Washington State fire chiefs demand transparency on crude oil trains – ‘Your industry has sought and gained exemptions to the sunshine laws’

By Sydney Brownstone25 March 2015 (The Stranger) – Earlier this month, the head of a membership group representing firefighting agencies across the state wrote to the CEO of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway company, demanding that the company turn over information it has previously avoided sharing on crude oil shipments through the Pacific Northwest […]

10 reasons why BP got off and offshore oil drilling just got more dangerous – ‘The fine could be as low as $3.5 billion. It could be even less.’

By Antonia Juhasz 12 March 2015 (Rolling Stone) – On January 27th, as the U.S. Justice Department expounded upon the catastrophic harms of offshore oil drilling in the trial against BP for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, President Obama reneged on a 2008 campaign pledge by proposing to open up a vast stretch […]

Indigenous Peruvians win Amazon pollution payout from U.S. oil giant – ‘My son and daughter died vomiting blood’

By Dan Collyns5 March 2015 Lima (The Guardian) – Members of the indigenous Achuar tribe from the Peruvian Amazon have won an undisclosed sum from Occidental Petroleum in an out-of-court settlement after a long-running legal battle in the US courts. They sued the company in 2007, alleging it knowingly caused pollution which caused premature deaths, […]

The crash in the price of oil may change the oil market – ‘All agree that we passed the maximum of conventional oil production in 2005-6’

By Kjell Aleklett15 February 2015 (Aleklett’s Energy Mix) – On Tuesday 10 February at 13:00 GMT the IEA released its “Oil Medium-Term Market Report 2015”. The day before the release I was contacted by Jens Ergon at Sveriges Television (“Sweden’s Television, SVT) who wanted to get my opinion on the report. I had a number […]

Discoveries of new oil and gas reserves drop to 20-year low – ‘The number of discoveries and the size of the discoveries have been declining at quite an alarming rate’

By Ed Crooks15 February 2015 New York (Financial Times) – Discoveries of new oil and gas reserves dropped to their lowest level in at least two decades last year, pointing to tighter world supplies as energy demand increases in the future. Preliminary figures suggest the volume of oil and gas found last year, excluding shale […]

In 1998, fossil fuel companies devised a plan to fuel climate science skepticism in the U.S. public. We reveal where the 12 people behind that plan are now.

By Graham Readfearn27 February 2015 (The Guardian) – In early 1998, some of the biggest fossil fuel companies in the world were hatching a plan to hijack the science of human-caused global warming. Representatives from major fossil fuel corporations and industry groups had joined forces with operatives from major conservative think tanks and public relations […]

Hundreds of illicit oil wastewater pits found in Kern County, California – ‘The state doesn’t seem to be willing to put the protection of groundwater and water quality ahead of the oil industry’

By Julie Cart26 February 2015 (Los Angeles Times) – Water officials in Kern County discovered that oil producers have been dumping chemical-laden wastewater into hundreds of unlined pits that are operating without proper permits. Inspections completed this week by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board revealed the existence of more than 300 previously […]

U.S. government: Fuel-hauling trains could derail at 10 a year

By MATTHEW BROWN and JOSH FUNK22 February 2015 BILLINGS, Montana (AP) – The federal government predicts that trains hauling crude oil or ethanol will derail an average of 10 times a year over the next two decades, causing more than $4 billion in damage and possibly killing hundreds of people if an accident happens in […]

49 U.S. Senators don’t believe humans cause global warming

By Victoria Tang  21 January 2015 (Wired) – United States Senators stood up for what they believed in today—and it wasn’t pretty. During a debate over construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, intended to carry oil from Canada to the United States, the Senate voted on an amendment—just for show, really—on whether climate change “is […]

Koch brothers to pour $889 million into 2016 elections – ‘There is no network akin to this one in terms of its complexity, scope and resources’

By Fredreka Schouten27 January 2015 WASHINGTON (USA TODAY) – Top officials in the Koch brothers’ political organization Monday released a staggering $889 million budget to fund the activities of the billionaires’ sprawling network ahead of the 2016 presidential contest. The budget, which pays for everything from advertising and data-gathering technology to grass-roots activism, was released […]

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