oil
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Delegation from oil-afflicted Amazon visits Louisiana tribes hit by BP disaster
A delegation of indigenous and community leaders from Ecuador is visiting Louisiana this week at the invitation of the United Houma Nation, a tribe in coastal Lafourche and Terrebone parishes that has been hit hard by the BP oil catastrophe. The Ecuadoreans have come to share lessons they’ve learned dealing with another oil disaster: U.S. […]
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Taking the petro out of petrochemicals
Genomatica’s pilot green chemical plant.Photo courtesy of GenomaticaYou can buy green jeans, green greens (at the farmer’s market), and green beer. But the reality is that many, if not most, products in our industrial society contain some petroleum-based chemicals. In fact, up to a quarter of the oil consumed in some regions of the United […]
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What Role Will Senator Murkowski Play in Climate and Energy Negotiations?
Speaking at a sparsely-attended luncheon in Fairbanks, AK on Friday, Senator Murkowski (R-AL) touted her failed effort to block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions as a ‘badge of honor.’ She went on to explain why she considered the maneuver, which went down by a 53-47 margin on June 10th, a qualified success. “We […]
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Ask Umbra on turning oil spill depression into transformation
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, I always love reading Umbra’s Q&A’s. But right now with the oil spill taking over the Gulf and ruining so many ecosystems, I just don’t know if anything I do really makes a difference. I live in southern Louisiana and remember feeling the same way after Katrina. […]
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Plurality of Americans Skeptical of Pro-Drilling Congressional Candidates
The latest NBC/WSJ poll includes a number of interesting findings. Dave Weigel and Alex Seitz-Wald both took note of BP’s extremely low favorability ratings: Indeed, the poll shows that only 6 percent have a favorable rating of BP. In the history of the NBC News/Journal poll, Saddam Hussein (3 percent), Fidel Castro (3 percent) and […]
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Are we banking too much on BP’s relief wells?
It seems so long ago that we had those brief, crazy flings with “junk shots,” “kill shots,” and “top kills.” Those were engineers doing improv. But there was always a net: Engineers know relief wells, we’re told, and once the two wells currently being drilled are finished in August, the problem will be solved. Now, […]
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Big Oil plays jobs card as it fights offshore-drilling moratorium
First we saw interview after interview with out-of-work fishermen and shrimpers. Now we’re hearing from oil-rig workers. Jobs are the trump card of political debate in America these days and, not surprisingly, that card is now being deftly played by critics of the Obama administration’s six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. […]
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Will Any Republicans Join Democrats in Holding BP Accountable?
Steve Benen and Greg Sargent have been making an important point lately that hasn’t yet received the attention it deserves: to the extent that Republicans intend to oppose efforts to hold BP accountable this summer and fall, they are extremely vulnerable politically. Here’s Benen first, commenting on Republican confusion over just what lengths they should […]
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Buy Freedom Bonds Now
The BP oil disaster is certainly not the first oil spill in US history, but it could be the last. Nor is this the our worst oil spill – – a Chevron refinery leaked over 250 million gallons of oil and refined product into aquifers beneath Los Angeles for decades before it was discovered in […]
