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Oil and Gas Industry

How The GOP Is Saving The Fossil Fuel Industry From Trump

On April 2, so-called Liberation Day, President Trump announced a suite of sweeping tariffs on virtually every country in the world, including some entirely populated by penguins . Of all the nations Trump picked a trade war with, China was set to be hit with the most aggressive tariffs at a rate of 145% for Chinese goods set to be sold in the United States. The announcement of these tariffs, essentially a tax on goods and supplies sold domestically, sent shockwaves through the global economy forcing corporations to scramble to find expedient answers to cope with rising prices and dim economic forecasts.

Five Insurance Companies Are Propping Up Fossil Fuel Companies

A new report exposes the complicity of global insurers in the climate crisis. Notably, it has revealed how five major insurance companies – Allianz, AXA, Aviva, Zurich, and Intact – have invested to the tune of $6.5bn in the fossil fuel corporations wrecking the planet. The report was authored by the Boycott Bloody Insurance campaign – which launched last month with a day of action. On Tuesday 25 March, the group targeted insurance offices nationwide. Now, its new publication Ensuring Climate Crisis: The Insurance Industry and Fossil Fuel Giants highlights how these insurance companies, while often presenting a green image, continue to support and profit from the fossil fuel industry.

Environmentalists, Community Band Together Against Buc-ee’s

Missy’s Grill sits off a tree-lined stretch near where Interstate 40 and I-85 merge, an unassuming diner advertised by no billboard, no lit sign — just ​“Missy’s Grill” in white plastic lettering. Del Ward stands in the parking lot, gesturing emphatically across the road at a cattle farm that was nearly turned into a gas station the size of a small mall. It would have been the first Buc-ee’s travel stop in North Carolina. Five years ago, Ward was on his way to Missy’s for a sandwich when he noticed a little sign about a zoning meeting. That’s how he learned about the proposed mega gas station in his tiny hometown.

Energy Secretary Wants To ‘Play A Role In Reversing’ Climate Policies

United States Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Monday delivered a blunt critique of the energy and climate policies of the Biden administration to a group of oil and gas executives, promising a “180 degree pivot.” The former fracking executive is fully behind President Donald Trump’s plan to expand fossil fuel production in the U.S. while doing away with federal policies to mitigate global heating. “I wanted to play a role in reversing what I believe has been a very poor direction in energy policy,” Wright said during the kickoff to the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference in Houston, as The New York Times reported.

New York To Charge Biggest Emitters For Climate Damages Under New Law

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed the Climate Change Superfund Act, which requires major emitters, such as fossil fuel companies, to compensate for damages by helping to fund climate-resilient infrastructure projects. “By signing the Climate Change Superfund Act, Gov. Hochul is addressing the financial burden placed on New Yorkers by the fossil fuel companies,” Richard Schrader, director of New York Government Affairs at Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), said in a statement. “It’s a key example of what putting fiscal fairness and environmental justice front and center looks like.

New Report Shows A Surge In European SLAPP Suits

Lawsuits to silence those speaking out and fighting in the interest of the public are increasingly being used as a form of private censorship, according to a new report published last week by the Coalition Against SLAPPS in Europe, or CASE. Developed in collaboration with the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation, the report shows that SLAPPs continue to rise in Europe and identifies a total of 1,049 cases between 2010-2023. The lawsuits cover a broad range of topics, and environmental issues made up the second-most-targeted subject of all the SLAPP suits reported, behind corruption.

How Exxon And Atlas Network Worked To Block Global Climate Action

In March 1999, Alejandro Chafuen, then president of an international free-market coalition called Atlas Network, wrote to an executive at ExxonMobil (XOM) to offer the American oil major a friendly note of appreciation. “On behalf of Atlas and the institutes it supports, we would like to thank you again for the Exxon Corporation’s generous contributions,” Chafuen stated, “and for the confidence you and Exxon have placed in us.” Included in the letter to William E. Hale of ExxonMobil’s public affairs department was a five-page summary of the global reach and diversity of the activities the corporation funded in 1998, “in whole or in part,” through donations to Atlas Network’s “Energy and Environment: Market-based Solutions”.

‘Give Trees A Hand’: Ad Agencies Sell Sketchy Climate Solutions

The video opens on an anonymous industrial site, where a woman stands under a clear blue sky. She’s wearing a white hard hat and a grey utility shirt with the name “Regina” stitched above the breast pocket. Smiling into the camera, she tells viewers that “the world needs ways to reduce carbon emissions.” Speakers from diverse backgrounds then reassure viewers that, luckily, they’re working on solutions to that very problem, “like carbon capture, and clean energy from hydrogen.” If it weren’t for the logos appearing on their uniforms, it would be easy to miss that these characters are representatives of one of the world’s biggest oil companies — until Regina reappears to say, “Believe it or not we’re ExxonMobil.”

Toronto And Montreal Move Ahead With Fossil Fuel Ad Restrictions

The city of Toronto has passed a motion aiming to restrict fossil fuel advertising on municipal property, one of several recent efforts to curtail fossil fuel advertising in major Canadian cities. The motion passed on Thursday, October 10, giving Toronto city councillors one year to come up with a draft of the proposed legislation. The effort comes as transit agencies in Canada’s two largest cities have either implemented or are considering similar restrictions on using public transit to advertise for Big Oil or related industries.

The First Gas Utility Sued For Climate Deception

For the first time, a gas utility could be on the hook for its role in deceiving the public about the climate crisis. Multnomah, Oregon, has added NW Natural — Oregon’s oldest and largest supplier of “natural” gas, also known as fossil or methane gas — to the list of defendants in a lawsuit that seeks to make fossil fuel companies pay $52 billion for their role in the deadly 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome. NW Natural “has routinely misrepresented” the climate harms of gas while undermining the energy transition “in an effort to frighten customers and discourage policy makers from using their authority to protect the public,” according to the county’s amended complaint.

Ecuador Voted To Stop Drilling In The Amazon

Environmental activists rarely get to celebrate a major win for the planet, but that’s what happened in Ecuador last year. After a decade-long struggle between activists and the government, a referendum was held in August 2023 on whether to continue drilling for oil in a protected part of the Amazon. The people voted to kick the oil industry out. The government and the state oil company, Petroecuador, had tried every trick in the book to get a different result. There was a disinformation campaign, threats of austerity, even an attempt to void hundreds of thousands of signatures that were collected for the referendum to happen.

Greenpeace Is Being ‘SLAPPed’ Again By Another Fossil Fuel Giant

Italian fossil fuel company ENI has filed an official Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP), targeting two organisations, Greenpeace Italy and ReCommon. It is the latest fossil fuel major to launch an ill-founded legal assault at a Greenpeace organisation, joining Shell, Total, and Energy Transfer in an attack against civil freedoms and environmental protection. “There is no surprise in ENI joining other climate polluters like Shell, TotalEnergies and Energy Transfer in trying to silence civil society. The business model of the oil and gas industry entails both an assault on people and nature, as well as oppression of those who call it out,” stated Greenpeace Italy and ReCommon.

How The Fossil Fuel Industry Helps Spread Anti-Protest Laws Across US

Fossil fuel lobbyists coordinated with lawmakers behind the scenes and across state lines to push and shape laws that are escalating a crackdown on peaceful protests against oil and gas expansion, a new Guardian investigation reveals. Records obtained by the Guardian show that lobbyists working for major North American oil and gas companies were key architects of anti-protest laws that increase penalties and could lead to non-violent environmental and climate activists being imprisoned up to 10 years. Emails between fossil fuel lobbyists and lawmakers in Utah, West Virginia, Idaho and Ohio suggest a nationwide strategy to deter people frustrated by government failure to tackle the climate crisis from peacefully disrupting the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure by enacting tough laws with lengthy jail sentences.

Climate Lawsuits Against Fossil Fuel Companies Have Nearly Tripled

Washington, DC – 86 climate lawsuits have been filed against the world’s largest oil, gas, and coal producing corporations – including BP, Chevron, Eni, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies – with two in five cases involving claims for compensation for climate change damages linked to fossil fuels. The number of cases filed against fossil fuel companies each year has nearly tripled since the Paris Agreement was reached in 2015, according to a new report, titled Big Oil in Court – The latest trends in climate litigation against fossil fuel companies by Oil Change International and Zero Carbon Analytics. The analysis reveals the intensifying legal pressure on fossil fuel corporations responsible for 69% of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions, the main driver of the climate crisis.

Big Oil And Gas Infiltrate Higher Education To Slow Climate Action

A former Exxon executive sits on a university’s board of trustees. Fossil fuel representatives develop undergraduate courses. Schools lease out their land for fracking. Industry-funded studies end up influencing federal energy policy. These aren’t just isolated examples of oil and gas companies partnering with academic institutions, according to a new study published in the journal WIREs Climate Change by researchers with six universities, but an international effort by the industry spanning decades with the goal of obstructing and slowing down climate action. The authors came to that conclusion by conducting a first-ever review of dozens of existing academic and civil society investigations into fossil fuel infiltration of higher education, looking primarily at institutions in the U.S., UK, Canada, and Australia.

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Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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