Wednesday, December 14, 2011

AND, IN THE US: LAW ON THE SIDE OF INDUSTRY?


Accumulation by dispossession, 21st century American style?


Published: December 14, 2011
As energy companies and states push to simplify regulations, some local governments are resisting an erosion of their control.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

CRIMINAL CORPORATIONS: INDIVIDUALS FOR SPEECH RIGHTS, WHY NOT THE RULE OF LAW?


Published: December 9, 2011
Despite its questionable practices, Massey Energy will not be criminally prosecuted for a mine explosion that killed 29 workers in West Virginia

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

CHINA-US PING-PONG: WHO EMITTED?


Published: December 7, 2011
China’s conditions for a treaty are unlikely to be met. And conditions by the United States seem to rule out any deal like the one China envisions.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

THE CHINA WALL: KLARE ON OBAMA AND THE PACIFIC OIL GAME


Playing With Fire: Obama's Risky Oil Threat to China


STL SOLAR WARS: WHO'S BACKING THIS TOWN COUNCIL AGAINST SOLAR?

Solar panels up for debate in Clarkson Valley

GULF OIL SPILL: WHERE DO FINES USUALLY GO?


Published: December 5, 2011
The panel’s final recommendations were similar to those in a draft report it issued in October and are not binding.

COAL MINERS: HOW MUCH IS ONE LIFE WORTH? 29?


Published: December 6, 2011
A source close the investigation said the parent company of Massey Energy, owner of a West Virginia mine where an explosion in 2010 killed 29 men, would pay to settle a criminal investigation.

"The settlement does not protect individual Massey managers, including the former chief executive, Don L. Blankenship, who have not been charged. In all, 18 executives refused to be interviewed by federal investigators, invoking their Fifth Amendment rights. The agreement also does not preclude victims and their families from filing civil lawsuits in the case.
In addition to the $46.5 million payout to victims and families, the agreement includes $80 million to bolster safety and infrastructure in all underground mines owned by Alpha and Massey; $48 million to establish a mine health and safety foundation; and about $35 million in fines and fees that Massey owed to the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the branch of the Labor Department that oversees the mining industry."

Sunday, December 4, 2011

TAKE A DEEP BREATH: MORE CARBON IN THE AIR


Published: December 4, 2011
Global emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by 5.9 percent in 2010, upending the notion that a brief decline during the recession might persist.

GAS & POWER: POLITICIANS FOR SALE IN OK


Published: December 3, 2011
Representative Dan Boren of Oklahoma is a champion in Washington of an industry that is experiencing a historic boom but also increasing scrutiny.

Friday, December 2, 2011

SOUTH AFRICA: COAL DEPENDENT, NOT GETTING GREENER

GREENPEACE COMMENTS ON THE "WE NEED TO BURN COAL" DISCOURSE IN SOUTH AFRICA

CLIMATE TALKS: US ROLE QUESTIONED


COP17: Discontent with US grows at climate talks

Leading American environmentalists complained to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday that her negotiators at the UN climate talks risked portraying the US as an obstacle to fighting global warming because of its perceived foot-dragging on key issues. 

Friday, November 25, 2011

MAN CAMPS: GENDER, LABOR, TEMPORARY WORK: LEGACIES OF FOSSIL ECONOMIES


Published: November 25, 2011
Confronted with the problem of too many jobs and not enough empty beds, North Dakota embraced man camps. But now officials are trying to slow things down.

SPEAKING OF THE END OF SUBURBIA: THE END OF SUBURBIA


Published: November 25, 2011
As demand for housing in walkable neighborhoods rises, we should be investing in carless transit options.

AND


Published: November 25, 2011
Local governments can adopt common-sense strategies to point their corporate residents to a more sustainable path than sprawling office parks, corporate campuses and estates.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

COAL MINER/UNION LEADER: AMERICANS SUPPORT UNION RIGHTS

Coal Miner, Richard Trumka in Esquire

And that was your vision, social change?
"Absolutely."
Not just a better life for the miners?
"Better world. Better life for everybody, every worker. Poor kids oughta be able to go anyplace their brains will take them. Not where Daddy or Mommy's pocketbooks can send them. Everybody oughta have health care, everybody oughta have some retirement security, every American. Every one. Everybody oughta have a decent good job. That's what I believe in, and that's what I fight every day to try to achieve."


Read more: http://www.esquire.com/features/americans-2011/richard-trumka-1211-2#ixzz1epB8ZNty

Sunday, November 20, 2011

FRACKING PENNSYLVANIA: DIVIDING COMMUNITIES


Published: November 17, 2011
In Amwell Township, Pa., the dividing line is between those who are getting rich and those who are paying the price.

Friday, November 18, 2011

SPILL IN BRAZIL? TRANSOCEAN AND CHEVRON SEEP IN DEEPWATER

UPDATE: Chevron unprepared to react -- means that despite regulation and oversight, company working outside of the terms of the contract?  Possible fines starting around 28 million and going up.  Skytruth posts satellite images that suggest Chevron also underestimating the size of the spill.

Oil sheen and seepage offshore -- Chevron plugging the hole (Rigzone)

NAOMI KLEIN: WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON HERE?

Capitalism vs. the Climate | The Nation

Thursday, November 17, 2011

AND THE OIL FLOWS ON...


Published: November 16, 2011
With the timing, and perhaps the future, of the Keystone XL pipeline project now uncertain, alternatives to the hotly contested project have begun emerging.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Corporate Welfare For Energy Companies Means We Paid $24 Billion In Taxes To Them

Corporate Welfare For Energy Companies Means We Paid $24 Billion In Taxes To Them: pTax breaks and subsidies for energy companies have gotten so extreme that dozens of top companies have made billions in profits while having negative taxes, actually receiving taxpayer welfare instead of paying anything to the federal treasury. An analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found dozens of [...]/p

Friday, November 11, 2011

CARBON CAPTURE, I.E. 'CLEAN' COAL: TWO STEPS BACKWARD WITH PUBLIC MONEY?

Coal Project Hits Snag as a Partner Backs Off

Published: November 10, 2011
A power company that was expected to demonstrate a carbon-capture technology has said it cannot take part, leaving the remaining partners at risk of losing $1 billion in federal funds.
"At the same time, the Obama administration has faced consistent obstacles from Republican critics in pursuing tighter regulatory limits on air pollution."

FRACK THE HUNTERS: PRIVATE INTERESTS ON PUBLIC LANDS


Published: November 11, 2011
An area of abundant deer, turkey and bear, known to hunters as “God’s Country,” lies atop vast reserves of natural gas 

Like many hunters, Mr. Volkmar is upset that the State Game Commission is giving over more public land to the gas companies, which is not exactly fulfilling its mission to enhance the hunting experience. The game lands, as he points out, were bought with the proceeds from licenses and fees paid by hunters and trappers.
Carl Roe, the executive director of the game commission, acknowledges that drilling “does look ugly” but said that on most well sites, the agency had no control over drilling-related activities. Although the agency owns 1.4 million acres of game lands, it does not always own the mineral rights beneath them, so their private owners can lease them out to the gas companies — the case with Game Land 59. Where the agency owns the mineral rights, it can and does restrict drilling and construction on certain days during hunting season.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

ON THE OTHER HAND - IS THIS VICTORY? Keystone Rejected. We Won. You Won. Thank you.

BREAKING NEWS: Keystone Rejected. We Won. You Won. Thank you.

KEYSTONE XL & CRUCIAL FOSSIL ISSUES: STALL AND DEMOBILIZE?


U.S. Delays Decision on Pipeline Until After Election (New York Times)



Published: November 10, 2011
The White House on Thursday delayed a decision on the contested $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline for 12 to 18 months while it studies an alternate route.


The move is the latest in a series of administration decisions pushing back thorny environmental matters beyond next November’s presidential election to try to avoid the heat from opposing interests —business lobbies or environmental and health advocates — and to find a political middle ground. Mr. Obama delayed a review of the nation’s smog standard until 2013, pushed back offshore oil lease sales in the Arctic until at least 2015 and blocked issuance of new regulations for coal ash from power plants.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

CHINA'S COAL MINES "DEADLIEST IN THE WORLD"

MORE THAN 40 TRAPPED IN CHINA COAL MINE ACCIDENT



More than 40 coal miners are trapped underground by a gas leak in southwest China less than a week after dozens of miners were pulled out safely from a cave-in at another Chinese coal mine....

The Climate Change Novel: A Faulty Simulator of Environmental Politics

The Climate Change Novel: A Faulty Simulator of Environmental Politics

A review of recent novels on climate change, and insights into the possibilities and limits of our cultural and moral imaginations.

OBAMA OPENS UP MORE OFFSHORE DRILLING

http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?hpf=1&a_id=112486

Monday, November 7, 2011

The Pressure Is On: Thousands Encircle White House, Tell Obama to Reject Keystone Pipeline | Truthout

The Pressure Is On: Thousands Encircle White House, Tell Obama to Reject Keystone Pipeline | Truthout

PHOENIX/ST LOUIS: ETERNALLY UNSUSTAINABLE CITIES?


Published: November 6, 2011
If urban policy makers focus only on those who can afford carbon-reducing technologies, the movement for sustainability may end up exacerbating climate change.

FOSSIL ADDICTION: NEW TECHNOLOGIES OF EXTRACTION NOT THE SOLUTION

"We Found Oil".....  


Cheap Gas is a Trap

KEYSTONE XL: DOES US STILL HAVE RULE OF LAW?

Harold W. Geisel, the senior official in the inspector general’s office, told top agency officials in a memorandum dated Friday that he would open the review “to determine to what extent the department and all other parties involved complied with federal laws and regulations” relating to the pipeline permit process.



Published: November 7, 2011
Improper pressure and conflicts of interest have been alleged in the project, which would carry oil from Canadian tar sands to Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast.

KRUGMAN: FRACKING & COAL DISTORT REAL PRICE OF FOSSILS, GO SOLAR


Published: November 6, 2011
Will our political system delay the energy transformation now within reach?

Sunday, November 6, 2011

OIL LEGACIES: BOKO HARAM ATTACKS IN NIGERIA


Published: November 6, 2011
The United States Embassy instructed its staff to avoid three hotels in Abuja, Nigeria, as the death toll rose from attacks by the Boko Haram in the northeast.
Read closely: democratic process?  corruption?  what cause?   

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Take Power Back from Big Power (i.e. Coal)



Published: October 29, 2011
Facing an attempt to replace it with a municipally owned utility in Boulder, the energy company Xcel says it is better equipped to ramp up renewable energy.

FRACK YOUR NEIGHBOR: THE JOYS OF SHALE GAS


Published: October 29, 2011
In the New York village that is home to baseball’s Hall of Fame, ill will over hydraulic fracturing has pitted neighbor against neighbor.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

New Technologies Redraw the World’s Energy Picture

New Technologies Redraw the World’s Energy Picture By CLIFFORD KRAUSS Published: October 25, 2011 Unconventional fossil fuels extracted by new technologies should shift geopolitical and economic calculations around the world in the coming decades

Low-Carbon Futures?

Drive Toward Low-Carbon Future Stalls By ANDRÉS CALA Published: October 25, 2011 As countries reassess the likely depth and duration of the economic chill, many are rethinking their energy policies.

Brazil's Conundrum: More Oil, More Emissions

Renewables Hit a Wall in South America By VINCENT BEVINS Published: October 25, 2011 There are few signs that the region will soon produce more than a small portion of the world’s renewable energy.

The Story of 'Clean Coal' on Tribal Lands

Rich in Coal, a Tribe Struggles to Overcome Poverty By ERICA GIES Published: October 25, 2011 Leaders of the Crow Nation are trying to develop the tribe's energy resources to create more jobs. But starting a new coal project has proved difficult, and some members are pursuing wind power.

Franklin County OKs rules for Ameren coal ash landfill

Franklin County OKs rules for Ameren coal ash landfill

Nigerian Oil Wealth and Wall Street Hedge Funds

Wall Street has their eyes on Nigeria's sovereign (oil) wealth fund

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Fracking and Earthquakes


Published: October 21, 2011
The high-pressure injection of materials called fracking could cause small temblors, the seismologist said, but not larger ones.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Yours truly, on Bolivian Gas Politics

Bolivian Resource Politics, from Revista, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Discussion : St. Charles County loves its cars despite gas prices

Insights into the American way of debating cars, gasoline, race, public transportation and the city-region.

Alternatively: challenges to resolving our conjoined fossil fuel and climate change dilemma...


Discussion : St. Charles County loves its cars despite gas prices

St. Charles County loves its cars despite gas prices

St. Charles County loves its cars despite gas prices

Monday, October 3, 2011

New York Times: Another Editorial Against Keystone XL

Say No to the Keystone XL


And Bill McKibben calls out the corruption:


"One of the stars of this sordid drama was Paul Elliott, TransCanada’s chief Washington lobbyist for its pipeline project. Back in 2008, he was the deputy national campaign manager of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential bid. Around the time she became secretary of state, he was hired by TransCanada. Why did he get the job? Just ask Marja Verloop, a member of the diplomatic staff at the United States Embassy in Canada who oversaw environmental and energy issues. In one of the friendly e-mails between the diplomat and the lobbyist, Ms. Verloop reassured Mr. Elliott about an article that mentioned his possible conflicts of interest: “it’s precisely because you have connections that you’re sought after and hired.”

Keystone XL: Cozy (i.e. Corrupted) Relationships Between Oil Men and the Government?

TransCanada Pipeline Foes Allege Bias in Emails (NYTIMES)

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Economists: Coal Is Incredibly Costly

Economists: Coal Is Incredibly Costly: pA new economic analysis of the costs of pollution to the United States finds that coal power is harming the economy. In the American Economic Review article “Environmental Accounting for Pollution in the United States Economy,” economists Nicholas Z. Muller, Robert Mendelsohn, and William Nordhaus model the physical and economic consequences of emissions of six [...]/p

State Department Keystone XL Hearings Run By TransCanada Contractor

As per Zalik: How the law is structured by and for the interests of extractive industries---

TransCanada (the pipeline company) contractors and the API helped write the Environmental Impact Statement on the Keystone XL Pipeline, for the State Department.

This - under Obama - is about as good as it got during the Bush era for big oil.

Government of the people, by the people, and for the people?



State Department Keystone XL Hearings Run By TransCanada Contractor: pIn a stunning conflict of interest, public hearings on federal approval for a proposed tar sands pipeline are being run by a contractor for the pipeline company itself. The U.S. Department of State’s public hearings along the proposed route of the TransCanada Keystone XL tar sands pipeline this week are under the purview of Cardno [...]/p

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Prelude to Oiligarchy: Oil Money at Work

A Billionaires' Coup in the US

By George Monbiot
The Guardian/UK
September 23, 2011
...
So who or what is Americans for Prosperity? It was founded
and is funded by Charles and David Koch. They run what they
call "the biggest company you've never heard of", and between
them they are worth $43bn. Koch Industries is a massive oil,
gas, minerals, timber and chemicals company. In the past 15
years the brothers have poured at least $85m into lobby
groups arguing for lower taxes for the rich and weaker
regulations for industry. The groups and politicians the
Kochs fund also lobby to destroy collective bargaining, to
stop laws reducing carbon emissions, to stymie healthcare
reform and to hobble attempts to control the banks. During
the 2010 election cycle, AFP spent $45m supporting its
favoured candidates.

Ottawa Tar Sands Protest - DIRTY OIL - Part1 and Part 2




Tar Sands Action Plans To Encircle The White House

Tar Sands Action Plans To Encircle The White House: pIt’s been several weeks since the last people got out of jail in Washington, DC at the end of two weeks of civil disobedience that led to 1,253 arrests to stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. On Sunday, Nov. 6 — a year before the presidential election — the Tar Sands Action will return [...]/p

Friday, September 23, 2011

Jimmy Carter reflects on oil

Apropos of our conversation yesterday. Coincidentally, he's looking back 30 years ago at the U.S., energy, and oil -- a video, check it out.

From Platt's

You may have to sign in.  If anyone is interested in doing a historical project, we can get access.

Libya's National Oil Company back in business fueling Europe...

EU Lifts Sanctions On Libyan NOC, Clears More Libyan Oil Imports

The European Union said Friday it was lifting sanctions on Libya's National Oil Corp. following the fall of Col. Moammar Gadhafi last month, ending a key hurdle to the meaningful return of the country's oil exports to European consumers.  (RIGZONE)

The American Dream: Oil and Gas Billionaires on Forbes Richest List

47 O&G Billionaires Make List of Forbes' Richest Americans (Rigzone)


Warren Buffet, with lots of $$ in oil and gas, is #2.
Charles Koch, and his brother David Koch, right-wing pipeline men about whom we will speak in our oiligarchy section, are tied for #4.  (25 Billion each)
See also, straight from Forbes, the glorification of unimaginable wealth.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Is Oil Running Out, or Is it Not?

The "peak oil" discourse works in multiple directions, in this article, Rigzone editorialist John C.K. Daly comments on Daniel Yergin's (author of The Prize) recent editorial in the Wall Street Journal, which argued that we would find more oil...

Read on:  Rigzone

Yergin's WSJ editorial is on our telesis site.

US to Sell New Onshore Alaska Oil Leases 'Late This Year'

Read Article from Rigzone, on lease sales in Alaska

#OCCUPYWALLST Continues in New York City

#OCCUPYWALLST Continues in New York City

EPA TO HOLD HEARINGS ON NATURAL GAS AND OIL POLLUTION


EPA to Hold Three Public Hearings on Proposed Air Pollution Standards for Oil and Natural Production

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold three public hearings in September on the agency’s proposed standards to reduce air pollution from oil and gas drilling operations.  The proposed standards would rely on cost-effective, existing technologies and practices to reduce pollution that contributes to smog and can cause cancer, while supporting the administration’s priority of continuing to expand safe and responsible domestic oil and natural gas production.
WHAT:             Public hearings on proposed air pollution standards for the oil and natural gas industry
WHEN:             Sept. 27, 28 and 29, 2011
                        Each hearing will begin at 9 a.m. and continue until 8 p.m. (local time)
WHERE:           Sept. 27:  Pittsburgh
                        David L. Lawrence Convention Center
                        Rooms 315-316
                        1000 Ft. Duquesne Blvd.
                        Pittsburgh, Pa. 15222
                 
                        Sept. 28:  Denver
                        Colorado Convention Center
                        Room 207
                        700 14th St.
                        Denver, Colo.  80202

                        Sept. 29: Arlington, Texas
                        Arlington Municipal Building
                        City Council Chambers
                        101 W. Abram St.
                        Arlington, Texas 76010
                       
                        To register to speak at a specific time at any of the hearings, please contact Joan C. Rogers at 919-541-4487 or rogers.joanc@epa.gov. People also may sign up to speak in person on the day of a hearing; however, they may not be given their preferred time slot to speak. EPA must issue a final rule by Feb. 28, 2012.
                                         
More information on the proposal:  http://epa.gov/airquality/oilandgas/    

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Rush on Oil or New Onslaught on Nature in the Americas?

New Fields May Propel Americas to Top of Oil Companies’ Lists

Speculation about the rush on oil in Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, and Canada ---

Note the tone of wild dreaming, even in the voice of the journalist.  This is peculiar to oil discourse, which tends to stimulate a kind of boom-desire fantasizing.  

And note phrasings like, "the emerging prize of global energy" - which contributes to the sense that this is a rush, a race, a battle for the treasures of the earth.  

This is certainly not neutral journalistic discourse, and, while evading other possible ways of 'talking about' oil, it also reflects more broadly the culture of the oil industry and the popular imagination.

So much for the idea that the NYT is simply a liberal rag.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Carnegie Council's Evan O'Neil: Don't Build Keystone XL

http://www.policyinnovations.org/ideas/commentary/data/000220?sourceDoc=000052

From conservative ranchers to tree-huggers, to mainstream think tanks that usually don't take a stand on things like this, a consensus emerges that this pipeline to transport tar sands oil is a really bad idea.

U.S. shale oil scheme and water...

Yet another reason to question shale oil and gas development as a 'solution' to anything.

GAO: Water Supply Poses Obstacle to Green River Oil Shale Dev't
"Some analysts project that large scale oil shale development within Colorado could require more water than is currently supplied to over 1 million residents of the Denver metro area and that water diverted for oil shale operations would restrict agricultural and urban development." 
"About 72 percent of this oil shale is located beneath federal lands managed by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management, making the federal government a key player in potential development of this resource. The federal government through the Department of Energy and Interior sponsors research on the impacts of oil shale on water resources."


http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?hpf=1&a_id=110799

Speaking of how meaningless "sustainability" has become....

The Dow Jones Sustainability Index, created annually, ranks companies in different economic sectors according to their "Corporate Sustainability," defined as:

Corporate Sustainability is a business approach that creates long-term shareholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risks deriving from economic, environmental and social developments. Corporate sustainability leaders achieve long-term shareholder value by gearing their strategies and management to harness the market's potential for sustainability products and services while at the same time successfully reducing and avoiding sustainability costs and risks. (source)

Note that, although some of their fonts are green, and there is a picture of a tree and some rocks on this website, this has virtually nothing to do with social or environmental sustainability as understood by most activists.  This is about sustainability of the corporation as a business enterprise, not sustainability of society or the environment.

This year's winner in the 'Oil and Gas' category is Repsol, S.A., a Spanish-Argentine giant with oil and gas projects around the world.  Seems a bit funny.  

Thursday, September 8, 2011

China: Central Planning Goes from All Out to....

“The government must take the leading role in controlling unrealistic growth” of the auto industry, Jiang Kejun, the influential director of the Energy Research Institute at the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planning agency, said Sunday during a speech at the conference."
To suggest that cars should be about fuel efficiency, and not sheer quantity of production seems reasonable. Though ultimately, looks like they aim to hit the market with cars, cars, cars.  Quandary: when does central planning seek to sensibly address environmental issues and when does it merely promote increased production, however tactically allocated? 


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/business/global/china-changes-direction-on-car-sales.html?scp=1&sq=china%20cars&st=cse

Gernot Wagner on the futility of individualized approaches to sustainability

He's certainly right that individual anxieties and practices will do little to change things.  What is needed is social mobilization.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/opinion/going-green-but-getting-nowhere.html?src=recg