It’s Getting Hot In Here

This week, Senators Kerry and Leiberman unveiled The American Power Act – 987 pages of draft climate and energy legislation.

Our country desperately needs bold clean energy and climate legislation that transitions America to 100% real clean energy, creates good green jobs, and immediately and drastically reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

Unfortunately, dirty energy corporations (notably Big Oil and King Coal) have spent obscene amounts of money on lobbying and campaign contributions to influence climate and energy policy and keep us dangerously addicted to dirty energy like coal, oil, and nuclear.

All sorts of dirty energy corporations (like Duke, Shell Oil and Florida Power and Light) have endorsed this bill because of all the polluter giveways and subsidizes.

Which is why we at Greenwash of the Week invited Darth Vader himself to weigh in on the bill.

If you enjoy the video, please share with your friends on Twitter and Facebook!

Tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, always a good time to reflect on the significant progress we’ve made and the work we still need to do.

We’re not the only ones who like to celebrate Earth Day. Corporations have a PR bonanza, outdoing themselves in an effort to buy themselves a green image they don’t deserve.

In this week’s Greenwash of the Week webisode we take a look at some of the most ludicrous examples of corporations greenwashing Earth Day.

Continue reading ‘Greenwash of the Week: Earth Day!’

This week’s hilarious *and dangerous* Greenwash of the Week webisode takes on The Copenhagen Accord, a political greenwash of epic proportions.

This week’s episode comes on the heels of a leaked document about the Obama administration’s spin strategy around the climate negotiations.

Continue reading ‘Greenwash of the Week: The Copenhagen Accord’

Greenwash of the Week is BACK!

Every week, RAN hosts Brianna and Nick investigate cases of corporate and political greenwash, designed to deceive the public into believing that something is “green” when it’s not.

This week’s episode explores Chevron’s recent solar announcement. Chevron, the 4th largest oil corporation on the planet, announced “Project Brightfield”, a solar panel beauty pageant in California’s central valley.

Why has Greenwash of the Week nicknamed ‘Project Brightfield’ Project Bull$#!^? Continue reading ‘Greenwash of the Week: Chevron’s Solar ‘Project Bull$#!t’’

Today, Chevron’s PR team is out in full force!

And no, today they’re not lying to the public about their toxic legacy in Ecuador, climate change, their massive greenhouse gas emissions, their expansion into the tar sands of Canada, their human rights abuses in Nigeria, or their massive dirty energy lobbying and campaign expenditures.

Nope. Today, Chevron has got the social media world a-Twitter over their “substantial” investments in renewable energy. Project Brightfield, a 740 kW project with 7,700 solar panels, will be built on an 8-acre dirt plot in California where Chevron formerly ran a refinery that belched out gasoline and asphalt. Chevron’s solar testbed news comes on the heels of the oil giant announcing last month that it will build a 1 MW concentrating solar photovoltaic system on the tailing site of a mine in Questa, New Mexico.

Call me cynical, but Chevron’s “substantial” investments in renewable energy, seem like little more than a typical corporate greenwash move to hide their real crimes in Ecuador and around the world, and deceive the public into believing that they have turned over a new leaf.

Fact is, Chevron hit a new-time low in renewable energy investments in 2009. Antonia Juhasz, oil industry expert and NY Times best-selling author reports:

“In 2009, Chevron spent its lowest amount on green alternative energy since at least 2006, spending less than 2%, or just 1.96% of its total capitol and exploratory budget on green alternatives. And, remember, this is a VERY generous estimate. We are including in this estimate lots of things that are decidedly NOT green.”

Continue reading ‘Chevron’s Solar Announcement, More Than Hot Air?’

Last Thursday, March 4, was a huge day for student and youth activism in California.

Thousands upon thousands of students, labor unions, grandparents, entire elementary school classrooms, teachers, and concerned Californians (like me!) across the state rallied, marched, and generally rose some hell, to beat back massive tuition hikes and budget cuts to our state’s already fragile public education system.

Many of the thousands of students marching across California were the same students and youth who rallied just one year ago at Power Shift ’09 in DC for clean energy and bold climate policies. At both events, I was inspired by how diverse, creative and powerful youth movements can be. And how hard we have to work to sustain momentum and actualize the possibilities presented at these key moments.

Can California students (and faculty and Californians) build a movement powerful enough in the next few months to take on Chevron + Big Oil and give California students the right to quality, affordable education?

This should be the question on every California climate/clean energy activist’s mind and the topic of discussion in every student group meeting this week.

California student activists have an exciting (and challenging) opportunity to tap into one of the most exciting California student uprisings in recent decades and direct some of the energy into an absolutely win-win situation where Big Oil has to pay and our public education system is saved.

Continue reading ‘California Students- Ready to take on Big Oil?’

Petition Delivery to Chevron asking CEO John Watson to Clean Up Ecuador

This past week, Emergildo Criollo, an Indigenous Ecuador leader of the Cofan people traveled 3,000 miles from his home in the Amazon rainforest to California. He came to California to share his story and ask for support in getting one of the world’s largest oil companies (Chevron) to clean up one of the largest environmental disasters in history.

For a whirlwind few days this week, Emergildo shared his story with Chevron employees, California Senators and Assemblymembers, journalists, activists, and Chevron’s new CEO John Watson’s Lafayette neighbors.

Here is the story that Emergildo told (translated from Spanish):

“I want to start telling my story from when I was a child.

In 1964, I was 6 and living by the river.

As was the tradition of my people we would migrate from area to area to hunt. We were in (what is now called Lago Agrio) hunting.

At one point we heard this really loud noise coming from the sky. We thought it was a large bird (it was a helicopter). We were scared and hid. Continue reading ‘Emergildo’s Story’

Update on Chevron’s misleading response to the delivery.

On Sunday, Emergildo Criollo, an Indigenous leader of the Cofan people in Ecuador, traveled from his home in the Amazon rainforest to personally deliver a message to the oil giant’s new CEO John Watson.

Yesterday, Emergildo Criollo (and a bunch of supporters) boarded a donated bio-diesel bus and went to John Watson’s home in Lafayette, CA and then to Chevron headquarters in San Ramon. Emergildo traveled all this way to appeal to Watson “one man with sons to another.”

He came bearing a powerful letter from other Indigenous and community leaders from the region in Ecuador that Chevron systematically poisoned with toxic oil and waste dumping. As well as the 325,000+ signatures of support from people all over the globe – probably many of you – who are also urging Chevron to do the right thing and clean up Ecuador.

Unfortunately, John Watson (who has never been to Ecuador to witness the devastation that 18 billion gallons of oil waste his company is responsible for has caused) refused to listen to Emergildo’s story and accept the petitions. In a totally un-shocking move Chevron instead sent out the big dogs in their PR department (Rhonda I. Zygocki, Vice President, Policy, Government and Public Affairs, Silvia M. Garrigo, Manager Global Issues and Policy at Chevron Corporation, and Gary Fisher, General Manager, Corporate Public Policy.) Continue reading ‘Indigenous Ecuadorean Leader Confronts Chevron- Updated’

In today’s “Chevron is a dirty liar” news: The oil giant pulls another dirty PR trick and lies to avoid paying $27 billion to clean up their toxic legacy in Ecuador.

For years, the people of Ecuador have been trying to get Chevron to clean up the billions of gallons of toxic waste and unlined oil pits that were left to poison their water, their land, and their community.

Chevron has used dirty tricks and tactics every step of the way during the decades-long legal challenge to force them to clean up Ecuador. They’ve hired dirty PR, legal, and lobby teams; forced the case to move around the globe; fabricated a story to discredit the original Judge; and filed endless motions that are eventually denied but nevertheless succeed in further draining the plaintiff’s resources and delaying a judgment. Continue reading ‘Chevron Lies, People Die’

Update! In just a few days we are now at over a quarter of a million signatories!

Thanks to a big push from Avaaz yesterday, there are now over 250,000 people (updated 2/10/10) who have signed a petition telling Chevron’s new CEO John Watson to clean up the oil giant’s toxic legacy in Ecuador, and around the globe.

It is undeniable that the world wants to change Chevron. People from all over the globe are signing this petition, people young and old, from so many backgrounds. We’ve had celebrities, musicians, investors, and Chevron employees standing up and demanding change from one of the largest corporations on the planet.

As the new leader of the 3rd largest oil company in the world, CEO John Watson can right the wrongs of his predecessors, transform his company, and one of the most dangerous industries on the planet.

150,000+ are saying “Enough is enough. Energy shouldn’t cost lives.”

From Ecuador to Richmond,CA to Burma and everywhere the oil giant operates in-between they leave a trail of environmental devastation, human rights abuses, and a legacy of health problems.

150,000+ say ENOUGH to Big Oil destroying our environment and the health of our communities.

Chevron, and their Big Oil cohorts, spend hundreds of millions of dollars on lobbyists and political contributions to buy off politicians and destroy policies that would be good for our climate and our future.

150,000+ people say ENOUGH to Chevron’s control of our government and our democracy.

To truly change Chevron and the oil industry, we are going to need to be 150,000 x stronger and louder and more powerful than we ever have been before. Our communities, our climate, our planet, and our future depend on it.

You in?