Home » Posts tagged 'fossil fuel industry' (Page 2)

Tag Archives: fossil fuel industry

Olduvai
Click on image to purchase

Olduvai III: Catacylsm
Click on image to purchase

Post categories

Post Archives by Category

Senators Introduce “Merchants of Doubt” Amendment Into Energy Bill, Call On Fossil Fuel Industry To End Climate Denial and Deception

February 3, 2016

Senators Introduce “Merchants of Doubt” Amendment Into Energy Bill, Call On Fossil Fuel Industry To End Climate Denial and Deception

Democratic U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), Ed Markey (MA) and Brian Schatz (HI) introduced an amendment into the energy bill yesterday intended to express Congress’s disapproval of the use of industry-funded think tanks and misinformation tactics aimed at sowing doubt about climate change science.

The amendment evokes the history of notorious anti-science efforts by the tobacco and lead industries to avoid accountability for the damage caused by their products, focusing similar ire on the fossil fuel industry’s decades-long climate cover-up.

Although it doesn’t name specific companies, the amendment is surely inspired by recent revelations about ExxonMobil’s early and advanced knowledge of the role of fossil fuels in driving climate change — which was followed by the company’s subsequent, unconscionable climate science denial efforts.

Just as tobacco and lead companies sowed doubt about the dangers of their products through the use of front groups and third-party experts, so did ExxonMobil — through its funding of a sophisticated network of denialists — work to deceive the public about climate science and the need for political action to end the fossil fuel era.

The most recent and damning #ExxonKnew revelations were published late in 2015 in investigative articles by both InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles Times in collaboration with the Columbia School of Journalism.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) joined the amendment as a co-sponsor once it was introduced.

“It is the sense of the Senate that according to peer-reviewed scientific research and investigative reporting, fossil fuel companies have long known about the harmful climate effects of their products,” the amendment reads.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Political Climate Shifting Against The Oil And Gas Industry

November 10, 2015

Political Climate Shifting Against The Oil And Gas Industry

Oil and gas companies have had a tough time over the past year trying to weather the storm of falling oil prices. But the political and financial winds are moving in the wrong direction for the industry, raising more “above ground” problems at a time that they can ill-afford it.

Drilling oil and gas wells requires a lot of money. For companies that have seen their revenues vanish because of collapsing oil prices, access to credit is obviously critically important. But U.S. financial regulators are growing concerned about a pile of energy debt that is deteriorating in quality. A reportfrom the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve singled out the oil and gas sector when it concluded that credit risk was rising across the United States.

For example, there is at least $34.2 billion in loans in the banking sector that have a credit rating suggesting they are “substandard,” “doubtful,” or “loss.” That figure is up from just $6.9 billion in 2014. Put another way, about 12 percent of all loans to oil and gas companies are rated “substandard” or worse.

Related: Canada’s Oil Sector Cautiously Optimistic About Late 2016 Recovery

Low oil prices are undermining the ability of some companies to pay back their debt. However, increased oversight from banking regulators could force banks to take corrective measures, which could mean reducing their exposure to high-risk energy debt. Such a development does not bode well for oil and gas drillers. Tighter credit conditions – which could also be impacted by a pending rate increase by the Federal Reserve in December – will make drilling more expensive.

In the political arena, things are not any better, with last week being a particularly rough one for the energy sector.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Fossil Fuel Companies Dominate EU Meetings on Climate and Energy Policy, Report Shows

November 10, 2015

Fossil Fuel Companies Dominate EU Meetings on Climate and Energy Policy, Report Shows

Big energy and fossil fuel companies are enjoying privileged access to the EU’s top climate policy decision makers in the run-up to December’s Paris climate conference a new report reveals.

The report by transparency research and campaign group Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) looks at all meetings held by Commissioners Miguel Arias Cañete and Maros Šefčovič during their first year in office. In total, energy companies make up 30 per cent of all lobby encounters with the commissioners and their cabinets.

When it comes to discussing climate and energy policy, three-quarters of the European Commission’s encounters with the energy industry were with fossil fuel companies including BP, Statoil, and Shell.

Renewables vs Fossil Fuels

At the same time, specialist renewable energy companies have not enjoyed a single one-to-one meeting with the Commissioners. Meanwhile, only six renewable energy associations had meeting.

In fact, for every meeting with the renewables sector, Cañete – a former director of two oil companies now responsible for energy and climate action – had 22 meetings with the fossil fuel industry. Šefčovič, who is in charge of the Energy Union, had just one meeting with renewables compared to 29 with the fossil fuel industry.
Graphs via CEO report

CEO researcher and campaigner Belén Balanyá said: “This data is extremely worrying given the sensitive topics these Commissioners have been in charge of over the past year. Industry-friendly policies on car emissions, Energy Union, the Emissions Trading Scheme, and the upcoming COP21 UN climate negotiations clearly reflect the disturbing level of access to decision-makers enjoyed by dirty energy.

“While the science says we must urgently and drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions, boost renewables, and dramatically increase energy efficiency, the Commission is sadly moving in the opposite direction.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Mark Carney wants business to calculate the fossil fuel future: Don Pittis

October 1, 2015

Mark Carney wants business to calculate the fossil fuel future: Don Pittis

Bank of England governor’s climate change warning puts the focus on the bottom line

No doubt Bank of England governor Mark Carney has personal views on whether or not climate change is a danger to his children’s future. Most thoughtful people do.

But when the former Bank of Canada governor spoke to a high-powered audience of insurance executives this week, unlike environmentalists such as Leonardo DiCaprio, he didn’t emphasize their moral obligation to future generations. Perhaps after the VW scandal, he realized there was a more direct way to a businessperson’s heart.

He appealed to their bottom line.

“Changes in policy, technology and physical risks could prompt a reassessment of the value of a large range of assets as costs and opportunities become apparent,” he told the group.

“Longer-term risks could have severe impacts on you and your policyholders.”

When New Democratic Party candidate Linda McQuaig raised some of the same issues in the current federal election campaign, saying part of Canada’s fossil fuel resources might have to be left in the ground, it played as a left-right issue.

CANADA-CRUDE/SHUT-INS

Dwayne Roy checks an active well site near Lloydminster, Sask., this summer. Bank of England governor Mark Carney says investors must realize oil may have to be left in the ground. (Reuters)

“For the hundreds of thousands of people whose jobs are dependent on Canada’s energy sector, listen to what you just heard,” responded Conservative candidate Michelle Rempel.

Profit and loss, not left and right

But for Carney’s audience at a Lloyd’s of London black tie dinner, the issue is not a matter of left or right politics, but a matter of profit and loss.

Insurance companies often pay the bills when storms and flooding do their damage. Climate change is likely to make those insurable crises worse.

But perhaps more important, against those potential losses, insurance companies hold trillions of dollars in assets invested in all kinds of stocks and bonds. And Carney said those assets were threatened.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Obama’s Bipolar Approach To Energy And Climate Change

June 14, 2015

Obama’s Bipolar Approach To Energy And Climate Change

With less than two years to go in office, President Obama has already sealed his fate with regards to his legacy on climate change.

When historians look back and assess his actions on what could be one of the biggest issues of his presidency, they will undoubtedly be using the term “disappointing” quite a bit.

The main problem is not that he has ignored the issue as his predecessor, President George W. Bush, did; it is that he has consistently said one thing about the threat of climate change and then done the exact opposite of what he has called for.

When he was first running for president, Obama made it clear that his approach to energy was an “all of the above” platform that included coal, renewables, oil, natural gas, and even nuclear. This was his way of trying to appease both the fossil fuel interests and those of us who understand that renewable energy is what’s needed to protect the planet.

It isn’t unique for politicians to backtrack on campaign promises. In fact, that is the status quo for the most part, and when you take into consideration the fact that Obama was very up front with us about his energy policy, we cannot accuse him of being dishonest in this situation.

But what is unique in this situation is President Obama’s constant public reminders that climate change is a threat to the United States, proclamations that are typically followed by an anti-environment executive action.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

Emails Reveal Coziness Between Koch Lobbyists and Regulators

June 13, 2015

Emails Reveal Coziness Between Koch Lobbyists and Regulators

The close ties between corporate interests and the regulators who are supposed to police them contributes, many argue, to fundamentally lax oversight.

Emails I recently obtained through a records request show how cozy a Koch Industries lobbyist is with officials at the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the primary regulator for derivatives and commodity trading.

Though Koch Industries is better known for using its considerable political machine to promote fossil fuel industry priorities and tax cuts for the wealthy, the company also has a major stake in the financial markets via its business unit devoted to commodity speculation. Notably, the very first oil-indexed price swap was pioneered by a Koch trader in 1986, and the infamous “Enron Loophole” that deregulated the trading of credit default swaps was engineered by a lobbying team that included two Koch lobbyists.

The recent lobbying campaign around derivatives is already paying off. As Zach Carter of the Huffington Post reported, the House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a major regulatory roll-back supported by Wall Street banks and the Kochs. The legislation would affect the post-financial crisis reforms designed to rein in the global derivatives market.

Just as Citigroup lobbyists authored their own deregulation bills in Congress, the Koch emails reveal just how comfortable the regulators and the lobbyists who curry their favor feel with each other, even as the latter are besieging the former with information and pressure that benefits their very rich clients.

Gregory Zerzan, a former Treasury Department official during the George W. Bush administration, went on to work for the International Swaps and Derivatives Association before becoming a Koch lobbyist.

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Fossil Fuels Drive Rapid Glacier Loss across Western Canada, Study Finds

April 10, 2015

Fossil Fuels Drive Rapid Glacier Loss across Western Canada, Study Finds

Melting offers a ‘big signal’ about the climate, expert says.

Western Canadian glaciers, an ancient water bank that maintains stream flow for hydroelectric dams and salmon-bearing rivers, could shrink by 70 per cent by 2100.

The catastrophic loss of ice for Western Canada has major implications for the availability of drinkable water, the survival of fresh water fisheries, and the productivity of hydroelectric generation, finds a new study published in Nature Geosciencethis week.

Western Canadian glaciers, which occupy 26,700 square kilometres, have been retreating for several decades. The surface area covered by ice in the interior mountains declined 11 per cent between 1985 and 2005, and nearly 20 per cent in the eastern slopes of the Rockies.

“We are getting a big signal from the glaciers about what the climate is doing,” said lead author Garry Clarke, professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia.

Using comprehensive modelling, which includes ice flow physics, the study found that rising temperatures caused by fossil fuel emissions will wipe out most glaciers in the interior of British Columbia and the Rocky Mountains of Alberta under most scenarios.

The Columbia Icefield, which waters both Banff and Jasper national parks, will disappear altogether by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions are allowed to triple beyond current levels under what Clarke called “the bad guy” scenario.

“We won’t see ice in the Rocky Mountain Parks. That would be a sad cultural loss and aesthetic loss for Canada,” said Clarke.

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

How Industry First Went to War With Climate Science | DeSmog UK

October 29, 2014

How Industry First Went to War With Climate Science | DeSmog UK.

Scientists had well understood for many decades that adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere could raise global temperatures and cause climate change. But when politicians finally took notice, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was formed, industry began a war with science itself. 

Bert Bolin, the founder of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), was the first scientist to detect signals from the coal and oil industry that there would be serious resistance to climate science and its policy implications. 

As soon as governments began taking the issue seriously, the energy industry mobilised its greatest assets in order to combat organised opposition to its climate-damaging activities.

The Global Climate Coalition (GCC) was formed as soon as the IPCC came into being and, as the name suggests, this was an industry-funded powerhouse designed to undermine any global coalition to prevent climate change.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Post navigation

Newer posts →

Olduvai IV: Courage
Click on image to read excerpts

Olduvai II: Exodus
Click on image to purchase

Click on image to purchase @ FriesenPress