petroleum – Page 6 – Desdemona Despair

Screenshot from the video, “Honest Government Ad | We Make Everything Good Sh!t”, by The Juice Media, 2 July 2021. Photo: The Juice Media / YouTube

July 7, 2021

Honest Government Ad: We Make Everything Good Sh!t – Australia science agencies “infiltrated and hollowed” out by fossil fuel industry

2 July 2021 (The Juice Media) – Hello, I’m from the Australien government. In today’s episode of “We Make Everythig Good Shit”, we look at the CSIRO, your trusted science agency, which has earned a reputation for great inventions: wifi, space stuff, Aeroguard. Unlike gas companies, which have earned a reputation for poisoning aquifers, ripping […]

Senior ExxonMobil lobbyist on Capitol Hill Keith McCoy describes how ExxonMobil bribes U.S. Senators to kill climate policies in the U.S. During a secretly recorded interview 7 May 2021, McCoy names eleven U.S. senators who he says are “crucial” to ExxonMobil for sabotaging government action to save the planet: Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Senator Joe Manchin, Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Senator Jon Tester, Senator Maggie Hassan, Senator John Barrasso, Senator John Cornyn, Senator Steve Daines, Senator Chris Coons, Senator Mark Kelly, and Senator Marco Rubio. Photo: Greenpeace / Channel 4 News

July 3, 2021

Revealed: ExxonMobil’s lobbying war on climate legislation – Senior lobbyist caught on camera, names 11 U.S. senators who are “crucial” to ExxonMobil attacks on climate policy

By Alex Thomson 30 June 2021 (Channel 4 News) – The explosive footage was obtained by Unearthed, Greenpeace UK’s investigative platform, who posed as head-hunters to obtain the information from one of ExxonMobil’s most senior Washington lobbyists. The recordings appear to reveal the secretive behind-the-scenes activities of a lobbyist for a company that claims in […]

Texas power grid load shedding in the early morning of 15 February 2021, 0123-0203. Up to an additional ∼24,000 MW net generation was unavailable due to extreme weather. Loss of generation was 52,277 MW (approximately 48.6 percent) at the highest point. Peak load shed was 20,000 MW. Most of the loss was caused by limited gas availability for gas-fired power plants. Graphic: ERCOT

March 1, 2021

Texas power grid failure during Winter Storm Uri mostly due to limited gas availability for gas-fired power plants

25 February 2021 (ERCOT) – [The following report is excerpted from the ERCOT slide presentation, Review of February 2021 Extreme Cold Weather Event (pdf), presented by ERCOT CEO Bill Magness to the Texas Senate Business and Commerce Committee House Joint Committee on State Affairs and Energy Resources on 25 February 2021. –Des] Overview of Cold […]

Map showing record cold temperatures across the United States on 16 February 2021 caused by winter Storm Uri, compared with the average temperatures over the 1979-2000 period. Temperatures were far colder than average and caused widespread power failures across Texas and other states. Data: National Weather Service / Global Forecast System / ClimateReanalyzer.org / Climate Change Institute / University of Maine. Graphic: The New York Times

February 17, 2021

How one Texas storm exposed an energy grid unprepared for climate change

By Josh Lederman 17 February 2021 WASHINGTON (NBC News) – A devastating winter storm that has plunged Texas into an electricity crisis offers warning signs for the U.S. as the Biden administration seeks to prepare for a future in which extreme weather is a greater risk and America is almost entirely powered by renewable energy. Generating energy is one challenge. But […]

Projected energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in the United States, 2020-2050. Graphic: EIA

February 15, 2021

EIA energy report explores impact of COVID-19 on U.S. energy mix through 2050 – Return to 2019 levels of U.S. energy consumption to take years – Energy-related CO2 emissions fall before leveling off or rising

By Ari Kahan 3 February 2021 (EIA) – The United States will likely take years to return to 2019 levels of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions following the impact of COVID-19 on the U.S. economy and global energy sector, according to projections in the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Annual Energy Outlook 2021 (AEO2021). […]

Caribou and geese at Teshekpuk Lake in North Slope Borough, Alaska in 2019. The Trump administration, in its final days, decided to open millions more acres of land in the Alaskan Arctic to oil and gas drilling, including the wetlands around Teshekpuk Lake, which are a crucial breeding area for migratory birds and calving grounds for roaming caribou. Photo: Bonnie Jo Mount / The Washington Post

January 9, 2021

Trump administration opens millions more acres of Alaska to drilling – “A last-minute and irresponsible effort to open an enormous amount of land in a sensitive area”

By Dino Grandoni 5 January 2021 (The Washington Post) – The Trump administration, in its final days, decided to open millions more acres of land in the Alaskan Arctic to oil and gas drilling. The decision from the Bureau of Land Management on Monday, finalized just two weeks before President Trump is set to leave office, will […]

A Brazilian Indigenous leader of the Guajajara tribe attends a meeting calling on EU lawmakers to exert pressure on the Brazilian government to protect the rights of indigenous communities, 12 November 2019. Photo: Thomas Samson / AFP

August 1, 2020

Highest number of land and environmental activists murdered in one year – In 2019, 212 people were killed for peacefully defending their homes and standing up to the destruction of nature

29 July 2020 (Global Witness) – Global Witness today revealed the highest number of land and environmental defenders murdered on record in a single year, with 212 people killed in 2019 for peacefully defending their homes and standing up to the destruction of nature. The NGO’s annual report also shed a light on the urgent role […]

World consumption of primary energy in exajoules, 1994-2019. Primary energy consumption rose by 1.3 percent in 2019, less than half its rate in 2018 (2.8 percent). Growth was driven by renewables (3.2 EJ) and natural gas (2.8 EJ), which together contributed three quarters of the increase. All fuels grew at a slower rate than their 10-year averages, apart from nuclear, with coal consumption falling for the fourth time in six years (-0.9 EJ). By region, consumption fell in North America, Europe and CIS, and growth was below average in South and Central America. In the other regions, growth was roughly in line with historical averages. China was the biggest individual driver of primary energy growth, accounting for more than three quarters of net global growth. Oil continues to hold the largest share of the energy mix (33.1 percent). Coal is the second largest fuel but lost share in 2019 to account for 27.0 percent, its lowest level since 2003. The share of both natural gas and renewables rose to record highs of 24.2 percent and 5.0 percent respectively. Renewables has now overtaken nuclear, which makes up only 4.3 percent of the energy mix. The share of hydroelectricity has been stable at around 6 percent for several years. Graphic: BP

June 18, 2020

BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2020: Carbon emissions increase for another year, coal still the single largest source of power generation

By Bernard Looney 17 June 2020 (BP) – The COVID-19 pandemic may well turn out to be the most tragic and disruptive event that many of us will ever live through. As I write this – in the middle of June – over 400 thousand people globally have lost their lives to the infection. Millions […]

Aerial view of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig burning after an explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, off the southeast tip of Louisiana, 21 April 2010. Ten years after an oil rig explosion killed 11 workers and unleashed an environmental nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico, companies are drilling into deeper and deeper waters where the payoffs can be huge but the risks are greater than ever. Photo: Gerald Herbert / AP Photo

April 19, 2020

10 years after BP spill: Oil drilled deeper; rules relaxed – “I’m concerned that in the industry, the lessons aren’t fully learned — that we’re tending to backslide”

By Kevin Mcgill and Matthew Brown 18 April 2020 NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Ten years after an oil rig explosion killed 11 workers and unleashed an environmental nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico, companies are drilling into deeper and deeper waters, where the payoffs can be huge but the risks are greater than ever. Industry leaders and […]

Trump looks on as EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, speaks during an event in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on 9 January 2020 in Washington, D.C. Photo: Drew Angerer / Getty Images

March 27, 2020

EPA suspends enforcement of environmental laws indefinitely at request of petroleum industry – “The EPA uses this global pandemic to create loopholes for destroying the environment”

By Rebecca Beitsch 26 March 2020 (The Hill) – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a sweeping suspension of its enforcement of environmental laws Thursday, telling companies they would not need to meet environmental standards during the coronavirus outbreak. The temporary policy, for which EPA has set no end date, would allow any number of […]