Planet Watch
Quebec fracking ban challenged under NAFTA
Energy firm Lone Pine Resources is challenging Quebec’s fracking moratorium under the North American Free Trade Agreement, and demanding $250 million in compensation.
Tag: Planet Watch
Planet Watch
Record $4.5 billion settlement with BP in Gulf spill
British Petroleum agreed to pay a record $4.5 billion in penalties and plead guilty to felony misconduct for its role in the devastation caused by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Planet Watch
Sandy and climate change: media hot air
Media bloviators argue about whether superstorm Sandy was "caused by" climate change, oblivious to the obvious reality: such extreme weather events are climate change!
Planet Watch
Petro-oligarchs play presidential candidates —again
The oil and energy industry are funding both candidates—but not equally. Romney has received $6 million from individuals and PACs linked to the industry; Obama $1.6 million.
Planet Watch
Arctic sea ice cover hits record low
Arctic sea ice cover this month fell to the lowest summer minimum extent since satellite records began in 1979, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
Planet Watch
Ninth Circuit dismisses Alaska village claim over greenhouse emissions
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of the Alaskan village of Kivalina's claims against energy companies for greenhouse emissions it says threaten its existence.
Planet Watch
Petro-oligarchs play presidential candidates —again
Romney’s new energy plan is billed as a drive towards “energy independence”—yet ironically mirrors the plan Obama unveiled two years ago to lift current restrictions on offshore drilling.
Planet Watch
Keystone vs Enbridge: race or stratagem?
We noted earlier this year that the Canadian government is holding out the threat of selling the Alberta tar sands oil to China through the Northern Gateway pipeline that Enbridge Inc hopes to build to the British Columbia coast as… Read moreKeystone vs Enbridge: race or stratagem?
Planet Watch
Chevron fire: how many more?
It hasn’t won the merest fraction of the coverage enjoyed by the London Olympics, but last week’s massive Chevron oil refinery fire in Richmond, Calif., sent hundreds of people rushing to hospitals, darkened the skies over East Bay, and has… Read moreChevron fire: how many more?
Planet Watch
International mining protests: ecologists versus workers?
Ecologists held direct actions against Scottish Coal’s Mainshill Open Cast Coal Site and BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam uranium mine in South Australia—as miners from Asturias marched on Madrid against planned mine closures.
Planet Watch
Obesity driving global hunger, ecological collapse: study
Planet Earth reaching 7 billion people unleashed a tsunami of Malthusian claptrap. Now a new study documents that the problem is the sheer acreage of human flesh, not how many bodies it is distributed amongst.
Planet Watch
Fracking and “energy independence”: full-on propaganda push
Media are suddenly full of voices plugging hydro-fracking as the key to finally achieving US "energy independence"—in undoubted response to a drop in energy consumption, and to modest federal efforts to regulate the industry.