Admittedly, under the best of circumstances, this transition would be challenging and, according to the United Nations, will certainly require more investments than the countries of the world are now making, but it still appears eminently achievable. As for ExxonMobil and other oil majors, every day they resist investing their obscene profits in truly innovative green energy technology is a day they come closer to future financial ruin. In the meantime, they are, of course, wreaking historically unprecedented harm on the planet, as was all too apparent with the serial climate disasters of 2023, now believed to be the hottest of the last 125,000 years.
When Hugo Chávez won the election to the presidency of Venezuela in 1998, he said almost immediately that the resources of the country—mostly the oil, which finances the country’s social development—must be in the hands of the people and not oil companies such as ExxonMobil. “El petroleo es nuestro” (the oil is ours), was the slogan of the day. From 2006, Chávez’s government began a cycle of nationalizations, with oil at the center (oil had been nationalized in the 1970s, then privatized again two decades later). Most multinational oil companies accepted the new laws for the regulation of the oil industry, but two refused: ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil.
The American gas frackers who got government grants, threatened journalists and snubbed a senate inquiry have shifted control of Tamboran to US secrecy jurisdiction Delaware. Callum Foote reports.
Hydrogen is being increasingly used as leverage to reignite the Australian gas network, with industry leaders attacking reforms reducing production and consumption. Rosco Jones reports.
One of the biggest gas infrastructure owners, the Australian Gas Infrastructure Group has come out against Victoria’s recent banning of gas lines to new homes as being inhibitive to renewable uptake, with the CEO of AGIG, Craig de Laine, expressing his opposition to the ban on new gas:
“The investment has already been made in the gas networks – it makes good sense for taxpayers to get the value from that investment and that asset, and continue to use it for decades to come.”
Evidence is building, both in Australia and overseas, that any hydrogen may not be the answer for a clean future.
Unaccounted for costs of Corporate mining the mess they just abandon
In addition to harming the climate, fossil fuel corporations such as Woodside are leaving abandoned machinery in our oceans, reports Greenpeace Australia Pacific CEO David Ritter.
They always tell you it will be “safe” . Oil, Gas, and Nuclear power, It never is and the damage is never factored into their costing. Rio Tinto blows up Aboriginal sites says sorry gets fined and continues saying accidents happen sorry.
Their do good greenwashing, a minimal cost-to the damage they do are merely a cost not an investment in the future. They are PR schemes, publicity to make them appear to be transitioning and really care. They pay handsomely for the media that is only to willing to sell the misinformation globally locally or strategically along with politicians easily bought. That’s their trickle-down expense in order to continue
Key points:
Santos says it doesn’t know how much gas was released from the Big Lake pipeline during a “stress-related failure”
Meanwhile, a group of First Nations people walked out of the company’s AGM on Thursday in Adelaide
The company says it’s confident its Barossa gas project will still go ahead, despite safeguard mechanism reforms
The oil and gas company says it is unaware how much gas was released when a pipeline in South Australia’s outback exploded in January. Meanwhile, Aboriginal traditional owners walk out of the company’s AGM in Adelaide.
The PR firm advising the UN on climate change campaigns has been accused by US lawmakers of helping BP “greenwash” its fossil fuel investments, openDemocracy can reveal.
Exclusive: US Inquiry unearths pro-Gas PR Strategy produced by Firm “At Core of global Climate Effort”
Internal BP documents released to the US House of Representatives Oversight and Reform Committee and published last week show Brunswick created a strategy in 2017 or 2018 to help “reframe the conversation on gas”, “protect BP’s ‘advantaged gas position’” and “secure support for gas as a natural low carbon fuel”.
The news has sparked fresh concerns over Brunswick’s work for both Big Oil and the UN, which openDemocracy revealed this month.
“These companies know their climate pledges are inadequate, but are prioritising Big Oil’s record profits over the human costs of climate change,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney.
More importantly it seems not to consider the need to reduce it’s CO2 emissions in the coming decades. This isn’t a short term investment their fighting for.
Key points:
Santos is appealing a landmark Federal Court decision that forced it to halt drilling operations in the Barossa gas field
The company’s lawyers say it wasn’t legally obliged to consider a specific clan of traditional owners “relevant parties” when conducting consultations
Tiwi Islanders and their supporters gathered outside the Federal Court in Melbourne to voice their concerns over the appeal
Michaella Cash is fighting for the gas not to be capped unless greater production is allowed. No mention of the record profits being made though. Capping profits or taxing them appropriately won’t scare the miners off. Her argument avoids suggesting that the gas companies might just be “crying poor”. They fell into line in West Australia, didn’t they?
As the federal government weighs its options for regulating the gas market to bring down soaring power prices, exporters of Australian gas, riding high on record profits, have fired a warning shot.
With an election 3 years away and an Opposition leader like Peter, Dutton Albanese seems to be happy playing politics by doing nothing and letting things get worse so he can play hero and make them better a little later on when he really needs to look good. He after all enough capital behind him given Morrison’s disastrous fall from grace. The ALP showed in WA that mining companies fall into line even when hard decisions are made. Michaela Cash can be found crowing for the “miners” claiming you can’t cap unless you increase production and pollute the planet even more. The LNP mindset is what’s destroying the planet?
The solution to the gas crisis and rising energy bills is a domestic reservation policy, like in WA. Why is this being ignored, asks Rex Patrick?
WA has reliable electricity, affordable gas, a reliable supply, and none of the chaos we’re seeing in the eastern states”.
The policy was quite controversial when first rolled out.
“There was much gnashing of teeth, threats to sovereign risks, or threats [that] there won’t be any further investment.”, he said.
“Industry didn’t like it at the time but now, it’s seen as a wonderful initiative and, across the board, it’s accepted by industry – both the oil and gas industry itself, but also other industries that are downstream users of it.”
He then went on to point out something our Federal leaders don’t seem to have grasped.
“Obviously, producers of gas in the east wouldn’t like [a reservation policy], but Australian national interest and the people of Australia must come first”.
That’s how it should be. Prime Minister Albanese needs to get that into his head and take action accordingly.
A windfall profits tax levied on the export gas industry could pay for the government’s $20 billion Rewiring the Nation commitment to the energy transition and compensate households for price rises, states the Australia Institute.
Not just the Saudis but Russia, Israel, and the EU Right-Wing swing want Trump or the Republicans back. However, do Americans?
In reality, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states involved with OPEC+ have effectively sided with the Kremlin, which enables Russia to refill its coffers and to limit the impact of Western sanctions.
The implications are far-reaching, from the Ukraine war to the future relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, and the emergent multipolar world order.
“The Saudis are working to get Trump re-elected and for the MAGA Republicans to win the midterms.”
Australia’s oil and gas industry is seeking special treatment in its pitch to a federal government review into how the nation’s heaviest greenhouse gas emitters should be constrained.
In 2018, the average carbon dioxide intensity for new passenger vehicles in Australia was 169.8 compared to 129.9 in the United States, 120.4 in Europe and 114.6 in Japan, the report said.
Famously, Australian ice skater Stephen Bradbury won the speed skating gold medal at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics when his four fancied rivals all fell just before the finishing line. So it was yesterday that the ACCC did a Reverse Bradbury and fell at the finishing line, letting the four gouging champions of Australia’s gas cartel through for a knife-edge victory.
As fossil fuel corporations reap fabulous profits at the expense of Australian gas and electricity customers, the gas lobby is running a propaganda campaign calling for Australia to power the world, help Ukraine, let “the market” do its thing. The reality is there is no properly functioning market and this is all a PR distraction to combat the obvious solution to the crisis, that the government needs to earmark gas supply for East Coast customers. Callum Foote fact-checks the finance press.
Anti Climate Change Activist Murdoch is a heavy investor in Oil and its export . No surprise he employs the likes of Tucker Carlson a pro-Russian anchor echoed globally by clones like Andrew Bolt Chris Kenny etal in Australia who claim climate change advocates are the real warmongers and fossil fuel exporters the peacemakers. Andrew Bolt has been sucking off the News Corp teat his whole career.
In this long game, ironically, the EU, Japan, and the US are in the same camp as Putin’s current fellow travelers, China and India. All these countries are major oil importers who benefit from the cheaper prices that come from rapid deployment of clean energy in place of fossil fuels. Hence, if it is done well, a fiercely-fought oil and gas war could help Ukraine beat Putin and reunite the world community — leaving on the outside Russia, a rogue economy smaller than Italy’s and the Persian Gulf, and help substantially to save the climate along the way.
Amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a chorus of voices is trying to convince ordinary consumers that paying higher gas prices is some kind of patriotic act. Big Oil doesn’t need the extra profits — it needs to have those profits taxed away.
The price of oil and the myriad horrors of climate change that oil exacerbates make it too important for us to leave in the free market’s hands. The oil companies should be nationalized.
When Trump abandoned the Kurds in Syria he actually helped cement Russian influence in the Middle East along with Israel’s. Simply follow the money and the damage he caused and it becomes obvious that he was Russia’s puppet starting a war with China. Henot only divided America but the Western world.
Moscow’s partnership with Saudi Arabia has grown dramatically in recent years, granting the two largest oil producers in the world the unprecedented ability to collude in oil export decisions. The desert kingdom’s relationship with the U.S. has chilled in the meantime, as demonstrated earlier this month, when President Joe Biden pleaded with the Saudis to increase oil production — a move that would not only have helped to alleviate rising inflation and gas prices, but also reduced Russia’s extravagant profits amid its aggression against Ukraine. The Saudi king declined.
Today’s inflation isn’t just caused by a post-pandemic rebound in fuel prices, but a long-term exhaustion of oil production. We need to end our dependency on fossil fuels without it becoming the pretext for another wave of austerity.
“It is now beyond doubt that there is no need for further coal, oil, and gas exploration if we are to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change.”
Australia is the biggest exporter of gas, bar none, in the world, yet we are paying the seventh-highest prices for gas in the world. Callum Foote reports on the gas cartel and the myth there is a gas “market”.
In 1991, senior ice researcher Ken Croasdale of Exxon’s Canadian subsidiary told an engineering conference that “any major development with a lifespan of say 30-40 years will need to assess the impacts of potential global warming.” This was particularly pertinent “of Arctic and offshore projects in Canada, where warming will clearly affect sea ice, icebergs, permafrost and sea levels.” Not wishing to bite the hand feeding him, Croasdale brightly considered the benefit a warming planet might have for company operations in the Beaufort Sea: “potential global warming can only help lower exploration and development costs.” This is no longer the case: the investors and funds are in revolt and such large oil companies are counting a different set of costs.
UK-based offshore drilling contractor Valaris has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, offering creditors to swap some $6.5 billion of its $7.8-billion debt pile for equity. The company is the largest offshore rig owner in the world.
The massive oil price crash we’ve seen this week is an opportunity for governments to do what we have long needed to do: keep the remaining fossil fuels in the ground and invest in a Green New Deal to save the planet and stimulate the economy.
No need to accelerate to renewables Trump will save us (ODT)
And our government is negotiating to purchase the right to some of the US stockpile, which will remain in the salt domes until we call for it to be sent our way on ships, assuming they can get here in time.
In short, if things get a bit more tricky, our choice will be panic buying at the pumps, or going cap in hand to Trump, who cares about nothing but a sweet deal … for him.
You can bet he’ll want a lot more than a pound of flesh – or the Australian military on Iran’s borders – in return.
On Thursday, John Bolton told Fox Business host Trish Regan the administration had the goal of putting U.S. companies in charge of Venezuela’s oil production. Because freedom!
It’s 2003 all over again, right down to the mustachioed John Bolton, who freely admitted to Fox Business host Trish Regan on Thursday night that the ultimate goal of United States activity in Venezuela is to take over their oil production — or, in simpler terms, take their oil.
Wouldn’t Koch Industries love that? After all, they’ve sued Venezuela for millions — basically calling their loans — in order to destabilize their economy and punish President Maduro, who is a terribly brutal leader, but nevertheless elected by the people in an election which has been certified.
Mike Pence, a wholly-sponsored Koch project, was instrumental in injecting the United States into Venezuelan political unrest, according to a Wall Street Journalreport.
Donald Trump has insulted OPEC member states by ordering the organization to reduce prices, the Iranian oil minister stated, responding to the US leader’s recent criticism of OPEC for keeping oil prices artificially high.
“Three of those are cattle and sheep grazed in the vicinity of the Esso Longford plant. On those three farms a total of 45 cattle and 45 sheep have been tested. In those animals, measurable levels of PFAs were detected in the serum.
“We’re also aware of another herd of cattle, a fourth, just cattle, that have been blood sampled for PFAS. But we’re not aware of the results. The Department of Defence is leading that investigation.”
Agriculture Victoria had purchased some of the PFAS-affected livestock in Gippsland to conduct its own longitudinal study on them, Dr Milne said, as there was little research in Australia or internationally about how long the chemicals linger in cattle, sheep and pigs.
Its initial tests on sheep showed PFAS levels dropped significantly within several weeks of them being moved to clear pasture, he said. He suspected that would take longer in cattle and pigs.
The EPA said it had only issued alerts in relation to
I sure hope Leigh Sales takes Barnaby up on his offer to come back and identify these huge onshore reserves that no-one else knows about.And if I was a state premier, I would be having a very serious conversation with the Federal government about how telling lies for political purposes is not helping the nation.
olddogthoughts 
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