Big Oil

Climate Cases Against Big Oil Are Merging Into One Super Suit

February 21, 2024 Dana Drugmand, DeSmog. Resist! Big Oil, California, climate crisis, Climate Justice

Several California municipalities are merging their climate deception litigation with the state’s climate case, to jointly pursue a super-sized lawsuit against the fossil fuel industry, according to recent court filings. This development comes as Chicago joins the growing list of U.S. municipalities suing the fossil fuel industry. On February 5, Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Charles S. Treat approved California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s petition to link the state’s climate accountability case with lawsuits brought by the counties of Marin, San Mateo, and Santa Cruz, and the cities of Imperial Beach, Richmond, and Santa Cruz.

Colombian Farmers Take Back Land Stolen By Big Oil

February 17, 2024 Rodrigo Vazquez-Sales, The Real News. Resistance Report Big Oil, Colombia, Farmers, Land grabs

The story of multinational corporations taking land and resources from working people can be found all over the world. In Colombia, farming families have joined forces to reclaim their stolen land and defend it from local security forces acting on behalf of the Occidental Petroleum Corporation. The Real News reports from Arauquita, Colombia, on the frontlines of a land defenders’ campaign that stretches back decades. In Arauquita, Northeast Colombia, 150 farming families were displaced from this land 20 years ago. It’s been exploited by the Occidental Petroleum Corporation ever since. However, the farmers returned to reclaim their land.

Report: Plastics, Oil Industry Deceived Public On Recycling Use

February 17, 2024 Adam M. Lowenstein, DeSmog. Educate! Big Oil, Corporatism, Deception, Plastics, Recycling

An explosive new report finds that the plastics industry has misled the public for decades about the viability of recycling plastic, promoting reuse despite the fact that mechanical recycling was not feasible – perpetuating the plastic waste crisis the world faces today. “The plastics industry has ‘sold’ plastic recycling to the American public to sell plastic,” according to the report by the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), a nonprofit organization that advocates for legal action to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable. In a statement, CCI claims the study, called “The Fraud of Plastic Recycling: How Big Oil and the plastics industry deceived the public for decades and caused the plastic waste crisis,” includes “evidence that could provide the foundation for legal efforts to hold fossil fuel and other petrochemical companies accountable for their lies and deception.”

The Law Firm Helping Big Oil Weaponize The First Amendment

January 5, 2024 Emily Sanders, DeSmog. Educate! Big Oil, climate crisis, First Amendment, Free Speech

For years, the fossil fuel industry has maintained that the First Amendment protects its right to mislead the public about the climate crisis, but that criticism and protest of its operations violates the law. Now, one of the industry’s preferred law firms — which has long been recognized for its defense of the First Amendment — is arguing both sides of this issue in court. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher represents oil giant Chevron in lawsuits brought by dozens of state and local governments to hold the company accountable for deceiving consumers and the public about its products’ central role in climate change.

The Quest To Make Big Oil Pay For Climate Change

January 3, 2024 Jake Bolster, New Lines Magazine. Resist! Accountability, Big Oil, climate crisis, Legal System

Three years before the Marshall Fire, Boulder and San Miguel counties had filed a lawsuit seeking damages from the oil companies Exxon and Suncor by claiming much the same thing. Changes in the climate — driven, at least in part, by the burning of Exxon and Suncor’s fossil fuels — have harmed their citizens and damaged their infrastructure, economies and natural environment, entitling them to compensation from the oil companies for those damages, the two counties claim. Together, Boulder and San Miguel are part of a small but growing number of cities, states and counties seeking to hold fossil fuel companies responsible for damages allegedly caused by their emissions or for allegedly misleading consumers about their product’s impact on the environment.

How Oil Money Turned Louisiana Into The Prison Capital Of The World

December 28, 2023 Lydia Pelot-Hobbs, Truthout. Educate! Big Oil, Capitalism, Criminal Justice and Prisons, History, Louisiana

On October 14, 2023, Louisiana elected far right candidate Jeff Landry to the governor’s mansion. As the state’s current attorney general, Landry (a former police officer and sheriff’s deputy) has made headlines for his creation of an anti-crime policing task force for New Orleans, suing the state to block clemency appeals by those on death row, and advocating to make public the criminal records of juveniles in predominately Black areas of the state. Landry’s dedication to “law and order” has been matched by his commitment to extractive industries. As a climate change denier, he has pushed for more aggressive off-shore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and sued the Environmental Protection Agency for overreach.

Guyana-Venezuela Dispute: The Background And Opposing War

December 18, 2023 Francisco Dominguez, Morning Star. Educate! Big Oil, Diplomacy, Disputed land, Exxon Mobil, Guyana, Venezuela, Wars and Militarism

If there were any misgivings about the actions undertaken by the government of Venezuela around the territorial dispute with Guyana, the joint military exercises between Guyana Defence Forces (GDF) and the US Southern Command (SouthCom) explain what really lies behind things. Venezuela’s claimed territory, also known as Guayana Esequiba, is 159,500 square kilometres west of the river of the same name. SouthCom (the Pentagon) never intervenes in territorial disputes, unless the territory in question contains resources of geopolitical importance for US imperialism.

Reuters, New York Times Top List Of Fossil Fuel Industry’s Media Enablers

December 5, 2023 Amy Westervelt, Matthew Green and Joey Grostern, DeSmog. Educate! Big Oil, Media, New York Times (NYT), Oil and Gas, Oil and Gas Industry, Reuters

Darren Woods, the CEO of Exxon, celebrates the potential of carbon capture to dramatically reduce global emissions. According to Saudi Aramco’s podcast, the fossil fuel industry is innovating new climate solutions, and BP’s podcast proclaims more of the same. These messages sound like they’ve been pulled from the public-relations departments of the world’s largest oil companies, but they were produced and promoted by the in-house ad agencies of Bloomberg, Reuters, and The New York Times, respectively, and in the process benefited from the credibility those media brands have built with readers over the decades as trustworthy sources of news.

At COP28, Road To Climate Action Is Paved With Big Oil Loopholes

December 1, 2023 Stella Levantesi, DeSmog. Educate! Big Oil, climate crisis, COP28, Environment, Fossil Fuels

The European Union has clearly laid out its position: Climate neutrality, the Council of the EU stated last month, will require “a global phase-out of unabated fossil fuels and a peak in their consumption in this decade.” Then, in its second letter to parties, the president of COP28, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, underscored the need to “work towards a future energy system that is free of unabated fossil fuels by mid-century.” From having the CEO of an oil company preside over global climate negotiations, to getting a consulting firm to push the interests of its Big Oil and gas clients, it doesn’t look like a great start for the conference, set to begin on November 30th in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

Leak: UAE Planned To Use COP28 To Strike Fossil Fuel Deals

November 29, 2023 Sharon Zhang, Truthout. Educate! Big Oil, COP28, Fossil Fuels, United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates, the host of this year’s UN climate conference COP28, has covertly conspired to use the global gathering as a place to strike fossil fuel deals with other countries and lobby for oil and gas, a damning investigation finds. According to reporting by the Centre for Climate Reporting (CCR) and BBC, Sultan al-Jaber — who is both the president of COP28 and CEO of the UAE’s state-owned oil company, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) — sought to use the conference as an opportunity to increase ADNOC’s oil and gas exports. Al-Jaber has spent the last months meeting with global and business leaders, with at least one country allegedly following up on a discussion on business related to ADNOC.

The Illusion Of Green Capitalism

October 17, 2023 Charles Derber and Suren Moodliar, Scheer Post. Educate! Big Oil, Capitalism, climate crisis, Green Capitalism, green washing

Many Americans – even those who recognize capitalism’s destructive impacts – find the idea of discarding capitalism for a more just system unimaginable. Yes, capitalism is part of the problem. But, they think, realistically, the world is not going to invent anytime fast a visionary postcapitalist system. Meanwhile we barrel toward environmental destruction. If we’re going to be pragmatic, as millions of concerned Americans believe, we should listen to the growing number of capitalist leaders and companies who are taking climate change seriously and proposing their own solution: green capitalism.

Campaigners Sued An Oil Major; Now The Company Is Preparing To Sue Them

August 28, 2023 Emily Sanders, DeSmog. Educate! Big Oil, ExxonMobil, Legal System, SLAPP Suits

In May, NGOs and citizens sued Italian oil giant Eni for its decades of lobbying and greenwashing to delay climate action. Barely two months later, Eni has laid the groundwork for a lawsuit of its own, alleging it has been harmed by a “massive campaign” of “serious defamatory declarations.” The move is indicative of a worldwide escalation of a legal tactic intended to cow critics into silence: SLAPPs — or strategic lawsuits against public participation. Enmeshing activists in lengthy legal proceedings can drain their time and resources — a win for the company even if it loses in court.

70 Years After Iranian Coup, The British Still Won’t Confess To Crimes

August 20, 2023 Chris Hedges, The Real News Network. Resistance Report Big Oil, Britain, Coups, Iran, Oil and Gas

On Aug. 19, 1953, 70 years ago this week, the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh—who had seized Iran’s vast oil fields from the British and put them under Iranian control—was removed from power in a coup organized and financed by the British and US governments. He was replaced by the dictatorial Shah, who immediately signed over 40% of Iran’s oil fields to US companies. The coup ushered in a long nightmare of repression, buttressed by Iran’s brutal secret police, SAVAK, trained and equipped by the CIA. The Shah not only crushed the democratic aspirations of Iranians, but enriched US oil companies and purchased billions of dollars of weapons from US weapons manufacturers.

Congolese Students Are Taking On Big Oil

July 22, 2023 Alexandria Shaner and Pascal Mirindi, Common Dreams. Organize! Big Oil, DR Congo, Extinction Rebellion, Fossil Fuels

Student activists are traveling thousands of miles across the Democratic Republic of Congo to mobilize communities against the expansion of Big Oil. Pétrole Non Merci, or Petrol No Thanks, is a national campaign to oppose the proposed sale of 27 oil blocks and three gas blocks, most of which overlap protected areas. Anglo-French oil company Perenco recently bid to buy the new blocks and would export the oil using the EACOP pipeline. The campaign has a two-pronged strategy. First, they are mobilizing communities where the new oil blocks are located to build local power and hold officials accountable.

What Would It Take To Defeat Big Oil?

April 24, 2023 C. J. Polychroniou, Truthout. Create! Big Oil, climate crisis, Fossil Fuels, wealth inequality

At a time when the world is close to irreversible climate breakdown, fossil fuel energy is growing, with oil being the biggest contributor to primary energy supply. Globally, approximately 33 percent of our energy comes from oil, followed by coal, gas and hydroelectric power. Indeed, oil companies are bringing in staggering profits, and oil production may even continue to increase through 2050. Why is it so hard to quit oil, and what would it take to defeat Big Oil? Progressive economist Gregor Semieniuk tackles exasperating questions like those in this exclusive interview for Truthout.

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