#Oil Companies

[doomsayersunited]

#doomsday #human extinction #apocalypse #climate change #global warming #oil companies #heat waves

[ceevee5]

#global warming #climate breakdown #heatwave #oil companies

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Trump solicits political payoffs from oil company executives

Among the many shocking things Trump has done, openly soliciting political payoffs from oil company executives is near the top. See Washington Post, What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 billion to his campaign. (Article is accessible to all.)

Here is WaPo’s description of the incident:

As Donald Trump sat with some of the country’s top oil executives at his Mar-a-Lago Club last month, one executive complained about how they continued to face burdensome environmental regulations despite spending $400 million to lobby the Biden administration in the last year. Trump’s response stunned several of the executives in the room overlooking the ocean: [Trump said:] You all are wealthy enough, he said, that you should raise $1 billion to return me to the White House. At the dinner, [Trump] vowed to immediately reverse dozens of President Biden’s environmental rules and policies and stop new ones from being enacted, according to people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.

Giving $1 billion would be a “deal,” Trump said, because of the taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him, according to the people [at the dinner].

Got that? Trump explicitly connected raising $1 billion from oil executives and reversing Biden’s environmental rules that are unfavorable to oil companies. While the role of dirty money in politics is pervasive, explicit “quid pro quos” are usually exchanged in secret—because they are illegal. See 18 U.S. Code § 201 - Bribery of public officials and witnesses.

As usual, Trump is skirting the law. Section 201 prohibits public officials or “persons selected to be public officials” from demanding anything of value in exchange for an official act. If Trump made the same request after he had been elected (but before he was inaugurated), it would likely be a crime. Trump is walking right up to the line of illegality—again.

But saying that Trump has not committed a crime should not be the bar for judging his brazen solicitation of a payoff, i.e., “You raise $1 billion for me so I can repeal Joe Biden’s regulations that govern oil companies.” The mere hint of such an exchange should disqualify Trump as a candidate and outrage every American who believes their government is not for sale.

[Robert B Hubbell Newsletter]

#Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter #Robert B. Hubbell #authoritarianism #Oil Companies #environmental legislation

[dandelionsresilience]

Good News - May 22-28

Like these weekly compilations? Support me on Ko-fi! Also, if you tip me on Ko-fi, at the end of the month I'll send you a link to all of the articles I found but didn't use each week - almost double the content!

1. Scientists Invent Healthier More Sustainable Chocolate

“The new chocolate recipe from researchers at ETH Zurich uses more materials from the cocoa pod that are usually discarded, including more of the pulp as well as the inner lining of the husk, known as the endocarp. […] The resulting chocolate also [was “deliciously sweet” and] had 20% more fibre and 30 percent less saturated fat than average European dark chocolate[, and] it could enable cocoa farmers [to] earn more from their crops.”

2. Vermont Is Coming for Big Oil, Making It Pay for Decades of Climate Pollution

“Legislators in Montpelier are on the brink of enacting the "Climate Superfund Act," modeled after the federal Superfund law, that seeks to make oil, gas and coal companies pay for damages linked to historical greenhouse gas emissions. […] Companies would be held liable for the costs associated with […] floods and heat waves, along with losses to biodiversity, safety, economic development and anything else the treasurer deems reasonable[, that were caused by their emissions].”

3. Important bird habitat now protected in the Rocky Mountain Trench

“Grassland-reliant species in the Rocky Mountain Trench now have more protected habitat thanks to a new [270-hectare] conservation area near Cranbrook. […] About one-third of the Skookumchuck Prairie Conservation Area is forested[…,] Most of the site is a dry grassland[…, and] Three hectares of wetlands add to the landscape diversity and offer crucial benefits to wildlife and water systems in the area. This conservation gem also provides habitat for endangered American badger and excellent winter range for elk, mule deer and white-tailed deer.”

4. Lemur Week marked by 70th breeding success

“A wildlife park has celebrated its 70th lemur breeding success ahead of a week raising money to help save the endangered primates. […] The park's open-air Madagascar exhibit is home to 31 free-roaming lemurs and was officially opened in 2008. […] Females are only sexually receptive for just one or two days a year, leaving a small window of opportunity for males to father offspring. […] The two playful siblings, one female and one male, were born to father Bernard and mother Hira.”

5. Innovative material for sustainable building

“Researchers introduce a polymer-based material with unique properties. This material allows sunlight to enter, maintains a more comfortable indoor climate without additional energy, and cleans itself like a lotus leaf. The new development could replace glass components in walls and roofs in the future.”

6. Isle of Wight eagles don't pose threat to lambs as feared

“While there had previously been fears that the eagles would feed on livestock, such as lambs, the project has found no evidence of this. [… “W]hite-tailed eagles effectively steal meals from other predatory birds[, which is] a really important ecological role that had been lost within the landscape and is being restored.” [… The birds’] population was boosted by a chick last year – the first time the species has bred in England in 240 years.”

7. Breakthrough discovery uses engineered surfaces to shed heat

“Cheng's team has found a way to lower the starting point of the [Leidenfrost] effect by producing a surface covered with micropillars. […] The discovery has great potential in heat transfer applications such as the cooling of industrial machines and surface fouling cleaning for heat exchangers. It also could help prevent damage and even disaster to nuclear machinery.”

8. New malaria vaccine delivered for the first time

“A total of 43,000 doses arrived by air today from UNICEF, and another 120,000 are scheduled to show up in the coming days. […] They're the first vaccines designed to work against a human parasite. […] Across four African countries, these trials showed a 75% reduction in malaria cases in the year following vaccination of young children. […] The Serum Institute of India, who will be manufacturing the new vaccine, says a hundred million doses will likely be available to countries by the middle of next year.”

9. Urban gardening may improve human health: Microbial exposure boosts immune system

“"One month of urban indoor gardening boosted the diversity of bacteria on the skin of the subjects and was associated with higher levels of anti-inflammatory cytokines in the blood. The group studied used a growing medium with high microbial diversity emulating the forest soil," [… whereas] the control group used a microbially poor peat-based medium. [… N]o changes in the blood or the skin microbiota were seen. […] “This is the first time we can demonstrate that meaningful and natural human activity can increase the diversity of the microbiota of healthy adults and, at the same time, contribute to the regulation of the immune system."”

10. Cities Are Switching to Electric Vehicles Faster Than Individuals

“[M]ost large cities have adopted some kind of climate goal, and some of them are buying EVs for their municipal fleets at a faster rate than the general public. And that progress could speed up as more EVs enter the market and as cities get educated about grant funding and tax incentives that were passed over the last four years.”

May 15-21 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

#hopepunk #good news #chocolate #sustainability #farming #health #vermont #big oil #oil companies #climate change #cooling #technology #nuclear #malaria #vaccine #africa #unicef #eagles #livestock #england #birds #electric vehicles #glass #energy efficiency #habitat #conservation #lemur #zoo #gardening #urban gardening

[thoughtportal]

oil pipeline leak on Wind River Reservation

every article I could find about this incident all seemed to quote the same press release from the oil company word for word.

#tiktok #oil spills #oil spill #oil companies #pollution #water pollution #water rights #water protectors #Wind River Reservation #oil pipelines

[the-lady-maddy]

#amazon #oil companies #environmetalists #envrionment #environmentalism #protect indigenous people #indigenous #indigenous land #Instagram

[nando161mando]

"The Exxon Mobil heatwave killed 3000 people this week..."

#exxonmobil #exxon #mobil #crude oil #oil painting #olive oil #oilers lb #essential oils #oil on canvas #oil #oil companies #oil control face wash #climate justice #climate leaders #climate science #climate activists ‘may try to wreck the rollout of voter id measures at the local elections’ #climate emergency #climate change #climate crisis #climate and environment #climate action #jail climate criminals #ausgov #politas #auspol #tasgov #taspol #australia #neoliberal capitalism #fuck neoliberals

[climatecalling]

Greta Thunberg was arrested after joining hundreds of protesters who gathered at a five-star hotel in London on Tuesday morning to denounce a meeting branded “the Oscars of oil”. ... Addressing journalists before joining the protest, Thunberg said: “Behind these closed doors at the oil and money conference, spineless politicians are making deals and compromises with lobbyists from destructive industries, the fossil fuel industry. “People all over the world are suffering and dying from the consequences of the climate crisis caused by these industries who we allow to meet with our politicians and have privileged access to. “The elites of the oil and money conference, they have no intention of transition. Their plan is to continue this destructive search for profits. That is why we have to take direct action to stop this and to kick oil money out of politics. We have no other option but to put our bodies outside this conference and to physically disrupt [it].”

#climate crisis #climate activism #fossil fuels #greta thunberg #oil companies

[fenrislorsrai]

A few days after the release was discovered in June 2017, Stan met with Southcreek and the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the state’s oil and gas regulatory agency. At the meeting, the company characterized the incident as a “small spill,” the Ledgerwoods later alleged in court. It was unclear how long the leak lasted, but the saltwater plume had already saturated the soil and killed 2 acres of vegetation by the time it broke the surface, according to state oil regulators. Samples analyzed a month later by Oklahoma State University found that the soil’s concentration of chloride, which occurs in the type of salt water injected into the well, had risen to more than 12 times the state’s acceptable level and was “sufficiently high to reduce yield of even salt tolerant crops.” Other tests showed that chloride levels in the family’s water well had spiked to more than five times what the Environmental Protection Agency deems safe. The tests didn’t look for other contaminants like heavy metals that are often left behind by the oil production process. - - Don began traveling 30 miles round-trip to Walmart to buy bottled water. Stan and Tina’s steel pots rusted after being washed, and their 2-year-old great-niece’s skin became irritated and inflamed after repeatedly washing her hands while they potty-trained her. In a text message, the girl’s mother described her hands as looking like they had “a burn.” - - As is common in American oil fields, property rights in this part of Oklahoma often create split estates, where one person owns the land while another owns the underlying minerals, such as oil and gas. The owner of the minerals has a right to drill, even if the landowner would prefer they didn’t. - - But Oklahoma has more than 260,000 unplugged wells — behind only Texas — according to data from energy industry software firm Enverus. To plug and clean up the state’s wells could cost approximately $7.3 billion, according to an analysis of state records. Oklahoma has just $45 million in bonds. The oil industry’s bonds are “shockingly inadequate,” said Peter Morgan, a Sierra Club senior attorney. “It’s clear that abandoning wells and leaving communities and taxpayers to foot the bill to clean them up is baked into the oil and gas industry business model.” At the Capitol in Oklahoma City, which features repurposed oil derricks outside its main entrance, Republican state Rep. Brad Boles has tried for several years to address the shortfall. This year, he introduced a bill to create a tiered bonding system based on the number of wells a company operates, increasing the highest required bond to $150,000. [passed House, did not gt a vote in Senate] - - A stream of trucks rumbled down the Ledgerwoods’ once-quiet gravel road as workers removed enough dirt to fill 750 dump trucks and pumped more than 71,000 gallons from the Ledgerwoods’ water well. But the dangerous concentrations of chloride didn’t change, according to Fox Hollow’s report. - - Progress in the lawsuit was short-lived. In November 2019, shortly after the Ledgerwoods’ attorney sent discovery requests to Wise Oil & Gas, the company filed in a Texas court for voluntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy — a full liquidation of its assets. Company executives acknowledged they declared bankruptcy to avoid legal fees associated with the Ledgerwoods’ suit, according to court records. - - But two months later, Mullin ruled against the Ledgerwoods. He disagreed that Wise Oil & Gas had entered bankruptcy to shed bad investments and dodge cleanup obligations. He blasted the Ledgerwoods for requesting sanctions against the Cocanoughers. “Merely because the Ledgerwood Creditors have been damaged by the saltwater contamination, this does not provide them with an unfettered right to retaliate or lash out against unrelated and far-removed targets, such as the Cocanougher Sanction Targets,” Mullin wrote. If the Ledgerwoods wanted to continue seeking damages against the Cocanoughers and their businesses, they would have to pay the oil company’s attorneys’ fees, about $107,000, Mullin ruled.

It's worth reading the whole article for a breakdown of exactly HOW a company that poisoned a family's well and farm got out of fixing it or paying compensation.

Not as relevant in this particular case, but uncapped out of service wells like this are a major source of methane, an even more potent greenhouse gas than CO2

#oklahoma #bankruptcy laws #oil drilling #environmental law #oil companies

[stone-cold-groove]

It’s a matter of opinion... Texaco Havoline Motor Oil ad - 1952.

#vintage illustration #vintage advertising #texaco #havoline #motor oil #hunting #safaris #hunting safari #rhinos #rhinoceros #water buffalos #the texas company #oil companies #the 50s #the 1950s

[ceevee5]

#fossil fuels #global warming #climate change #shell #oil companies

[cannabisexual]

the thing i don't understand about the oil industry is how they weren't at the forefront of creating clean, sustainable energy. and before you go "well duh, of course they're against the concept, it cuts into their business model", consider for a moment that, logically, it should have been their business model from the start.

for example, no matter what your stance was on fossil fuels in the early 2000s, everyone seemed to agree that these resources were nonrenewable. it was in the name. limited, finite. that was the consensus we had, everyone knows this shit will eventually run out if we keep digging, no matter if you acknowledge that climate change exists or not. hell, we even had several projected models giving us a pretty good idea of when. so you would think, from a purely business perspective that it would've made sense for these oil companies to be like "huh, well maybe we should invest in cleaner, more sustainable technologies now so we don't run out in the future, AND we can control the clean energy too." it makes no financial sense to continue to drill holes in the ground while ignoring the very real reality that their entire business model will eventually, literally cease to exist if they don't do something about it.

again, this is just from a business/numbers point of view, not even taking into account the effects of climate change and the morality/ethics of extracting these resources from the earth. fossil fuels should have only ever been a stepping stone in the history of humanity's quest towards generating a theoretically limitless amount of energy that pays for itself, forever, and has a minimal-to-zero impact on the environment. i wouldn't even have necessarily minded having it controlled by corporations, because at least in the grand scheme of things our fucking planet wouldn't be on fire.

#personal #big oil #oil companies #nonrenewable resources #fossil fuels #clean energy #environmentalism #renewable energy #capitalism #fuck capitalism

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Steve Brodner

* * * *

Trump solicits political payoffs from oil company executives

Among the many shocking things Trump has done, openly soliciting political payoffs from oil company executives is near the top. See Washington Post, What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 billion to his campaign. (Article is accessible to all.)

Here is WaPo’s description of the incident:

As Donald Trump sat with some of the country’s top oil executives at his Mar-a-Lago Club last month, one executive complained about how they continued to face burdensome environmental regulations despite spending $400 million to lobby the Biden administration in the last year. Trump’s response stunned several of the executives in the room overlooking the ocean: [Trump said:] You all are wealthy enough, he said, that you should raise $1 billion to return me to the White House. At the dinner, [Trump] vowed to immediately reverse dozens of President Biden’s environmental rules and policies and stop new ones from being enacted, according to people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation. Giving $1 billion would be a “deal,” Trump said, because of the taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him, according to the people [at the dinner].

Got that? Trump explicitly connected raising $1 billion from oil executives and reversing Biden’s environmental rules that are unfavorable to oil companies. While the role of dirty money in politics is pervasive, explicit “quid pro quos” are usually exchanged in secret—because they are illegal. See 18 U.S. Code § 201 - Bribery of public officials and witnesses.

As usual, Trump is skirting the law. Section 201 prohibits public officials or “persons selected to be public officials” from demanding anything of value in exchange for an official act. If Trump made the same request after he had been elected (but before he was inaugurated), it would likely be a crime. Trump is walking right up to the line of illegality—again.

But saying that Trump has not committed a crime should not be the bar for judging his brazen solicitation of a payoff, i.e., “You raise $1 billion for me so I can repeal Joe Biden’s regulations that govern oil companies.” The mere hint of such an exchange should disqualify Trump as a candidate and outrage every American who believes their government is not for sale.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

#Robert B. Hubbell #Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter #payoff #bribery #oil companies #climate change #global warming #quid pro quos

[thoughtportal]

ICWA and oil companies

#tiktok #ICWA #cultural genocide #genocide #oil companies #capitalism is violence

[eaglesnick]

“Practically every environmental problem we have can be traced to our addiction to fossil fuels, primarily oil.”

Dennis Weaver

Oilman Sunak today (27/09/23) approved fossil fuel drilling in the North Sea. This policy is “better for our energy security", said the Prime Minister. Absolute nonsense!

Greenpeace remind us that 80% of oil produced in British waters is already exported. What is more, the Russian-Ukrainian war that is often used as an excuse for ensuring  “energy security” is a misleading argument as only 3% of the gas we use is from Russia.

There is another flaw with “we must drill for oil and gas to secure or own energy supplies” argument.  What Rishi Sunak and energy secretary Grant Shapps neglect to tell us is that any fossil fuels extracted from the North Sea BELONG TO THE LICENCE HOLDER not the UK government. They can sell that oil and gas wherever they like.

To make matters worse, Sunak is granting licenses to foreign multinationals and foreign state-owned fossil fuel companies. It is these companies that will benefit the most from the massive profits that the fossil fuel market has generated in recent years.

“Monster profits for energy giants reveal a self-destructive fossil fuel resurgence.”  (Guardian:09/02/23)

As if that wasn’t a big enough weakness in Sunak’s strategy then consider this

In July of this year (2023) the government passed the Energy (Oil and Gas) Profits Levy Bill, which, among other things introduced a new “super- deduction” style investment relief scheme. This quote from a government minister says it all.

“The new 80 per cent investment allowance will mean that, overall, businesses will get a 91p tax saving for every £1 they invest, providing them with a clear incentive to do so.” (Chartered Institute for Taxation: 15/07/230

In other words, the British taxpayer, you and I, will be giving foreign owned fossil fuel companies £91 for every £100 they invest in North Sea fossil fuel extraction.

If we were private investors we would expect and get a return on any profits the fossil fuel companies make proportionate to how much we had invested in the companies. What dividend does the British Taxpayer receive for such a massive investment in private companies? NONE!

 Britain, or rather, the Conservative Party, has ruled out a Sovereign Wealth Fund.

“The UK government doesn’t have a sovereign wealth fund and the Government currently has no plans to introduce one.” (House of Commons Library: UK Sovereign Wealth Fund: 09/12/16)

Our government quite literally gives taxpayer money to private companies, some of which are owned by the sovereign wealth funds of other countries, and expects nothing back in return. I am sure Rishi Sunak didn’t make his own estimated wealth of £730million by giving away money and not expecting a return on his investment so why does he expect the British taxpayer to act differently? Could it be he wants a job in the oil industry when he is kicked out of office?

#rishi sunak #grant shapps #sovereign wealth funds #fossil fuels extraction #tax relief #wealth #oil companies #give aways #tax payers

[imperialchem]

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#Drilling Fluids Additives Manufacturer in India #Drilling Fluids Additives Exporter in Jordan #Drilling Fluids Additives supplier in Jordan #petrochemical companies #petrochemical industries #business #oil and gas industry #oil and gas companies #chemical product #chemical industry #exporter #manufacturer #oil companies #oil industry #Imperial Oilfield Chemicals Pvt. Ltd.