‘Coal Not Dole’ Remains Rallying Cry for Shadow Climate Secretary Caroline Flint

Labour’s climate policies depend on carbon capture and storage to provide energy and jobs, despite serious concerns about the practice. Coal burning will power Britain under a Labour government through the use of carbon capture and storage (CCS), the shadow secretary of state Caroline Flint has confirmed.  The controversial practice of producing power and then offsetting the […]

Cameron, Climate Chameleon: A Tory Conference Special

David Cameron was the champion of climate change action during the 2009 Tory conference as the party appealed to concerned voters ahead of the general election. “If we don’t act now, and act quickly, we could face disaster.” But five years into a coaltion government with a Liberal Democrat party genuinely committed to climate change mitigation […]

High-Techs Abandon ALEC, Fossil and Tobacco Wolf In Business Suit

As Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Yelp and other high-tech Silicon Valley companies abandon the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a few facts need more emphasis to understand this wolf in business clothes, bringing “sample bills” to legislatures. ALEC is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) “public charity,” as per its IRS Form 990s.  Donations to it get tax breaks. Common […]

U.S. Oil Imports From Canada Hit All-Time High Despite Opposition

While the battle against TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline rages on and oil-by-rail faces increased scrutiny, U.S. oil imports from Canada have quietly hit a record high of 2.99 million barrels per day. That number — from the week ending Sept. 12, 2014 — marks a 20 per cent increase from a year earlier. While rail is still […]

Institutional Investors Call For Price on Carbon, End to Fossil Fuel Subsidies

More than 345 global institutional investors, which represent more than $24 trillion in assets, are calling on governments to put a price on carbon and phase out fossil fuel subsidies. Governments should also develop an ambitious global agreement on climate change by the end of 2015 to give investors the confidence to accelerate investments in low-carbon […]

Blue Dot Movement Rolls Across Canada

This is a guest post by David Suzuki. As an elder, I’ve watched Canada and the world change in many ways, for better and worse. Thanks in part to cheap energy and technological growth, the human population has more than tripled, from 2.2 billion in 1936 when I was born to about seven billion today. As […]

The 'Second Hand Dealers in Ideas' Who Sold Us Neoliberalism

A fateful meeting between economist Friedrich von Hayek and British aristocrat Antony Fisher had lasting consequences—including for the debate about climate change policy. Picture: Fisher with Margaret Thatcher.  Friedrich von Hayek was working on his latest book, The Use of Knowledge in Society, at the London School of Economics during the Summer of 1945 when, one […]

Investors Waking Up To Risks Of Stranded Assets, Realities Of Shale Bubble

The day after some 400,000 people marched in the streets of New York to call for climate justice, the world woke to some more historic news: The Rockefeller family, heirs to the Standard Oil fortune, announced that they were directing their $860 million charitable fund to divest from fossil fuels. The Rockefellers cited their moral […]

California Farmers File Suit Alleging Oil Companies' Faulty Wastewater Injection Caused Crop Loss

A farming company in Kern County, California, has sued four oil producers over claims that their faulty wastewater injection methods led to the contamination of groundwater it uses for irrigation. Palla Farms LLC, a ninety-two-year-old family farm operation, says it had to tear out hundreds of cherry trees due to high levels of salt and boron in […]

Government Accountability Office Report of Oil-By-Rail Safety Fails to Address Most Important Safety Issue

This week’s release of the government report titled Department of Transportation Is Taking Actions To Address Rail Safety, But Additional Actions Are Needed To Address Pipeline Safety — a year long review of the risks associated with the large increases in transporting domestically produced oil and gas in the United States — identifies several well known risks […]