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#Post#: 4480--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fossil Fuels: Degraded Democracy and Profit Over Planet Poll
ution
By: AGelbert Date: February 12, 2016, 6:41 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center] Patrick Parenteau: Supreme Court plays politics with
the Clean Power Plan [/center]
Feb. 11, 2016
Editor’s note: This commentary is by Patrick Parenteau, who is a
professor of law and senior counsel at the Environmental and
Natural Resources Law Clinic at Vermont Law School.
SNIPPET:
In a move that stunned even the most seasoned court watchers,
the conservative majority of the Supreme Court has blocked the
Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan which seeks
to reduce carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants. The
unsigned order, without any explanation, puts a hold on the rule
pending the outcome of proceedings currently underway in the
D.C. Circuit, which had earlier denied a stay. Justices
Ginsburg, Breyer, Kagan and Sotomayor voted against the stay.
This action is unprecedented in a number of ways.
The majority made none of the findings typically required to
obtain a stay.
There is no analysis of the merits of any of petitioner’s
claims.
There is no showing that the rule threatens any immediate harm
to petitioners, especially given the long lead times EPA has
built into the process.
There is no showing that the balance of hardships tips decidedly
in favor of the petitioners, especially given the fact that most
states are well into the process of developing implementation
plans and those that do not want to submit a plan don’t have to.
There is no showing that the stay is in the public interest,
especially given the warnings from the scientific community that
time is fast running out to avoid catastrophic consequences of
climate disruption.
Never before has the court interjected itself in a case with
such high stakes that hasn’t even been fully briefed and argued
before the lower court.
FULL ARTICLE: [img
width=20]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-080515182559.png[/img]
HTML http://vtdigger.org/2016/02/11/patrick-parenteau-supreme-court-plays-politics-with-the-clean-power-plan/
#Post#: 4524--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fossil Fuels: Degraded Democracy and Profit Over Planet Poll
ution
By: AGelbert Date: February 17, 2016, 7:23 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]Second Review of EPA’s Fracking Study Urges Revisions to
Major Statements in Executive Summary
[/center]
Wenonah Hauter | February 16, 2016 3:46 pm
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) independent
Scientific Advisory Board Members of the Hydraulic Fracturing
Research Advisory Panel released today a second review of the
U.S. EPA’s draft assessment saying that that they still have
“concerns” regarding the clarity and adequacy of support for
several findings presented in the EPA’s draft Assessment Report
of the impacts of fracking on drinking water supplies in the
U.S.
[center][img
width=640]
HTML http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/epafrackstudy750.jpg[/img][/center]
Ray Kemble of Dimock, Pennsylvania, holds a jug of discolored
water from his well, contaminated by nearby fracking operations
while standing outside of the U.S. EPA building in Washington,
DC. Photo credit: Food & Water Watch
Ray Kemble of Dimock, Pennsylvania, holds a jug of discolored
water from his well, contaminated by nearby fracking operations
while standing outside of the U.S. EPA building in Washington,
DC. Photo credit: Food & Water Watch
This second draft report is still very critical of the EPA’s top
line claim of no “widespread, systemic impacts” on drinking
water from fracking and urges the agency to revise the major
statements of findings in the executive summary and elsewhere in
the draft Assessment report to be more precise, and to clearly
link these statements to evidence.
[quote]
In its own words, the EPA SAB “is concerned that these major
findings as presented within the executive summary are
[i]ambiguous and appear inconsistent with the observations,
data, and levels of uncertainty presented and discussed in the
body of the draft Assessment Report.”[/I][/quote]
We are confident that this tension between President Obama’s EPA
and the EPA’s own independent advisory board of scientists is a
direct consequence of political considerations trumping
scientific evidence on fracking, which demonstrates many
instances and avenues of water contamination and many areas of
problems and harms.
It is encouraging to see the EPA’s Science Advisory Board once
again highlighting concern with what was clearly a mis-titled
and misleading draft report
HTML http://ecowatch.com/2015/06/05/epa-fracking-contaminates-drinking-water/<br
/>from the Obama Administration on fracking and drinking water.
Now it’s time for action. It’s time for the administration to go
back, clearly articulate the hazards its own studies have
identified, and honestly address the inherent dangers of
fracking we know to exist.
HTML http://ecowatch.com/2016/02/16/epa-fracking-study-revisions/
#Post#: 4534--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fossil Fuels: Degraded Democracy and Profit Over Planet Poll
ution
By: AGelbert Date: February 18, 2016, 7:05 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Agelbert NOTE: Below please find a typical slap on the wrist for
polluters in the USA. They literally DO get away with murder.
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200714183337.bmp
[center]Two firms fined for 2014 Colorado vapor exposure
death[/center]
Staff Writers February 18, 2016
Two oil field services firms
HTML http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-devil19.gif
have been
fined a combined $14,800 for violations tied to the 2014 death
of an oil field worker.
According to the Denver Post, Colorado-based DJ Basin Transport
will pay a $5,000 fine and Texas-based Gibson Energy LLC will
pay a $14,800 fine after the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration cited both firms for failing to provide a safe
working environment.
The citations were related to an incident of fatal exposure to
toxic vapors that killed 57 year old John McNulty in 2014.
According to a forensic pathology report seen by the Denver
Post, McNulty was working on catwalk between tanks at an oil
site in Weld County, Colorado when he become unresponsive for
“unknown reason.”
Federal health officials determined that McNulty likely died
after he inhaled toxic vapors as he was measuring storage tanks.
OSHA cited both firms for failing to develop and use gauging and
sampling procedures that did not expose employees to an oxygen
deficient atmosphere or to hydrocarbon gases and vapors, the
Denver Post added.
Neither firm has commented on the matter.
HTML http://petroglobalnews.com/2016/02/two-firms-fined-for-2014-colorado-vapor-exposure-death/
#Post#: 4556--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fossil Fuels: Degraded Democracy and Profit Over Planet Poll
ution
By: AGelbert Date: February 21, 2016, 2:34 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
The Profit Over Planet PIGGERY continues.
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200714183337.bmp<br
/>Instead of investing in platforms for wind turbines, they keep
making platforms for oil and gas extraction. They just don't get
it.
HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/gen152.gif
:(
[quote]The new Marathon Oil Alba platform has been installed
after being transported form Heerema’s Dutch fabrication yard to
Equatorial Guinea.
Marathon Oil President and CEO, Lee Tillman
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200714191329.bmp.<br
/>said: “we reached a major milestone in Equatorial Guinea with
the successful installation of the jacket and topsides for the
Alba field compression project,”
The new platform is part of the Houston based oil company’s
ongoing expansion
HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/p8.gif
HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/126fs2277341.gifinto
the
international sectors.[/quote]
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/Expgv5ILuBA[/center]
HTML http://www.offshorepost.com/video-new-marathon-oil-alba-platform-installation/
The climate is going to hell in a CO2 climate change hand
basket.
But all the biosphere math challenged Oil Bastards from TEXAS
HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/acigar.gif
can say is:
[center][img
width=440]
HTML http://forum.ih8mud.com/attachments/h6a3a1d8f-jpeg.1060027/[/img][/center]
[center]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-100216204839.gif[/center]
#Post#: 4607--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fossil Fuels: Degraded Democracy and Profit Over Planet Poll
ution
By: AGelbert Date: February 28, 2016, 6:35 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]Text of Gov. Peter Shumlin’s speech to the Vermont
Pension Investment Committee
[/center]
Feb. 24, 2016, 10:11 am by VTD Editor
Editor’s note: This is the full text of Gov. Peter Shumlin’s
presentation to the Vermont Pension Investment Committee on Feb.
23. Numbered footnotes appear at the bottom.
Good morning and thank you for inviting me to talk with VPIC
about the urgent need for Vermont to divest from coal and
ExxonMobil stocks.
I have called for Vermont to divest from ExxonMobil stocks. As
Pulitzer-prize winning journalists have uncovered, ExxonMobil
spent millions trying to persuade
the American people not to support policies to fight climate
change at the same
time that their own internal research clearly indicated climate
change was real.1
In the late 1990’s, as they designed their own offshore oil rigs
to account for sea
level rise, Mobil oil paid for advertisements telling the
American people that
climate science was uncertain and that the U.S. should not join
other nations in a
global climate agreement.2 Neva Rockefeller Goodwin, the great
grand-daughter
of ExxonMobil’s founder, donated her shares this year so that
the proceeds could
be used to support nonprofit work to fight global warming.3
After 15 years of
failed shareholder engagement and meetings between the
Rockefeller family and
ExxonMobil to encourage diversification, she declared that “I
lost faith in
ExxonMobil’s future value.”4
Let’s be clear – If the Rockefellers cannot convince ExxonMobil
to change,
Vermont will not succeed in effecting change through
shareholder engagement.
Rockefeller Goodwin wonders “[h]ow different things might be if
Exxon and
others had begun to pivot away from fossil fuels 34 years ago.”
Instead, as “the
enormity of the effects of its lies becomes more evident,
ExxonMobil is positioned
to supplant Big Tobacco as global Public Enemy No. 1.”5
She goes on to say what should be evident to all of us by now,
“[t]his is not good for a company’s bottom line.”6
In testimony before the House and Senate Government Operations
Committees
last week, Vermont Law School Professor and former Public
Service Board Chair
Michael Dworkin discussed how ExxonMobil has significantly
underperformed the
S&P 500 over the last five years.7
[quote]Earlier this month several investment advisors indicated
they were downgrading ExxonMobil to a sell or an underperform
rating.8 Raymond James senior energy analyst Pavel Molchanov
said even as the oil sector hopes for a recovery of value,
“Exxon is probably the last oil stock you want.”9
[/quote]
For these reasons, we must divest from ExxonMobil and ensure we
never
buy another penny again.
Divest from Coal
As you know, I have also called for Vermont to follow
California’s lead and divest
from corporations that derive 50 percent or more of their
revenue from coal
mining used to generate electricity, and put in a screen to
ensure we never buy
such assets again.10 Based on conversations my staff have had
with the
Treasurer’s Office, it is my understanding that out of the
roughly $4 billion
Vermont manages in pension funds, we have approximately $600
worth of stocks
that fit this definition.
In the VPIC invitation letter to me you suggest that when it
comes to divesting,
“[m]uch of the public discourse has been more about persuasion
than a real
assessment of the costs and benefits.” So for today, let’s put
aside the fact that as
a matter of moral responsibility, Vermont should not be
invested in coal when our
state is the tailpipe to the dirty energy choices made by
states to our West. Let’s
put aside the fact that coal is responsible for acid rain which
has harmed our
forests, and mercury pollution that puts poison into our fish
such that pregnant
women and children have to limit their consumption. Let’s put
aside the fact that
coal burning is a leading contributor to global warming that
threatens the future
of our planet. Let’s put aside the fact that Vermont is a
leader in combatting
climate change and together with California we can lead the
country in making
the right choices for our planet. Clearly those arguments have
not persuaded this
committee to-date to take action.
So today let’s discuss the facts about why I believe in addition
to being bad moral,
environmental, and health policy, it is straight forward bad
economic policy for
the State of Vermont to be invested in coal stocks:
o Financial Institutions Agree, Coal is a Bad Investment –
Recognizing that for
the planet to have any chance to slow and reverse the trends of
global
warming, many large financial institutions are exiting the coal
industry. In November of 2015, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley
joined Citigroup, Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs in pledging
to “stop or scale back support for coal projects,” according to
Bloomberg Business.11 In a statement Morgan Stanley said “[w]e
will continue to shift our lending and capital-raising efforts
toward cleaner and renewable sources of energy and reduce the
proportion of our energy financing to coal mining and coal-fired
power generation.”12
Wells Fargo stated that it “will continue to limit and reduce
our credit exposure to the coal mining industry.”13 A new report
from Citigroup delivers the news that if we are serious about
meeting the agreed to climate target of 2 degrees Celsius then
fossil fuel companies have stranded assets that have to stay in
the ground totaling approximately $100 trillion, with coal
companies accounting for more than half of that potential loss
in value.14 Not the type of industry I would want my money
invested in, or Vermont’s money invested in.
o Coal Use and Mining is on the Decline – In the mid-2000’s coal
represented 50 percent of our nation’s power supply, today it
accounts for only 35 percent according to the Energy Information
Administration.15 That trend is likely to continue, because no
new coal plants are being built. According to the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission, for the entirety of 2015, a total of one
new coal plant came online, producing a mere 3 megawatts of
capacity. Compare that to 50 new natural gas plants totaling
nearly 6,000 megawatts, or 69 wind farms totaling nearly 8,000
megawatts, or 248 solar plants totaling over 2,100 megawatts.16
The market has spoken and it’s divesting itself of coal.
As we use less coal for electric generation, coal mining both in
the U.S. and
globally is stalling. Reports from China indicate that based on
lower demand,
it plans to close over 4,000 coal mines. 17 In another blow to
the industry, President Obama recently took strong action to
halt new coal mining leases on public lands.18 According to the
New York Times, “[t]he move represents a significant setback for
the coal industry, effectively freezing new coal production on
federal lands and sending a signal to energy markets that could
turn investors away from an already reeling industry.”19 Perhaps
it is not surprising then that CNN reports that the Dow Jones
U.S. Coal Index, which captures the value of large coal
corporations, “has lost a stunning 95 percent of its value since
July 2011.”20
o Coal Companies are Failing – As a result of the decline in
coal mining, coal
electric generation, and coal financing outlined above, coal
mining companies are failing. The second-largest coal company,
Arch Coal, filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, and “Arch
cited weakening demand for coal in filing for Chapter 11
bankruptcy.”21 That follows bankruptcy filings by other major
coal companies such as Walter Energy, Alpha Natural Resources,
and Patriot Coal.22
Let me spend just a minute talking about Alpha Natural
Resources. Alpha purchased Massey Energy before going bankrupt,
and Massey, if you recall, was headed by Don Blankenship, a CEO
who was found guilty this past December of willfully conspiring
to violate safety standards.23 Massey is the company found to
have covered up safety violations related to the Upper Big
Branch mine disaster that killed 29 coal miners in 2010.24 If
you think this is an isolated incident, think again. An
investigation by NPR in 2014 found 2,700 mine owners who
collectively owe $70 million in outstanding fines for safety
violations they have not paid, and who committed a total of
130,000
violations and had nearly 4,000 worker injuries since their
initial fines went unpaid.25 I want all of our friends in the
Vermont labor community to remember that if we say no to
divesting from coal, we are saying yes to the idea of investing
your hard-earned dollars in mining companies that have not shown
a high regard for the lives and welfare of their workers.
California saw the light. Their legislature passed a bill to
divest from coal, Governor Jerry Brown signed it, and it had
support from diverse stakeholders including the SEIU public
employees union and the Insurance Commissioner.26 The Board of
the California State Teachers Retirement System voted
affirmatively to divest its holding from U.S. coal companies,
and Investment Committee Chair Sharon Hendricks said of the
decision “[w]e determined that given the financial state of the
industry, the movement of the regulatory landscape and coal’s
impact on the environment, its presence
reflects a loss of value.”27
Vermont Has a Proud History of Using Divestment as a Positive
Tool for Change
I know I don’t need to tell this committee that in each of the
preceding three decades, Vermont has stepped up to use
divestment, thoughtfully and cautiously, when other recourse for
extraordinary societal challenges had been exhausted. We used
divestment to get out of companies that did business with South
Africa under Apartheid in the 1980’s, thanks to leadership from
then-Senator Peter Welch and Governor Madeleine Kunin. Former
Representative Don Hooper said that the year Nelson Mandela was
released from jail he visited South Africa and asked business
leaders there why Apartheid failed. The answer he got back was
“Apartheid failed because all your little divestments in
Madison, WI, Cambridge, MA, the state of Vermont…made South
Africa an international pariah,” helping reduce capital and
investment needed for economic growth.28
We used divestment, under the leadership of then-Treasurer Jim
Douglas with
support from the legislature, to get out of Big Tobacco in the
1990’s. We owned
more than $21 million in tobacco stocks back in the late
1990’s, but somehow
back then it was deemed prudent and within the fiduciary
responsibility to get rid
of all of them. Then-Treasurer Douglas confirmed with the
Attorney General that
divestiture does not violate the trustees’ fiduciary
responsibility.29 According to
Pensions and Investments which wrote about the divestment at
the time, “[t]he
Vermont funds have some of their tobacco investments in an
index fund with
Alliance Capital Management, but Alliance indicated it can
create a tobacco-free
index without a problem, Mr. Douglas said.”30 Today we hear the
argument that
we cannot possibly divest of $600 of coal stocks and get our
fund managers to
screen out coal, but back in the 1990’s Jim Douglas managed to
divest of many
millions in tobacco stocks and get fund managers to create a
tobacco-free index
screen without a problem.
We used divestment under the leadership of then-Treasurer Jeb
Spaulding to get
out of businesses operating in Sudan in 2007, after the tragic
events in Darfur.
Then-Treasurer Spaulding said: The Committee believed it would
be prudent, from a fiduciary position, to refrain from owning
securities in companies listed on the Sudan Divestment Task
Force Highest Offenders list, because the value of our portfolio
could suffer if we continue holding these securities while other
investors take affirmative action to sell securities on the
list. Personally, I hope that by joining with other
institutional and individual investors, we can do our part to
apply economic pressure on the Sudanese government and companies
they do business with to get serious about ending the horrific
atrocities still taking place in Darfur.31
I want to ask each of you here today, and I do not mean this to
be rhetorical, please raise your hand if you believe Vermont
should still own Big Tobacco
stocks?
Please raise your hand if you think Vermont should not have
divested from South Africa at a time when Nelson Mandela was
languishing in prison?
Please raise your hand if you think Vermont should not have
divested from Sudan while people were killed and starved to
death?
Now please raise your hand, if you still think we should invest
our money in the coal industry?
Divestment in Vermont has been a seldom-used, but necessary tool
to confront major challenges and put us on the right side of
history. I take issue with those who say it is a slippery slope.
In our form of government, elected officials live on that slope
– it’s called democracy. I take issue as well with those who
view divestment as symbolic, or a meaningless gesture. If
Vermont were going it alone, maybe it would be symbolic. But by
divesting from coal and ExxonMobil we would be joining our $4
billion in assets with $3.4 trillion worldwide that has already
committed to some type of fossil fuel divestment.32 That is not
a meaningless amount of investment. That represents not just our
friends in California, but also Europe’s largest insurance
company, many religious and educational institutions, and many
large municipal pension funds and national sovereign wealth
funds around the world.
I know the argument to-date seems to be around the process for
making this decision. However, it does not matter if the
legislature passes a bill, or if VPIC decides to make the right
decision. The process is not ultimately what this is about. It
is about Vermont using our power as an investor to put pressure
on coal companies economically, and to protect our pensioners
from holding securities that have a bleak future. As the coal
industry continues to suffer economically and harm our
environment and our health, and as ExxonMobil continues to
oppose changing its business model even at the urging of our own
Treasurer, this committee can continue to delay and to study. Or
this committee can take action. I believe the time has come to
act on our values, and divest. [img width=100
height=60]
HTML http://cliparts.co/cliparts/Big/Egq/BigEgqBMT.png[/img]
1 Amy Lieberman and Susan Rust, LA Times “Big Oil braced for
global warming while it fought regulations,” Dec. 31,
2015, available at:
HTML http://graphics.latimes.com/oil-operations/
2
Id.
3 Neva Rockefeller Goodwin, LA Times (published in Valley
News), “Giving Up On ExxonMobil,” February 16, 2016,
available at:
HTML http://www.vnews.com/opinion/21086384-95/column-giving-up-on-exxon-mobil?print=true
4
Id.
11 Alex Nussbaum, Bloomberg Business, “Wells Fargo, Morgan
Stanley Join Banks Edging Away from Coal,”
November 30, 2015, available at:
HTML http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-30/wells-fargo-morganstanley-join-banks-edging-away-from-coal
5
Id.
6
Id.
7 Michael Dworkin, Testimony before Vermont House and Senate
Government Operations Committee, February
19, 2016.
8 Tom DeChristopher and Christine Wang, CNBC, “ExxonMobil Posts
Earnings of 67 cents a share vs 63 cents
estimate,” February 2, 2016, available at:
HTML http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/02/exxon-mobil-reports-fourth-quarter-
2015-earnings.html.
9
Id.
10 Chris Megerian, LA Times, “California Pension Funds to Drop
Coal-Mining Companies,” October 8, 2015, available
at:
HTML http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-84561954/.
12 Id.
13 Id.
14 Giles Parkinson, Renew Economy, “Citigroup Sees $100
Trillion of Stranded Assets if Paris Succeeds,” August 25,
2015, available at:
HTML http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/citigroup-sees-100-trillion-of-stranded-assets-if-parissucceeds-13431.
15 Rory Carroll, Reuters, “California Insurance Commissioner
Calls for Coal Divestment,” Jan 25, 2016, available at:
16 FERC Office of Energy Projects, Energy Infrastructure
Update, December 2015, available at:
17 Daniel Cohan, The Hill “Plummeting Coal Use and Peaking
Stockpiles,” February 17, 2016, available at:
18 Coral Davenport, NY Times, “In Climate move, Obama Halts New
Coal Mining Leases on Public Lands,” Jan 14,
2016, available at:
HTML http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/15/us/politics/in-climate-move-obama-to-halt-new-coalmining-leases-on-public-lands.html?_r=0
19 Id.
20 Matt Egan, CNN Money “Wall Street Cuts Lending to Coal,”
December 1, 2015, available at:
21 Timothy Cama, The Hill, “Major coal mining company files for
bankruptcy,” January 11, 2016, available at:
22 Id.
23 Bourree Lam, The Atlantic, “A Guilty Verdict in Don
Blankenship’s Trial,” December 3, 2015, available at:
HTML http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/12/blankenship-trial-verdict/418641/;<br
/>Clifford Krauss, NY
Times, “Alpha Natural Resources, a Onetime Coal Giant, Files
for Bankruptcy Protection,” August 3, 2015, available
at:
HTML http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/business/energy-environment/alpha-natural-resources-a-onetime-coalgiant-files-for-bankruptcy-protecton.html?_r=0
24 Id.
25 Howard Berkes, NRP, “Fines Don’t Appear to Deter Mine Safety
Violations,” November 16, 2014, available at:
26 Rory Carroll, Reuters, “California Insurance Commissioner
Calls for Coal Divestment,” January 25, 2016, available
at:
HTML http://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-insurance-coal-idUSKCN0V32SM;<br
/>Press Release, 350.org
“”Unions Add Voice In Support of California Thermal Coal
Divestment,” June 12, 2015;
27 Press Release, California State Teachers Retirement System,
February 3, 2016, available at:
28 Don Hooper, Written Testimony, Vermont Senate Government
Operations Committee, February 11, 2016.
29 Vineeta Anand, Pensions and Investments, “Funds Feeling Heat
From Tobacco Investments,” April 28, 1997,
available at:
HTML http://www.pionline.com/article/19970428/PRINT/704280770/funds-feeling-heat-from-tobaccoinvestments
30 Id.
31 Treasurer Jeb Spaulding, news release, February 20, 2007,
available at:
32 Alex Nussbaum, Bloomberg, “Fossil Fuel Divestment Tops $3.4
Trillion Mark, Activists Say,” December 2, 2015,
available at:
HTML http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-02/fossil-fuel-divestment-tops-3-4-trillion-markactivists-say
HTML http://vtdigger.org/2016/02/24/gov-peter-shumlins-speech-to-the-vermont-pension-investment-committee/
#Post#: 4622--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fossil Fuels: Degraded Democracy and Profit Over Planet Poll
ution
By: AGelbert Date: March 3, 2016, 12:03 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[move][font=times new roman]The Party is OVER[/font][/move]
[center]
HTML https://youtu.be/6rVuquKd7Rg[/center]
Agelbert NOTE: Whereas I agree with Richard that the fossil fuel
based energy "party" is definitely over, I believe his proposed
method for transitioning to clean energy lacks teeth. He totally
ignores the political power of entrenched dirty energy
interests. They will NOT be convinced nicely on a "make profits
from clean energy" argument, no matter how proven and admittedly
valid it is, BECAUSE clean energy is mostly distributed energy
which is difficult to game through price shocks and fabricated
scarcity though convenient wars and war scares.
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200714191329.bmp
THAT is "real world" that the propagandists for the fossil fuel
industry ALWAYS remind us of when we show, point by point, that
renewable energy is actually cheaper than dirty energy above and
beyond environmental considerations.
What the fossil fuelers WILL NOT SAY until you carefully destroy
their "we are your loyal energy supplying servants doing it all
for your own human civilization good and you owe us for it"
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200714191329.bmp<br
/>is that the fossil fuel industry's POWER in the market place i
s
POLITICAL POWER, not competitive energy source power from
"supply and demand".
This edifice of degraded democracy requires centralized
political corruption, as well as gamed energy pricing (i. e.
control of the energy spigot). Without this control, their
"business model" collapses in a tsunami of bankruptcies and the
abandonment of all their "help" by their friends in government
who they can no longer buy. The "real world" also involves
BOPPING, not just buying. But the fossil fuel industry relies on
purchased friends in government to do that when gamed laws and
regulations don't suffice.
That "real world" was always a clever, but ruthless, scam to
market an uncompetitive dirty energy [s]re[/s]source.
That is why I do not believe the transition to clean energy will
be as painful as Richard Heinberg believes. However, he is right
that fossil fuels, even with their "subsidy" swag, are no longer
affordable simply because, besides the added expense of
obtaining them, we can no longer "afford" (as if we ever could)
to ignore the damage that burning them visits on our biosphere
in general and Homo SAPS in particular. The "business model" of
the fossil fuel industry, by definition, REQUIRES the rejection
of any responsibility for the deleterious effect their product
has on the perpetuation of the human species.
IOW, the "real world" of the fossil fuelers is a type of cherry
picking insanity. They really do believe that they can
industrially shit where everybody but them eats in a finite
biosphere where EVERY pollutant reduces the viability of the
biosphere that their "real world" REQUIRES in order for them to
survive.
Basically, the fossil fuel industry is composed of thugs. Those
thugs can continue to be murderous thugs as long as they can
funnel a lot of money into their pockets and into the pockets of
the governments they corrupt.
All we have to do is NOT "return to the caves", as the
propagandist assholes will claim, but reduce our footprint to
the bare necessities and continue to use more clean energy and
less dirty energy. Then the money for the thugs will dry up as
it is starting to do now. To clarify how that works, please
understand that the fossil fuel industry relies on volume sales.
Profits from volume sales operate on the margins. All you need
is a 5% to 10% annual INCREASE (i.e. decrease in demand for
fossil fuels) in demand destruction from renewable energy for a
decade or so to destroy the fossil fuel empire.
Then the crooks they can no longer buy in government will "get
the renewable energy religion". ;)
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200714191258.bmp<br
/>That is why the fossil fuelers like the Koch Brothers are alwa
ys
trying to pre-empt the growth of (E.g. Electric vehicles and
wind turbines) products that run on and/or generate Renewable
Energy. The fossil fuel industry is far more fragile than the
MKing's of this world will have you believe. They are fighting
to keep their swag and protection racket going. It worked for
the last 50 years.
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200714191329.bmp
But the annual DROP in volume sales is killing the fossil fuel
industry [img
width=20]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-080515182559.png[/img].<br
/>THAT is the REAL real world of clean energy thermodynamic
efficiency overcoming the corrupt fabrication the fossil fuel
industry has saddled us with for about a century. Let's hope
it's not too late. [img
width=060]
HTML http://www.emofaces.com/png/200/emoticons/fingerscrossed.png[/img]
#Post#: 4642--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fossil Fuels: Degraded Democracy and Profit Over Planet Poll
ution
By: AGelbert Date: March 7, 2016, 7:23 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Agelbert NOTE: Is it the petroleum fumes in the air in Heinous
Houston that makes the fossil fuelers there such greedy crooks?
Only their hairdresser (or mistress) knows. [img
width=20]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-051113192052.png[/img]<br
/>
At any rate, now that the profit over planet 'pickins' are
getting rather slim, the fossil fuelers have begun to fight
among themselves in their time honored Predators 'R' US fashion.
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[img
width=50]
HTML http://www.freesmileys.org/emoticons/emoticon-misc-027.gif[/img]
[center][img
width=540]
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ectory/wp-content/themes/directorypress/thumbs/Occidental-Petrol
eum-Corporation-logo.jpg[/img]
[img
width=100]
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[center]
Court news: Ecuador workers sue Occident Petroleum in Houston
for slice of settlement (read the complaint here)[/center]
Staff Writers February 29, 2016
A group of Ecuadorean workers is suing Occidental Petroleum for
a slice of the nearly $1 billion asset seizure settlement the
company won from Ecuador’s government earlier this year.
The plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against Occidental Petroleum and
Occidental Exploration and Production in Houston last week,
seeking class certification and damages of $265.4 million to be
paid to over 300 workers.
The case was filed in the U.S. District Court in the Southern
District of Texas on Feburary 22 and has been assigned to Judge
Lynn N. Hughes, according to court documents seen by PGN.
The lead plaintiff is represented by Michael David Sydow of the
Houston-based Sydow Firm.
[center][img
width=180]
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The plaintiffs claim that Occidental failed to redistribute 15
percent of its annual profits to its employees as mandated by
Ecuadorian law.
The damages amount is tied to a $980 million settlement
Occidental won in January after the Ecuadorean government seized
an Occidental field in 2006 ( Courthouse News Service,
HTML http://d38dna9mawrik4.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Class-action-complaint-against-Occidental-Petroleum.pdf).
According to Occidental’s website, the company no longer
operates in Ecuador.
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Ecuador seized Block 15 from Occidental in 2006 claiming that
the company sold the asset to China’s Andes Petroleum without
government approval.
The World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of
Investment Disputes had initially awarded Occidental a $1.77
billion award in 2012 but cut the award by 40 percent in
November 2015, Reuters said.
The World Bank said the award was cut to reflect Occidental’s
sale of Block 15 to Andes Petroleum.
Ecuadorean Attorney General Diego Garcia told Reuters in January
that Ecuador will pay the $980 million settlement by April of
this year, although it remains opposed to the committee’s
decision.
HTML http://petroglobalnews.com/2016/02/court-news-ecuador-workers-sue-occident-petroleum-in-houston-for-slice-of-settlement-read-the-complaint-here/
#Post#: 4643--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fossil Fuels: Degraded Democracy and Profit Over Planet Poll
ution
By: AGelbert Date: March 7, 2016, 7:55 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center]Two former Houston supply firm execs plead guilty to
international kick back scheme[/center]
Staff Writers March 2, 2016
Two former executives at a Houston-based supply firm pleaded
guilty Friday to fraud charges for their role in a kick back
scheme tied to oil projects in Latin America.
The U.S. Department of Justice said Franklin Marsan, 51, and
Eduardo Betancourt, 48, both of Spring, Texas, each pleaded
guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
According to the plea agreements, Marsan and Betancourt worked
for a Texas-based supply company that paid third-party sales
agents to promote and sell its products to customers outside the
United States.
Marsan
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200714191329.bmp<br
/>and Betancourt
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200714191329.bmp<br
/>ran the company’s Latin American operations from offices locat
ed
in Houston.
As part of their guilty pleas, Marsan and Betancourt admitted
that, from at least 2008 until at least March 2011, they
received kickbacks from commissions the third-party sales agents
earned for sales in several Latin American countries.
Marsan and Betancourt admitted that they received kickbacks
totaling at least $150,000, mostly in cash, and that they
“actively concealed” the payments from the company.
[center][img
width=60]
HTML http://pm1.narvii.com/5869/6a64193d6770c3afd17406c78686c0eda32ded1c_hq.jpg[/img]<br
/> [img
width=50]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-051113192052.png[/img]<br
/>[/center]
----------------------
Agelbert NOTE: Yes, of course I'm certain that these fellows
were not aware of the fun and games said supply firm used in
their dial-a-price marketing to certain places in Latin
America... They were just "bad apples"... And, they certainly
aren't "taking the fall" in order to prevent public disclosure
of the SOP price massaging and kickback practices of U.S. based
corporations when dealing with Latin America. My daddy worked
for one after he retired from the U.S Army. He traveled all over
south America selling the SAME industrial products for a
fascinating array of DIFFERENT prices. That was in 1965. I
imagine that's all been corrected by now, of course...
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----------------------
Both men will be sentenced on July 1, 2016, by U.S. District
Judge Melinda Harmon of the Southern District of Texas, who
accepted also accepted their plea agreements last Friday.
As part of their plea agreements, Marsan and Betancourt agreed
to pay restitution to their former employer.
HTML http://petroglobalnews.com/2016/03/two-former-houston-supply-firm-execs-plead-guilty-international-kick-back-scheme/
#Post#: 4656--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fossil Fuels: Degraded Democracy and Profit Over Planet Poll
ution
By: AGelbert Date: March 9, 2016, 7:26 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center][img
width=250]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-230216221448.png[/img][/center]
[center]Shell faces new Nigeria spill lawsuits in UK[/center]
Staff Writers March 3, 2016
A U.K court ruled on Wednesday that two groups of Nigerian
villagers can pursue lawsuits against Royal Dutch Shell for
alleged damages caused by oil spills in the Niger Delta region.
According to the BBC, the Technology and Construction Court
found that the claimants can pursue cases against Shell
Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) and its parent
company in the UK.
Shell has not commented on the ruling.
The two separate actions are being brought by the Bille and
Ogale communities who are being represented by UK-based Leigh
Day.
In a statement, Leigh Day said the clean up costs for both
communities could “run into several hundred million pounds.”
“The claims from the thousands of individuals affected by this
pollution, could run into tens of millions of pounds given the
impact on these communities,” Leigh Day added.
Leigh Day confirmed on Wednesday that formal legal proceedings
will now move forward against Royal Dutch Shell and the Shell
Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria in the High Court in
London.
Shell told CNBC that it believes that the cases should be heard
in Nigeria.
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The Ogale community claims that Shell has not followed the
recommendations of a 2011 report from the United Nations
Environmental Program that found emergency measures should be
undertaken to provide residents with clean water.
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The report found at least 10 Ogoni communities where drinking
water “contaminated with high levels of hydrocarbons,” with
residents in the Nisisioken Ogale community drinking water from
wells contaminated with benzene at levels “over 900 times above
World Health Organization guidelines.”
The Bille community alleges that oil spilling out of the Nembe
Creek 30” Trunkline since the replacement of the pipeline’s
Bille section in 2010 has damaged 13,200 hectares of mangroves.
Shell refuted the allegations, telling CNBC that the company’s
Nigerian subsidiary had “initiated action” to address the
recommendations made in the United Nations report.
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-030815183114.gif<br
/>
“In mid-2015 SPDC JV, along with the government, UNEP and
representatives of the Ogoni community, agreed to an 18-month
roadmap to fast-track the environmental clean-up and remediation
of Ogoniland which includes a governance framework,” Shell
added.
No further hearing dates have been set for the two cases yet.
Shell has long contended with pipeline spills in the Niger Delta
region that it has said were caused by sabotage or thieves
breaking into the pipelines to steal oil.
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-220216203149.gif
Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Mutiu Sunmonu said in August
2011 that the company has “always accepted responsibility for
paying compensation when [spills] occur as a result of
operational failure.”
HTML http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TzWpwHzCvCI/T_sBEnhCCpI/AAAAAAAAME8/IsLpuU8HYxc/s1600/nooo-way-smiley.gif
“Even when, as is true in the great majority of cases, spills
are caused by illegal activity such as sabotage or theft, we are
also committed to cleaning up spilt oil and restoring the
surrounding land,” Sunmonu added.
[center] [img
width=340]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-090315203150.png[/img]
[/center]
Leigh Day also represented the Bodo community of Nigeria who
reached an $83 million settlement with Shell in January 2015 for
two 2008 pipeline spills. [img
width=50]
HTML http://www.clipartbest.com/cliparts/xig/ojx/xigojx6KT.png[/img]
HTML http://petroglobalnews.com/2016/03/shell-facing-nigeria-spill-lawsuit-uk/
#Post#: 4659--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fossil Fuels: Degraded Democracy and Profit Over Planet Poll
ution
By: AGelbert Date: March 9, 2016, 8:09 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center] [img
width=640]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-031014141830.png[/img][/center]
[center]
Aubrey McClendon’s Legacy Serves as Another Warning That the Age
of Oil Barons Must End[/center]
HTML http://ecowatch.com/2016/03/04/aubrey-mcclendon-indictment/
[center]
[img
width=200]
HTML http://graysondemocrats.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/end-oil.jpg[/img][img<br
/>width=340]
HTML http://images.sodahead.com/polls/003730383/3816438968_29Oil_Subsidies_xlarge.jpeg[/img][/center]
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