Sunday’s local newspaper reported that gasoline sales in Vermont were 13 percent below prediction in February of this year and almost 15 percent low for May. I have no theories on the May swoon, aside from the toll continued high prices are having on us all, but I’m reasonably sure the February dip was due … Read More
Pollution
“A Disaster for Sakhalin”
Rich Cookson’s final blog from Sakhalin: “The VIP lounge at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk airport is packed with Russian politicians and foreign oil workers. Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev – the man tipped to be the next Russian President – is visiting the liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in the south of Sakhalin today. His delegation … Read More
German Government Caves in to Industry Over CO2
Germany is gripped by football world cup fever ahead of its semi-final clash with Italy tonight. What is not making the news is the fact that the German government has just allowed German industry to emit millions more tonnes of carbon dioxide. The National Allocation Plan II, that covers policy from 2008 to 2012, and … Read More
Get Your Cheap SUV Here
So we now know that nearly half the global pollution coming from exhaust pipes is from US cars, because Americans drive bigger more fuel inefficient cars for longer than anyone else. So is that trend going to stop? No. The big three US auto makers are in the midst of offering ridiculous bargains to tempt … Read More
US Produces Nearly Half of Global Exhaust Fumes
OK so now it’s official. We all knew that Americans drove gas-guzzling polluting vehicles, but now the Environmental Defence Fund has calculated just how bad things are. And they are bad. Americans may only have 5% of the world’s population but they drive a third of its cars. However because Americans drive further in big … Read More
Grand Jury Lawyers Trawl Through BP Offices
There will be humiliation for BP this week, when its Alaskan Division will have to open up its offices to US lawyers working for a federal grand jury in Anchorage who are investigating the March spill of 270,000 gallons of crude oil. The lawyers will be crawling over BP’s Prudhoe Bay operations for nine days. … Read More
BP Faces Criminal Investigation in Alaska
A leaked email has revealed that BP faces criminal investigation into the huge 270,000 gallon oil spill the company caused in Alaska in March. Although BP received the subpoena in April from a Grand Jury, it has only now become public, with the leaking of an email. The news wiped three percent of BP’s share … Read More
Global Greenhouse Emissions Increase 15% in A Decade
Global greenhouse emissions increased 15 per cent over the decade 1992 to 2002, according to the World Bank. Although industrialised countries continue to be the worst offenders for climate change, China and India are also pushing up emissions.
Europe’s Emission Trading Scheme in Trouble
Europe’s flagship emissions trading scheme is suffering from a credibility crisis after it has emerged that many of the pollution limits have been far too lax. Critics argue that the limits need to be drastically improved or the scheme will do nothing to tackle climate change. They say governments have given industry “permission to pollute”.
UK’s “Dirty Five” Polluters
An investigation by The Guardian newspaper has found that just five giant energy companies in the UK produce more carbon dioxide pollution than all the motorists on UK roads combined.