Fossil Fuels

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.”

Hurricane Survivors Occupy Senator McConnell’s Office

September 28, 2017 350.org, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Climate Change, Fossil Fuels, Hurricane

By 350.org. WASHINGTON - On Wednesday, a delegation of survivors of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma occupied Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office on Capitol Hill, demanding he acknowledge the role of climate change and the fossil fuel economy in making these storms worse. The delegation was led by members of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (t.e.j.a.s.) and the New Florida Majority as leaders in their communities fighting for climate justice. These leaders called for action from lawmakers at the scale of the climate crisis, including a commitment to 100% clean energy, stopping new fossil fuel projects, and a just and equitable energy transformation.

China Plans To Ban Sales Of Fossil Fuel Cars Entirely

September 18, 2017 Darrell Etherington, www.techcrunch.com Create! Ban, Cars, China, Fossil Fuels

By Darrell Etherington for TechCrunch - China’s big electric vehicle push is about to get even bigger: The country is planning to end the sale of fossil fuel-powered vehicles entirely, with regulators working currently on a timetable of when the ban will ultimately take effect, according to Bloomberg. China is the world’s largest auto market, with 28.03 million vehicles sold last year, a boost in demand of 13.7 percent vs. 2015 sales numbers. The nation has already done a lot to incentivize manufacturers to develop and sell new EVs, including allowing foreign automakers to create a third joint venture with local automakers (a standard requirement for doing business in the country for auto OEMs) so long as it’s dedicated to the creation of EVs exclusively. The government has also created a number of incentive programs for OEMs, including subsidies. This will add to its positive efforts to drive more EV sales in China with the ultimate negative condition on the other side – at some point, automakers just won’t be able to do business at all in the country if they’re still selling a mix of fossil fuel and electrified vehicles. This isn’t the first time a governing body has said it would eventually phase out the sale of traditional fuel vehicles: France said it will stop selling fossil fuel cars by 2040 in July, and the UK has committed to the same timeline for sales of those vehicles.

Energy Forecast Sees Global Emissions Growing, Thwarting Paris Climate Accord

September 18, 2017 John H. Cuahman JR., www.insideclimatenews.org Educate! Climate Change, Energy, Fossil Fuels

By John H. Cuahman JR. for Inside Climate News - The U.S. government's energy forecasting branch issued its formal international prognosis on Thursday, and it paints a picture of a world still so addicted to fossil fuels that emissions of global warming pollution continue to increase for the foreseeable future. The Energy Information Agency (EIA) projected that worldwide emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels would grow 16 percent by the year 2040 from the levels of 2015, the year that the nations of the world agreed to the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change that is intended to reverse the trend. Absent any policy changes, the business-as-usual "reference case" findings at the heart of the agency's International Energy Outlook 2017 report can't be squared with the ambitions of Paris, which demand quick action to bring emissions down sharply and avoid the worst risks of a warming planet. The EIA, despite being part of the U.S. Department of Energy, conducts its analyses without regard to the policy agenda of the administration that happens to be in office. In this case, that's the Trump administration, which the report noted has announced its intention to quit the Paris accord, has jettisoned the emission pledge presented by the Obama administration during the treaty negotiations, and has announced that it wants to rewrite the centerpiece of federal climate policy, the Clean Power Plan, which is being challenged in court by the fossil fuel industry and its mainly Republican political allies.

Fossil Fuel Lobbyist By Day, WaPo Columnist By Night

September 9, 2017 Adam Johnson, www.fair.org Educate! Fossil Fuels, Lobbyists, Media

By Adam Johnson for FAIR - What is the point of Ed Rogers, the Washington Post’s most conflict-ridden, mediocre columnist (FAIR.org, 4/23/15)? He doesn’t add a lot to the discourse, his boilerplate Republican talking points could be better written by any number of Heritage fellows, he shills for Trump in the most boring ways possible, and—most glaringly of all—is an actual paid lobbyist for an assortment of sleazy industry interests, via his lobbying firm BGR Group. So why does a major paper feel the need to continue to give him column inches? Rogers has major conflicts of interest, as AlterNet and Media Matters have noted: Among many other infractions, he neglected to mention his firm’s $500,000 fee from the Saudi regime while boosting Trump’s PR trip there, and promoted the shiny new weapon systems of his client Raytheon on the night Trump used them to bomb the Syrian Air Force. When he does disclose conflicts, it renders the rest of his writing limp and risible. Take his latest right-wing missive (9/5/17) lamenting the “lurch to the left” of the Democratic Party, which offers up one of the greatest self-owns in the history of the Post opinion section...

British Aid: ‘Twice As Much On Fossil Fuels As Renewables’

August 14, 2017 Arthur Neslen, www.theguardian.com Educate! Fossil Fuels, New Economy, Renewable Energy, United Kingdom (UK)

By Arthur Neslen for The Guardian - The UK has spent more than twice as much overseas support on fossil fuels projects as on renewable ones so far this decade, according to research commissioned by the Catholic aid agency Cafod. The Overseas Development Institute, which analysed the figures, found that 46% of Britain’s £6.1bn energy spending in developing countries between 2010 and 2014 went on oil, coal and gas-fired schemes, compared with 22% for renewable energy projects. Overall, fossil fuel support increased by nearly £1bn this decade compared with the previous five years, with a staggering 99.4% of UK export finance support directed towards “dirty” energy investments. Cafod called on the government to clarify how it would bring public support for overseas projects into line with climate commitments under the Paris agreement. Dr Sarah Wykes, Cafod’s lead energy analyst, said: “To tackle climate change we have to leave fossil fuels in the ground and switch rapidly to renewable sources of energy. “Yet the UK carrying on a business as usual spending pattern overseas in recent years suggests a huge inconsistency in policy and a missed opportunity to promote greater investment in renewable technologies, as the Department for International Development (DfID) has tried to do through its spending.”

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