Tag Archives: Exxon

NC Senators force ALEC bill through committee without even counting votes

Posted on by
ALEC Heartland-1

The ALEC repeal of NC’s renewable energy law was written by fossil fuel funded climate change deniers at the Heartland Institute.

Bitter from a lack of support for his attacks on clean energy incentives, North Carolina Representative Mike Hager is promising some new, dirty tricks to revive the effort. His colleagues in the NC Senate appear to be helping, today advancing the Senate version of Rep. Hager’s bill through committee without counting the votes.

The bill was clearly a contentious one with a close “voice vote” — it’s impossible from listening to tell whether the Yeas (anti clean energy votes) or Nays (pro clean energy votes) were actually louder. Yet the Senate Finance committee co-chairman Bill Rabon talked over Senators requesting a hand vote and quickly adjourned the meeting. The Raleigh News & Observer writes:

Opponents of the bill loudly voted “No!” to show their frustration at the Republican chairman’s decision not to count individual votes. In what was clearly a razor-thin margin, both sides said they would have won if votes had been counted.

A video of the hearing is available: watch the last minute for the rushed conclusion and clear frustration among dissenting Senators. Continue reading →

One Week, Four Oil Spills. Exxon’s tar sands oil spill in Arkansas is not an isolated incident

Posted on by

As many people who watch the oil industry know, oil spills are not avoidable, preventable, or unlikely. From extraction to combustion oil is a destructive and dirty business, based on sacrificing the health of environments and peoples for corporate profits.

Take action now and say “No to the Keystone Pipeline”, an oil spill waiting to happen.

Smoke pours from an Exxon Oil Refinery after an explosion in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1989

Continue reading →

14 questions for Exxon from an oil spill expert

Posted on by

A dead American Coot covered in oil lies among leaves and branches near the Bell Slough Wildlife Management Area near Mayflower, Arkansas April 2, 2013.

Exxon’s tar sands pipeline spill in Mayflower, Arkansas is highlighting concerns about the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, and raising questions about the risks of existing pipelines transporting diluted tar sands crude. In a familiar pattern for the oil industry, Exxon is impeding access to the spill, controlling information about the impacts, and threatening reporters with arrest; as Little Rock, Arkansas based journalist Suzi Parker put it, “the company has instituted something like martial law.” Continue reading →

Is Exxon trying to hide the damage from their Tar Sands pipeline spill?

Posted on by

Oil seeps into a marshy waterway after Exxon's Arkansas pipeline spill

Sure seems like it. According to reports from the ground, Exxon is in full control of the response to the 12,000 barrels of tar sands oil that began spilling from Exxon’s ruptured pipeline in Arkansas last weekend. The skies above the spill has been deemed a no-fly zone, and all requests to fly low over the area to take pictures must be approved by Exxon’s own “aviation advisor” Tom Suhrhoff. Continue reading →

PHOTOS: Decades of Exxon oil spills & explosions

Posted on by

After the March 29 Exxon pipeline spill in Arkansas, the state’s attorney general announced Tuesday that it would launch an investigation of the spill and its impacts. We’ve collected photos from our archive from past Exxon spills-a grim reminder that spills happen far too often. Continue reading →

NEW PHOTOS: Exxon pipeline oil spill in Arkansas

Posted on by

A worker carries used absorbent material after attempting to pick up oil from Exxon pipeline spill near Mayflower, Arkansas.

Nearly 12,000 barrels of crude oil spilled out of Exxon Mobil’s Pegasus pipeline into a Mayflower, Arkansas neighborhood causing the evacuation of 22 homes last Friday. The pipeline originates in Patoka, Illinois, and carries crude oil to the Texas Gulf Coast from Western Canada. Continue reading →

Chris Stewart, climate science denier, is now head of Congressional climate science committee

Posted on by

Originally posted to PolluterWatch

Chris Stewart, climate science denier

Chris Stewart, a republican from Utah, was recently appointed Chair of the House subcommittee on Science.

This means that Congressman Stewart now has dominion over the EPA, climate change research, and “all activities related to climate.” According to the House Science Committees website, the chair of the energy subcommittee oversees:

“all matters relating to environmental research; Environmental Protection Agency research and development; environmental standards; climate change research and development; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including all activities related to weather, weather services, climate, the atmosphere, marine fisheries, and oceanic research;…”

Unfortunately for the EPA, NOAA, and anyone worried about climate change, Chris Stewart is a climate science denier. Mr. Stewart believes there is “insufficient science” to determine if climate change is caused by humans. He believes this in spite of the fact that the EPA, NOAA, and all experts in the field (which he now oversees), disagrees with him.

Continue reading →

REVEALED: Donors Trust is the secret ATM machine for climate deniers

Posted on by
Donors Trust climate denial funding skyrockets

Donors Trust climate denial funding skyrockets

REVEALED: Donors Trust is the secret ATM machine for climate deniers

A new Greenpeace analysis released today shows that Donors Trust, a shadowy funding vehicle, has laundered $146 million in climate denial funding from 2002 to 2011. Yesterday’s article in the Guardian referenced part of the Greenpeace analysis. Continue reading →

Arctic sea ice larger than U.S. melted this year

Posted on by

We all depend on the health of the Arctic. Oil companies such as Shell, BP or Exxon want to drill oil, fueling climate change and ice melting. The climate in the area can be severe and unpredictable making an oil spill likely and catastrophic. Over two million people have now signed our petition. Declare your support for a global sanctuary in the Arctic by signing on now.

Originally posted to CBS News.

DOHA, QATAR- An area of Arctic sea ice bigger than the United States melted this year, according the U.N. weather agency, which said the dramatic decline illustrates that climate change is happening “before our eyes.”

In a report released at U.N. climate talks in the Qatari capital of Doha, the World Meteorological Organization said the Arctic ice melt was one of a myriad of extreme and record-breaking weather events to hit the planet in 2012. Droughts devastated nearly two-thirds of the United States as well western Russia and southern Europe. Floods swamped West Africa and heat waves left much of the Northern Hemisphere sweltering. Continue reading →

Shell Clarifies: It Can ‘Encounter’ 95 Percent Of An Arctic Oil Spill, Not Collect It

Posted on by

(Cross-posted from ThinkProgress)

As Shell’s rigs head toward the Arctic to exploit melting sea ice to drill for more oil, the company took a small step this weekend toward clarifying what would happen in an oil spill during the company’s planned Arctic drilling operations this summer. Despite the oil industry’s spin, experts know it is impossible to recover more than a small fraction of a major marine oil spill, as retired Coast Guard Admiral Roger Rufe told NPR: “But once oil is in the water, it’s a mess. And we’ve never proven anywhere in the world — let alone in the ice — that we’re very good at picking up more than 3 or 5 or 10 percent of the oil once it’s in the water.”

Oiled boom lies across sea ice in Norway after a cargo ship ran aground and leaked heavy oil. Photo by Jon Terje Hellgren Hansen / Greenpeace, Feb 24, 2011.

Continue reading →