“There is no money that is completely pure”, so says Nicholas Serota, the Director of the Tate gallery in London that is under fire once again for taking oil money from BP and Shell. Serota is right in many ways, there is no such thing as clean money but some funding is dirtier than others. … Read More
Public Relations
Britain Backs Canadian Bullying Over Tar Sands
Britain was joined by some Eastern European countries yesterday in backing Canada in its dirty fight to force the EU not to discriminate against the tar sands in the Fuel Quality Directive. A meeting of European environment experts yesterday had been expected to vote on a proposal by the European Commission to give a different … Read More
Talking Dirty in the President’s Ear
The revolving door between the Obama Administration and TransCanada keeps on spinning, despite a decision on the hugely controversial pipeline just weeks away. Let’s not forget the first revolving door story, which revolves around Paul Elliott, who is TransCanada’s lobbyist promoting Keystone XL. Elliot worked for Hilary Clinton during her 2008 campaign. Recently released embarrassing … Read More
From selling cigarettes to dirty oil
For anyone who has watched the parody film “Thank you for smoking”, they would know that being a spin doctor for a tobacco company is one of the more dubious ethical career choices. If anyone had the inclination, there are thousands of internal tobacco industry documents online that show that the tobacco industry has systematically … Read More
Report: Exporting Energy Security: Keystone XL Exposed
Keystone XL will not lessen U.S. dependence on foreign oil, but rather transport Canadian oil to American refineries for export to overseas markets.
Jilted by another smooth-talking oilman
Ever get tired of those cheezy ads from oil companies or really fired up over ‘independent’ research that asserts that everything you thought was great about alternative enery sources turns out to be a myth? Well Erik Curren over at Transition Voice sums it up nicely on this cross-post. Thanks Erik… Every time I’m tempted … Read More
API’s Latest “Ridiculous” Anti-Tax Campaign
Any regular reading of this blog will know that that the good old American Petroleum Institute (API) is fairly wizard-like when it comes to conjuring up numbers of how many people the industry supports or employs. Up to September 2009, the API had often repeated statements such as “The oil and gas industry employs nearly … Read More
One Year Later: BP’s Contamination Continues
BP’s AGM tomorrow is set to be a tumultuous affair with the oil giant having to absorb criticism over the legacy of the it’s catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, its investment in the dirty Canadian tar sands and its dodgy deal with the Russian Rosneft to drill in the Arctic. Throw in … Read More
“Compromised” API Set for Key Safety Role
So its back to business as usual. Bob Dudley, BP’s chief executive, is set to announce a resumption of dividend payments tomorrow as a signal to investors that the oil giant is back on track, after last year’s Deepwater disaster. The reinstatement is key for Dudley to show investor confidence before his inaugural presentation to … Read More
API is “Compromised” Says Deepwater Report
We know that BP was to blame for the Deepwater Horizon. So too was Transocean and Halliburton. So too was the failed regulatory regime, which was tasked with maximising revenues for drilling at the same time as being responsible for oversight of the operations. You can’t do both, and that is the reason that former … Read More