Silent Coup: How Enbridge is Quietly Cloning the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline
While the debate over the TransCanada Keystone XL tar sands pipeline has raged on for over half a decade, pipeline giant Enbridge has quietly cloned its own Keystone XL in the U.S and Canada. It comes in the form of the combination of Enbridge’s Alberta Clipper (Line 67), Flanagan South and Seaway Twin pipelines. The pipeline system does what Keystone XL and the Keystone Pipeline System at large is […]
Colorado Citizens Launch Class Action Lawsuit to Protect Lafayette's Fracking Ban
Citizens of Lafayette, Colo., have filed a class action lawsuit against the State of Colorado, the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) and Governor John Hickenlooper requesting immediate enforcement of Lafayette’s Community Rights Charter Amendment to ban fracking. In November 2013, 60 percent of Lafayette voters approved the Community Rights Amendment, which allows citizens […]
White House Meeting Logs: Big Rail Lobbying Against "Bomb Train" Regulations It Publicly Touts
The Obama White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has held the majority of its meetings on the proposed federal oil-by-rail safety regulations with oil and gas industry lobbyists and representatives. But OIRA meeting logs reviewed by DeSmogBlog reveal that on June 10, the American Association of Railroads (AAR) and many of its dues-paying members […]
Northern Gateway Approved, But Far From Built
The Government of Canada approved the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline Tuesday, six months after the Joint Review Panel recommended the pipeline be built subject to 209 conditions. Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford said in a statement: “In December 2013, the Joint Review Panel found that construction and operation of the Northern Gateway Pipelines project is in […]
Tar Sands on the Tracks: Railbit, Dilbit and U.S. Export Terminals
Last December, the first full train carrying tar sands crude left the Canexus Bruderheim terminal outside of Edmonton, Alberta, bound for an unloading terminal somewhere in the United States. Canadian heavy crude, as the tar sands is labeled for market purposes, had ridden the rails in very limited capacity in years previous — loaded into tank […]
Global Wind Day Celebrates Wind Energy as Major Player Worldwide
It may not rank in popularity with the World Cup but a growing interest in Global Wind Day (June 15) continues to underscore the significant contribution that the emissions-free electricity-generating technology is making to mitigate the worst excesses of burning fossil fuels. No longer considered an alternative energy source, the wind power sector is now present […]
Meeting Logs: Obama White House Quietly Coddling Big Oil on “Bomb Trains” Regulations
When Richard Revesz, Dean Emeritus of New York University Law School, introduced Howard Shelanski at his only public appearance so far during his tenure as Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Revesz described Shelanski as, “from our perspective, close to the most important official in the federal government.” OIRA has […]
Why Are Pipeline Spills Good For the Economy?
This is a guest post by David Suzuki. Energy giant Kinder Morgan was recently called insensitive for pointing out that “Pipeline spills can have both positive and negative effects on local and regional economies, both in the short- and long-term.” The company wants to triple its shipping capacity from the Alberta tar sands to Burnaby, in […]
Over $48 Trillion Energy Investment Needed by 2035, IEA Report Concludes
It will cost $48 trillion to keep up with rising energy demand worldwide over the next two decades, a newly released report by the International Energy Agency concludes. That’s a massive jump from the $16 trillion predicted the last time the report was fully updated in 2003. “The headline numbers revealed by this analysis are almost […]
Australian MP George Christensen Heading To Las Vegas For Heartland Institute Climate Denial Conference
AN Australian Federal MP is planning to join some of the world’s noisiest deniers of the science of climate change at a conference in Las Vegas in a few weeks time. George Christensen, the National Party member for Dawson in the coal-friendly state of Queensland, will be hanging around the Mandelay Bay Resort with a rag-tag […]