Oil

Weak Oil-Train Regulations Don’t Go Nearly Far Enough

July 27, 2014 Deirdre Fulton, www.commondreams.org Organize! Environment, Oil, Railroads, Tar Sands

Environmental groups say the Obama administration's new crude-by-rail regulations (pdf), proposed Wednesday, don't go nearly far enough to reduce the risk posed by hazardous rail cars carrying oil and ethanol across long distances. The proposed rules, which include a phase-out of older tank cars and new brake controls and speed restrictions, come in the wake of a crude-by-rail boom that's led to an increase in derailments and disasters like the one in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec last year that killed 47 people. A train carrying crude oil derailed in Seattle on Thursday, with no spills or injuries reported. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) acknowledges: "The safety risk presented by transporting Bakken crude oil by rail is magnified both by an increasing volume of Bakken being shipped by throughout the U.S. and the large distances over which the product is shipped. In 2008, 9,500 rail-carloads of crude moved through our country compared to last year, when there were 415,000 rail-carloads." But the DOT's proposal, which will now go through a 60-day comment period, doesn't reflect that level of urgency, environmentalists say.

White House OKs Underwater Torture Chamber

July 26, 2014 Sardonicky, www.kmgarcia2000.blogspot.com Educate! Climate Change, Oceans, Oil, Torture

With all eyes glued on the atrocities in Gaza and Ukraine, another homegrown atrocity may soon be underway. The Obama administration has quietly executed one of those sneaky summer weekend news dumps in hopes of nobody noticing or caring. Because what, after all, are pods of insane dolphins, and hordes of dead turtles, and the extinction of an entire whale species compared to hundreds of battered human bodies? From Think Progress: On Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) approved the use of seismic airguns to explore the seabed from Cape May to Cape Canaveral for oil and gas. These sonic cannons are compressed airguns that get towed behind ships, using dynamite-like blasts to produce sound waves 100,000 times louder than a jet engine underwater every ten seconds. The waves travel through the water and through the ocean floor, bouncing back up at different rates to provide prospective drillers and researchers a better sense of where oil, gas, minerals, and sand lie beneath the waves.

Big Oil Threatens Maine City After Tar Sands Export Ban

July 25, 2014 Andy Rowell, www.priceofoil.org Resist! Energy, Oil, Pipeline, Tar Sands

Big Oil has always been a bad, bad loser. And it is therefore no surprise that it has threatened to sue a small coastal city in Maine which on Monday night struck an historical blow against the industry by banning the export of tar sands from its harbour. The decision by South Portland to approve, by 6-1, to ban tar sands exports, has catapulted this small coastal town which is famous for its scenic light-houses against the collective might of the oil industry and Canadian government. The decision is another blow to the tar sands industry which is desperate to find ways of getting its dirty carbon-munching oil to market. It effectively bars any attempt by the oil industry to bring oil from Alberta to the city’s port, the second-largest oil terminal on the east coast of the US. The move has ramifications for the tar sands industry, because it was planning to reverse the flow of the Portland-Montreal pipeline to carry tar sands to the coast. South Portland Mayor Jerry Jalbert told Reuters the vote was an exercise in local democracy. “From the perspective of a locally elected official, it’s a simple issue. People fear this product could be damaging to the community, and they have asked us to act.”

Obama Leasing Millions Of Gulf Acres For Offshore Drilling

July 25, 2014 Steve Horn, www.desmogblog.com Educate! Climate Change, Fracking, Gulf, Oil

Deploying the age-old “Friday news dump,” President Barack Obama's Interior Department gave the green light on Friday, July 18 to companies to deploy seismic air guns to examine the scope of Atlantic Coast offshore oil-and-gas reserves. It is the first time in over 30 years that the oil and gas industry is permitted to do geophysical data collection along the Atlantic coast. Though decried by environmentalists, another offshore oil and gas announcement made the same week has flown under the radar: over 21 million acres of Gulf of Mexico offshore oil and gas reserves will be up for lease on August 20 in New Orleans, Louisiana at the Superdome. On July 17, the U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced the lease in the name of President Obama's “all of the above” energy policy. “As part of President Obama’s all-of-the-above energy strategy to continue to expand safe and responsible domestic energy production, BOEM…today announced that the bureau will offer more than 21 million acres offshore Texas for oil and gas exploration and development in a lease sale that will include all available unleased areas in the Western Gulf of Mexico Planning Area,” proclaimed a July 17 BOEM press release. The release says this equates to upwards of 116-200 million barrels of oil and 538-938 billion cubic feet of natural gas and falls under the banner of the U.S.-Mexico Transboundary Hydrocarbon Agreement.

A Texas Town Stands Up Against Fracking

July 23, 2014 Staff, www.frackfreedenton.com Organize! Democracy, Environment, Fracking, Oil

The Denton Drilling Awareness Group (DentonDAG) is a non-profit organization of concerned citizens dedicated to educating the public about the dangers of gas well drilling and its related processes to the public health, the environment, and property values in the city of Denton. Why do the want to ban fracking? The answer is simple. With so much scientific data unknown or in dispute about the environmental and health effects of hydraulic fracturing, the safest course is to prohibit it unless and until it is either proven safe or hydraulic fracturing technology advances so that there are no credible environmental and health risks.

More Than $20 Billion Annually In Government Subsidies For Oil

July 14, 2014 Shakuntala Makhijani, www.priceofoil.org Educate! Fossil Fuels, Oil, Subsidies, Taxes

Today, Oil Change International released a comprehensive report on fossil fuel exploration and production subsidies in the U.S. – Cashing in on All of the Above: U.S. Fossil Fuel Production Subsidies under Obama – which demonstrates that at a time when we need urgent action on climate change more than ever, the U.S. government is channeling huge and growing amounts of money to increasing discovery and production of oil, gas, and coal. These federal and state subsidies totaled $21.6 billion in 2013. Subsidies that promote fossil fuel exploration are particularly harmful and hypocritical. The world’s preeminent scientific institutions working on climate and energy have determined that the majority of the world’s existing fossil fuel reserves need to be left in the ground in order to avoid catastrophic climate impacts. In 2012, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that “no more than one-third of proven reserves of fossil fuels can be consumed prior to 2050 if the world is to achieve the 2°C goal.” The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reached a similar conclusion in its 2013 climate assessment.

Greenpeace Targets Lego’s Relationship With Shell

July 9, 2014 Eoin O'Cinneide, www.upstreamonline.com Resist! Arctic, Lego, Oil, shell

Greenpeace continues to build its case against Arctic drilling, its latest high-profile protest piecing together a pair of blockbuster companies: Shell and Lego. The environmental watchdog has launched a new offensive against the toy manufacturer aimed at dismantling its commercial relationship with the Anglo-Dutch supermajor. Greenpeace claims that, since 2012, 16 million Shell-branded Lego toys have been sold or given away at petrol stations in 26 countries. A commercial deal between the two companies was reportedly worth $116 million, with another deal set to start this year, it added. Protesters in six countries around the globe are targeting the Danish player, concerned that the product’s association with the oil industry - and in particular Shell – is damaging children’s perceptions of the Arctic. Activists descended on Legoland outside London to deface Lego scenes of the likes of the UK Houses of Parliament and a World Cup football match with erroneous characters and anti-Arctic drilling messages. One picture shows a polar bear and cub drifting down a river through an idyllic country setting on a tiny ice floe, while another shows two figurines holding a ‘Save the Arctic’ sign near a toy terminal and tanker.

Activist Arrested In Blockade Of Oil Terminal To Halt Crude-by-Rail

July 1, 2014 Rising Tide North America, www.risingtidenorthamerica.org Resist! Activism, Climate Change, Oil, Oregon

This morning climate justice activists with Portland Rising Tide shut down the ArcLogistics crude oil terminal in Northwest Portland resulting in one arrest. Portland resident Irene Majorie, 22, locked herself to a 55-gallon barrel filled with concrete that was placed on the railroad track leading into the facility. Train cars enter from a nearby yard to offload oil into 84 storage tanks, before it is piped onto oceangoing ships bound for West Coast refineries. Over a dozen supporters joined her at the site. Majorie's arm was locked to a piece of metal rebar embedded in the concrete. She was cut out of the barrel by the Portland Police and arrested after successfully blockading the tracks for four hours. Immediately after her removal a train engine approached oil cars nearby on the tracks demonstrating the effective blockage of the oil transport during that time. “This is about stopping the oil trains,” said Majorie. “But beyond that, it is about an industry and an economic system that places the pursuit of profit before the lives and relationships of human beings seeking survival and nourishment, and before the communities, ecosystems, and planet of which we are a part.”

Counties Urge Revocation Of Pipeline Permit

June 28, 2014 Jake Kurtz, www.hngnews.com Resist! Enbridge, Oil, pollution, Wisconsin

Dane County supervisors approved a resolution Thursday urging the Department of Natural Resources to revoke a permit awarded earlier that day to Enbridge Energy and undertake a environmental review of plans the company has to boost production along its main Wisconsin oil pipeline. Installed in 2006, Enbridge’s Line 61 transports roughly 400,000 barrels of Canadian tar sands soil per day from Superior to Pontiac, Ill. The 42-inch diameter line crosses northeast Dane County through the towns of York and Medina. But Enbridge has plans to increase Line 61’s capacity to 1.2 million barrels per day by late 2015 with the construction or modification of pump stations throughout Wisconsin. The project was first announced approximately two years ago. According to Enbridge, the two-phase expansion is part of “ongoing efforts to meet North America’s needs for reliable and secure transportation of petroleum energy supplies,” and the project “will help generate benefits for local economies,” in the form of jobs, tax revenue and the purchase of goods and services. Enbridge is also working to beef up the capacity by adding new pump stations to its Alberta Clipper pipeline that runs from Alberta, Canada through North Dakota and northern Minnesota to Superior.

Court Rules To Give First Nations Resource Rights

June 28, 2014 Heather Smith, www.grist.org Resist! Canada, First Nations, Oil, Pipeline

With just one court ruling, the situation of pipelines in Canada has changed in a big way. On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on a 14-year-old battle over logging rights on Tsilhqot’in Nation territory in British Columbia. Its decision says that any First Nation land that was never formally ceded to the Canadian government cannot be developed without consent of those First Nations who have a claim to it. To say that this has huge implications for the Canadian oil industry is an understatement. The only thing that stands between Alberta, the province that is the hub of the country’s oil boom, and the Pacific Ocean, which connects Canada to the lucrative oil markets of Asia, is unceded First Nations territory. The Northern Gateway pipeline, which Prime Minister Stephen Harper approved earlier this week, runs along a route that First Nations have already begun blockading, a full 18 months before the pipeline is expected to begin construction. Harper has claimed a deep respect for Canadians who want to protect their own land, and has blamed most of the agitation against pipelines in Canada on the outside influence of Americans who “would like to see Canada be one giant national park.” This ruling is going to put that respect to the test.

The Man Behind A New Mexico County’s Fracking Ban

June 25, 2014 Ernie Atencio, www.hcn.org Resist! Environment, Fracking, New Mexico, Oil

On a raw, bright winter day, John Olívas and his wife, Pam, hold court at the Hatchas Café in Mora, New Mexico. They seem to know everybody who comes in, chatting as they stamp snow off their boots and find seats. The street is lined with crumbling adobes and rusty pickups, and snowpacked pastures dotted with livestock and unused farm equipment stretch toward the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. There's not a fast food drive-through or big-box store in sight. Olívas, a lean and youthful 43, is a longtime hunting guide and more recent wilderness advocate who was elected to the Mora County Commission in 2010. He lives in the house his great-grandparents built 200 years ago; his family was among the original settlers of the Mora Land Grant in 1835, when it was still part of Mexico. By local standards, that's not very long ago; many residents still speak the archaic Spanish that the original settlers brought to these mountain villages in the early 1600s. When I sit at his table, Olívas launches without preamble into a tirade against hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," which involves shooting a mixture of water, chemicals and sand deep underground to release oil or natural gas trapped in layers of rock.

Battle To Stop Northern Gateway Pipeline Escalates

June 18, 2014 Justin Trudeau, Tom Mulcair, www.cbc.ca Resist! Canada, First Nations, Oil, Pipeline, Protest

The federal government has agreed to let Enbridge build its Northern Gateway pipeline, subject to 209 conditions recommended by the National Energy Board and further talks with aboriginal communities. Enbridge wants to build the pipeline from Bruderheim, Alta., to Kitimat, B.C. NDP Leader Tom Mulcair called it "folly" and "pure madness" to think anyone can put supertankers in British Columbia's Douglas Channel. Both Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said they would reverse the decision to accept the National Energy Board's pipeline approval.Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, environmental groups and First Nations reacted quickly to news of the federal approval, releasing statements opposing it. Al Monaco, president and CEO of Enbridge, said in a teleconference with reporters that the economic benefits of the pipeline are straightforward, but the company has some work to do in convincing the public.

Company Offers Cash To Ease D.C. Residents’ Fear

June 16, 2014 Emily Atkin, www.thinkprogress.org Educate! D.C., Oil, Oil Trains, pollution, Washington, Washington D.C.

In an apparent attempt to ease health and safety concerns over CSX Corp.’s plan to reconstruct a freight train tunnel in Southeast D.C., the U.S. Department of Transportation on Friday said the company would offer money to the residents most harmed by the project. But residents are not taking the bait, saying the money is not worth the risk the project poses to their lives and livelihoods. “It’s an insult,” said Maureen Cohen Harrington, whose home would border the trench that CSX plans to dig so that freight trains can run while it reconstructs the Virginia Avenue Tunnel. “These amounts give no recognition to the relentless and overwhelming disruption this will cause, or to the lethal risk that it will present.” Residents are concerned that CSX’s freight trains — which sometimes carry crude oil and other hazardous materials — are at an increased risk of derailment while running through an open trench alongside the tunnel, which is next to an elevated highway and numerous homes.

Obama Coddling Big Oil On “Bomb Trains” Rules

June 16, 2014 Justin Mikulka and Steve Horn, www.desmogblog.com Educate! Barack Obama, Oil, Regulation

When Richard Revesz, Dean Emeritus of New York University Law School, introduced Howard Shelanski at his only public appearance so far during his tenure as Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Revesz described Shelanski as, “from our perspective, close to the most important official in the federal government.” OIRA has recently reared its head in a big way because it is currently reviewing the newly-proposed oil-by-rail safety regulations rolled out by the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). During his presentation at NYU, Shelanski spoke at length about how OIRA must use “cost-benefit analysis” with regards to regulations, stating, “Cost-benefit analysis is an essential tool for regulatory policy.” But during his confirmation hearings, Shelanski made sure to state his position on how cost-benefit analysis should be used in practice. Shelanski let corporate interests know he was well aware of their position on the cost of regulations and what they stood to lose from stringent regulations. “Regulatory objectives should be achieved at no higher cost than is absolutely necessary,” Shelanski said at the hearing.

Thousands Protest Oil In Naked Bike Ride

June 13, 2014 ShelSebens, www.reuters.com Organize! Oil, Oregon, Protest

Thousands of bicyclists, many of them stark naked, poured into the streets of Portland, Oregon on Saturday night for the 11th annual World Naked Bike Ride, a protest that promotes bike riding as an alternative to driving cars. Nude cyclists with lights flashing in their tire spokes rang bells as they barreled down avenues lined with cheering spectators, while a naked, apparently pregnant woman rode in a bike trailer. "This is a party, but it's also a protest," said Carl Larson, a ride spokesman. "It is about oil dependence, cycling vulnerability and body" image. Cyclists showed up in Normandale Park an hour before the ride, shedding garments according to the ride theme "as bare as you dare". The rides are held in more than 75 U.S. cities and in more than 20 other countries, but Portland's is believed to be the largest, with more than 8,000 participants last year. But unlike events in other cities, the Portland ride works with local police, being considered as a protest. Officers direct traffic during what is generally a trouble-free event.

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