oil
-
![]()
![]()
ForestEthics mails Fortune 500 companies to kick off tar-sands campaign
A tar-sands facility: oil doesn’t get any dirtier than this.At ForestEthics, persuading the world’s largest corporations to treat the Earth ethically is our bread and butter. And it often starts with a letter. Last week, we mailed letters to more than 100 Fortune 500 companies, warning that their continued consumption of fuels from Canada’s tar […]
-
![]()
![]()
Damning look at Canada’s tar sands tops enviro journalism awards
Canadian journalist Andrew Nikiforuk won the top prize from the Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual reporting awards for his investigation of oil extraction in the tar sands of northern Alberta. Nikiforuk’s book — Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent — examines the high social and environmental costs of the process of […]
-
![]()
![]()
Not all green jobs are created equal
The stimulus package and the climate bill recently passed by the US House and now being considered in the Senate will create jobs while delivering a boost to our economy. A “green” stimulus will create approximately three times as many jobs as the same amount of spending in traditional energy industries. But clean energy is […]
-
Replace the “Saudi Arabia of wind/solar/etc power” trope
How many times have you heard that Place X is the “Saudi Arabia of solar power” or “Saudi Arabia of wind power” or “Saudi Arabia of geothermal”? Kate Galbraith of The New York Times‘ Green Inc. blog has heard it one too many times, so she’s launched a contest for a new phrase to describe […]
-
The oil intensity of food
Today we are an oil-based civilization, one that is totally dependent on a resource whose production will soon be falling. Since 1981, the quantity of oil extracted has exceeded new discoveries by an ever-widening margin. In 2008, the world pumped 31 billion barrels of oil but discovered fewer than 9 billion barrels of new oil. […]
-
![]()
![]()
House GOP unveils energy bill heavy on fossil fuels and nuclear power
Reps. Darrell Issa (left), John Boehner, and Mike Pence introduce the American Energy Act.Photo: Republican ConferenceHouse Republicans have rolled out their own energy plan, the American Energy Act, intended to compete with the American Clean Energy and Security Act put forward by Democrats. Like the energy bill they released last year, Republicans are calling this […]
-
It’s official — the era of cheap oil is over
This was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom’s kind permission. Every summer, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy issues its International Energy Outlook (IEO) — a jam-packed compendium of data and analysis on the evolving world energy equation. For those with the background to interpret its […]
-
![]()
![]()
The scoop on climate and energy bills in Congress
What are the U.S. House and Senate doing about climate change and energy? Here’s a rundown on legislation proposed in Congress this year. In the House … • American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 A comprehensive climate and energy bill sponsored by Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), this has more momentum […]
-
The Unsettling Case of Shell Nigeria
After thirteen years and countless hours by lawyers, community members, and activists around the world, Royal Dutch Shell finally settled the Wiwa v Shell case in a New York court for $15.5 million. Plaintiffs in the case, which included Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr., and the families of other Ogoni men hanged in November 1995, charged that […]
