Fossil Fuels

When Companies Deny Climate Science, Their Workers Pay

December 29, 2017 By Carla Santos Skandier, Otherwords.org Educate! Climate Change, Coal, Fossil Fuels, Workers Rights and Jobs

After decades spreading misinformation about greenhouse gas emissions’ role as a driver of climate change, the deceptive tactics of the fossil fuel industry are slowly beginning to backfire. In December, for instance, General Electric announced major cuts to its fossil-fuel-heavy power department — and the pain of this unplanned transition is already being felt by the people least responsible for the company’s decisions: its workers. In the last two years, many stories have surfaced on the knowledge major fossil fuel companies like Exxon-Mobil had about the climate impacts of their activities, and the many tactics these same companies employed to deceive the public about these impacts. But they may have also managed to deceive themselves.

Yaqui Tribe Defends Land By Digging Up Gas Pipeline

December 24, 2017 Adam Williams, bloomberg.com Resist! Corporatism, Fossil Fuels, Indigenous Rights, Pipelines

A chunk of Sempra Energy’s natural gas pipeline sits in the dirt behind a community center in the village of Loma de Bacum in northwest Mexico. Guadalupe Flores thinks it would make a great barbecue pit. “Cut it here, lift the top,’’ he says, pointing to the 30-inch diameter steel tube. “Perfect for a cook-out.’’ It would be an expensive meal. The pipeline cost $400 million, part of a network that’s supposed to carry gas from Arizona more than 500 miles to Mexico’s Pacific coast. It hasn’t done that since August, when members of the indigenous Yaqui tribe – enraged by what they viewed as an unauthorized trespass their land – used a backhoe truck to puncture and extract a 25-foot segment. They left the main chunk about a mile from the community center, perpendicular to the rest of the pipeline, like a lower-case t.

Exxon Mobil’s About-Face On Climate Disclosure: Is It Enough?

December 21, 2017 Paul Griffin, ecowatch.com Resist! Climate Change, Environment, Exxon, Fossil Fuels

Scores of investor-activists have sought to force Exxon—along with the entire global industry—to change its ways for nearly three decades. They welcomed the news regarding Exxon Mobil's upcoming climate change risk report. But this change of course did not surprise all of them because it occurred three days before the deadline for shareholders to submit resolutions to be voted on at its 2018 annual meeting. Exxon Mobil's latest move may prevent another episode like what happened in May, when some 62 percent of the company's shareholders—including the massive Vanguard mutual fund company—voted in favor of a resolution demanding that it publicly state how climate change is affecting its operations and bottom line.

Two People Locked Themselves To Crane At Port Of Tacoma

December 13, 2017 Sydney Brownstone, thestranger.com Resist! Climate Change, Fossil Fuels, Port, Protests

Two protesters have locked themselves to a crane at the construction site of a Puget Sound Energy (PSE) liquefied natural gas facility at the Port of Tacoma this morning, according to activist group 350 Seattle. A spokesperson for the Port of Tacoma confirmed that Tacoma Police and the fire department have responded to the scene. Climate activists and the Puyallup Tribe have been protesting the facility for years. It sits on the tribe's ancestral land at the Port of Tacoma, between two stretches of the Puyallup reservation. Two years ago, the tribe filed a lawsuit against the City of Tacoma, PSE, and the Port of Tacoma, claiming that the project would impact tribal members' ability to fish in treaty waters.

Declaration On Climate Finance

December 11, 2017 Staff, notapennymore.info Create! Clean Energy, Divestment, Finance, Fossil Fuels

We the undersigned, call for an immediate end to investments in new fossil fuel production and infrastructure, and encourage a dramatic increase in investments in renewable energy. We are issuing this call to action in the lead up to the climate summit hosted by President Macron in Paris this December. President Macron and other world leaders, have already spoken out about the need for an increase in finance for climate solutions, but they have remained largely silent about the other, dirtier side of the equation: the ongoing finance of new coal, oil and gas production and infrastructure. Ongoing global climate change and environmental destructions are happening at an unprecedented scale, and it will take unprecedented actions to limit the worst consequences of our dependence on oil, coal, and gas. Equally as critical as drastically curbing the carbon intensity of our economic systems is the need for immediate and ambitious actions to stop exploration and expansion of fossil fuel projects and manage the decline of existing production in line with what is necessary to achieve the Paris climate goals.

Fossil Fuel Donors Shaped Anti-Climate Agenda Of Congressional Committee

December 7, 2017 Marianne Lavelle and David Hasemyer, insideclimatenews.org Educate! Climate Change, Congress, Fossil Fuels, Lobbying

By Marianne Lavelle and David Hasemyer for Inside Climate News - FREDERICKSBURG, Texas—It's midway through fall, and cold has yet to settle over the Eckhardt family orchard. So, Diane Eckhardt waits with rising apprehension. Cold is the switch that triggers the growing sequence that by summer has limbs sagging with ripe, juicy peaches. The reliable chill season in Texas Hill Country allowed Eckhardt's grandfather, Otto, to start the family business here in the 1930s. But last year, with temperatures the warmest since 1939, Eckhardt's trees produced just 10 percent of their usual yield. And the year before, warm weather reduced production between 60 and 70 percent. Now, Eckhardt worries not only about the next crop, but about the future of a business she hopes will be passed on to her niece and nephews. "We know climate change is happening," she said. But while the Eckhardts face that certainty, their congressman sows uncertainty, casting doubt on the consensus science that greenhouse gases are the dominant cause of rising global temperatures, and opposing government action to curb them. Sixteen-term Republican Lamar Smith has used his power as chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee for the past five years to do battle on behalf of the fossil fuel industry. Embracing the arguments of a small group of climate contrarians, Smith acknowledges that warming is happening but says more research is needed to determine the amount and causes, and whether it does more good than harm.

Fracked Off. Fossil Fuel Fight Continues

November 17, 2017 Staff, nativedailynetwork.com Resist! Environment, Fossil Fuels, Fracking

By Staff of Native Daily Network - Environmental Racism, in general terms, is the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on people of color. Colonial Racism is that and more. For indigenous communities, its when they are denied legal process. It is when their opinions, values, traditions and beliefs are not considered factors. In Tacoma, like at Standing Rock, that is exactly what is happening to the Puyallup Tribe of Indians. In fact, the likely winner of the Tacoma mayoral election, Victoria Woodards, is an ardent supporter of fracked gas as she erroneously believes that it’s an acceptable bridge fuel. Despite the facts being presented to her, she has never wavered from that opinion. Even when she was ejected from the Puyallup Tribes landing at the annual Canoe Journey, she didn’t waver. It’s no real surprise then that big financial backers for her election campaign were Puget Sound Energy, TOTE Maritime (who will be the primary customer of the LNG facility) and other Port of Tacoma interests. The outgoing Mayor, who Woodards succeeds, famously shut the doors on the several hundred Native Women who were marching to City Hall for the Citizens Forum. Colonial Racism is going strong in Tacoma even among groups who claim to stand against bigotry. Political expediency, it seems, is more important than that.

Fossil Fuel Emissions Set To Hit All-Time High In 2017

November 14, 2017 Alexander C. Kaufman, huffingtonpost.com Educate! Coal, emission, Fossil Fuels

By Alexander C. Kaufman for The Huffington Post - Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels are surging again after staying flat for three years, climate scientists reported on Monday, a sign that efforts to rein in planet-warming gases still have a long way to go. Emissions from fossil fuels and industrial uses are projected to grow 2 percent this year, reaching 41 billion tons by the end of 2017, according to the report presented at the United Nations’ climate summit in Bonn, Germany. The increase was predicted to continue in 2018. Total greenhouse gas emissions remained level, at about 36 billion tons per year from 2014 to 2016, even as the global economy grew, which suggested carbon dioxide emissions had crested with the rise of renewable electricity sources and improved fuel efficiency standards. But emissions from fossil fuels will hit 37 billion tons this year, a report from the Global Carbon Project finds. The report draws from three papers in the journals Nature Climate Change, Environmental Research Letters and Earth System Science Data Discussions. “This is very disappointing,” Corinne Le Quéré, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia, said in a statement. “We need to reach a peak in global emissions in the next few years and drive emissions down rapidly afterwards to address climate change and limit its impacts.”

As Climate Talks Open, Federal Report Exposes U.S. Credibility Gap

November 8, 2017 John H. Cushman JR., insideclimatenews.org Educate! Climate Change, Fossil Fuels, United States

By John H. Cushman JR. for Inside Climate Change - As global climate talks resume this week, the U.S. is straddling a climate credibility gap, with the Trump administration's policies on one side of an abyss and what the government's own scientists know about climate change with increasing certainty on the other. The disconnect became more evident last week as the administration published, but then basically shrugged off, a comprehensive report on the state of climate science. Written by authoritative government and academic experts, then honed by the extreme vetting of a formal National Academy of Sciences peer review, the latest volume of the National Climate Assessment paints a stern and explicit picture of the risks of climate change. The report's executive summary pronounced that temperatures have reached the warmest point in human civilization, that our own actions are the cause, and that the worst is yet to come. It followed with a staccato drum-roll of familiar findings: "Thousands of studies conducted by researchers around the world have documented changes in surface, atmospheric, and oceanic temperatures; melting glaciers; diminishing snow cover; shrinking sea ice; rising sea levels; ocean acidification; and increasing atmospheric water vapor." On Monday, the G7 countries—including the U.S.—also affirmed that climate change exacerbates health risks.

Environmentalists Gaining Enemy In Fight Against Natural Gas Pipelines

November 7, 2017 Mark Hand, thinkprogress.org Educate! Clean Energy, Environmental Justice, Fossil Fuels, Pipelines

By Mark Hand for Think Progress - The electric utility sector’s top lobbying group is teaming up with fossil fuel trade associations as part of an effort to intensify the industry’s campaign against citizen and environmental groups opposed to fracking and new natural gas pipelines. A senior official at the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) said at a recent conference in Pittsburgh that her trade group has grown “very aware of the ‘Keep It in the Ground’ movement” as its member companies have become more reliant on natural gas. These activists are opposed to the extraction of all fossil fuels, not just coal, said Karen Obenshain, senior director of fuels, technology, and commercial policy, according to Matt Kasper, research director at the Energy and Policy Institute, who attended the conference. (Kasper worked at the Center for American Progress from 2012-2014. ThinkProgress is an editorially independent project of CAP.) From Keystone XL to Dakota Access to ongoing efforts to curtail oil and gas drilling, anti-fossil fuel activists caught the attention of energy companies and their representatives in Washington years ago. Aside from only a small number of victories, however, the activists have largely been unable to stop pipelines or slow down fracking. And yet the gas industry isn’t taking any chances; it wants to ensure its winning percentage remains strong.

Ahead Of COP23 Climate Talks; End To ‘Era Of Fossil Fuels’ Now!

November 6, 2017 Jake Johnson, commondreams.org Resist! Climate Change, Fossil Fuels, Protests

By Jake Johnson for Common Dreams - The stated aim of the COP23 talks—this year presided over by Fiji—is to "advance the aims and ambitions of the Paris Agreement and achieve progress on its implementation guidelines." But Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. from the agreement casts a "dark shadow" over the negotiations. As the New York Times reported Thursday, the Trump administration will attempt to use COP23 as a platform to "promote coal, natural gas, and nuclear energy" and argue that fossil fuels should "continue to play a central role in the energy mix"—despite the fact that the U.S. government's own climate assessment, unveiled Friday, links fossil fuels to the warming of the climate. So while Trump and his allies are "twisting themselves into pretzels to justify blocking national and international climate action," environmentalists are working to place pressure on world leaders to forge ahead with ambitious goals that place people and the planet over the interests of oil giants. "The wildfires, hurricanes and floods of these last few months show us that we don't have time to play games of climate denial or greenwashing of dirty energy," Cindy Wiesner, executive director of Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, said in a statement. "COP23 is an opportunity for world leaders to catch up to the solutions already coming from communities on the ground."

Myths About Rooftop Solar Are Outshining The Reality

November 1, 2017 Jessica Herrera, hcn.org Educate! Fossil Fuels, New Economy, Profit, Solar Energy

By Jessica Herrera for High Country News - It’s undeniable that renewable energy is booming, changing the way we get our power and shifting us away from fossil fuels that damage the environment. Yet in my home town of Tucson, which gets nearly 300 sunny days every year, a lot of plentiful Arizona sunshine is going to waste. And it isn’t just happening in the Copper State. Across the West and throughout the U.S., in the face of this rapidly changing energy market, investor-owned utilities and some energy co-ops are impeding the transition. They’re trying to protect their profits and coal-fired power-plant investments at the expense of the wellbeing of people and the planet. These power companies support lobbying groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council and Edison Electric Institute, which spout myths about renewable energy. In Florida, a Koch brothers-funded consultant encouraged the use of “political jiu-jitsu” to mislead the public and policy makers about solar. Perhaps one of the most misleading claims is that solar energy customers don’t pay their fair share for grid services and that everyone else pays the price. This “cost shift” claim has been repeated over and over again.

Fossil Fuel Allies Are Tearing Apart Ohio’s Embrace Of Clean Energy

October 30, 2017 Brad Wieners and David Hasemyer, www.insideclimatenews.org Educate! Clean Energy, Fossil Fuels, Ohio

By Brad Wieners and David Hasemyer for Inside Climate Change - COLUMBUS, Ohio—On March 30, Bill Seitz, a charismatic Republican, took to the floor of the Ohio House to make a case for gutting a 2008 law designed to speed the adoption of solar and wind as significant sources of electricity in the state. The law, he warned, "is like something out of the 5-Year Plan playbook of Joseph Stalin." Adopting a corny Russian accent, he said, "Vee vill have 25,000 trucks on the Volga by 1944!'" Nine years before, Seitz and his colleagues, Republicans and Democrats alike, had voted overwhelmingly for the measure he now compared to the work of a Communist dictator. It made Ohio the 25th state to embrace requirements and inducements to lure utilities away from coal, a major contributor of the gases fueling global climate change. Studies suggested the law would help create green energy jobs and boost the Ohio economy—and it has. Now, Seitz said, it was obsolete. Natural gas, rapidly displacing coal, was the resource Ohio ought to foster, he said. He also argued the law gives an unfair advantage to wind and solar when the state's last nuclear plant is fighting for its life. Most important, Seitz insisted, the government had no business telling anyone what kind of energy to buy.

Norway Reviews Ethics Of Energy Investments

October 26, 2017 Staff, www.stopetp.org Resist! Environment, Fossil Fuels, Investment, Norway

By Staff of Stop ETP - The Council on Ethics for Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is assessing whether Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) violated the fund’s guidelines for responsible investment, reported Reuters today. Similar reviews in the past has led to divestments, such as the fund’s 2015 decision to sell off more than $8 billion of investments in coal and related industries. As of the end of 2016, the $1 trillion fund has held $248 million of ETP bonds. “This is good news, it shows that our voices are being heard,” said Dallas Goldtooth, Keep It In the Ground Campaigner with Indigenous Environmental Network. “We encourage all investors to question the Human and Indigenous rights impacts of their fossil fuel investments.”

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