy industry. Its growing army of critics argue this highly polluting technology will help tip the world towards climatic … Read More
Shell’s Tar Sands Operations Make a Loss
Its been a bad year so far for the oil barons. The oil price has plummeted through the floor and so have their profits. Yesterday BP announced a drop of 62 per cent and today Shell announced a similar reduction of reduced profits of 58 per cent, the first time it has posted a quarterly … Read More