The British oil behemoth Shell reported a record $9.6 billion in first-quarter profits and announced $4 billion in stock buybacks, prompting fury from environmentalists and progressive lawmakers who say the fossil fuel industry’s profiteering is grotesque amid a worsening climate emergency and cost-of-living crises across Europe. By Jake Johnson Common Dreams Shell CEO Wael Sawan—who recently declared that […]
Further emboldened by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s fresh call for rapid emission cuts, campaigners are planning to rally outside the U.S. Interior Department on Tuesday morning to protest the Biden administration’s approval of a massive oil drilling project that—if completed—would spew millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. By Jake Johnson […]
A United Nations panel composed of the world’s top scientists is set to release its latest climate assessment on Monday as governments fail to heed repeated, increasingly urgent warnings that the window for action to prevent catastrophic global heating is nearly shut. By Jake Johnson Common Dreams The landmark report from the Intergovernmental Panel on […]
Environmental groups filed two separate lawsuits on Tuesday and Wednesday to fight the Biden administration’s decision to approve a massive fossil fuel drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, a step that opened the door to hundreds of millions of tons of additional planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions. By Jake Johnson Common Dreams The first lawsuit, filed by […]
A new analysis by the campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets found that the rail industry has spent $653.5 million on federal lobbying over the past two decades as it has worked—often successfully—to fight off stricter safety regulations and antitrust enforcement. While Norfolk Southern’s history of lobbying against safety rules has faced greater scrutiny and backlash in the wake of the […]
U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday nominated a private equity executive and former Mastercard CEO to lead the World Bank, drawing furious backlash from climate and anti-corruption campaigners who said the pick would ensure the key global financial institution remains a tool of corporate interests and funder of climate chaos. By Jake Johnson Common Dreams Ajay Banga’s […]
Facing intense scrutiny and backlash over the toxic derailment of one of its trains in eastern Ohio, Norfolk Southern on Wednesday reached a deal with a leading rail union to provide up to a week of paid sick leave per year to around 3,000 track maintenance workers. Under the agreement, Norfolk Southern will immediately give four workdays […]
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday connected the spate of recent train derailments in the United States to Wall Street-backed cost-cutting and other policy decisions that have decimated the rail industry’s workforce and compromised safety for the sake of larger profits. By Jake Johnson Common Dreams. “When rail companies reduced their workforce by 30% under orders from Wall […]
Environmental groups on Tuesday accused the Biden administration of putting the profits of big agribusiness over public health and critical pollinators by attempting to obstruct the Mexican government’s ongoing push to ban genetically engineered corn. By Jake Johnson Common Dreams “The U.S.’s shameful efforts to strong-arm Mexico into accepting GE corn it has rejected is […]
Residents of East Palestine, Ohio are voicing alarm and mistrust of officials after a 150-car train carrying hazardous materials—including vinyl chloride—crashed in their small town, prompting emergency evacuations and a “controlled release” of chemicals into the air to prevent a catastrophic explosion. By Jake Johnson Common Dreams Norfolk Southern, the company that owns the derailed […]
A group of activist investors sued Shell’s board of directors on Wednesday for failing to “deliver the reduction in emissions that is needed to keep global climate goals within reach.” ClientEarth, an environmental law charity and institutional investor in Shell, described the case as the first time a company board is facing a shareholder lawsuit for […]
President Joe Biden said during his State of the Union address Tuesday that the climate crisis is an “existential threat” and political leaders have an obligation to confront it. Seconds later, the president briefly deviated from his prepared remarks to add, “We’re still going to need oil and gas for a while”—prompting applause from Republican lawmakers. By Jake Johnson Common […]
On the same day that the largest oil company in the United States reported record profits for 2022, Republicans used the first House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing of the new year to promote the further expansion of climate-wrecking fossil fuel production and attack efforts to build out renewable energy infrastructure. By Jake Johnson Common […]
The Biden administration’s Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday published an environmental assessment that recommends partial approval of a major drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, prompting a flurry of calls for the Interior Department to reject the plan outright and prevent any additional fossil fuel extraction in the region. By Jake Johnson Common Dreams […]
Climate watchdogs warned Monday that a bill House Republicans are expected to vote on this week is a thinly veiled effort to open more public lands and waters to planet-wrecking oil and gas drilling. The Strategic Production Response Act, led by new House Energy and Commerce Committee chair Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), aims to curtail presidential […]