Fossil Fuel Industry Funds Study That Concludes Fossil Fuel Divestment Is A Bad Idea
As of September 2014, 181 institutions and local governments as well as 656 individual investors representing more than $50 billion in assets had pledged to join the growing fossil fuel divestment movement, which seeks to take investments away from the oil, gas and coal companies that are cooking our atmosphere and reinvest that money in […]
Junk Science? Report Finds Shale Industry Cited 'Retracted and Discredited' Studies
Since the beginning of the shale gas rush, the drilling industry has insisted that the process is relatively benign, arguing that its critics are simply fear-mongering and that a sober scientific review of the data fails to prove, for instance, that fracking has ever contaminated water supplies. In the wake of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s […]
Tories Could Lose Election Over Climate Change Failures
Prime Minister David Cameron’s failure to live up to his ‘greenest government ever’ pledge could cost him the election reveals a new survey by research consultancy ComRes. Climate change policies will likely have a significant influence on voters in the May election, with the survey showing almost 70 percent of voters surveyed calling for their party […]
California's Wastewater Injection Problem Is Way Worse Than Previously Reported
Documents released this week as part of the EPA’s investigation into the state of California’s underground injection control program show that in addition to hundreds of wastewater injection wells there are thousands more wells illegally injecting fluids from “enhanced oil recovery” into aquifers protected by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. At a time when […]
You'll Never Guess Who Attended Britain's First Major Climate Denial Conference
DeSmog UK’s epic history series looks back at the conference that marked the first major event where climate sceptic views were promoted in England. This year marks the 20th anniversary of Britain’s first major climate denial conference. You’ll never guess who attended – and who paid for it. In October 1995, John Blundell – the newly appointed […]
Climate Deniers Help Tories Weaken Fracking Rules
Climate deniers Viscount Matt Ridley and Lord Nigel Lawson defended a controversial fracking U-turn by the Conservative-led government in the House of Lords last night that will reduce safety standards for shale gas exploration. The Labour party tried to force through more stringent measures in the hotly contested Infrastructure Bill currently going through Parliament designed to protect groundwater which could supply homes […]
Why a UK shale gas industry is incompatible with the 2°C framing of dangerous climate change
Kevin Anderson, professor of energy and climate change at the Tyndall Centre, discusses why fracking in the UK is incompatible with limiting warming to 2°C. This piece is a response to Professor Robert Mair’s Royal Society science policy blog, “Hydraulic fracturing for shale gas in the UK – an opportunity to shape a constructive way forward” (In Verba, 26th Jan): Professor Mair’s Royal […]
GOP Activists: Rick Perry's Bakken Oil Pipeline Ties Could Cost Him Iowa Caucus Support
By David Goodner Former Texas governor Rick Perry‘s recent appointment to the board of Energy Transfer Partners, a company attempting to build a Bakken oil pipeline through Iowa, could hurt him in the first-in-the-nation Republican Party caucus if he decides to run for president, according to a conservative Iowa Republican activist and a DeSmog analysis of […]
Voices in Arlington, Texas Unify to Protect Environment and Community From Fracking
Liveable Arlington, a new Texas grassroots environmental group, joins the growing number of anti-fracking groups forming around the world. The group was established at the end of January, as the battle to impose stricter ozone standards intensifies and the call for fracking bans and tighter ordinances on industry increase nationwide. Arlington, Texas, a Dallas suburb, sits […]
DeSmogCAST 10: California Fracking Waste, Keystone Climate Impacts and Energy East Pipeline
In this episode of DeSmogCAST our team discusses an ongoing investigation into hundreds of aquifers in California that may have been contaminated with fracking waste. We also discuss a letter submitted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to the State Department which gives new weight to concerns the proposed $8 billion Keystone XL […]