Everything You Need to Know About the Exxon Pegasus Tar Sands Spill [Updated]

In Greek legend, everytime the winged horse Pegasus struck his hoof to the Earth, an “inspiring spring burst forth.” Unfortunately for residents in Mayflower, Arkansas, when the Pegasus pipeline ruptured, the only thing bursting forth was a nasty tar sands oil spill. On Friday afternoon, the Pegasus pipeline operated by Exxon Mobil ruptured, flooding an Arkansas […]

Utah's Students Forced to Push Fossil Fuel Propaganda for Earth Day

Last week, Huffington Post reported a story about the Utah Division of Oil, Gas & Mining’s ridiculous Earth Day Poster Contest. You know, the one where elementary school students were invited to submit posters around the theme, “Where Would WE Be Without Oil, Gas & Mining?” Seeing as this contest was created by a state agency, […]

Oil On The Tracks: Canadian Pacific Rail Spills 30,000 Gallons of Crude in Minnesota

Who ever saw this coming? Yesterday, a Canadian Pacific train carrying crude oil jumped the tracks in Parkers Prarie, Minnesota and immediately spilled 20,000 to 30,000 gallons of crude onto the snowy, frozen fields. Fourteen cars of the 94-car, mile-long train (stop and picture that for a moment) left the tracks during an emergency braking maneuver, […]

More Financial Worries Coming to Light in Domestic Shale Drilling Industry

Virtually anyone who has followed the onshore drilling bonanza knows the name Aubrey McClendon and the company he co-founded, Chesapeake Energy. McClendon was the hard-driving CEO and chairman of one of America’s most aggressive drilling companies, but he was brought down earlier this year after a string of financial scandals and potential conflicts of interest came […]

Another Judge Agrees: Atmosphere Should Be Protected As a Public Trust [Updated]

Should the atmosphere be considered part of the public trust, a resource essential for our collective survival? An Iowa judge, for one, thinks that there is good reason and precedent. You may recall the story of a group of kids, working together with Our Children’s Trust, who are suing the federal government and various state governments […]

Indigenous Rights are…Hey Look! A Panda!

Yesterday hundreds of indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians stood on Parliament Hill in Ottawa to greet the Nishiyuu walkers – a group of First Nations marchers who have gathered along the 1500 kilometre route between Whapmagoostui in Quebec’s James Bay Treaty area and the nation’s capital. The youngest walker to speak on behalf of the group was […]

Leaked: National Roundtable on the Environment and Economy's Final Farewell Report

It is being reported today that Canada’s Minister of the Environment, Peter Kent, would not allow the public posting of a final report by the now-defunct National Roundtable on Energy and Environment (NRTEE), a 25-year old government funded project that brought together Canada’s brightest minds to work on the convergence of environmental sustainability and economic prosperity.  […]

State Department's Keystone XL Contractor ERM Green-Lighted BP's Explosive Caspian Pipeline That Failed To Live Up to Jobs Hype

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Almost 11 years ago in June 2002, Environmental Resources Management (ERM) Group declared the controversial 1,300 mile-long Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline environmentally and socio-economically sound, a tube which brings oil and gas produced in the Caspian Sea to the export market. On March 1, it said the same of the proposed 1,179 mile-long TransCanada […]

Dirty Energy Lobby Looking To NRA For Guidance

The Wall Street Journal recently opened up their editorial pages for noted climate change denier David Deming, allowing him to publish a “call to action” for the dirty energy industry. In his op-ed, Deming says that the fossil fuel industry could learn a thing or two from the NRA about how to become an effective, powerful […]

Marking Up the Alberta Government's $30,000 Keystone XL Ad

This is a guest post by Heather Libby. If you’re a regular reader of the Sunday New York Times, you might have noticed a half-page ad in the A section promoting the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline last weekend. Paid for by the Alberta government with $30,000 of taxpayer funds, the text-heavy ad asserted several […]