A Timeline of Shell’s Arctic Drilling Debacle in 2012
Originally published at Climate Progress. Re-printed with permission. by Kiley Kroh and Michael Conathan This week’s grounding of Shell’s enormous Kulluk drilling rig near Kodiak Island, Alaska has not inspired confidence in its preparedness to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean. The rig was being towed from Dutch Harbor, Alaska to Seattle when its tow vessel lost control of the massive […]
Shale Gas Uncertainty: How an Industry Talking Point Misses the Mark
When oil and gas executives gathered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to discuss the state of the industry shortly after Obama won re-election, they raised a recurring complaint. “We now face four more years of regulatory uncertainty,” said Randy Alpert, an official with Consol energy told gathered shale gas executives. Penny Seipel, Vice President of the Ohio […]
W&T Offshore Fined $1 Million for Using Coffee Filters to Doctor Water Samples
Bizarre new details of just how W&T Offshore Oil & Gas contractors doctored water samples came to light last Thursday when W&T officially pled guilty to criminal charges under the Clean Water Act for tampering with water samples and failing to report a spill back in 2009 off of their Ewing Banks Block 910 platform, […]
Shell’s Kulluk Rig Grounding Proves Folly of Arctic Oil Drilling, Again
Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell spent a good portion of 2012 defending allegations that the company wasn’t “arctic ready.” The disaster that occurred with their offshore drilling rig Kulluk on New Year’s Eve only served to prove that the company is not to be trusted. Tug crews towing the floating Kulluk rig in the Arctic Ocean […]
Citizens Take Action Against Coal Company For Clean Water Act Violations
A citizens group in Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit against Emerald Coal Resources LP (ECR) for polluting waterways in their state. ECR operates a coalfield in Waynesburg, which is the focus of the suit. The suit is being handled by The Center For Coalfield Justice, and alleges that ECR committed numerous violations of the Clean Water […]
Meet Anthony Ingraffea—From Industry Insider to Implacable Fracking Opponent
By Ellen Cantarow – Originally published at EcoWatch.org Why, exactly, is high-volume slickwater hydraulic fracturing such a devastating industry? How best to describe its singularity—its vastness, its difference from other industries and its threat to the planet? When I interviewed Dr. Anthony Ingraffea—Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering, Weiss Presidential Teaching Fellow at Cornell University and president of Physicians, Scientists […]
Ending Climate Silence – What Obama Should Say In State of the Union Address
What should President Obama say about climate change during his upcoming State of the Union address? Check out this preview clip from Bill Moyers’ interview with scientist Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, who articulates some key points that the President could use to end the partisan bickering on climate […]
Wind Tax Credit Avoids The Fall Over The Fiscal Cliff
The U.S. government has managed to postpone financial calamity for a few months with the passage of a so-called “fiscal cliff” deal. While the deal is hardly anything to celebrate in the larger scheme of things, it did provide a one-year extension for a critical clean energy mechanism – the wind energy production tax credit. The […]
After 25 Years, It’s Time To Stop Spinning Our Wheels
By David Suzuki In 1988, hundreds of scientists and policy-makers met in Toronto for a major international conference on climate change. They were sufficiently alarmed by the accumulated evidence for human-caused global warming that they issued a release stating, “Humanity is conducting an unintended, uncontrolled, globally pervasive experiment whose ultimate consequences could be second […]