It’s Getting Hot In Here

Time and time again these last several months, I’ve asked myself why the Obama administration wasn’t making better use of the grassroots movement that elected Obama in 2008, to make the push for a climate and clean energy bill.  While the president still has a long way to go to truly display the leadership needed to pass a climate bill this year, it looks like the Obama may finally be taking the first hesitent step toward harnessing the incredible power of progressives across the United States.  This is our chance to make sure Obama gets it: US voters are ready for clean energy and a cap on carbon.

This morning I received an email, doubtless blasted to thousands of people across the country who at one time or another showed their support for the Obama administration, asking me to “stand with [President Obama] today in backing clean energy.”  According to the email, which was signed with the president’s name:

Today, we [the US] consume[s] more than 20 percent of the world’s oil, but have less than two percent of the world’s oil reserves. Beyond the risks inherent in drilling four miles beneath the surface of the Earth, our dependence on oil means that we will continue to send billions of dollars of our hard-earned wealth to other countries every month — including many in dangerous and unstable regions.”

Continue reading ‘Obama Wants Our Help Passing a Climate Bill’

In addition to the on-going BP Gulf oil catastrophe, a Chevron leak in Salt Lake City this weekend released anywhere from 400-12,000 gallons of oil into a creek that feeds into the Great Salt Lake.  In both cases safety procedures failed.  Given the lax level of regulatory oversight on the oil industry, it is only a matter of time before additional accidents contaminate our land, water and wildlife with oil.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

This is a critical moment when we can change our country’s unhealthy relationship with oil.  One of the first steps is holding the oil companies accountable for their actions and impacts.  So, if you had the CEOs of five of the largest oil companies in the country in one room, what would you ask them?  What do you want to know?

Tomorrow morning, the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment will hold a hearing entitled “Drilling Down on America’s Energy Future:  Safety, Security, and Clean Energy,” featuring such infamous VIPs as:

• Rex Tillerson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ExxonMobil
• John Watson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Chevron Corporation
• James Mulva, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ConocoPhillips
• Lamar McKay, President and Chairman, BP America, Inc.
• Marvin Odum, President, Shell Oil Company

Please leave questions in the comments – they will be submitted to the Subcommittee and may be asked at the hearing tomorrow.

[UPDATE: If you want to attend the hearing in person, join the group of young people going to hold oil companies accountable (details here).  You can also follow the hearing on twitter @ChangeChevron.]

[UPDATE: The Salt Lake City Fire Department now estimates that up 33,000 gallons of oil (about 785 barrels) were released by the leak.]

A Chevron underground pipeline burst early on June 12th, gushing crude oil into a nearby stream for several hours. The spill, in the well-to-do neighborhood surrounding Salt Lake’s largest park, was gushing 50 gallons of crude per minute when responders arrived in the morning.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that residents 3 miles away smelled oil at 4am, the spill was officially reported at 6:45am, and the pipe was successfully shut-off by 8am. By then the oil had reached Liberty Pond (shown above) and was reported flowing into the Jordan River.

“In Liberty Pond the geese were brown – they’re normally white – I’ve probably known those geese for years, because I’ve gone to that park all the time,” said Ashley Anderson, a local climate activist.

Anderson gave me this account of the ground-zero-like scene at Liberty park during the press conference. “There were 25 firetrucks and hazmat suits everywhere. It smelled like the inside of a garage with a diesel truck running. The air was pretty bad.”

Chevron officials told the media what had happened and promised to clean it up. “One resident had gathered up a bucket of rocks from the creek that were coated in oil. He brought them with him to the press conference and got in Chevron’s face, saying ‘you’re going to pay for all this.’ The Chevron spokesperson said ‘of course we are’.” Continue reading ‘Breaking: 400 barrel Oil Spill in Salt Lake City’

Cross posted from Desmogblog.com

BP Executives Tony Hayward and Doug Suttles have repeatedly denied the existence of underwater oil plumes in recent weeks. They cite expert evidence and studies, even as multiple other studies have shown the existence of plumes. Just how deep is the culture of denial in this large oil company?

Energy Boom reported on May 31st that “Hayward said samples taken by the company show no evidence of large masses of underwater oil. He said that oil’s natural tendency is to rise to rise to the surface, and any oil underwater is currently making its way to the top.”

Days earlier, on May 28th, the Wall Street Journal reported a University of South Florida research vessel discovered an oil plume 1300 feet below the surface. Then on June 9th, a two-week research expedition on the Walton Smith (pictured above) found overwhelming amounts of evidence for plumes and large clouds of oil below the surface. The samples, pulled from depths of up to 1200 meters “stank to high heaven,” researcher Smanatha Joye said. “They smelled like creosote, asphalt and diesel.”

Yet on June 9th BP COO of Exploration and Production told NBC’s Today show still defended Hayward’s statement, saying “we haven’t found any large concentrations of oil under the sea” and that it “may be down to how you define what a plume is here.” Watch the whole chilling interview.

Continue reading ‘Exercise in Denial: BP Still Claims No Oil Plumes’

Cross-posted from theClimateers.org.

UN negotiators from Annex I (developed) countries have been working to push through text on Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) by the end of the Bonn negotiations on Friday, June 11. The draft text, however, creates several loopholes that allow developed countries to effectively hide emissions from land use as if they do not exist. By forcing through the text without removing these loopholes, developed countries would be allowed to emit millions of tons of new carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions without accounting for them. This would lead to a major deviation from emissions reductions demanded by science and would have catastrophic consequences for developing countries and future generations. International youth observers at the UN conference responded to the threat of the text being finalized with these disastrous loopholes by launching a campaign to alert negotiators to the irresponsibility and unacceptability of such a decision for young and future generations.

To begin the campaign on Tuesday morning, we greeted negotiators arriving for the day with a hide-and-seek game between youth dressed up as greenhouse gas emissions and inept emissions accountants unable to find them for lack of trying. The 12 of us dressed up as tonnes of greenhouse gases and hid behind trees and camoflauged themselves with twigs outside the conference center as negotiators arrived. Meanwhile, two fumbling accountants attempted half-heartedly to find and enter the hidden emissions into the books while engaging delegates to explain their inability to find the emissions, often in plain sight, given the problematic rules in the current text that make accounting voluntary. Continue reading ‘International Youth at UNFCCC Call out Emissions Loopholes in Forestry Text’

The bad news is that the oil spill shows no sign of stopping. The good news… people are waking up. Do a quick news search on google and reports come in from all over the country of folks organizing protests against BP and the oil industry.

Today Diane Wilson, a 3rd generation shrimper on the Gulf coast was arrested when she dumped oil on herself during a congressional hearing.

Meanwhile in New York City, nocturnal activsists have been making headlines by redecorating BP gas stations with brown paint.

A couple of weeks ago Greenpeace activists took over a oil drilling ship bound for the Arctic and painted “Arctic Next?” in oil on the side of the ship.

Protests continue to be organized including a day of action called Hands across the Sands on June 26th. It is important that we keep up the street heat on this disaster and use it as an opportunity to end offshore drilling and begin the just transition away from fossil fuels. What are you doing today?

download “a good start”

download “take your flipper off his head”

In the last 24 hours, the fight for survival has heated up here at the UN Climate Talks in Bonn.

Island nations have been pushing for a discussion about how to reach the strong climate targets necessary to safeguard their survival, specifically limiting temperature rise below 1.5 degrees C and lowering C02 to below 350ppm. But at every turn, Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich countries have blocked any discussion about new targets, crassly telling countries that if they want more information on how climate change could impact their countries, they should just “Google it.”

This morning, the islands and their allies, unable to move forward without complete consensus, were forced to temporarily drop the call for a scientific review. Just minutes later, Ambassador Ronald Jumeau from the Seychelles joined 350.org in a press conference to talk about the latest developments.

Ambassador Jumeau started by explaining why it is important to be discussing new targets now, rather than waiting for a full scientific review over the next couple of years.

“We are convinced that sooner or later the whole world will be talking about 1.5 or less the way things are going,” he explained. “But the time that arrives, some of our countries may longer exist. They will be beneath the waves.
Continue reading ‘Fight for Survival Heats up at UN Climate Talks in Bonn’

There are a lot of ways for us to cut back on our carbon footprints at home, but beverage selection is not usually the first place we look. Selecting local, organic, all natural products seems the obvious choice, but there is more to it than that.

Aside from pressing your own cider, brewing your own beer, or squeezing your own lemonade, there are not a lot of ways to create a truly carbon footprint-free beverage, so one must do all they can to cut back. An important way to do so that can have a large impact is choosing your beverage based on its container, and aluminum cans may just be the new green.

Sarah Benson of Ink recently pointed out some of the benefits of choosing the canned option of a popular beverage, beer. The most important point? Aluminum weighs twelve times less than glass, which saves in a number of ways including transportation. Continue reading ‘Green Beverages’

We’ve spent a lot of time in the past 50 days covering the BP oil spill that’s devastating the U.S. Coastline. However, the impacts of dirty energy aren’t just felt in the United States, but around the world. For example, John Vidal recently published a story on oil spills in Nigeria in the Guardian, writing “Nigeria’s agony drawfs the Gulf Oil Spill. The US and Europe ignore it.”

350.org is privileged to work with many people on the frontlines of the climate crisis, including in Nigeria. Here at the UN Climate Talks in Bonn, I’ve gotten to know Zaid Shopeju of Nigeria’s Youth Vision Alliance Network that’s working to build the climate movement in his country and across Africa. In this video, our friends at OneClimate talk with Zaid about oil spills, climate, and how youth are taking action:

To learn more about Big Oil’s long, dirty history in Nigeria, check out Justice in Nigeria Now or this website remembering the life of activist and commuity leader Ken Saro Wiwa. The True Cost of Chevron is another site documenting the exploitation of local people by oil companies.

Together, we can chart a new course for our countries by getting to work on climate solutions. On 10/10/10 there will be thousands of Global Work Parties around the world to celebrate a clean energy future. Zaid and others in Nigeria are already planning events — are you?