Despite overwhelming community resistance and evidence of groundwater pollution, the shale gas revolution continues apace. “In the middle of the last decade”, writes Ed Crooks in today’s special report on energy in the Financial Times, “it looked as if the end of the Oil Age was in sight in the Americas. Not imminently, perhaps, but … Read More
EU
Fracking: EU Warns of “High Risk” to Environment
The European Union is the latest organisation to raise serious concerns about the environmental impact of fracking. The EU has released three detailed reports to assess the risk to the environment and human health from shale gas extraction. In a devastating and highly detailed critique, the first report on the environmental impact of fracking, identifies … Read More
EU Commissioner Calls for End to Subsidies
Connie Hedegaard, the outspoken EU Commissioner for Climate Action, has lent her weight to the growing calls for ending fossil fuel subsidies. Earlier in the week, Oil Change International revealed that fossil fuel subsidies could be as high a $1 trillion. Oil Change has been working with others NGOs to make phasing out subsidies a … Read More
Subsidised “Green Gas” No Better than Coal
Sometimes all you have to do is join the dots. Let’s take three different headlines from yesterday, which are all from the Guardian newspaper in the UK. Headline number one: “’Golden age of gas’ threatens renewable energy, IEA warns” The article went on to state: “A ‘golden age of gas’ spurred by a tripling of … Read More
Tar sands “could produce $3 trillion”
Only yesterday I was talking about hype and how the oil industry often plays the long game. The Canadian Federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, who has become a real cheer-leader for the tar sands industry, argues that it could generate over than $3 trillion in revenue in 25 years. That is a huge fat … Read More
Big Oil Approved Canada’s FQD Strategy
We have known for a long time that the Canadian government was colluding with the oil and gas industry over tar sands and its campaign against Europe’s Fuel Quality Directive (FQD). But new documents have come to light that reveal the extent of that collusion, especially between Big Oil and Natural Resources Canada, the Department … Read More
“Bully-Boy Canada” Delays EU Action (Again)
One of the dirtiest and diplomatically-brutal PR campaigns ever witnessed in Brussels has once again paid off. At the end of last week, the EU finally buckled to Canadian arm-twisting and delayed the introduction of the long awaited Fuel Quality Directive, which is designed to reduce carbon emissions from transport fuels. The European Council – … Read More
The $13 Billion Bill for Elgin Gas Spill
Oil companies operating in the North Sea could face an estimated $13 billion (Euros 10 billion) bill in light of the Elgin gas spill which could also seriously affect their credit ratings, according to rating agency Fitch. Total’s Elgin platform in the North Sea has been leaking gas since last month with some estimates that … Read More
Bully-Boy Canada Threatens EU (Again)
For over a year now I have been working on and off with Friends of the Earth Europe examining the dirty lobbying by the Canadians on the EU’s Fuel Quality Directive. Last summer we produced a report entitled “Canada’s dirty lobby diary”. The report revealed the extent of Canada’s lobbying – one of the most … Read More
EU: Fracking Laws Are Adequate, For Now
In a decision that will both dismay and worry environmental campaigners and communities facing fracking across Europe, the European commission has concluded that existing laws are adequate to cover the controversial drilling technique. A new report undertaken for the Commission by the Belgian law firm Philippe & Partners, argues that there is no need for … Read More