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Fossil Fuels

Climate Activists Score Major Win In Campaign To Electrify DC

July 20, 2024 AbShepherd, Resilience. , , , , , ,
Last month, Extinction Rebellion D.C. scored a major victory for the End Methane, Electrify D.C. campaign: the D.C. Public Service Commission dismissed corporate utility provider Washington Gas’ application for the third phase of their $12 billion fossil fuel pipeline replacement project dubbed Project Pipes. The commission also partially approved a petition to investigate Washington Gas’ leak reduction practices. This victory is a major milestone in the fight to shut down a fossil fuel project that would lock D.C. into decades of planet-warming emissions while poisoning the city’s residents, especially the communities that are most marginalized and underserved.

Big Oil Rallies To Obstruct Accountability

July 20, 2024 Emily Sanders, DeSmog. , , , , , , , , , , ,
In the face of mounting scrutiny from local, state, and federal officials, fossil fuel companies and their allies are deploying a range of tactics to obstruct ongoing lawsuits and investigations concerning evidence that the industry has misled the public about the harms it knew its products would cause to the climate, environment, and human health. Far-right industry allies with ties to Chevron have mounted an “unprecedented” pressure campaign calling on the Supreme Court to stop a potentially historic climate deception lawsuit against oil majors from going to trial. Republican attorneys general are separately urging the Supreme Court to throw out similar climate fraud lawsuits from five states.

Big Oil Is Pulling Out All The Stops To Block Lawsuits For Accountability

July 15, 2024 Emily Sanders, Truthout. , , , ,
In the face of mounting scrutiny from local, state, and federal officials, fossil fuel companies and their allies are deploying a range of tactics to obstruct ongoing lawsuits and investigations concerning evidence that the industry has misled the public about the harms it knew its products would cause to the climate, environment, and human health. Far-right industry allies with ties to Chevron have mounted an “unprecedented” pressure campaign calling on the Supreme Court to stop a potentially historic climate deception lawsuit against oil majors from going to trial. Republican attorneys general are separately urging the Supreme Court to throw out similar climate fraud lawsuits from five states.

Staring Down The Barrel Of The Mountain Valley Pipeline

July 5, 2024 Deborah Kushner, Substrack. , , ,
Communities along the ROW are frequently reminded they are collateral damage to MVP. Violations here range from the immediate danger of explosion to the discovery that some of the emergency numbers on the yellow and white poles along the route are wrong, to the lack of courtesy, such as heavy construction work immediately adjacent to a convening church on a Sunday morning. Despite the green-light for the MVP to go in service, on-the-ground work in these endangered communities continues to keep themselves aware and safe. Monroe County, WV is rural Appalachia. Few roads here are 2 lanes wide, and most are a single lane. Cars pass one another by both swerving off to their respective shoulders.

First Nations And Allies Resist Radioactive Waste Repository

July 3, 2024 Warren Bernauer, Laura Tanguay, Elysia Petrone, and Brennain Lloyd, Canadian Dimension. , , , , , , , ,
On April 30, 2024, First Nations leaders organized a rally in Anemki Wequedong (Thunder Bay) to protest a proposed nuclear waste repository in northwestern Ontario between Ignace and Dryden. The speakers included representatives of Grassy Narrows First Nation, Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, Ojibways of Onigaming First Nation, Gull Bay First Nation, and Fort William First Nation. Michele Solomon, Chief of Fort William First Nation, welcomed all the participants to her traditional territory and stated that her community is “strongly opposed to the transportation of nuclear waste through our territory and we will stand by that, we will continue to stand by that, and we stand with all those who are also opposed.”

Report: Climate Lawsuits Against Polluting Companies Are Increasing

June 29, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. , , ,
A new report has found that climate lawsuits being filed against companies are on the rise all over the world, and most of them have been successful. The report by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) — Global trends in climate change litigation: 2024 snapshot — said that roughly 230 climate cases have been brought against trade associations and corporations since 2015, more than two-thirds of which have been filed since 2020. “Climate litigation… has become an undeniably significant trend in how stakeholders are seeking to advance climate action and accountability,” said Andy Raine.

Campaign For A Safe And Healthy California Wins Victory Against Big Oil

June 27, 2024 CAvsBIGOIL.com. , , ,
Sacramento, CA– Today the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California (CSHC) announced that despite opponents spending nearly $61 million on deceitful efforts to repeal a California law (SB 1137) that protects neighborhoods from toxic drilling, Big Oil has reversed course and forfeited their deceitful ballot measure from the November ballot in a stunning defeat.  “Big Oil spent tens of millions of dollars trying to fool voters, using the profits made at the expense of community health, but it was no match for the groundswell of people power and community support we were able to unite all across California,” said Darryl Molina Sarmiento, CSHC Steering Committee Member and Executive Director of Communities for a Better Environment.

Report: Certified Gaslighting

June 25, 2024 Earthworks and Oil Change International, Certified Disasters. , , ,
One year after the release of Certified Disaster, Earthworks, and Oil Change International’s new investigative report, Certified Gaslighting provides additional evidence that gas certification relies on unreliable technology and methods that allow fossil fuel companies to make unfounded claims about methane gas. While the oil and gas industry is increasingly turning to these so-called gas certification schemes, no matter the label – “natural” gas, “responsibly sourced,” “differentiated,” “certified,” or “next-gen” – the truth remains the same. Methane gas is a threat to people and the planet.

Red Hill Whistleblower Details How Her Warnings Were Ignored

June 25, 2024 Christina Jedra, Honolulu Civil Beat. , , , , , ,
As the new director for the U.S. military’s largest fuel depot in May 2020, she realized almost immediately that something was wrong. The fire suppression system for the massive Honolulu storage system, which was holding 100 million gallons of fuel, was essentially turned off. Firefighting foam necessary to put out a potential fuel fire had been removed by officials who feared a leak could contaminate the drinking water aquifer below, she said. As a result, those working in the facility’s underground tunnels, and those residing in surrounding neighborhoods, were at risk of facing an out-of-control blaze, she said. So Bencs did what the Navy itself had trained her to do: She said something.

Selling A Mirage

June 24, 2024 Lisa Song, ProPublica. , , , , ,
Last year, I became obsessed with a plastic cup. It was a small container that held diced fruit, the type thrown into lunch boxes. And it was the first product I’d seen born of what’s being touted as a cure for a crisis. Plastic doesn’t break down in nature. If you turned all of what’s been made into cling wrap, it would cover every inch of the globe. It’s piling up, leaching into our water and poisoning our bodies. Scientists say the key to fixing this is to make less of it; the world churns out 430 million metric tons each year. But businesses that rely on plastic production, like fossil fuel and chemical companies, have worked since the 1980s to spin the pollution as a failure of waste management — one that can be solved with recycling.

Climate Activists Blockade Citigroup’s Doors With Model Pipeline

June 23, 2024 Keerti Gopal, Scheer Post. , , , , , ,
New York—Tensions were high outside of Citigroup’s global headquarters on Friday morning as climate activists blockaded the doors for an hour and hundreds of employees waited in the plaza to get to work. The demonstration marked the end of the second week of the “Summer of Heat on Wall Street,” a sustained, direct-action campaign targeting financial institutions, with a particular emphasis on Citi for its robust financing of fossil fuel projects, despite stated commitments to a clean energy transition. According to the Banking on Climate Chaos report from the Rainforest Action Network, an advocacy group, Citigroup is the largest financier of companies that expanded fossil fuel projects last year.

Shell’s Exit From Nigeria

June 17, 2024 Andy Rowell, and James Marriott Consortium News. , , , , ,
Nigerian activists believe Shell’s apparent end to its 87-year operation in the country is an effort to avoid its legal responsibilities while holding onto the potentially profitable side of the business. In January, the oil giant revealed it had “reached an agreement to sell its Nigerian onshore subsidiary” to Renaissance, a consortium of four Nigerian oil firms and one based in Switzerland. But despite the $2.8 billion deal, Shell will effectively still own part of the business and will continue to bankroll Renaissance’s onshore exploration in Nigeria going forward. The company’s press statement confirmed it will loan the new buyers up to $1.2 billion to help them buy their stake in the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC).

G7 Fail To Deliver On Fossil Fuel Promises At Italy Summit

June 15, 2024 Valentina Stackl, Oil Change International. , , , , ,
Today, G7 leaders released a joint communique, marking a significant failure to build on the momentum from last year’s UN COP28 decision to transition away from fossil fuels. New Oil Change International data shows that G7 nations are not leading on climate either at home or abroad. G7 countries represent 27% of global oil and gas production, and will be responsible for nearly 48% of CO2 pollution from planned oil and gas expansion – the equivalent lifetime emissions of nearly 600 coal plants. They are also major providers of taxpayer finance for international fossil fuel projects, providing USD $25.7 billion a year in international public finance for fossil fuels, compared to USD $10.3 billion for clean energy.

‘Orca’ Activists Arrested In Front Of Wall Street Bank Over Fossil Fuels

June 14, 2024 Saul Elbein, The Hill. , , , ,
New York police arrested dozens of climate activists dressed as orcas Tuesday morning in front of the Citigroup headquarters as they protested the bank’s ongoing investment in fossil fuel expansion, according to group Climate Defenders. “Arrests continue at [Citibank] because wanting corporations to put planet over profit is a crime,” activists wrote Tuesday morning on the social platform X. That caption went out above a video of orca-clad protesters, their fins cuffed behind their backs, being escorted from in front of the bank’s glass-walled Manhattan office building. “Banks like Citi set the planet (and oceans to boil),” the group added in another post. “Now we’re bringing the heat to Wall Street.”

Is Your City Or State Investing In Israeli Bonds Or Fossil Fuels?

June 11, 2024 Oscar Perry Abello, Next City. , , , , ,
Divestment doesn’t necessarily have a big, direct economic impact on the target of a divestment campaign, but history has shown divestment can be a powerful tool for galvanizing broader support around causes that might seem distant or foreign. Nobody likes to get caught with their hands in the cookie jar. But until someone digs into the numbers, all of our hands are in more cookie jars than we realize. In Palm Beach County, Florida, the local government outright told county residents about one of the jars they were reaching into together: government bonds issued by the state of Israel. Back in March, Palm Beach County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller Joseph Abruzzo held a press conference announcing that the county government was the world’s largest investor in “Israel Bonds,” which made up $700 million of the Florida county’s $4.67 billion investment portfolio.
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