By Sharon Kelly • Wednesday, January 20, 2016 - 13:26
Saturday, January 30, 2016
After 23 years, David Koch resigns from Natural History Museum board amidst protests by scientists
After 23 years, David Koch resigns from Natural History Museum board amidst protests by scientists
Koch is an oil man (pipelines, chemicals, coke, coal, tar sands). Finally some scientists speaking out on the contradictions. Washington University should take note. Got some equally questionable anti-science and anti-health folks tied to our own university.
Koch is an oil man (pipelines, chemicals, coke, coal, tar sands). Finally some scientists speaking out on the contradictions. Washington University should take note. Got some equally questionable anti-science and anti-health folks tied to our own university.
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Saudi Arabia Keeps Pumping Oil, Despite Financial and Political Risks
Saudi Arabia Keeps Pumping Oil, Despite Financial and Political Risks (NYT)
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| “If prices continue to be low, we will be able to withstand it for a long, long time,” said Khalid al-Falih, the chairman of Saudi Aramco. Fayez Nureldine/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
Call it the Saudi calculus.
Oil prices were already plummeting 14 months ago when, at Saudi Arabia’s insistence, OPEC put the global petroleum industry on notice: The member countries would not try to prop up prices by cutting production.
“We don’t want to panic,” Abdalla el-Badri, secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, told reporters at the group’s November 2014 meeting in Vienna. “We want to see how the market behaves.”
Since then, the market has behaved in a way few could have predicted — including Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter. The price of oil has collapsed under the weight of a growing international glut, made worse by slower growth in the global economy.
And yet the Saudis keep pumping oilat virtually full capacity. And they have persuaded their Persian GulfOPEC allies — Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar — to do the same, despite mounting pressure from other big OPEC members to curtail production.
It is a risky strategy — one that is already straining Saudi finances and threatening the kingdom’s ability to continue providing generous social programs, like subsidized housing and cheap energy, that the royal family has long used to buy domestic tranquillity.
Oil provides more than 70 percent of Saudi government revenue. And though the Saudis still have about $630 billion in financial reserves, they are spending them at a rate of $5 billion to $6 billion a month, according to Rachel Ziemba, an analyst at Roubini Global Economics in New York.
But so far, Saudi Arabia is essentially betting that it can win an oil-price war of attrition — not only against its OPEC rivals like Iran, Iraq and Venezuela, but also against non-OPEC rivals like Russia and the many shale-oil producers in the United States that have contributed to the global glut.
The Saudis argue that throttling back oil production for a short-term pop in the price would be throwing a lifeline to the shale producers in the United States, some of which have already shown signs of wilting in the current environment.
CA Attorney General Expected to Launch Investigation into Financial Fraud by Exxon (similar to the Peabody Case in NY): The Case Against Exxon is Growing, and so Is the List of Suspects - Greenpeace USA
The Case Against Exxon is Growing, and so Is the List of Suspects - Greenpeace USA
Where Things Stand
Where Things Stand
The California investigation will look into whether Exxon lied to the public and investors about what it knew about climate change, and whether the company violated certain environmental laws. The investigation follows reports that Exxon knew about the dangers of climate change going back to the 1970s, but instead promoted doubt about the science behind it.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris has not officially announced the investigation, but sources close to her have confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that the investigation is going forward.
The news from California marks the second climate-related inquest launched against Exxon in the past few months. In November, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that his office would investigate Exxon for similar potential violations.
Exxon has now submitted thousands of its documents to Schneiderman’s office as part of a subpoena. In both the California and New York investigations, lies or misleading statements about climate change could amount to financial fraud, as investors may have viewed Exxon differently if the company had not minimized the seriousness of climate change.
Attorney General Schneiderman joined people around the world in celebrating the California investigation, and called climate change “the defining issue of our time.” He also made an important allusion:
“Just like any other publicly traded company, these energy giants have an obligation to ensure that their disclosures to investors of known and reasonably likely risks are truthful and not misleading, and to disclose to the public the risks associated with their products.”
By “energy giants,” Schneiderman means Exxon and other fossil fuel companies. In fact, sources close to the New York investigation told the New York Times that Schneiderman’s office is considering expanding the case to include other oil companies.
The case for that expansion is strong, and has only gotten stronger since the New York case was launched.
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Climate "knowledge" and climate "idiocy", legislator hands out sunscreen during snowstorm to ridicule global warming: via Ken Ward "Head in the snow: Why W.Va. doesn’t move forward" « Coal Tattoo
Head in the snow: Why W.Va. doesn’t move forward « Coal Tattoo (Ken Ward)
Don't feel too bad Mr. Ward, Missouri is in the same place. We've got folks like Gary Romine, among many, many others... – BG
As the snowstorm approached, a West Virginia delegate handed out sunscreen to his colleagues in an attempt to ridicule global warming.
Seriously?"
Don't feel too bad Mr. Ward, Missouri is in the same place. We've got folks like Gary Romine, among many, many others... – BG
"When we last left the West Virginia Legislature, this was the sad report from The Associated Press:
As the snowstorm approached, a West Virginia delegate handed out sunscreen to his colleagues in an attempt to ridicule global warming.
Democratic Delegate Rupie Phillips passed around the bottles of sunscreen Thursday.
The lawmaker from coal-producing Logan County told his colleagues on the House floor, “I worry about you. You’ve got global warming going on. It’s not cold outside. It’s in your mind.”
Phillips said he was going to get everyone a pair of Maui Jim sunglasses, but they are “a little expensive.”
Seriously?"
Peabody details debt talks following Arch Coal bankruptcy
Peabody details debt talks following Arch Coal bankruptcy
More on Peabody, Arch, and the shuffing off of debt and obligations to labor and to the environment, via bankruptcy.
More on Peabody, Arch, and the shuffing off of debt and obligations to labor and to the environment, via bankruptcy.
Interfaith Panel on Climate Change @WUSTL. Tuesday Feb. 2 4-6 PM
Students: Go, listen, and take notes. Would be great material for your independent research topic (the discourse of religiosity and science vis-a-vis the very hard political tasks of confronting global warming). How are these issues connected? How do they connect to what we call the cultural politics of climate knowledge?
Monday, January 25, 2016
Canada's Trudeau to DiCaprio: Tone Down 'Inflammatory Rhetoric' on Climate Change
Sounds like our admins to the students...but just another way to keep people quiet.
Canada's Trudeau to DiCaprio: Tone Down 'Inflammatory Rhetoric' on Climate Change
And DiCaprio fires back: Do something about your oil dependence and I'll come help celebrate with you.
Canada's Trudeau to DiCaprio: Tone Down 'Inflammatory Rhetoric' on Climate Change
And DiCaprio fires back: Do something about your oil dependence and I'll come help celebrate with you.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
The Students Were and Are Right: Washington University Needs to Disassociate Itself from Peabody Energy: S.E.C. Is Criticized for Lax Enforcement of Climate Risk Disclosure
Two years ago, when students demanded that Washington University end its relationship with Peabody Energy, many scoffed at them. Others ridiculed them. Yet, more and more stories emerging show that the students were right. And board, administration, and acquiescent faculty are mere pawns in a bigger, seemingly crooked game, to deceive the public and continue polluting as long as possible.
S.E.C. Is Criticized for Lax Enforcement of Climate Risk Disclosure: New York Times on the Case of Peabody Energy
"As recently as 2011, shares in Peabody Energy, the world’s biggest private sector coal company, traded at the equivalent of $1,000. Today, they hover around $4 each. Over that time, investors who held the stock lost millions.
Peabody, like other coal companies, has been hammered as cheap natural gas erodes the demand for coal. But concerns about climate change are also an issue for the company as customers and investors turn away from fossil fuels.
Peabody saw this coming. Even as the company privately projected that coal demand would slump and prices would fall, it withheld this information from investors. Instead, Peabody said in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it was not possible to know how changing attitudes toward climate change would affect its business.
Peabody’s double talk was revealed as part of a two-year investigation by the New York attorney general. In a settlement in November, Peabody agreed that it would disclose more about climate change risks in its regular filings with the S.E.C."
S.E.C. Is Criticized for Lax Enforcement of Climate Risk Disclosure: New York Times on the Case of Peabody Energy
"As recently as 2011, shares in Peabody Energy, the world’s biggest private sector coal company, traded at the equivalent of $1,000. Today, they hover around $4 each. Over that time, investors who held the stock lost millions.
Peabody, like other coal companies, has been hammered as cheap natural gas erodes the demand for coal. But concerns about climate change are also an issue for the company as customers and investors turn away from fossil fuels.
Peabody saw this coming. Even as the company privately projected that coal demand would slump and prices would fall, it withheld this information from investors. Instead, Peabody said in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it was not possible to know how changing attitudes toward climate change would affect its business.
Peabody’s double talk was revealed as part of a two-year investigation by the New York attorney general. In a settlement in November, Peabody agreed that it would disclose more about climate change risks in its regular filings with the S.E.C."
Friday, January 22, 2016
So what are the alternatives? Here's one study we'll be discussing
100% clean and renewable wind, water, and sunlight (WWS) all-sector energy roadmaps for the 50 United States
Jacobson, Mark Z. et al. (2015) Energy and Environmental Science.
Jacobson, Mark Z. et al. (2015) Energy and Environmental Science.
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Coal carbon capture could increase future climate risks, study finds - Carbon Brief
Coal carbon capture could increase future climate risks, study finds - Carbon Brief
Yet another study, sympathetic as it attempts to be, that finds 'carbon capture and sequestration' - i.e. the clean coal myth - unfeasible. Argues, simply, that reforestation and a switch to lower carbon energy (i.e. solar) would be more effective.
Yet another study, sympathetic as it attempts to be, that finds 'carbon capture and sequestration' - i.e. the clean coal myth - unfeasible. Argues, simply, that reforestation and a switch to lower carbon energy (i.e. solar) would be more effective.
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Presidential Candidates - American Energy Alliance
Presidential Candidates - American Energy Alliance
A different way to think about the presidential candidates
A different way to think about the presidential candidates
Sunday, January 17, 2016
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Duke execs knew of coal ash violations for years, unsealed court documents assert
Duke execs knew of coal ash violations for years, unsealed court documents assert
Sorry to keep saying the same thing over and over, but coal-dependence goes hand in hand with complicity and criminality. It is embedded in the culture of the business, but more crucially, it is embedded in the structural contradictions of the business. In order to keep burning and emitting, you must break rules, both legal and ethical. We will explore further, and have plenty of local cases that further prove that these are not exceptions, but generalized characteristics of the industry.
Sorry to keep saying the same thing over and over, but coal-dependence goes hand in hand with complicity and criminality. It is embedded in the culture of the business, but more crucially, it is embedded in the structural contradictions of the business. In order to keep burning and emitting, you must break rules, both legal and ethical. We will explore further, and have plenty of local cases that further prove that these are not exceptions, but generalized characteristics of the industry.
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
And, as suggested, executives are basically looting the ship as it goes down "Arch Coal nearly doubled its CEO pay as it lurched to bankruptcy, drawing SEC attention" — Medium
BG: Another St. Louis coal company demonstrates what we have come to label "coal and criminality". There are pending issues of who will cover environmental damages at coal-mining sites, and who will cover workers' health costs, let alone how we might imagine new jobs and new economies in these regions. However, as the company goes into bankruptcy executive salaries are on the rise. Apparently the idea is to take as much as you can while you can; keep burning coal as long as you can; workers and nature be damned. Read for yourself and decide:
Arch Coal nearly doubled its CEO pay as it lurched to bankruptcy, drawing SEC attention — Medium (Joe Smyth, via Medium).
"Arch Coal, the second largest coal mining company in the US, filed for bankruptcy on Monday, raising questions about the company’s reclamation obligations for its massive strip mines, its plans to export coal from the Powder River Basin to Asia, the future of its existing and pending federal coal leases, and more. While Arch Coal sold mines, cut wages, and stopped paying dividends as its fortunes fell, one area it didn’t skimp was executive compensation. In fact, while Arch Coal shareholders (or at least those who failed to divest from the company) have lost out, Arch CEO John Eaves somehow got a big raise as his company was failing — which seems to have earned the attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)."
As stock prices plummet, CEO salary on the rise:
Read the rest of the article here: Arch Coal nearly doubled its CEO pay as it lurched to bankruptcy, drawing SEC attention — Medium (Joe Smyth, via Medium).
Arch Coal nearly doubled its CEO pay as it lurched to bankruptcy, drawing SEC attention — Medium (Joe Smyth, via Medium).
"Arch Coal, the second largest coal mining company in the US, filed for bankruptcy on Monday, raising questions about the company’s reclamation obligations for its massive strip mines, its plans to export coal from the Powder River Basin to Asia, the future of its existing and pending federal coal leases, and more. While Arch Coal sold mines, cut wages, and stopped paying dividends as its fortunes fell, one area it didn’t skimp was executive compensation. In fact, while Arch Coal shareholders (or at least those who failed to divest from the company) have lost out, Arch CEO John Eaves somehow got a big raise as his company was failing — which seems to have earned the attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)."
As stock prices plummet, CEO salary on the rise:
Read the rest of the article here: Arch Coal nearly doubled its CEO pay as it lurched to bankruptcy, drawing SEC attention — Medium (Joe Smyth, via Medium).
ExxonMobil, Peabody Coal Lobbying for Bill Preventing Climate Change Accounting in US Trade Deals (*corrected 1/13/16)
ICYMI: As world turns to recognize global warming, fossil fuel majors intensifying efforts to maintain the status quo. St Louis' Peabody Coal - whose ex-**CEO sits on the Washington University Board of Trustees – is one of the main culprits. ExxonMobil - now being investigated for misrepresenting their knowledge about global warming – is right there as well.
ExxonMobil, Peabody Coal Lobbying for Bill Preventing Climate Change Accounting in US Trade Deals
**Corrected 1/13/16: I know, Greg Boyce is no longer CEO of Peabody, I say this by force of habit. But he's still on the WUSTL board of trustees, listed as the "Executive Chairman" of Peabody. However, as of 12/31/15 he is said to be "retiring" from Peabody altogether, so will no longer be chairman there either. So maybe he will soon be retiring from the WUSTL board as well. Stay tuned. And yes, I know, the official name of the company is 'Peabody Energy'. But they do not produce energy. They dig up, transport, and sell coal. So let's be clear.
File under: WUSTL Students, know your board of trustees:**More on Steven F. Leer added January 15, 2016.
Additionally, while I used to refer to the 'two coal companies' on the WUSTL board (Arch and Peabody). However, Steven Leer, former Chairman of Arch, is now listed as 'Retired Chairman'. However, Mr. Leer is still deep into carbon. Since he has left Arch, he is a director at Cenovus Energy, one of Canada's biggest tar sands oil producers, which also co-owns the Wood River Refinery, across the river from St. Louis. And, he's a director at Norfolk Southern. The rail, coal, tar sands, and refinery businesses are all interdependent (and huge polluters, but no mind).
So, as corrected, we can say: A representative of the largest coal company in the world sits on the Washington University board of trustees. As does a former CEO of another huge coal company, Arch, who now sits on the board of Cenovus, part of the (high-polluting) Canadian tar sands industry.
As for the coal industry, these companies are heading into bankruptcy and restructuring. As such, and on the defensive, they are involved in increasingly questionable business practices. They are also involved in efforts to undermine policies aimed at ameliorating global warming and the science of global warming itself. If any of this is incorrect, let me know, happy to correct it.
ExxonMobil, Peabody Coal Lobbying for Bill Preventing Climate Change Accounting in US Trade Deals
**Corrected 1/13/16: I know, Greg Boyce is no longer CEO of Peabody, I say this by force of habit. But he's still on the WUSTL board of trustees, listed as the "Executive Chairman" of Peabody. However, as of 12/31/15 he is said to be "retiring" from Peabody altogether, so will no longer be chairman there either. So maybe he will soon be retiring from the WUSTL board as well. Stay tuned. And yes, I know, the official name of the company is 'Peabody Energy'. But they do not produce energy. They dig up, transport, and sell coal. So let's be clear.
File under: WUSTL Students, know your board of trustees:**More on Steven F. Leer added January 15, 2016.
Additionally, while I used to refer to the 'two coal companies' on the WUSTL board (Arch and Peabody). However, Steven Leer, former Chairman of Arch, is now listed as 'Retired Chairman'. However, Mr. Leer is still deep into carbon. Since he has left Arch, he is a director at Cenovus Energy, one of Canada's biggest tar sands oil producers, which also co-owns the Wood River Refinery, across the river from St. Louis. And, he's a director at Norfolk Southern. The rail, coal, tar sands, and refinery businesses are all interdependent (and huge polluters, but no mind).
So, as corrected, we can say: A representative of the largest coal company in the world sits on the Washington University board of trustees. As does a former CEO of another huge coal company, Arch, who now sits on the board of Cenovus, part of the (high-polluting) Canadian tar sands industry.
As for the coal industry, these companies are heading into bankruptcy and restructuring. As such, and on the defensive, they are involved in increasingly questionable business practices. They are also involved in efforts to undermine policies aimed at ameliorating global warming and the science of global warming itself. If any of this is incorrect, let me know, happy to correct it.
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Holding the Fossil Fuel Industry Accountable: What We’ve Done and Must Do in the Wake of Paris - The Equation
Holding the Fossil Fuel Industry Accountable: What We’ve Done and Must Do in the Wake of Paris - The Equation
Among other points, the Phillipines alleging 50 largest fossil fuels corporations are human rights violators, pointing out, correctly, their willful contribution to global warming and destructive weather.--BG
Among other points, the Phillipines alleging 50 largest fossil fuels corporations are human rights violators, pointing out, correctly, their willful contribution to global warming and destructive weather.--BG
American Petroleum Institute Regresses with All Fossils, All the Time Plan
American Petroleum Institute Regresses with All Fossils, All the Time Plan
From the Union of Concerned Scientists:
"The American Petroleum Institute’s latest annual report on energy in the U.S. is out, and it’s a step backwards on climate change. While API’s 2015 State of American Energy report for the first time touted a host of clean energy options, the 2016 one is back to all fossils, all the time. It’s time for API to come clean on clean energy and climate change."
From the Union of Concerned Scientists:
"The American Petroleum Institute’s latest annual report on energy in the U.S. is out, and it’s a step backwards on climate change. While API’s 2015 State of American Energy report for the first time touted a host of clean energy options, the 2016 one is back to all fossils, all the time. It’s time for API to come clean on clean energy and climate change."
Monday, January 11, 2016
As predicted/expected: Arch Coal files for bankruptcy, execs flush with money, workers will be sidelined, company will keep emitting as long as possible
ARCH BANKRUPTCY PETITION
Arch Coal's bankruptcy and Peabody Energy’s looming bankruptcy expected later this year means that the tides are not turning. They already have turned. Mayor Slay, will you continue to lend your office to this sinking industry? Commitment to a Just Transition strategy for St. Louis is necessary and long overdue.
Because none of Arch’s mine workers are unionized, sadly, Arch will most like shirk all their obligations to miners’ healthcare and pensions without much organized resistance. This will leave miners in the hospital wondering how they will pay, while the CEOs and hedge funds cash their checks.
The boom and bust cycle of coal is on its last bust, and we need to account for the wreckage that will be left behind -- the mine workers left in the dust without pensions and healthcare, the extraction zones in need of true reclamation, and the local economies, including St. Louis's. We need a Just Transition that accounts for the responsibilities that corporations like Arch Coal and Peabody Energy run away from during bankruptcies.
"St. Louis coal corporations regularly disregard the health, homes and livelihoods of average people and continue to build their empires by profiting from this oppression. The violent apathy of Mayor Slay and other elected officials to the very real struggles for survival in the face of coal is embarrassing and shameful. St. Louis has the opportunity to be a leader in Just Transition strategies; it is deeply troubling that they do not see this as imperative," said St. Louis resident Basmin Nadra.
This unfettered corporate capitalism is not the Just Transition away from coal that we are calling for!
A solidarity economy with green job training, financial responsibility from extraction companies for site reclamation, investment in North St. Louis, utilities that do not prey on low-income residents... this is our Just Transition towards a solidarity economy that works for St. Louis.
Sign below to tell Mayor Slay that St. Louis needs a Just Transition!
Friday, January 8, 2016
Climate Activists Can Learn a Lot From Black Lives Matter | Earth First! Newswire
Climate Activists Can Learn a Lot From Black Lives Matter | Earth First! Newswire
What does the killing of Tamir Rice – and the lack of an indictment for the killer – have to do with the struggle over the climate?
"As the movement for black lives already understands, dismantling racism is not about proving racists wrong. Climate change will not be solved by convincing climate deniers of their own idiocy. Each are about power and affecting near-tectonic shifts in national values and priorities: Whose lives matter? Who controls our future? What does security mean amidst rising tides, and who deserves it?
What does the killing of Tamir Rice – and the lack of an indictment for the killer – have to do with the struggle over the climate?
"As the movement for black lives already understands, dismantling racism is not about proving racists wrong. Climate change will not be solved by convincing climate deniers of their own idiocy. Each are about power and affecting near-tectonic shifts in national values and priorities: Whose lives matter? Who controls our future? What does security mean amidst rising tides, and who deserves it?
The point here is not to draw a hokey analytic comparison between the movement for black lives and the one against climate change. For one, the links between climate and racial justice aren’t abstract. Reducing that relationship to “links” at all belies how deeply interwoven the two really are. It was Cleveland’s polluted Cuyahoga River, after all, which sparked national outrage when it caught fire one June morning in 1969 — a scandal that led to both the Clean Water Act and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. Additionally, some of this country’s longest-running fights against pollution and extractive industry have taken root in the communities of color that are first to feel their worst impacts. It’s no secret, either, that the nations currently feeling the blunt force of climate change tend to be poorer and browner than the ones that contributed most to it.
These connections aren’t just facts. They’re lived reality. Necessarily, the movement for black lives has always been a struggle for life and death. The climate fight — for many — is no different. As protesters respond to yesterday’s grand jury decision, environmentalists should be taking notes and joining in."
Read the entire article here
Thursday, January 7, 2016
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Peabody Energy will forgo $70 million payment to health fund
Peabody Energy will forgo $70 million payment to health fund
"Updated 11:30 a.m., Jan. 5 with details of new agreement - A health fund for retired miners will stay solvent for at least 10 more months.
"Updated 11:30 a.m., Jan. 5 with details of new agreement - A health fund for retired miners will stay solvent for at least 10 more months.
Peabody Energy and the United Mine Workers of America have reached an agreement. The company will pay $75 million into the health fund this year, but will not have to pay $70 million next year.
The fund covers about 12,000 retired Patriot Coal miners, many of whom worked for Peabody Energy. Peabody spun off Patriot in 2007.
The company agreed to pay about $310 million into the health fund in 2013, as part of Patriot Coal’s first bankruptcy. This year Patriot filed for bankruptcy a second time, and Peabody sought to be released from its remaining $145 million obligation.
In a statement, UMWA President Cecil Roberts said the agreement will provide some security for retirees, their dependents and widows.
"These retirees did everything asked of them, and now through no fault of their own find their health care benefits in jeopardy," Roberts said. "This agreement will help, but is by no means a permanent fix to this problem."
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