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Fossil Fuels

Walk For Appalachia’s Future Connects Struggles In The Region

June 6, 2022 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , ,
Activists just completed the "Walk for Appalachia's Future" through West Virginia, North Carolina and Virginia to highlight the impacts of fossil fuel extraction on communities and the land. At each stop, they held events with local activists to learn about their struggles and make broader connections. The Appalachian region is a sacrifice zone - rich in mineral wealth that is extracted by large corporations without benefit to the people. West Virginia is the fifth poorest state in the US with low education attainment and high rates of physical and mental diseases. Clearing the FOG speaks with two organizers of the walk, Maury Johnson and Melinda Tuhus, about the conditions that led to organizing the walk and what they have learned along the way as well as the people's vision for the region.

Emptying The Navy’s Red Hill Jet Fuel Tanks Need Not Take Two Years

June 6, 2022 Ann Wright, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Ten days ago, late on a Friday afternoon, May 27, 2022, the contractor’s assessment of the repairs needed in the US Navy’s Red Hill Jet Fuel Storage Area was delivered to the Hawai’i Department of Health.  The redacted report made available to the public shed light on how badly managed and maintained the massive 80-year-old, 20 storage tank, 250 million gallon facility located a mere 100 feet above Honolulu’s water supply, had become. In fact, according to the report, the November 2021 jet fuel leak that went into Pearl Harbor’s residential Red Hill drinking water well was just one of many dangerous time bombs in the facility waiting to happen.  The $1.45 million Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger, Inc. contracted report underscores that there were many “near misses”  with potentially even greater disasters than the May and November 2021 leaks/spills from the large jet fuel tank system.

Appalachia Does Not Need More Fossil Fuel Greed

June 3, 2022 Emily Satterwhite, DeSmog. , , , ,
A fossil fuel executive recently told Fortune, “Appalachia is the elephant in the room,” referring to the claim that demand for natural gas is rising, while supply in Appalachia and the United States is falling. Such corporate executives would like to see expansion of production in order to bail out their dying industry. And Fortune’s interviewee is right. Appalachia is the elephant in the room. We need to talk more about the role of Appalachia in the country’s energy system. But what he gets wrong is that the future does not entail further dependence on fossil fuels. The future that Appalachia can and will lead is in renewable energy. For over a century, this region has powered the country’s growth with our natural resources, including coal, gas, and oil.

Walk For Appalachia’s Future Reaches Monroe County, WV

May 28, 2022 Appalachian Voices, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Monroe County, WV - The Walk for Appalachia’s Future, a multi-day event amplifying the Appalachian region’s fights for environmental justice and renewable energy, launched on Tuesday, May 24 in Ireland, WV and continues through June 4, where the final event will be a youth-led rally in Richmond, VA.  The Walk is bringing together community members and allies to highlight environmental damages caused by the fossil fuel industry, and the need to cancel the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The Tuesday, May 24 program featured an event in Ireland, WV with a photography exhibition and a guest speaker, Rose DeProspero, who shared testimony and images of the sedimentation from the Mountain Valley Pipeline occurring at her home. 

Existing Fossil Fuel Fields And Mines Must Be Closed To Meet 1.5°C Goal

May 18, 2022 Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch. , , ,
In 2021, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that, in order to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, no new oil and gas fields or coal mines could be developed. Now, a study published in Environmental Research Letters Tuesday goes even further: In order to meet the 1.5 goal, we will have to abandon nearly 40 percent of “developed reserves” of fossil fuels. “Going beyond recent warnings by the International Energy Agency, our results suggest that staying below 1.5°C may require governments and companies not only to cease licensing and development of new fields and mines, but also to prematurely decommission a significant portion of those already developed,” the study authors wrote.

How A Gas Facility Started A Fight Over Climate Change And Sovereignty

May 3, 2022 Rico Moore, Last Real Indians. , , ,
In the Tideflats of Tacoma, Washington, beyond the masts of sailboats anchored in the Puyallup Tribe’s marina, pipelines emerge from the earth and snake their way inland. Their destination — an 8 million-gallon liquefied methane gas tank — was once considered by politicians to be the logical answer to the climate crisis. Now, it’s the center of a local controversy with international implications. The tank, owned by Puget Sound Energy, is the product of a recent era of proposed climate solutions. In 2012, the Environmental Protection Agency gave the shipping company TOTE Maritime a waiver to switch its operations to methane gas, also referred to as natural gas, in order to encourage it to lower the sulfur output from its diesel emissions.

Radioactivity Levels Found Outside Ohio Oilfield Waste Facility ‘Excessive’

May 3, 2022 Justin Nobel, DeSmog. , , ,
Activists and scientists have found alarming levels of radioactivity in samples collected along the road and soils outside Austin Master Services, an oilfield waste processing facility with a history of sloppy practices in eastern Ohio. The facility is located just down the street from a high school football stadium and less than 1,000 feet from a set of city drinking water wells, raising public health concerns from a nuclear forensics scientist about the extent of possible radioactive contamination. Last November, members of two advocacy groups, Concerned Ohio River Residents and Mountain Watershed Association, collected soil samples from outside the Martins Ferry, Ohio facility of Austin Master Services, a Pottstown, Pennsylvania-based company that operates in 10 states.

99% Of Humans Breathe Unhealthy Air

April 30, 2022 Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch. , , ,
Almost everyone on Earth breathes unhealthy air. That’s the alarming conclusion from the latest update of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) air quality database, which drew on data from more than 6,000 cities in 117 countries. The organization argued that the figures were another argument in favor of phasing out the use of fossil fuels.  “Current energy concerns highlight the importance of speeding up the transition to cleaner, healthier energy systems,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a press release. “High fossil fuel prices, energy security, and the urgency of addressing the twin health challenges of air pollution and climate change, underscore the pressing need to move faster towards a world that is much less dependent on fossil fuels.” 

Climate Activists Occupy Wells Fargo Global Headquarters

April 26, 2022 Diablo Rising Tide, Popular Resistance. , , ,
San Francisco — On the eve of Wells Fargo Bank’s annual shareholders’ meeting, 19 climate activists were arrested inside the bank's headquarters demanding that it stop lending billions annually to the oil and gas industry, whose products are propelling the planet towards disaster. Wells is the world’s second largest fossil fuel banker—second only to JPMorgan Chase—financing $46 billion last year out of a total $742 billion in financing made to the energy sector. The bank far outstripped its rivals by raising its industry financing total by $20 billion from 2020 levels, according to new research by a consortium of organizations including Rainforest Action Network. “Wells Fargo is the poster child of climate profiteering,” says Alison Kirsch, policy and research manager of RAN’s climate and energy program.

Report: Big Oil’s Public Leasing Shell Game

April 17, 2022 Friends of the Earth. , , ,
Washington, DC - Friends of the Earth released a policy paper today outlining how President Biden and Congress can counteract the oil and gas sector’s disingenuous efforts to open up more public lands and waters to drilling. This comes as the industry and its lobby groups continue to use the Russian invasion of Ukraine to push for more public land and waters leasing, which would have zero impact on the current global energy crisis and high gas prices. “Big Oil’s Shell Game: A Highly Subsidized House of Cards” overviews how the industry already holds 23.2 million acres of unused, idle public leases – enough to last decades without new leasing. If developed, this stockpile of leased public resources would lock in at least a half century of climate change-inducing emissions, pushing the world beyond the climate tipping point. 

Activists Tell Eversource: Cancel The Springfield-Longmeadow Gas Pipeline

April 11, 2022 Springfield Climate Justice Coalition, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Massachusetts - Under the threat of the proposed Eversource pipeline and stormy skies, 200 residents from Springfield, Longmeadow and across the Commonwealth demanded that Eversource cancel the Proposed Springfield-Longmeadow gas pipeline. The Springfield Climate Justice Coalition and the Longmeadow Pipeline Awareness Group along with 57 co-sponsoring organizations, many from Springfield, came together on Saturday afternoon, April 9th to say “No!” to Eversource’s proposed Springfield-Longmeadow natural gas pipeline. Cut short by flashes of lightning and the cry of thunder, the rally ended for safety reasons, resulting in the large crowd hearing only half of the speakers waiting their turn to take a stand against this proposed pipeline. 

Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs Confront Royal Bank Of Canada

April 9, 2022 Stand.Earth. , , ,
Despite abruptly canceling the in-person portion of their  annual general meeting (AGM) today, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) faced growing calls to phase out coal, oil, gas, and tar sands funding, and instead invest in a safe, and renewable future.  Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and climate finance experts asked the RBC Board and management about their role in violating Indigenous rights by bankrolling projects that perpetuate genocide against Indigenous Peoples, such as the Coastal GasLink pipeline, as well as the role of RBC’s fossil fuel financing contributing to the climate crisis. Melina Laboucan-Massimo, the co-founder of Indigenous Climate Action, spoke to  shareholders about how RBC’s financing of the tar sands has detrimental impacts to her homelands, the health of Indigenous people on their territory and to the climate.

ExxonMobil Announces $10 Billion Oil Investment

April 7, 2022 Sharon Kelly, DeSmog. , , , ,
“Investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic madness,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released part of its latest report on Monday. This scientific summary, focused on how the world can cut greenhouse gas emissions, warns of the extraordinary harm to all of humanity caused by fossil fuels and the need for a rapid energy transition away from oil, gas, and coal, calling for meaningful changes over the next three years. “Such investments will soon be stranded assets, a blot on the landscape, and a blight on investment portfolios.” That same day, oil giant ExxonMobil made an announcement of its own: a $10 billion final investment decision for an oil and gas development project in the South American nation of Guyana that the company said would allow it to add a quarter of a million barrels of oil a day to its production in 2025.

TD And Bank Of America: Stop Funding Climate Destruction

April 5, 2022 Climate Action Now, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Banks that fund fossil fuel operations are just as guilty as the fossil fuel companies themselves: that was the message delivered to TD Bank and Bank of America at their branch locations in downtown Northampton, MA, on Saturday morning. Protesters demanded that the two banks “stop the money pipeline” by ending all loans and investments in the fossil fuel business and diverting those resources to the renewable energy sector.    Participants funneled bags of cash into a giant model oil pipeline constructed out of cardboard. Pedestrians were invited to share their opinions on the alternative projects that the banks could be funding. Many people stopped to share their proposals for community-owned solar projects, community agriculture, and other programs by posting green dollar bills on a white board entitled “What Future Do You Want to Fund?”

Will Biden Shoot Himself In The Foot To Impose Sanctions On Russia?

April 3, 2022 Nauman Sadiq, Popular Resistance. , , , ,
On Thursday, President Joe Biden ordered the largest release ever from the US emergency oil reserve in a futile attempt to bring down gasoline prices that have soared to record levels following the Russo-Ukraine War. Starting in May, the United States will release 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil for six months from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), amounting to 180 million barrels in total, which is equivalent to only two days of the global demand. Invoking the fabled trope of American patriotism, Biden urged the consumers not to hesitate from paying twice the amount while filling gas tanks in order for the military-industrial complex to reap billions of dollars windfalls by providing anti-aircraft and anti-armor munitions to NATO’s proxies in Ukraine.
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