Friends of the Earth is calling on the government to extend the existing temporary decommissioning levy to force the oil and methane industry to pay for world-standard onshore breaking and recycling facilities.
When a Fossil Fuel Nation takes over COP28 what can you expect? It’s like the Tobacco Industry taking over the QUIT campaign and declaring they are the biggest promoters of anti-smoking while promoting VAPING.
United Nations Climate Change Conference advisory board member Hilda Heine resigned on Friday, citing reports that the Emirati oil executive presiding over COP28 has been busy pushing for fossil fuel deals in the run-up to the event.
Their primary aim is to keep mining and burning carbon
According to data reviewed by a new climate group in California, the same fossil fuel lobbyists trying to sink climate legislation are also representing the state’s cities and counties being pummeled hardest by the climate crisis.
Is hydrogen the “miracle fuel” to ramp up Australia’s decarbonisation or an over-hyped distraction by the fossil fuels lobby to jag government subsidies whose pursuit can only damage the climate further? Rosco Jones reports.
Arts washing, Sports Washing, Fossil Fuel use of soft power has never been totally rejected
While Victorian netballers refused money from Gina Rinehart, and Cricket Australia dropped Alinta Energy as sponsors, fossil fuel companies are still spending millions with the arts around Australia. A report released today outlines the extent of the arts washing, Callum Foote reports.
The PwC scandal in Australia is just the tip of one Iceberg,
It shows the reach of state-level fossil fuel lobbyists into almost every aspect of American life, spanning local governments, large corporations, cultural institutions such as museums and film festivals, and advocacy groups, grouping together clients with starkly contradictory aims.
A new investigation into Chevron’s climate pledge has found the fossil-fuel company relies on “junk” carbon offsets and “unviable” technologies, which do little to offset its vast greenhouse gas emissions and in some cases may actually be causing communities harm.
Corporate Crimes and Secrets lie behind the media announcement that Shell was to be the biggest investor in battery power in Australia
“Despite internal awareness, the company systematically downplayed the problem to the public, instead promoting more and more fossil fuel use despite the dangers,” said one expert. “Now, five decades later, Shell continues to dawdle and delay.”
Promoting the Fossil Fuel Industry as if it was Green and operating in the interests of the planet is The Age’s business model. Rather it knows as does Shell to stay ahead of the energy market it needs to transition or appear to be transitioning to some degree. In Africa and elsewhere Shell is known to be one of the world’s biggest destroyers and polluters of the natural world. So needless to say this minor battery investment will get an immense amount of publicity. BP is also known to be one of the largest investors in solar energy. However, like many of the worst industries, an investment in notable deeds is part of their business model.
Do we even know what percentage that investment entails in their overall business strategy? Or what percentage it entails in reparation of their historic ransacking of the planet? When for 75-plus years they were aware of the damage being done in promoting fossil fuel as the most efficient form of energy.
(Note the trumpeting headline and then read the actual pissant reality of the project)
Once fully operational, the 200-megawatt, 400-megawatt-hour battery system will have the storage capacity to power the equivalent of 80,000 homes across Victoria for an hour during periods of peak demand.
British energy major Shell has selected a suburb in south-eastern Melbourne as the location for its first direct investment in a big battery project anywhere in the world.
In the same way Tobacco now claims to be the world’s largest investor in QUIT The Fossil Fuel Industry claims to be the biggest leader in the transition away from damaging products. Both in fact are the largest advertisers intentionally stalling the transition to renewables. Any wonder Murdoch is totally beholden to them
By Christian Downie, Australian National University and Robert Brulle, Brown University / The Conversation You’ve probably seen ads promoting gas and oil companies as the solutions to climate change. They’re meant to be inspiring and hopeful, with scenes of a green, clean future. But shiny ads are not all these companies do to protect their commercial interests in the […]
What this means for climate policy
Fossil fuel companies, which reported record profits in 2022, still spend more on political activities than their trade associations do.
But industry groups historically opposed to climate policies are also big spenders, as our research shows. They outspent those that support actions to slow climate change, such as the solar and wind industries, by a whopping $2 billion to $74.5 million over the 10 years we reviewed.
ExxonMobil, one of the world’s largest international oil and gas companies, accurately predicted rising global temperatures but downplayed climate change for decades, new research shows.
“These latest data are in line with long-term global warming trends that will continue to worsen unless heat-trapping emissions are slashed drastically—far more than what the United States and other major emitters are currently doing.”
In the first half of this year, widespread resort to wind, solar, batteries and hydro saved the world $40 billion in fuel costs and avoided 450 megatons of carbon dioxide emissions. Without these green sources of electricity generation, fossil fuel use would have risen by 4%, with all the environmental and climate damage that increase would have implied.
One hundred religious leaders from a range of faith communities have signed an open letter calling on the Albanese government to stop approving new coal and gas projects.
The Anglican primate of Australia, the president of the Uniting Church in Australia, the president of the National Council of Churches, the grand mufti of Australia and the president of the Australian National Imams Council have all put their names to the cause.
A new barrier to climate action is opening up in an obscure and secretive part of international trade law, which fossil fuel investors are using to sue countries if policy decisions go against them.
One good thing about the OPEC+ production cut and consequent likely rise in gasoline prices? It will help even more consumers see the beauty of having an electric car. We just plug ours in at home. During the day (I don’t work 9-5), it is taking in electricity generated by our solar panels, which is free. The idea of running my car on clean, free sunlight is a trip. I look forward to the time, which is rapidly nearing, when everyone can afford to do the same, and can in fact save loads of money in doing so, not to mention saving the earth from a baleful climate emergency.
Fossil Fuel Industry demands increased corporate welfare. It wasn’t that long ago Andrew Bolt was telling us the planet was cooling and renewables were too expensive. The LNP spent 13 years putting the brakes on transitioning.
Renewable energy becoming cheaper is behind the early closure of AGL coal-fired power stations, Tanya Plibersek says.
A recent investigation details a campaign by the car industry to have its (low) voluntary standards on fuel efficiency legislated into national standards. This campaign fits into a broader pattern of lobbying by the fossil fuel industry to hinder effective climate action and highlights the importance of democratic integrity in addressing the climate crisis as well as the urgent need for robust regulation of lobbying.
PR companies working for the fossil fuel industry are appropriating language from within the climate movement, using it to perpetuate climate denial, writes Stella Levantesi.
Fossil fuel companies are suing countries that enact climate change policies, arguing that they are illegally cutting into their profits — and they’re winning 72 percent of the time. Now governments risk being sued for billions when enacting climate policies.
An unholy alliance of carbon farmers and Big Gas lobbyists are quietly shaping Australia’s emissions reduction framework to maximise their take of taxpayer money while increasing emissions as much as possible. Callum Foote follows the money.
After Congress lifted a ban on crude exports in late 2015, oil and gas production in the Permian Basin soared while domestic consumption remained flat—leading to a massive build-out of pipelines and other infrastructure that culminated in the U.S. “flooding global markets” with fossil fuels at the expense of humanity, in general, and vulnerable Gulf Coast communities already overburdened by pollution, in particular.
his rebrand was so consistent that ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, Chevron CEO Michael Wirth, Shell Oil President Gretchen Watkins, BP America CEO David Lawler, and American Petroleum Institute President Mike Sommers all touted their commitment to a “low carbon” or “lower carbon” future in their scripted opening statements. And what are these low carbon solutions? Largely natural gas, which as science has repeatedly shown, is roughly as bad for the climate as coal when methane leaks and total emissions are added to the equation. Natural gas is so problematic that to meet the 1.5 C Paris goal, production will have to decline 3 percent per year to 2030, starting last year.
If there is one lesson to be learned from these executives, it is that their climate pledges depend almost entirely on convincing members of Congress that they are doing something that they are clearly not doing: significantly reducing emissions from their products over the next ten years.
Some countries are taking positive steps. The Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance that aims to phase out production is key to cutting supply of fossil fuels. Multilateral action such as this, whether as part of COP or outside it – and, crucially, the pressure from below that causes it – must be a focus if we’re to avoid climate change.
This is the current oil spill we never heard about rather than the necessity of fossil fuels to flood the world with cheap energy. Meanwhile the real costs never really included.
An oil spill first reported on Oct. 2, 2021, has released thousands of gallons of crude oil into southern California coastal waters. The source is believed to be a leak in an underwater pipeline connected to an oil drilling platform 17.5 miles offshore. Oil has washed ashore in Huntington Beach and Newport Beach and into coastal marshes. Orange County has requested a federal disaster declaration. Charles Lester, director of the Ocean and Coastal Policy Center at the University of California Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Institute, explains the scope of this spill.
Labor claims it’s a safety issue, Liberals say it’s a drafting issue. The bigger issue is how both major political parties have capitulated to the oil and gas industry again, this time voting to keep offshore petroleum production data secret. Callum Foote reports. The power of money in politics is rarely so blatant as it is in the decisions and outcomes struck by Australia’s politicians to profit the gas industry.
A long-anticipated plan to reform Australia’s electricity system was released on Thursday. One of the most controversial proposals by the Energy Security Board (ESB) concerns subsidies which critics say will encourage dirty coal plants to stay open longer. The subsidies, under a so-called “capacity mechanism”, would aim to ensure reliable energy supplies as old coal plants retire. Major coal generators say the proposal will achieve this aim. But renewables operators and others oppose the plan, saying it will pay coal plants for simply existing and delay the clean energy transition.
by James Cargas February 20, 2021 Politics Carlos Mandez waits in line to fill his propane tanks Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
New resilient and sustainable technologies are coming online, and regulatory and market changes can always stand to be tweaked. But the most immediate and impactful change must come from new energy leadership in Texas.
The Middle East is likely to plummet in significance for the United States over the next two decades. Let’s face it, the main reason we hear so much about Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait (as opposed to Senegal and Uruguay) is that they produce petroleum, and the world transportation system depends on that commodity. The US, despite what Trump keeps saying, isn’t energy independent, and still imports on the order of six or seven million barrels of petroleum a day.
The trouble is The LNP aren’t about to kick up a shitstorm about that (ODT)
The Labor Party in Australia speaks a progressive language on climate change that it rarely enacts in policy. Now, under cover of the health crisis, the Victorian branch is expanding deforestation projects and onshore gas exploration.
Greed of a few will drive this IPO initial opening offer (ODT)
And yet the future doesn’t look good for oil. The threat of climate change means most countries are looking for ways to reduce their use of fossil fuels and many investors are trying to reduce the number of oil company stocks they hold. So why is the company considered so valuable? A closer look at the data suggests the market sees Aramco as a short-term money maker but with much worse long-term prospects.
A newly-leaked audio recording reveals that oil and gas executives in a private meeting were “giddy” with laughter in the summer of 2017 as they rejoiced over the “unprecedented access” they were being given to the highest levels of the Trump administration, boasting about their ability to have closed-door meetings with top officials and the ascendance of their own industry colleagues to some of the most powerful seats of government.
Paris (AFP) – The five largest publicly listed oil and gas majors have spent $1 billion since the 2015 Paris climate deal on public relations or lobbying that is “overwhelmingly in conflict” with the landmark accord’s goals, a watchdog said Friday.
Despite outwardly committing to support the Paris agreement and its aim to limit global temperature rises, ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, BP and Total spend a total of $200 million a year on efforts “to operate and expand fossil fuel operations,” according to InfluenceMap, a pro-transparency monitor.
“The people who are going to be speaking in favor of this bill are all going to be paid by the industry … the people who are going to be voting on this bill are often also paid by the industry,” Lucas said.
Lucas was ordered by House Judiciary Committee members to desist from making “personal comments” about members. As Lucas persisted, her microphone was cut off. When lawmakers refused to let her finish speaking, she told them to “drag me off.” Security was called and in a video of the incident she can be seen being dragged from the floor.
“I got dragged out of House chambers … Because I was listing out who has been donating to Delegates on the Judiciary Committee,” Lucas wrote on her blog.
BHP Billiton won’t want to appear like its decision to sell a lick of its American onshore shale oil and gas assets is a response to bullying from US activist shareholder Elliott Associates.
After Congress lifted a ban on crude exports in late 2015, oil and gas production in the Permian Basin soared while domestic consumption remained flat—leading to a massive build-out of pipelines and other infrastructure that culminated in the U.S. “flooding global markets” with fossil fuels at the expense of humanity, in general, and vulnerable Gulf Coast communities already overburdened by pollution, in particular.
Carlos Mandez waits in line to fill his propane tanks Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
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