Fracking may be causing protests from America to Europe, but in South Africa, the latest country to lift a ban on the activity, many of the locals don’t even know what the practice entails. Earlier this month, South Africa lifted a 2011 ban on shale gas exploration and fracking in its semi-arid ecologically-sensitive Karoo region, … Read More
Protests
Shale Gas Revolution Goes Global
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
RIP the Arctic
Yesterday marked the beginning of the end for the Arctic. Yes the oil industry has been drilling in the high North on Prudhoe Bay for decades now, but yesterday oil giant Shell begun drilling the first well in the Arctic Chukchi Sea in more than two decades. Yesterday morning, Shell’s Noble Discoverer drill-ship began to … Read More
Support the Texas KXL Protestors!
As I write three anti-tar sands protestors remain in jail in Texas for stopping the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. They are being held on $1,000 each. Four other protestors have been released. The seven had spent the day locked onto trucks carrying the KXL pipeline. They closed the pipe yard for five hours. … Read More
Oz Gas Industry Failing to Live up to Hype
It is a given in the oil industry that the easy oil and gas is long gone. That is why we have raging debates about exploiting unconventional oil and gas such as the tar sands in Canada and fracking of gas in the US. Another unconventional gas that has attracted huge interest is coal bed … Read More
“We’re facing a very strong, almost revolutionary movement”
Patrick Daniel knows he is in trouble. The CEO of Enbridge, the company that wants to build the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta to British Colombia to export the dirty tar sands, admits that his opponents have “seized control of the debate”. And he is left playing catch up, trying belatedly to spin a … Read More
Locals Vent Anger After Chevron Refinery Fire
The fire that engulfed Chevron’s refinery late on Monday night in Richmond, California may now be extinguished, but worrying questions remain about the company’s ongoing safety record at the refinery. The fire caused a huge toxic black cloud to sweep over the city and other parts of the San Francisco Bay area. In the direct … Read More
The Price of Fracking – Report Back from Stop the Frack Attack
“I haven’t seen an issue that’s affected so many people in so many places,” Doug Shields, former member of the Pittsburgh City Council, remarked at Stop the Frack Attack rally last Saturday. And indeed, the thousands assembled on the lawn of the US Capitol Building reflected this truth. From as far as California and even … Read More
Greenpeace Shuts Shell Gas Stations
Breaking News: In the UK right now, Greenpeace activists are shutting down Shell gas stations, in order to tell the company to stop drilling in the Arctic. As we stand 40 stations are currently shut down across the two main target cities: London and Edinburgh. In both capitals, Greenpeace plans to shut down every Shell … Read More
A Wind Turbine for the Turbine Hall
Sometimes the best things in life are so simple. What better way to protest against the sponsorship of the arts by Big Oil than to undertake your own protest art installation? And what is more fitting than a real wind turbine – a symbol of renewable energy – for the huge modern turbine hall of … Read More