NewsTrust - Oil and Gas - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

Keystone Pipeline Facts

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Robert Redford - Feb. 10 (News Analysis) - 'Joe Nocera's op-ed in the New York Times yesterday deserves a response and a reiteration of the facts surrounding the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. ...Let's put the rhetoric aside, and simply focus on the facts. Nocera wants us to believe that approving this pipeline is a matter of national security. ... The Keystone XL tar sands pipeline would not make the United States of America safer. Why? It would not make us safer, because the majority of the processed oil was already scheduled for export to foreign countries. That's right, this Keystone XL pipeline's Canadian tar sands oil would have

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Western Oil Firms Remain as US Exits Iraq

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Dahr Jamail - Jan. 09 (News Report) - hile the US military has formally ended its occupation of Iraq, some of the largest western oil companies, ExxonMobil, BP and Shell, remain. On November 27, 38 months after Royal Dutch Shell announced its pursuit of a massive gas deal in southern Iraq, the oil giant had its contract signed for a $17bn flared gas deal. Three days later, the US-based energy firm Emerson submitted a bid for a contract to operate at Iraq's giant Zubair oil field, which reportedly holds some eight million barrels of oil.

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What's Happening in the Persian Gulf Explained

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By Adam Weinstein, Hamed Aleaziz - Jan. 03 (Special Report) - The basics: Iran and the United States appear to be heading for a showdown in the Persian Gulf. Amid already-high tensions over Iran's advancing nuclear program, the US has imposed harsh new economic sanctions on the regime in Tehran and begun to move se

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Urging Obama to Stop Rush to Iran War

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Consortium News - By Ray McGovern, Elizabeth Murray - Dec. 31 (News Analysis) - President Obama needs to put an abrupt halt to the game of Persian Roulette about to spin out of control in the Persian Gulf. If we were still on active duty at the CIA, this is what we would tell him:

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Oil Slick From Massive Spill in Nigeria Threatens Coastline, May Be Largest Spill in a Decade

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Dec. 27 (News Report) - Communities along Nigeria’s Niger Delta have been put on alert following a major oil spill from the oil giant, Shell. The massive oil slick is making its way to the Nigerian coast, threatening local wildlife and massive pollution along the shore. Much of the available information about the spill comes from the company responsible for it, Royal Dutch Shell, which says less than 40,000 barrels have leaked so far. But Nigeria’s National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency says the spill could be three times as large. It comes just four months after the United Nations said it would take 30 years and around $1 billion for a small section of the delta to recover from environmental damage caused by Shell and other companies.

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Gingrich On Climate Change

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

FactCheck - By Brooks Jackson - Dec. 07 (Fact Check) - Newt Gingrich went too far when he claimed that “I’ve never favored cap-and-trade.” It’s true he’s never favored the approach taken by Democrats, but he said in 2007 that he would “strongly support” cap-and-trade if combined with “a tax-incentive program for investing in the solutions”.

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Canadian Activists Barred From Durban Summit for Protesting Environment Minister

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Dec. 07 (News Report) - Soon after Kent began speaking, six members of the Canadian Youth Delegation stood up and turned their backs on the minister. They were taken out of the room and later stripped of their credentials to the climate change conference. "Today, six of us stood up and turned our backs on the government of Canada, in the same way the government of Canada has turned its back on us," says activist Karen Rooney. "We are calling on the government of Canada to start putting the interests of people over the interests of polluters."

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Indigenous Activists From Canada Protest Tar Sands Oil at Durban Climate Change Summit

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Dec. 06 (News Report) - This morning in Durban, South Africa, a group of youth and indigenous activists from Canada gave delegates to the U.N. climate talks mock gift bags containing samples of fake tar sands along with tourism brochures for Canada and Canadian flags. Kandi Mossett, one of the activists participating in the action, says Canada’s reliance on tar sands oil “is the largest catastrophic project that I am aware of on earth right now.” Mossett, who is the Native Energy and Climate Campaign Organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network, notes that the tar sands extraction process is energy and water-intensive, emits immense amounts of pollution into the air, and destroys the landscape. “To even get to the tar sands they have to remove boreal forests — old growth forests — and they call it ‘overburden.’ They just scrape it off and get rid of that. And then they dig down and move so many tons of earth,” Mossett says. “Then they squeeze out the last little 10 percent of oil that’s actually in the sand. And then they have to use chemicals to make it liquid enough to be able to put it through the pipelines — it’s much more toxic than any other kind of, you know, sweet crude oil.”

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GOP’s Phantom Job Losses

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

FactCheck - By Eugene Kiely - Nov. 22 (News) - Ooops! Republicans — eager to show that President Obama’s oil and gas drilling policies “cost jobs” — have been using a number they now admit was more than three times too high. Even after they corrected their error (after we pointed it out), they started using a figure that is … More >>

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White House Could Cast Decisive Vote to Permit 20,000 Fracking Wells in Delaware River Basin

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 11 (News Report) - This week the Delaware River Basin Commission released draft regulations to allow for the natural gas drilling technique hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, in the river's watershed, which provides water to 15.6 million people in New York City, Philadelphia and New Jersey. The proposed plan would allow for some 20,000 gas wells to be developed in the watershed. A vote on the regulations is set for Nov. 21 and could prompt a battle between activists and the White House, which holds a seat on the commission and may cast the deciding vote. We speak with Josh Fox, whose documentary about fracking, "Gasland," was nominated for an Academy Award, and play an excerpt of his new video about the possible impacts natural gas fracking could have in the Delaware River Basin. [includes rush transcript]

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10,000 Surround White House to Protest Keystone XL Tar Sands Oil Pipeline

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 07 (News Report) - More than 10,000 protesters surrounded the White House on Sunday calling on President Obama to reject the proposed Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast. The protest came exactly a year before the 2012 election and the pipeline is shaping up to be a major political issue.

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Debate on Fracking: Was Syracuse Right to Ban the Controversial Natural Gas Drilling Process?

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 04 (News Analysis) - Syracuse... recently became the third city in New York state to ban the natural gas drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking. The Syracuse Common Council voted unanimously last week to ban fracking within city limits. They also voted to limit where wastewater from the fracking process can be stored. Fracking is controversial because it injects millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals deep into the earth in order to break up shale rock and release natural gas. Many feel this extraction process raises a myriad of human health and environmental issues.

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The Fracking Industry's War on the Truth

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - Oct. 21 (News Analysis) - Superb investigative journalism by the New York Times has brought the paper under attack by the natural gas industry. That campaign of intimidation and obfuscation has been orchestrated by top-shelf players like Exxon and Chesapeake, aligned with the industry's worst bottom feeders. This coalition has launched an impressive propaganda effort carried by slick PR firms, industry-funded front groups and a predictable cabal of right-wing industry toadies from cable TV and talk radio. In pitting itself against public disclosure and reasonable regulation, the natural gas industry is once again proving that it is its own worst enemy.

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Court Ruling Backs Ecuadorian Effort to Hold Chevron Accountable For Amazon Pollution

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Sep. 20 (News Report) - A U.S. appeals court has ruled oil giant Chevron cannot escape an $18 billion fine for massive pollution of the Amazon rain forest. Amazonian residents won the damages in an Ecuadorian court earlier this year, and Chevron says it will appeal the decision. It is the latest development in a complex, 18-year legal battle that has gone before judges not just in Ecuador and the United States, but also the Hague. We speak with Atossa Soltani, executive director of Amazon Watch, which has worked closely with the Amazon residents suing Chevron. Atossa Soltani is in New York City this week to draw attention to environmental causes in the Amazon in conjunction with two major gatherings, the Clinton Global Initiative and the United Nations General Assembly. [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Gulf Oil Spill: Federal Report Released On BP Spill

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Harry R. Weber, Dina Cappiello - Sep. 14 (News Report) - A key federal report puts ultimate responsibility on BP for the catastrophic failures leading to the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history and the deaths of 11 rig workers, especially regarding the cement seal that was put in place the day before the explosion that triggered the spill.

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Fifty-Four Protesters Arrested as Environmental Report on Tar Sands Pipeline Is Released

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Mike Ludwig - Aug. 26 (News Report) - As environmental activists were handcuffed in front of the White House on Friday, the State Department released the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the massive Keystone XL pipeline that would pump crude oil from the Alberta tar sands in Canada across six western states to stations in Oklahoma and Texas.

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Flyover Surveillance Reveals Large Amount of Surface Oil at Deepwater Horizon Site

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - Aug. 22 (News Report) - We set off a firestorm Wednesday (August 17) when we reported that oil is rising once again from BP’s Macondo Well. We were informed by multiple, credible sources over the weekend and into Monday that BP had hired a fleet of shrimp boats to contain a slick sweeping across the old Deepwater Horizon site.' Stuart Smith, The Stuart Smith Blog

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Department Of Justice Investigates BP For Faulty Oil Spill Estimates

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By John Rudolf - Aug. 22 (News Report) - On April 25, 2010, BP assured the Gulf Coast that a disaster wasn't unfolding. Five days earlier, the Deepwater Horizon, a BP-leased rig in the Gulf of Mexico, had suffered a massive blowout, killing 11 men and seriously injuring 17 others.

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Federal Government Asks Judge To Dismiss New York State Fracking Lawsuit

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

desmogblog.com - By Farron Cousins - Aug. 04 (News Report) - The U.S. government is asking a federal judge in New York to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the state of New York against the government that was seeking to demand a complete review of the environmental damage caused by hydraulic fracturing (fracking). The federal government claims that New York state does not have the grounds to file a suit as they have “no evidence” of injury and they do not have the authority to sue the federal government.

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After BP's Oily Assault, Fishermen Struggle to Survive

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Rocky Kistner, - Jul. 18 (News Report) - 'The oil is not gone; it keeps coming in places like Grand Isle, LA, and Biloxi,MS, rolling in with the tides as globs of tar balls and sheen. Louisiana beaches near Port Fouchon and parts of the rich fishing grounds in Barataria Bay remain still closed due to oil contamination.'

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US ConocoPhillips' China Oil Spill Six Times Size of Singapore

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - Jul. 18 (News Report) - 'A huge oil spill off the Chinese coast has now contaminated an area around six times the size of Singapore.... The spill from the oil field, which the United States' ConocoPhillips operates with China's state-run oil giant CNOOC, has polluted a total area of almost 4,250 square kilometers (1,650 square miles).'

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Climate Change and Disaster in Montana

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Naomi Klein, - Jul. 17 (News Analysis) - 'So the flooding may have caused the pipeline spill. But here is the really uncomfortable question: Did the pipeline cause the flooding? Not this one particular pipeline, of course, but all the pipelines, and all the coal trains, and all the refineries and the power plants they supply?'

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Surprise! Fracking fluid kills trees

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Jess Zimmerman. - Jul. 13 (News Report) - Not that this is a big surprise or anything, but a new study shows that disposing of fracking fluid can do a number on local trees. One perfectly legal dump of used fracking fluid in West Virginia ended up killing more than half of the trees in the affected area. Companies don't disclose -- and don't have to disclose -- the actual composition of fracking fluid, so it's hard to predict exactly what its effect will be. But they're still allowed to dump it in forests, because that makes sense. And here's what happens when they do: Almost immediately after disposal, the researchers said, nearly all ground plants died. After a few days, tree leaves turned brown, wilted and dropped; 56 percent of about 150 trees eventually died. Semi-ironically, spreading the fluid over a larger area might have mitigated the impact. More trees would be affected, but maybe not in concentrations high enough to kill them. But of course, nobody knows exactly what those ...

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'The Watchdog': House Committee Wants To Drop Proposal To Expand Offshore Drilling Oversight

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Marcus Baram - Jul. 13 (News Report) - House Republicans want to drop one of the key components of the Interior Department's overhaul of the troubled agency responsible for oversight of offshore drilling.

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Fuel Fix » Transocean rig off Africa taking on water updated

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

fuelfix.com - By Harry R. Weber, Dina Cappiello - Jul. 06 (News Report) - The owner of the rig that sunk in the massive Gulf oil spill last summer was having problems today with another one of its deepwater drillers — this time off the coast of Africa.

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NewsTrust - Oil and Gas - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

Keystone Pipeline Facts

Western Oil Firms Remain as US Exits Iraq

What's Happening in the Persian Gulf Explained

Urging Obama to Stop Rush to Iran War

Oil Slick From Massive Spill in Nigeria Threatens Coastline, May Be Largest Spill in a Decade

Gingrich On Climate Change

Canadian Activists Barred From Durban Summit for Protesting Environment Minister

Indigenous Activists From Canada Protest Tar Sands Oil at Durban Climate Change Summit

GOP’s Phantom Job Losses

White House Could Cast Decisive Vote to Permit 20,000 Fracking Wells in Delaware River Basin

10,000 Surround White House to Protest Keystone XL Tar Sands Oil Pipeline

Debate on Fracking: Was Syracuse Right to Ban the Controversial Natural Gas Drilling Process?

The Fracking Industry's War on the Truth

Court Ruling Backs Ecuadorian Effort to Hold Chevron Accountable For Amazon Pollution

Gulf Oil Spill: Federal Report Released On BP Spill

Fifty-Four Protesters Arrested as Environmental Report on Tar Sands Pipeline Is Released

Flyover Surveillance Reveals Large Amount of Surface Oil at Deepwater Horizon Site

Department Of Justice Investigates BP For Faulty Oil Spill Estimates

Federal Government Asks Judge To Dismiss New York State Fracking Lawsuit

After BP's Oily Assault, Fishermen Struggle to Survive

US ConocoPhillips' China Oil Spill Six Times Size of Singapore

Climate Change and Disaster in Montana

Surprise! Fracking fluid kills trees

'The Watchdog': House Committee Wants To Drop Proposal To Expand Offshore Drilling Oversight

Fuel Fix » Transocean rig off Africa taking on water *updated*

Fuel Fix » Transocean rig off Africa taking on water updated