A coalition of nearly 70 advocacy organizations is demanding that the Federal Reserve immediately stop using its emergency Covid-19 lending facilities to buy up fossil fuel debt, warning that rescuing the faltering oil and gas industry is both a bad investment of public money and disastrous for the climate. By Jake Johnson Common Dreams The Federal Reserve Board’s “decision […]
Air pollution contributes to as many as 9 million premature deaths worldwide each year – twice as many as war, other violence, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Fine particulate matter air pollution is especially dangerous: Microscopic particles readily enter the lungs, bloodstream and brain, with health effects that include infant death, reduced life expectancy for […]
If you’ve driven through an area where companies extract oil and gas from shale formations, you’ve probably seen flames dancing at the tops of vertical pipes. That’s flaring – the mostly uncontrolled practice of burning off a byproduct of oil and gas production. Over the past 10 years, the U.S. shale oil and gas boom […]
The same industries fueling the climate crisis and disproportionately polluting Black and brown communities across the U.S are bankrolling police foundations, groups which can help militarize local police departments.That’s according to a new investigation from transparency group Public Accountability Initiative and its LittleSis project. By Andrea Germanos Common Dreams Authored by Gin Armstrong and Derek Seidman and […]
Climate activists are celebrating Deutsche Bank’s new energy policy banning financial support of drilling in the Arctic, a move which comes after years of pressure from advocacy groups. The bank, a multinational investment company headquartered in Germany, announced Monday that it will no longer offer financial services to new projects that involve drilling for oil […]
Progressive Democrats led by Rep. Ilhan Omar and Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday introduced a bill to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies and other industry giveaways, calling taxpayer support of the climate-killing business- a counterproductive and dangerous use of federal funds as the climate crisis worsens and Americans suffer through an economic downturn sparked by the […]
The California Resources Corporation (CRC), the largest oil and natural gas exploration and production company in the state, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, potentially leaving California taxpayers on the hook for a massive cleanup. CRC and its affiliates operate approximately 18,700 wells in California, including 7,826 that are already “idle,” meaning they’ve produced little to no oil in […]
At first, Occidental Petroleum had too many employees and too much revenue to qualify for federal aid. So how did the major oil and gas company ultimately get the bailout it wanted? In the following video from The Years Project, investigative reporter Zorka Milin explains how the company lobbied for rule changes. By The Years […]
In recent months, campaigns to electrify buildings have really hit their stride, with just over thirty cities so far having committed to banning gas in buildings, and requiring all new buildings to use electricity for things like heat and cooking instead. Meanwhile, the ongoing pandemic and global price war means that “oil and gas companies in the […]
If you were on Twitter last week, you were likely bombarded by takes on The Letter. If you weren’t on Twitter, good. Read this if you really want the context, otherwise forget about it. Because if you’ve been paying attention to climate deniers, the whole complaint about “cancel culture” should be immediately clear as not about any sort of real debate or free speech, […]
Putting a price on carbon should reduce emissions, because it makes dirty production processes more expensive than clean ones, right? That’s the economic theory. Stated baldly, it’s obvious, but there is perhaps a tiny chance that what happens in practice might be something else. By Paul Burke, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University; […]
Recent efforts by oil and gas giants to project an outward appearance of financial stability amid the Covid-19 pandemic by selling off assets or accumulating debt to continue paying out steady shareholder dividends represent strong evidence that the fossil fuel industry has reached its “endgame” and should not be bailed out with taxpayer dollars. By Jake Johnson […]
In the early 1980s scientists and the fossil fuel industry came to understand the essential characteristics of the climate system and the implications for the energy industry. Governments decided that they preferred not to understand. The fossil fuel industry decided to go along with the gag. By Dr James Hansen Climate is characterized by a delayed […]
Demand for fossil fuels collapsed during the COVID-19 pandemic as lockdown measures were introduced. In the second quarter of 2020, experts predict that global oil demand will be down 20 per cent from this time last year. Although demand is likely to recover somewhat in the next two years, some major oil company executives believe […]
After the European Union’s central bank approved what Reuters called “a bigger-than-expected” expansion of an economic stimulus package necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic, climate campaigners expressed concern that planet-destroying fossil fuel companies could get tens of billions of dollars in the Eurozone relief funding. By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams The European Central Bank (ECB) Governing […]