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Fossil Fuels

Fossil Fuel Interests Spent Millions To Tank Clean Air Bills In Colorado

June 7, 2024 Joe Fassler, DeSmog. , , , ,
Fossil fuel interests spent millions of dollars in an effort to influence Colorado’s recent legislative session, a DeSmog analysis shows — and environmental advocates say the campaign helped to scuttle a raft of clean air bills. Protect Colorado, a group that received more than $4 million from Chevron, Occidental, and other oil and gas interests, spent heavily to support pro-industry ballot initiatives before and during the session — a critical form of political leverage. Those efforts were aided by an extensive PR campaign spearheaded by the American Petroleum Institute (API), an industry group that spent an additional $3 million on lobbying, media buys, and digital ads from February through May, according to public financial disclosures.

UN Chief Calls For Ban On Fossil Fuel Advertising

June 6, 2024 Geoff Dembicki, Ellen Ormesher and T. J. Jordan, DeSmog. , , ,
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on governments to ban fossil fuel advertising and warned creative agencies to stop working for the industry. “Many in the fossil fuel industry have shamelessly greenwashed, even as they have sought to delay climate action — with lobbying, legal threats, and massive ad campaigns,” Guterres told an event at New York City’s American Museum of Natural History. “They have been aided and abetted by advertising and PR companies — Mad Men fuelling the madness,” Guterres said, speaking in the museum’s Hall of Ocean Life, which is dominated by a 94-foot-long blue whale model suspended from the ceiling.

Tripod Blockade Prevents Mountain Valley Pipeline Work For Five Hours

May 30, 2024 Appalachians Against Pipelines, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Elliston, VA - Early Wednesday morning, pipeline fighter August suspended themself in a tripod blockade on Yellow Finch Lane in Montgomery County, blocking Mountain Valley Pipeline's construction access to Poor Mountain. A rally of supporters gathered on site throughout the morning until Virginia State Police responded with a militarized, armored skid steer to remove August from their blockade. Banners and signs at the protest read, "UNTIL ALL ARE FREE," "WATER IS PRECIOUS," and "DOOM TO MVP!" After over 4.5 hours of blocking the road, August was extracted and arrested. They were charged with 4 misdemeanors and bail was set at $1,500.

Climate Activists Demonstrate At FERC Calling For No Gas Exports

May 23, 2024 Beyond Extreme Energy, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Washington, DC, — Activists and frontline leaders against fossil fuels rallied outside the headquarters of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) this morning. The Biden Administration has put a one year pause on any approvals by the Department of Energy of permits for LNG export terminals in the Gulf South, as they assess what is the “public interest” regarding these massive and destructive fossil fuel projects. But FERC, the other federal agency that must approve permits for LNG export terminals, has not yet taken similar action. Activists also called on FERC to reject the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s request to go into service on the same day (May 23) given major widespread safety issues.

Week Of Protests Over Equinor’s Media Sponsorship Greenwashing

May 18, 2024 Adam Barnett, Phoebe Cooke and Ellen Ormesher, DeSmog. , , ,
Major media companies have sparked a wave of criticism after allowing a Norwegian oil and gas company behind the UK’s largest new North Sea project to sponsor events on climate change. Equinor was an official sponsor of two conferences on climate and energy this week, one run by the New Statesman magazine, and one run by Politico. Both saw MPs pull out over the sponsorship, while the first was interrupted by a climate activist. The Norwegian state-owned company has a majority stake in the Rosebank North Sea oil field, which has been dubbed a “carbon bomb” by environmental law charity ClientEarth.

Protester Blockades The Mountain Valley Pipeline Access Road

May 16, 2024 Appalachians Against Pipelines, Popular Resistance. , , , ,
Roanoke County, VA - Early this morning, a pipeline fighter going by the name Mullein locked themself to barrels blockading Honeysuckle Rd, which provides access to the Mountain Valley Pipeline easement. This protest, along with many prior, is located on Poor Mountain, where the Yellow Finch Treesits protected some of the last standing trees in the MVP’s path for two and a half years from 2018-2021. About a month ago, a similar action took place at this same location. Two grandparents had locked themselves to a large wooden opossum, stopping work for the day. "Today, as I sit in the road on so-called Poor Mountain, it is the day after Nakba Day," stated Mullein.

Banks Financed Fossil Fuels By $6.9 Trillion Since The Paris Agreement

May 14, 2024 Shawna Ambrose, Rainforest Action Network. , , , ,
The 15th annual Banking on Climate Chaos (BOCC) report employs a new, expanded data set that credits each bank making financial contributions to a deal instead of only crediting banks in leading roles. It cuts through greenwash, covering the world’s top 60 banks’ lending and underwriting to over 4,200 fossil fuel companies and the financing of companies causing the degradation of the Amazon and Arctic. Backgrounder of the report’s key findings can be found here. Since the Paris Agreement in 2016, the world’s 60 largest private banks financed fossil fuels with USD $6.9 trillion. Nearly half – $3.3 trillion – went towards fossil fuel expansion.

State Agency Met Privately With Oil-By-Rail Firm Ahead Of Permitting

May 14, 2024 Nick Cunningham, DeSmog. , , , , , ,
Oregon state environmental regulators are deciding whether to issue an air permit for a contested oil-by-rail operation in Portland, a site that received local approval after a deal worked out in private between the company and city officials. Now, new documents show that the state agency also met privately with the company before the application was submitted.  The agency said the meeting was informational and involved no commitments. But for groups that oppose oil-by-rail in Portland, the documents add to the sense that multiple layers of government are favoring the company’s interests over public health and safety. 

MVP Protester Locks Himself To Construction Equipment

May 9, 2024 Appalachians Against Pipelines, Popular Resistance. , , , ,
Elliston, VA — Early Wednesday morning, pipeline fighter Finn locked himself to a side boom on a Mountain Valley Pipeline worksite on Poor Mountain in Montgomery County, VA, preventing MVP construction at the site for 11 hours. "Why risk arrest? Why risk my name? Why devote my time and energy, to be here protesting this pipeline in the backwoods of Appalachia?" Finn asked. "The truth is I've lost the ability to look away. And it no longer makes sense to be anywhere else." At the base of the mountain, nearby where the pipeline easement crosses Yellow Finch Rd, a rally of people gathered to show their support for Finn's action.

Taxing Fossil Fuel Companies Could Be ‘Powerful Tool’ To Cut Emissions

May 1, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. , , , , ,
According to the new Climate Damages Tax report, introducing a fossil fuel tax on companies in the richest countries in the world could generate hundreds of billions to aid the most vulnerable nations in coping with the climate crisis. The impacts of climate change disproportionately affect poorer nations that have contributed to it the least. “Climate change is a war. A category five hurricane releases energy equivalent to 10,000 times the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

What’s Next For The Struggle To Stop The East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline

April 27, 2024 Phil Wilmot, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
In 2006, oil speculators finally stumbled upon a long-sought reserve under Lake Albert in midwestern Uganda. President Yoweri Museveni, who had already been in power for 20 years, eagerly declared that production would commence in 2009. He argued that oil drilling would spare Ugandans from biting poverty — despite the government projecting zero revenue from the project for decades to come. Still clinging to his despotic throne today, Museveni and his bankrollers and business partners — namely TOTAL, China National Offshore Oil Corporation and the neoliberal regimes of Uganda and Tanzania — have been unable to commence production.

Energy Descent: Public Letter

April 26, 2024 Energy Descent Collective, Resilience. , , ,
Energy transition is essential. But it’s not enough. We also need to prepare to live with less energy in the future. It is not enough to adopt clean technology. We also need to prepare to live with less energy. This preparation includes new cultural norms, new institutions, and new infrastructure – not just new technology.  And it’s a collective preparation. It’s something we need to do together. We can’t do it alone. Scientists say we have less than two decades to avoid the worst effects of climate change. We therefore must transition away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible.

Pipeline Protester Locks Herself To Excavator On Peters Mountain

April 21, 2024 Appalachians Against Pipelines, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Lindside, WV - Early Saturday morning, a pipeline fighter using the name Vole locked herself to an excavator on the West Virginia side of Peters Mountain in the Jefferson National Forest, preventing Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from finishing construction on both sides of the mountain, next to the Appalachian Trail. Banners at the site of the action read, "DESTROY ALL PIPELINES" and "LAND BACK," and a rally of supporters gathered nearby in the National Forest. After blockading pipeline work for 5 hours, Vole was extracted from her blockade and escorted off the mountain by law enforcement.

Members Of Parliament Challenged To Cut Ties With Polluters

April 20, 2024 Phoebe Cooke, DeSmog. , , ,
A new campaign is calling on MPs to break the fossil fuel sector’s “chokehold” on politics in a critical election year. Lawmakers returning to work today (Monday) were greeted with smoke flares and a demand to “Stop Polluting Politics” from a banner hung off London’s Westminster Bridge. The message forms the name of the campaign by Climate Resistance, a new collective that aims “to push the fossil fuel lobby out of Westminster and stop polluters from bankrolling political parties”.  In 2019, under the Conservatives, the UK was the first country in the world to introduce legally binding commitments to reach net zero emissions by 2050. 

The Oil Crash Is Coming Sooner Than We Think

April 18, 2024 Rachel Donald, Resilience. , , ,
Oil in the North Sea is expected to be net-energy negative by 2031. This means that in 2031, it’ll cost more energy to extract the fossil fuels than we would gain by using them, rendering extraction unfeasibly expensive. Yet, rather than use our remaining years of access to these fuels to turbo-charge new energy infrastructure, fossil fuels are being extracted and burned for business as usual: quick cash. Around the world, the lights will go off in nations that don’t have back-up renewables. That’s most of them. I interviewed Alister Hamilton, Director of Zero Emissions Scotland.
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