Oil Industry Front Group Sets Sights On Santa Barbara County Measure That Would Ban “Extreme Oil Extraction”
Local activists in California’s Santa Barbara County have placed Measure P on the November ballot to ban “extreme oil extraction” practices such as fracking, acidization, and steam injection over concerns that they make global warming worse, cause earthquakes, pollute aquifers, and waste massive amounts of water at a time when the state is experiencing extreme […]
Judge Nixes Cove Point LNG Zoning Permit as Dominion Says Will Soon Receive Federal Permit
Co-Written with Caroline Selle An August 6 court decision handed down by Calvert County Circuit Court Judge James Salmon could put Dominion Resources’ timeline for its proposed Cove Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility in jeopardy. Salmon ruled that an ordinance exempting the Lusby, Md.-based LNG project from local zoning laws — Ordinance 46-13 — violated both a section […]
Controversial Coal Export Terminal Green-Lighted at Fraser Surrey Docks
Canada’s largest port has given the green light to a proposed controversial facility on the Fraser River that would unload U.S. coal destined for energy-hungry Asia. Despite facing significant environmental and health concerns, Port Metro Vancouver said in its decision, released last Thursday, that the proposed coal transfer facility at Fraser Surrey Docks poses no unacceptable risks. […]
BP Wins Big In Offshore Oil Drilling Lease Auction
For all of his administration’s tough talk on protecting our environment, President Obama doesn’t seem to have any problem increasing the nation’s dependence on dirty energy. Earlier this year, the Obama administration announced plans to open up an astounding 112 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas exploration, setting a bidding […]
Koch-Tied Roots of Senator Vitter's Green Billionaires Club Environmental Attack Report
A DeSmogBlog investigation reveals that Kristina Moore, the Senate staffer listed as the author of U.S. Sen. David Vitter’s (R-La.) “green billionaire’s club” report published by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) on July 30, has career roots tracing back to the Koch Brothers’ right-wing machine. Metadata from Vitter’s green billionaire’s club report shows Moore’s name […]
Advertising Watchdog Says Peabody Energy 'Clean Coal' Advert Was Misleading
CLEAN COAL, it’s the two-word catch phrase the coal industry has used for years as it tries to convince the world its climate changing energy source has a future. While the term “clean coal” is rightly met with ridicule and derision by many, up until this week it has been allowed to stand — at least […]
After Oregon Rejects Coal Export Plan, Long Beach Votes to Export Coal and PetKoch
Just a day after the Oregon Department of State Lands shot down a proposal to export 8.8 million tons per year of coal to Asia from the Port of Morrow in Boardman, Oregon, the Long Beach City Council achieved the opposite. In a 9-0 vote, the Council voted “yay” to export both coal and petroleum coke (petcoke, a tar sands […]
All Aboard! Tar Sands Bitumen by Rail Set to Eclipse Pipelines Like Keystone XL
“Rail can get you just about anywhere. It’s like the Harry Potter stairway. You get on the stairs at one end and they move to wherever you need to go. That’s the beauty of the railway. You get on at one end here, with your bitumen or dilbit, and then you can end up in […]
Not at Home on the Range: Subsidized Fracking Hits Colorado
This is a guest post by Paul Thacker, originally published by Oil Change International. A general contractor in Colorado’s Grand Valley, Duke Cox says the first time he became aware that drilling for gas might be a problem was back in the early 2000s when he happened to attend a local public hearing on oil […]
General Honoré, Enviro Groups Call for Strengthening EPA’s Proposed Refinery Pollution Standards
Millions of people living near refineries will be directly affected by a long awaited updates to regulations the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed for oil refineries. Their new proposed rule includes a reduction of flaring, monitoring benzene emissions, and upgrading emission controls during the crude oil refining process. “We need 21st century monitoring devices for fenceline communities,” former General Russel Honoré, founder of the […]