From January 1 to March 31, 2020, the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), the largest and most powerful corporate lobby in California, spent $1,089,702 lobbying state officials, according to financial data filed with the California Secretary of State on April 30. Meanwhile, after the Legislature recessed at home during the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. oil prices collapsed below […]
This week’s decision by Trump’s Federal Reserve mirrors the Independent Petroleum Association of America’s request to bail out Big Oil. By Dan Bacher Here are all of the details from the Western Values Project: HELENA, MT – Yesterday, Trump’s Federal Reserve opened the floodgates to big oil in a decision that will allow financially unsustainable oil and gas corporations […]
Drilling in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a longtime dream of the industry, with environmental advocates fighting the idea fang and claw through several presidential administrations. Activists are winning. Their strategy: strangle the financing. By Meteor Blades Refuge oil is estimated to be in the billions of barrels, but oil production has been […]
We should not bail out oil companies. But we probably will since Trump is scrambling to do just that. As we know, the price of oil in the US fell below zero for the first time ever the other day. This plunge means that producers are paying buyers to take the oil — if that makes […]
Yet another study has found methane emissions from oil and gas operations to be higher than previous tallies in the same region. Published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances, the study of the fossil-fuel-rich Permian Basin of Texas concluded: “Based on satellite measurements from May 2018 to March 2019, Permian methane emissions from oil and natural gas production [amount to] 3.7% of […]
Both Norway and Alberta, Canada are economies that gain huge profits from selling oil. They have huge natural reserves of it and make ginormous profits from feeding our “need” for oil powered transportation. However, their method of deploying those profits is in sharp contrast, and interestingly it even guides their philosophies and how they view […]
How can a barrel of oil be worth less than zero? On April 20, the price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate fell below -$40 a barrel briefly, sending shock waves through the industry and leading to a 600 point drop on Wall Street. The idea that oil could be less than worthless — […]
The economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic has governments struggling with how to restart a global economy that has come to a grinding halt. Some short term needs have to be addressed as soon as possible — avoiding starvation, extending unemployment benefits, and arranging for emergency healthcare for those infected. But even as the world […]
We’ve previously pointed out the American Petroleum Institute’s misleading claims that the oil and gas industry has reduced methane emissions by 50% since 1990. What that figure conceals is that methane emissions have actually increased by 40% since 2006, which coincidentally happens to be around the time that fracking really took off. While the literature is still figuring […]
Over the past few months, I’ve had a set of conversations with entrepreneurs, academics, and engineers engaged in new technical solutions for cleaning up the tailing ponds that follow on from oil sands petroleum extraction and hard mineral mining. There are some key insights I’ve gained from this that will shape cleanup of the mess […]
Yesterday, we noticed WUWT had a post up on the Bureau of Land Management’s move from DC to Colorado. The Government Accountability Office strongly criticized BLM for failing to account for the costs of the move, among other issues, and the move comes as the agency is heavily tilting interests in favor of polluters over the public. By Climate Denier Roundup The […]
Ten years ago, on April 20, 2010, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 crew members and starting the largest ocean oil spill in history. Over the next three months, between 4 million and 5 million barrels of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico. A satellite image of the oil slick as […]
As we learned three months ago, after a big rise in 2018, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions fell slightly in 2019, almost entirely because of reduced coal burning. And because of the broad economic hiatus induced to fight the novel coronavirus, emissions have already fallen so far this year. But that’s temporary, and while the lowered levels of […]
Oil demand is in a freefall, thanks to improvements in battery technology, the proliferation of green energy alternatives, and — let’s face it — a world on lockdown due to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. All of these factors have come together to push barrels of oil to their lowest price in decades, but production hasn’t stopped, […]
Yesterday, the Washington Examiner’s Josh Siegel broke the news that the American Petroleum Institute is closing 15 of its state lobbying offices and firing 25 employees, according to an email to staff from the group’s CEO Mike Sommers. Given the financial condition the industry is in, and the pressure activists have put on companies to leave groups […]