Most recent 30 articles: Drilled News
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How Exxon is leveraging Texas courts to silence its climate critics - Drilled News (Jan 18, 2022) |
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Jan 18, 2022 · ExxonMobil is attempting to use an unusual Texas law to target and intimidate its critics, claiming that lawsuits against the company over its long history of downplaying and denying the climate crisis violate the US constitution’s guarantees of free speech.
The US’s largest oil firm is asking the Texas supreme court to allow it to use the law, known as rule 202, to pursue legal action against more than a dozen California municipal officials. Exxon claims that in filing lawsuits against the company over its role in the climate crisis, the officials are orchestrating a conspiracy against the firm’s first amendment rights.
The oil giant also makes the curious claim that ... Read more ...
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Offshore oil and gas worker fatalities are underreported by federal safety agency - Drilled News (Aug 18, 2021) |
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Aug 18, 2021 · Nearly half of known Gulf of Mexico worker fatalities didn’t fit the agency’s reporting criteria
Leo Linder felt safer on BP’s Deepwater Horizon than he had on other offshore oil drilling rigs. On April 20, 2010, he ended his shift and went to his sleeping quarters two hours before the platform exploded, killing 11 workers and triggering one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history. The man who replaced him was among the crew members who died.
“I’m cynical, but I really thought the system would work,” he said. “There were certainly signs in hindsight. My faith in the system working was pretty solid, even after the initial explosion I couldn’t fathom it was a ... Read more ...
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The Supreme Court’s Obscure Procedural Ruling in Baltimore’s Climate Case, Explained - Drilled News (May 26, 2021) |
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May 26, 2021 · Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on an important case about whether major oil and gas companies should be held accountable for engaging in a systematic marketing campaign to deceive the public about the catastrophic threat that fossil fuel products pose to the planet.
The Court didn’t consider the merits of the case but rather answered an obscure procedural question in a way that permits the defendants to continue to delay litigation in state court, and thereby also serves to deny the public essential information about the fossil fuel industry’s attempt to spread disinformation about its products’ role in fueling the climate crisis.
In the case, Baltimore ... Read more ...
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Climate Accountability Is a Solution - Why Isn’t It Treated Like One? - Drilled News (May 06, 2021) |
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May 06, 2021 · What can we do about climate change? Which policies will work? Which technologies? What can individuals do, and what sort of collective action should they support? The appeal of “solutions journalism” addressing climate change is undeniable, but there is a large hole in much of it: understanding the root causes of the problem.
Catastrophic climate change is a symptom of an intertwined web of problems. Untangling that web and the various forces that created it is not just a worthy exercise, it’s absolutely critical to developing solutions that actually work. The focus on technological and policy solutions to climate has put the cart before the horse, and in ... Read more ...
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Climate accountability is a solution—why isn't it treated like one? - Drilled News (May 06, 2021) |
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May 06, 2021 · What can we do about climate change? Which policies will work? Which technologies? What can individuals do, and what sort of collective action should they support? The appeal of “solutions journalism” addressing climate change is undeniable, but there is a large hole in much of it: understanding the root causes of the problem.
Catastrophic climate change is a symptom of an intertwined web of problems. Untangling that web and the various forces that created it is not just a worthy exercise, it’s absolutely critical to developing solutions that actually work. The focus on technological and policy solutions to climate has put the cart before the horse, and in ... Read more ...
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Gulf Coast Oil Workers Are Building America’s Offshore Wind Industry - Drilled News (Apr 20, 2021) |
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Apr 20, 2021 · “The biggest misconception about transitioning from offshore drilling to offshore wind is the idea that oil platforms can be reused to hold wind turbines,” Louisiana state Representative Joseph Orgeron said in a recent phone interview. Offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico weren’t designed to handle that sort of load. The weight distribution of an offshore wind turbine is like trying to mount a “pumpkin on a pole,” Orgeron said.
To function, the vertical base needs to be stout enough to handle the movement of the blades spinning and the face rotating directions with the wind.
But while offshore drilling platforms don’t quite work as offshore wind platforms, what can ... Read more ...
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Big Oil, Big Profits, Big Brother - Drilled News (Jan 26, 2021) |
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Jan 26, 2021 · The multi-billion-dollar digital services Microsoft provides to the oil and gas industry could help delay the energy transition - and threaten worker privacy.
In June, as 15 million people nationwide marched in Black Lives Matter protests and employees at tech companies called on their bosses to cancel company contracts with law enforcement, Microsoft announced that it would temporarily restrict sales of its facial recognition software to police departments.
In July, as temperatures in the far north climbed to record highs and wildfires raged on the frozen shores of the Arctic ocean, Microsoft said in a statement that it would expand its in-house carbon tax, and unveiled ... | By Maddie Stone Read more ...
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White House Removes Scientists After Rogue Climate Denial Publications - Drilled News (Jan 14, 2021) |
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Jan 14, 2021 · Papers promoting debunked views on climate science were published under the Office of Science and Technology Policy seal without approval. They've now been removed, along with their authors.
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has dismissed David Legates and Ryan Maue, two controversial Trump appointees to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, following their role in publishing a series of climate denial papers falsely attributed to the OSTP.
The “Climate Change Flyers” were published last week on the website of the Center for Environmental Research and Earth Sciences (CERES), an organization affiliated with former Harvard ... | By Maddie Stone Read more ...
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Michigan Pipeline Fight Intensifies as Permit Deadline Nears - Drilled News (Jan 14, 2021) |
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Jan 14, 2021 · Enbridge is defying Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's move to shut down the Line 5 underwater pipeline, which environmentalists and tribes fear could cause an environmental disaster.
Under the strong and fickle currents of the Straits of Mackinac, which flow through a four-mile gap between Michigan’s Upper and Lower peninsulas, twin pipelines have transported two million gallons of petroleum products daily for seven decades.
This year they may shut down for good.
In November, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer revoked the 1953 easement allowing the twin pipelines, known as Line 5, to run under the straits, and gave its owner, Enbridge Inc., 180 days to shut them ... | By Andrew Blok Read more ...
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Ohio Passes Fossil Fuel-backed Anti-protest Legislation - Drilled News (Dec 24, 2020) |
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Dec 24, 2020 · It’s not clear whether Gov. Mike DeWine will sign the bill, which would criminalize protests by groups and individuals at pipelines and other energy infrastructure.
Barring a last-minute veto from Gov. Mike DeWine, Ohio is poised to become the fourteenth state to pass legislation criminalizing pipeline protests by both individuals and organizations.
The legislation, known as Senate Bill 33, would allow operators of facilities deemed “critical infrastructure” to initiate civil actions against protesters “who willfully [cause] damage” to those facilities, including non-violently trespassing on the surrounding property. Protesters found guilty could face fines and charges ... | By Amy Westervelt Read more ...
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As Border Wall Advances Across Sacred Lands, Native Activists Meet It With Prayer and Protest - Drilled News (Dec 21, 2020) |
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Dec 21, 2020 · Citing their rights to religious freedom, Kumeyaay and Tohono O'odham activists are using ceremony to try and slow border wall construction on their historic lands.
On Indigenous Peoples Day in October, in 110-degree heat, a group of 50 or so members of the Kumeyaay tribe and allies gathered on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border at a spot about 50 miles east of San Diego. The rugged oak-and-sagebrush landscape here is dotted with huge diggers, work trucks, construction crews, and men with guns: private security contractors protecting workers building President Donald Trump’s long promised “beautiful wall.”
The Kumeyaay have called this land home for more than ... | By James Stout Read more ...
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In 'Dutch vs. Shell' Case, Fossil Fuel's Future Is on Trial - Drilled News (Dec 17, 2020) |
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Dec 17, 2020 · In groundbreaking climate case, 17,000 Dutch citizens and several environmental groups have asked the The Hauge to rule that Europe's biggest oil-and-gas firm must abide by the Paris accord's goals.
Five years after nearly 200 nations adopted the Paris climate agreement, a coalition of seven Dutch environmental group and more than 17,000 co-plaintiffs are facing off in civil court at The Hague against Royal Dutch Shell for continuing to do business in ways that undermine the pact’s goal to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F).
If they win, the plaintiffs say, the decision will establish that Shell is responsible under both the ... | By Dana Drugmand Read more ...
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A Black 'Cancer Alley' Community Makes Gains Against Massive Plastics Plant - Drilled News (Dec 17, 2020) |
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Dec 17, 2020 · The Biden-Harris administration's first environmental racism challenge may be Formosa's $9.4 billion petrochemical 'ethane cracker' in St James Parish, Louisiana, which state and federal officials sited next to a majority-Black district without considering alternatives.
Louisiana’s historical lack of environmental protections and lenient tax code have long made the state a haven for the petrochemical industry. The 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi River Valley between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is notorious for having some of the nation's highest levels of air pollution. Known for decades as Cancer Alley, the strip is already home to more than 150 ... | By Sarah Durn Read more ...
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“What We’re Talking About Is Whether People Are Going to Live or Die." - Drilled News (Dec 16, 2020) |
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Dec 16, 2020 · Environmental groups say the Trump administration's new ethane cracker air pollution standard is far too weak. The petrochemical industry says it's too strong. Both are challenging the rule in court.
As the fossil fuel sector tries to reposition itself to endure well into the low-carbon era, a regulatory battle has begun between the petrochemical industry and a coalition of nearly a dozen environmental and frontline community groups.
The battle concerns new air pollution rules for massive industrial plants that transform methane gas into a resin used to make plastic. The outcome, which may play out in court, is a life and death matter for the communities ... | By Dana Drugmand Read more ...
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The “Cycle of Oil as the Key Engine of the World Economy Is Finished,” Says U.N. Secretary General - Drilled News (Dec 02, 2020) |
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Dec 02, 2020 · Humanity’s survival will be “impossible” without the United States rejoining the Paris Agreement and achieving “net zero” carbon emissions by 2050, as the incoming Biden administration has pledged, says Antonio Guterres in an exclusive interview.
“The way we are moving is a suicide,” United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said in an interview on Monday, and humanity’s survival will be “impossible” without the United States rejoining the Paris Agreement and achieving “net zero” carbon emissions by 2050, as the incoming Biden administration has pledged.
The Secretary General said that “of course” he had been in touch with president-elect Biden and looked forward ... | By Mark Hertsgaard, The Nation Read more ...
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Exxon Spends Millions on Facebook To Keep the Fossil Fuel Industry Alive - Drilled News (Nov 18, 2020) |
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Nov 18, 2020 · Aided by a right-wing political consulting firm, the company is rallying supporters to fight for oil and gas interests at every level of government. This story originally appeared in In These Times.
In January 2019, an outfit called Santa Barbara for Safe and Local Transport (SBSLT) began running social media advertisements for select California residents. SBSLT’s name and logo - showcasing distant green mountains, a sliver of blue ocean and a highway slicing through them - could be mistaken for that of a typical grassroots group or a governmental highway agency. In reality, SBSLT is part of a campaign by the giant oil corporation Exxon ... | By Christine Macdonald Read more ...
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Alaska's Climate Candidate for Senate Won't Concede Until Every Vote Is Counted - Drilled News (Nov 12, 2020) |
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Nov 12, 2020 · Independent Al Gross, a fisherman and orthopedic surgeon, still hopes to upset incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
A week past Election Day, ballot counting is winding down in most states.
But in Alaska, it’s just begun.
After tallying up in-person votes, largely from cities, on Nov 3, the state began processing ballots from rural areas a week later, on Nov. 10. The next day, the Associated Press called the state's much-watched Senate race for incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, who led with close to 150,000 votes to 97,600 for challenger Al Gross.
But with around 70,000 ballots remaining to be counted, Gross - an Independent running on the ... | By Bailey Berg Read more ...
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Trial of Attorney Who Fought Chevron’s Pollution in Ecuador Begins Monday - Drilled News (Nov 06, 2020) |
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Nov 06, 2020 · Steven Donziger may stand trial on criminal contempt charges without his own lawyer to represent him, after the judge denied his requests to postpone the case.
A trial to determine whether Steven Donziger will spend time in prison is set to start Monday after a five-day delay.
Donziger is an American attorney who helped a group of Indigenous Ecuadorians win an $18 billion dollar judgement against Chevron over toxic waste pits in the Amazon. The fossil fuel firm in turn filed a civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) case against Donziger, plaintiffs’ attorneys, and some of the plaintiffs themselves in New York, seeking an injunctive order to stop the ... | By Karen Savage and Amy Westervelt Read more ...
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A South Bronx Climate Candidate Is Making Her Third Bid for State Assembly - Drilled News (Nov 02, 2020) |
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Nov 02, 2020 · In one of New York’s most polluted districts, a 29-year-old with bold visions for environmental justice hopes to unseat a 26-year incumbent.
A South Bronx community activist with ideas for more green jobs, free public transit, and waterfronts prepared for climate change, is making her third try in four years for a seat in the New York State Assembly.
Amanda Septimo, a 29-year-old South Bronx native, is running as a Democrat against three-decade incumbent Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, a longtime figure in New York’s Democratic Party machine who, environmental justice activists contend, has made little meaningful progress on solving the South Bronx’s long-term environmental ... | By Audrey Carleton Read more ...
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Federal Judge: Rhode Island’s Climate Fraud Lawsuit Against Big Oil Belongs in State Court - Drilled News (Oct 30, 2020) |
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Oct 30, 2020 · The U.S. 1st Circuit decision is the latest blow to Big Oil's attempts to fend off accountability - and monetary damages - for decades of climate disinformation.
A federal judge has ruled that Rhode Island’s climate liability case against 21 oil and gas corporations belongs in state court, where the state originally filed it in 2018.
The Oct. 29 decision by the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals aligns with three other federal appeals court decisions this year in similar climate lawsuits against Big Oil.
Rhode Island is one of two dozen communities around the country suing the fossil fuel industry for its decades of deliberately misleading the public about the ... | By Dana Drugmand Read more ...
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Louisiana Ballot Measure Could Slash Oil and Gas Property Taxes That the State Already Subsidizes - Drilled News (Oct 28, 2020) |
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Oct 28, 2020 · 2020's Constitutional Amendment 5 would make it legal for local officials to bargain away billions of dollars in future property taxes, in return for lower payments up front.
Lake Charles, pop. 78,000, is a casino town and petrochemical hub in Southwest Louisiana that’s often described in terms of how long it takes to drive somewhere else. Going east on nearby Interstate 10, Baton Rouge is two hours away and New Orleans around three and a half, with Houston a two hour drive to the west.
Lake Charles recently made national news on its own, as one of the first U.S. cities ever hit by back-to-back hurricanes just six weeks apart. Hurricane Laura’s sustained 150 mph ... | By Rebecca McCarthy Read more ...
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In Solid Red Tennessee, Senate Candidate Marquita Bradshaw Is Talking Environmental Justice - Drilled News (Oct 26, 2020) |
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Oct 26, 2020 · If her long-shot campaign succeeds, the South Memphis activist will be only the third Black woman to sit in the U.S. Senate, and Tennessee's first Democratic senator since Al Gore.
Tennessee’s Republican movers and shakers probably weren’t expecting pollution to be major issue in this year’s Senate race. Since Al Gore departed his Senate seat in 1993 to become Bill Clinton’s vice president, Tennesseans have elected only Republicans as senators, while the Republican Party has become nearly synonymous with environmental deregulation.
But Marquita Bradshaw’s surprise win of the Democratic primary in August has made environmental justice one of the race's signature ... | By Grant Currin Read more ...
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A New Generation Is Making Climate Change a Local Election Issue - Drilled News (Oct 21, 2020) |
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Oct 21, 2020 · In Florida, Michigan, and Oregon, three Millennial Democrats believe climate action will be a winning issue with conservative voters.
In 2013, environmentalists and organic farmers in southern Oregon’s Josephine County launched a grassroots effort to ban local cultivation of genetically modified plants. They collected enough signatures to put the ban on the ballot, and fought back when Big Ag corporations like Monsanto and Syngenta shoveled money into a campaign to defeat them. In May 2014, voters passed the ban in a 58% to 42% landslide.
“It was an amazing win for the community,” recalls Vanessa Ogier , a 28-year-old Josephine County climate activist who supported the ... | By Marianne Dhenin Read more ...
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Palo Alto Paying Over $20,000 Annually to Natural Gas Trade Group Fighting Climate Action - Drilled News (Oct 19, 2020) |
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Oct 19, 2020 · Nearly a year ago, the city of Palo Alto - home to Stanford University and the unofficial capital of Silicon Valley - joined a handful of other California cities in enacting an all-electric building mandate. City leaders touted the new law, which is intended to tightly restrict future use of natural gas-powered heating and cooling in new construction, as an important part of the city’s plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2030.
At a time when California is facing climate change–driven extremes like sweltering temperatures and unprecedented wildfires, the urgency of achieving this emissions reduction target seems clear.
Check out the DeSmog investigative ... | By Dana Drugman, DeSmog Read more ...
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Kentucky’s Climate Is Suffering. Can the State Slip the Industry Ties that Prevent Change? - Drilled News (Oct 19, 2020) |
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Oct 19, 2020 · Mitch McConnell has long resisted climate action even as the farm and coal sectors suffer, but a growing movement could bring change.
LOUISVILLE - April 15. That’s the traditional frost-free date in Schochoh, the small community in south-central Kentucky, where Sam Halcomb and his family own and operate Walnut Grove Farms. Before then, the soft red winter wheat that Halcomb grows, which finds its way into McDonald’s biscuits and grocery store pancake mixes, is flowering and especially vulnerable to cold. The frost-free date is an estimate, based on years of experience. If you make it past that date, you’re likely to have a healthy harvest.
This story originally appeared ... | By Andrew McCormick, The Guardian Read more ...
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Will Portland’s Summer of Unrest Reshape City Politics? - Drilled News (Oct 19, 2020) |
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Oct 19, 2020 · Like communities throughout the West and elsewhere, Portland is grappling with the question of whether protests and organizing can bring meaningful political change.
Portland, Oregon’s politics have been shaped in recent months by the city’s reaction to the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May. Ongoing nightly protests since Floyd’s death were punctuated by the shooting of a Trump supporter and the police shooting of his alleged killer in September, escalating tensions over how to prevent further violence.
This November, Portland residents will cast their ballots in a mayoral election that may well be a referendum on police brutality and racial bias. The ... | By Carl Segerstrom, High Country News Read more ...
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Will Ohio’s Nuclear Energy Bribery Scandal Put Climate on the Ballot? - Drilled News (Oct 19, 2020) |
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Oct 19, 2020 · Democratic candidates hope the Republican-led legislature’s $1.3 billion bailout of two nuke plants will help them flip seats in November.
Craig Swartz, a Democrat running for the Ohio State Senate seat for District 26, has strong opinions about the need to combat climate change. Ohio "needs to get to zero emissions as quickly as we can,” he says, and he has several ideas for how to do it.
Swartz sees natural gas as a bridge to renewable energy (a position the Biden campaign shares). He also likes the idea of space-based solar farms, which involve putting solar power plants into orbit to collect the sun’s energy in space and transmit it to Earth.
Whether voters ... | By Nancy Averett Read more ...
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Secret Tribunals and Hand-Picked Arbiters: A Little-known System Undermines Environmental Regulation - Drilled News (Oct 16, 2020) |
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Oct 16, 2020 · When national governments legislate environmental protections through laws like the Clean Water and Clean Air acts, and agencies like the U.S. EPA set nationwide pollution rules based on those laws, you’d think those rules would apply to every firm that does business inside that nation’s borders.
But on a host of issues, from water quality to greenhouse gas pollution, managing mining waste, and more, there is a little-known clause included in most investment treaties and trade agreements that can upend national environmental and climate regulations. It’s called “international investment arbitration,” and in certain situations it binds countries attempting to enforce national ... | By Amy Westervelt and Karen Savage Read more ...
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Hawaii's Maui County Takes Big Oil to Court Over Climate Crisis - Drilled News (Oct 13, 2020) |
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Oct 13, 2020 · Hawaii’s Maui County filed a liability claim against 20 fossil fuel firms on Monday, joining 23 other U.S. communities suing to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for their role in delaying action on climate change. Maui is the third community in Hawaii to file such a suit.
The county alleges that major petroleum corporations including BP, Chevron, and ExxonMobil executed a decades-long campaign to downplay the climate risks of their products in order to delay regulation and maximize profits.
Maui County has been sweltering through its hottest year on record, and in 2019 experienced one of its worst wildfire seasons on record. Rising seas are also affecting the ... | By Dana Drugmand Read more ...
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"Like a War on the Environment" - Texaco's 30 Years in Ecuador - Drilled News (Oct 10, 2020) |
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Oct 10, 2020 · There is one core allegation at the center of the decades-long court fight by Indigenous Ecuadorians for environmental justice: That to save money, Texaco (later acquired by Chevron) deliberately dumped more than 18 billion gallons of toxic waste into hundreds of uncovered, unlined pits that now dot over a million acres.
Texaco has admitted to dumping 15.8 billion gallons.
Better technology might have prevented some of the subsequent environmental contamination from those pits, but Texaco chose not to use it.
Oil in its natural state is trapped underground and surrounded by water. During extraction, the water - referred to as production, waste, or formation water - ... | By Karen Savage Read more ...
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