Playing With Fire: U.S. Regulators Resort to Weak Voluntary Measures For Oil-By-Rail Safety
Last year, Jeffrey Wiese, an official with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) told an industry conference that the regulatory process was “kind of dying.” According to InsideClimate News, Wiese even mentioned that PHMSA was working on a YouTube channel to “persuade the industry to voluntarily improve its safety operations,” as this was […]
Climate Change is Clear and Present Danger That The Fossil Fuel Industry Would Like You To Ignore
Climate change is no longer a distant threat, but a clear and present danger. That’s the main takeaway from the third installment of the National Climate Assessment (NCA), released this week by the White House. The report itself is a feat of both exhaustive climate science and creative science communications. The 840-page document is packed with […]
Bayou Corne Residents Still Evacuated Nearly Two Years After Salt Mine Collapse Caused Sinkhole
It’s been almost two years since a salt mine collapsed in Bayou Corne, 77 miles from New Orleans, causing a sinkhole to open up and natural gas to spread under nearby homes. Since Aug. 3, 2013, a swath of Assumption Parish has remained under a state of mandatory evacuation. The area, known as a sportsman’s paradise […]
Climate Change "Has Moved Firmly into the Present," Latest NCA Federal Report States
Climate change is already negatively affecting every region in the United States and the future looks even more dismal if coordinated mitigation and adaptation efforts are not immediately aggressively pursued, according to the third U.S. National Climate Assessment report released Tuesday. “Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the […]
New Report Names Alberta Oilsands as Highest Cost, Highest Risk Investment in Oil Sector
A total of $1.1 trillion USD earmarked for risky carbon-intensive oil sector investments need to be challenged by investors, according to a new report released today by the Carbon Tracker Initiative. The research identifies oil reserves in the Arctic, oilsands and in deepwater deposits at the high end of the carbon/capital cost curve. Projects in […]
Residents Deliver Petition to Ban Fracking to City Hall in Denton, Texas
A petition to ban hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in Denton, Texas, is being submitted to City Hall today, paving the way for Denton to become the first city in Texas to prohibit the controversial method of extracting natural gas. Members of the Denton Drilling Awareness Group, who are pushing for a ballot initiative, collected more than […]
Global Fossil Fuel Companies Running Multiple PR Campaigns Targeting Australians
Both online and on television, one of the world’s biggest oil and gas producers is telling Australians that it cares more about the environment than energy. How this message might go down with the shareholders of Chevron is anyone’s guess. But then those people are possibly not the target for Chevron’s “We Agree” campaign. The targets of this […]
American Minimum Wage Earners Held Hostage Over Keystone XL
One of the biggest political issues facing the United States right now is economic inequality and the fight for a fairer minimum wage. Unfortunately for American workers, that fight is being held up by another political fight that isn’t quite as large in scale, but it has some powerful proponents in the dirty energy industry. […]
Louisiana Residents Gear Up For Fracking Fight Just Outside New Orleans
In mid-April, word started spreading like wildfire among Louisiana residents: Helis Oil & Gas LLC wants to drill a well in search of oil and gas on a 960-acre tract of land about 30 miles from New Orleans, in the Mandeville area. Helis plans to use hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to extract oil and gas from […]
For First Time, TransCanada Says Tar Sands Flowing to Gulf in Keystone XL South
TransCanada admitted for the first time that tar sands oil is now flowing through Keystone XL‘s southern leg, now rebranded the Gulf Coast Pipeline Project. The company confirmed the pipeline activity in its 2014 quarter one earnings call. Asked by Argus Media reporter Iris Kuo how much of the current 300,000 to 400,000 barrels per day* of oil […]