Tuesday, April 30, 2013

LAKOTA RESISTANCE TO PIPELINE POLLUTION

From Brian Hill at IGC.org: "Montana judge ruled the trucks were TOO HEAVY for Montana's roads, the trucks didn't want to pay over $100,000 to South Dakota to use ITS roads so they ILLEGALLY rammed through Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, without any fee or permit, they were blocked by tribal members and the tribal police wrongfully took the truckers' side and arrested the tribal members for disturbing the peace"

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Why the war in Iraq was fought for Big Oil


Why the war in Iraq 

was fought for Big Oil

By Antonia Juhasz, Special to CNN
March 19, 2013 -- Updated 1507 GMT (2307 HKT)

..."Of course it's about oil; we can't really deny that," said Gen. John Abizaid, former head of U.S. Central Command and Military Operations in Iraq, in 2007. Former Federal Reserve ChairmanAlan Greenspan agreed, writing in his memoir, "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil." Then-Sen. and now Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the same in 2007: "People say we're not fighting for oil. Of course we are."....

READ the entire article here.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Carbon Disinvestment by Universities? The API Counter-attacks

API: O&G Stocks Fuel Major Returns for U.S. College Endowments
Rigzone


Investments by U.S. university endowments in U.S. oil and gas company stocks produced the highest returns for endowments for at least the last decade, according to a recent study conducted for the American Petroleum Institute (API).
Oil and gas company stocks outperformed endowment funds and the Standard & Poor's 500, achieving returns of 52.8 percent in fiscal year (FY) 2010-2011, 7.9 percent in the last five-year period (FY2006-2011) and 11.5 percent in the FY 2001-2011 period, the study found.   READ MORE

Link to the study: http://www.api.org/news-and-media/news/newsitems/2013/jan-2013/~/media/Files/News/2012/12-December/API-report-industry-returns-for-college-university-endowments.pdf

Link to API report: http://www.api.org/news-and-media/news/newsitems/2013/jan-2013/oil-and-gas-stocks-are-high-performers-in-college-endowments.aspx.


Coal to China via the NW: Key Battleground on the Climate

Visit the Tiny Town Where Big Coal Will Meet Its Fate

| Tue Jan. 22, 2013 3:01 AM PST

Mother Jones

Last week Beijing saw its infamous smog thicken to unprecedented levels, driven largely by emissions from coal-fired power plants across China. In recent years coal from US mines has stoked more and more of these plants, in effect offshoring the health impacts of burning coal. This year, much of the US coal industry's focus will be on pushing an unfolding campaign that seeks to dramatically ramp up the amount of coal we ship overseas.   READ MORE

Monday, January 7, 2013

In the Coal Fields, A Novel Way to Get Rid Of Pensions Is Born - Working In These Times

These are some really high-minded corporations.

In the Coal Fields, A Novel Way to Get Rid Of Pensions Is Born - Working In These Times
by Mike Elk, In These Times

"In 2007, Peabody Energy spun off a new company, Patriot Coal, which inherited 10 unionized mines in Kentucky and West Virginia. Along with the mines, Patriot took on $557 million in healthcare obligations to UMWA retirees. In 2008, Patriot bought Magnum, which had been similarly spun off from Arch Coal three years earlier. From Magnum, Patriot inherited another $500 million in obligations to retired miners, according to the UMWA.
...
Over breakfast in Morgantown, UMWA President Cecil Roberts describes the founding of Patriot. “It’s like we all are Peabody sitting here, and I am the CEO. This is what happened. 'Well we're going to create a new company boys. You’re gonna be the CEO; you're gonna be the vice president; you're gonna be the treasurer.' All the officers came from the corporate headquarters [of Peabody] in St. Louis. Peabody unilaterally decided what assets Patriot would have. They unilaterally decided what liabilities it would have. They gave Patriot all of its retirees.”

Friday, December 7, 2012

McKibben and Hanley: Public Transit is One Easy Step


Think About the Transportation Sector

Superstorm Sandy has made it clear that no matter how hard some politicians try to ignore climate change, climate change will not ignore them -- or any of us. More carbon means higher seas, the kind that inundate subways. The U.S can also thank carbon emissions for contributing to the hottest summers on record, massive wildfires, and crippling droughts. The good news is, we can take some pretty serious steps to cut carbon pretty easily -- and make lives better at the same time.
Think about the transportation sector, which accounts for 27 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, mostly from cars and trucks. Tailpipe pollution is also a major source of asthma and other illnesses -- the transport sector contributes 80 percent of the harmful air pollutants that cause 1.3 million premature deaths each year. Road fatalities claim 33,000 lives per year on average, making traffic accidents the number one killer of people under 34 in the U.S. And traffic congestion is known to elevate stress levels and reduce quality of life for millions.  READ MORE: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-mckibben/think-about-the-transport_b_2247048.html

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Monday, December 3, 2012

Media Matters: The Anti-Science Capitalists at Work


Meet The Climate Denial Machine

Blog ››› ››› JILL FITZSIMMONS
Despite the overwhelming consensus among climate experts
that human activity is contributing to rising global
temperatures, 66 percent of Americans incorrectly
believe there is "a lot of disagreement among scientists
about whether or not global warming is happening." The
conservative media has fueled this confusion by
distorting scientific research, hyping faux-scandals,
and giving voice to groups funded by industries that
have a financial interest in blocking action on climate
change. Meanwhile, mainstream media outlets have shied
away from the "controversy" over climate change and have
failed to press U.S. policymakers on how they will
address this global threat. When climate change is
discussed, mainstream outlets sometimes strive for a
false balance that elevates marginal voices and enables
them to sow doubt about the science even in the face of
mounting evidence.

Here, Media Matters looks at how conservative media 
outlets give industry-funded "experts" a platform, 
creating a polarized misunderstanding of climate science.... READ MORE

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

More on Criminality and Coal: Charges should go all the way to the top

Big news: Longtime Massey official helping prosecutors in Upper Big Branch investigation

"You can read the charging document online here, and there’s more coverage from NPR News, West Virginia MetroNews (including an appearance by Goodwin on the Talkline program), the Wall Street Journal, and The Associated Press.By Ken Ward at Coal Tattoo/Charleston Gazette

READ MORE

Patriot Coal bankruptcy moved to St. Louis

Patriot Coal bankruptcy moved to St. Louis
By Ken Ward, Charleston Gazette (WV)

Quoting United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts: "St. Louis is where Patriot Coal is headquartered. More important, it’s the headquarters for Peabody Energy and Arch Coal. These two companies spun off their operations to Patriot in an attempt to run away from pension and health care obligations to thousands of miners and their survivors."

Monday, October 15, 2012

On KEYSTONE XL: The struggle continues

Chris Hedges:

Join the Blockade of the Keystone Pipeline


http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/join_the_blockade_of_the_keystone_pipeline_20121015/?ln

The next great battle of the Occupy movement may not take place in city parks and plazas, where the security and surveillance state is blocking protesters from setting up urban encampments. Instead it could arise in the nation’s heartland, where some ranchers, farmers and enraged citizens, often after seeing their land seized by eminent domain and their water supplies placed under mortal threat, have united with Occupiers and activists to oppose the building of the Keystone XL tar sand pipeline. They have formed an unusual coalition called Tar Sands Blockade (TSB). Centers of resistance being set up in Texas and Oklahoma and on tribal lands along the proposed route of this six-state, 1,700-mile proposed pipeline are fast becoming flashpoints in the war of attrition we have begun against the corporate state. Join them.  READ MORE>>>