Big Oil
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Oil execs get monster raises after a ‘very strong’ 2011
How big was your raise last year? John Watson, the CEO of Chevron, got a 52 percent bump in his compensation. That’s a nice chunk of change for anyone, and in Watson’s case, it brought his total yearly take up to about $25 million. Which is nothing to complain about, unless Watson is comparing his […]
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Obama budget raises oil drilling royalties 50 percent
Public lands belong to all of us, so when the federal government decides to lease them out to oil and gas drillers, those companies have to pay for depriving taxpayers of environmental and recreational benefits. And the Obama administration has decided that they’re not paying enough. So the Interior Department’s budget includes a proposal to raise […]
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The great carbon bubble: Why the fossil-fuel industry fights so hard
Big Oil will do anything to avoid coming to terms with the fact that the business models which have made it so profitable directly threaten the Earth's survival, writes Bill McKibben.
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In SOTU, Obama trying yet again to blunt polluter attacks with policy concessions
In his State of the Union address tonight, Obama will try to convince the right that he loooves fossil fuels, despite his Keystone XL decision. As if going on the defensive has worked before.
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Trimming astroturf from the American Petroleum Institute’s Vote 4 Energy ad
It’s not surprising that the American Petroleum Institute — Big Oil’s premium lobbying entity — is using a synthetic media strategy. Their Vote 4 Energy astroturf campaign spews misinformation like a two-stroke engine belching greenhouse gasses. It attempts to portray ‘real (cough cough) Americans’ who are ‘energy voters,’ which translates to voting for whichever politicians […]
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Big Coal and Oil Play Dirty but EPA Mercury Ruling Proves We’d Rather Keep It Clean
Starting today, we can begin to breathe, eat, and drink a bit easier. The EPA begins enforcement of the Mercury and Air Toxics standard, a 20-year-old mandate that set limits on mercury emissions from coal and oil-fired power plants. These safeguards are not for show. They reflect a raft of highly credible research proving that mercury, […]
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Does your car really need that oil change? Probably not.
How often does a car need an oil change? Ask Jiffy Lube, and it's a flat 3,000 miles. According to car manufacturers, however, their products can go anywhere from a low of 5,000 miles to a high of 10,000 before an oil change is necessary. The Stranger crunched the numbers and found that if you […]
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Power for the people: Energy for the 99 percent
Image: Power Up AmericaCross-posted from the Center for American Progress. The Occupy Wall Street protests are focusing Americans’ attention on the fact that power is increasingly consolidated into the hands of very few individuals and corporations. This is especially true in the energy sector. Two weeks ago, the country’s five largest oil companies — BP, […]
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Perry's energy plan is a Big Oil wet dream
This is not a surprise or anything, but Rick Perry unveiled what we'll charitably call an "energy plan," and it's printed on oil-soaked paper with oil-based ink.