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EartherEnergy
Countries Invested in Drilling for Oil Unsure About This Not Drilling for Oil Thing
Oil-producing heavyweights like Russia and Saudi Arabia will not go quietly into the night. This week, ministers from those and other countries slammed the latest report from the International Energy Agency calling for all new oil and gas development to stop by next year, using some pretty heated (and funny) rhetoric. The “euphoria” around the … Continued
By Molly Taft -
EartherClimate Change
Why Can’t We Call It an Emergency?
TV newsman Bill Moyers likes to tell the story of how Edward R. Murrow, the preeminent U.S. broadcast journalist of his time, insisted on covering what became Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939. Murrow’s bosses at CBS News had other priorities; they ordered Murrow’s reporters to cover dance competitions in Hamburg, Paris, and London, explaining … Continued
Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope -
EartherEnergy
You’ve Almost Certainly Never Heard of the Fossil Fuel Industry’s Biggest Methane Polluter
When it comes to the U.S. oil and gas industry’s greenhouse gas pollution, I tend to think of well-known and much-hated oil giants like Chevron and Exxon. But a new analysis released Tuesday shows that when it comes to the energy sector’s methane emissions, these massive firms aren’t the only major contributors. Small, relatively unknown … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
EartherEnergy
Russia Begins Development on Arctic Oil Project That Will Produce 25 Million Tons of Oil Per Year
Russia’s national oil company has begun construction on a massive project in the Arctic that officials say will produce 25 million tons of oil each year by 2024. The new operation is possible only because the Arctic is now traversable in places and at times it previously wasn’t, due to sea ice levels plummeting as … Continued
By Molly Taft -
EartherClimate Change
We’re Speeding Toward Climate Hell, UN Warns
The world may surpass the key 1.5-degree-Celsius (2.7-degree-Fahrenheit) global warming threshold within the next five years, a major new outlook on climate trends shows. It’s the latest sign that we’re speeding toward the grim future that climate scientists have warned about for years unless we change course. The report released by the World Meteorological Organization … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
EartherClimate Change
Exxon and Chevron Got Their Teeth Kicked In, But Shareholders Won’t Finish the Job
To say Tuesday was a bad day for Big Oil is an understatement. Chevron and Exxon, the two largest oil companies in the U.S., got rolled by their own investors. Shell also suffered a crippling defeat in a Dutch court in what may end up being the biggest win for the climate. But it’s the … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
EartherEnergy
Shareholders Tell Exxon to Eat Shit
History was made at ExxonMobil’s annual shareholder meeting Wednesday when investors essentially staged a coup, voting to oust at least two members of the board due to the company’s poor performance on climate change. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out! Those members will be replaced by climate activists backed by investor … Continued
By Molly Taft -
EartherEnvironmental Justice
The Biggest Climate Trial of the Year Was a Chevron-Fueled ‘Charade’
After a week of proceedings, the criminal trial for attorney Steven Donziger—who won a multibillion-dollar case against Chevron over pollution in the Amazon rainforest—wrapped up on Monday. In his estimation, the trial was a “charade.” And yet he was relatively pleased with the outcome. “Given that we stood no chance to win the actual trial, … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
EartherEnergy
Oil CEOs Laid Off Workers and Gave Themselves Raises During the Pandemic
CEO pay at some of the country’s top oil and gas companies last year stayed more than 100 times above the median salary of workers at that company, a new analysis has found. In some cases, that gap increased—even as those companies laid off workers and took in federal aid money. The analysis, published Monday … Continued
By Molly Taft -
EartherClimate Change
UK Government Gives ‘Climate Champion’ Award to Executive at Massive Canadian Oil Company
“Climate champion” and producing more than 10 million barrels of tar sands oil a year are not exactly synonymous in most people’s minds. But that’s the exact title the British government decided to bestow on an executive at one of the most powerful oil companies in Canada. To mark six months until the major climate … Continued
By Molly Taft -
EartherClimate Change
Survive the Future Is a Sneaky-Simple Game That Makes Our Climate Choices Real
“You are the senior editor of the world’s most popular and trusted news organization. You have the enviable power to set the news agenda, and thereby shift the zeitgeist.” So reads the introductory text to Survive the Century, an online game. Also my dream bio, but I digress. What follows is a Choose Your Own … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
Earther
Big Oil’s New Carbon Tax Stance Is Just Its Latest Trick to Keep Polluting
The American Petroleum Institute, the largest lobbying arm for the oil and gas industry, said this week it supports a carbon tax. The response from Republicans, which the group rains money down on, has been less-than-welcoming. The GOP’s top climate-conscious star in the House called it “a cop-out approach to appease the radical left.” That … Continued
By Molly Taft -
EartherClimate Change
Warren Buffet and Other Deadbeats’ Climate Commitments Are Missing the Mark
What’s really in a big corporation’s pledges to cut emissions, anyway? For a lot of those promises, not much, a new investor-led report finds. An exhaustive benchmark analysis of the climate pledges of nearly 160 global companies released Monday digs into the specifics of some of these carbon-cutting and/or net-zero promises, finding that no company … Continued
By Molly Taft -
Earther
Restoring Financial Regulators’ Right to Fight Climate Change
This Earther report is being co-published with the Daily Poster. The Biden administration has pledged to make the climate crisis a top-tier issue, authorizing a “whole of government” to take on climate change. That would mean the responsibility to legislate environmental action wouldn’t be left up only to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department … Continued
Dharna Noor and Walker Bragman -
EartherEnvironmental Justice
Chevron’s Oil Spill Is Its Latest Injustice Foisted on Bay Area Communities
As the pandemic drags on, some residents of the Bay Area faced a different kind of health emergency on Tuesday: an oil spill. Around 600 gallons of an oil-and-water mixture spilled from a Chevron oil refinery in Richmond, California into the San Francisco Bay, the company told local health authorities. The company announced the spill … Continued
By Molly Taft -
Earther
Exxon Just Got Dethroned as the Top U.S. Energy Company
On Wednesday, Chevron became the biggest oil company in America. It’s the first time Exxon and its predecessor, Standard Oil, haven’t occupied the throne since the late 1800s. RIP to a real(ly bad) one. The covid-19 pandemic has not been kind to Exxon. It’s lost over $1 billion since the crisis began, with its analysts … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
Earther
City of Charleston Sues 24 Oil and Pipeline Firms ‘Directly Responsible’ for Chronic Floods
The city of Charleston, South Carolina filed a lawsuit against two dozen of the largest pipeline and oil conglomerates, saying the firms are responsible for making the floods that often hit the port city more frequent and more damaging. Charleston, South Carolina’s largest city, has experienced a rapid uptick in flooding—with the Charleston Harbor tide … Continued
By Tom McKay