Category: Fossil Fuels

It’s a cruel irony that coal miners are fighting so hard to retain their disease-ridden way of life, given its deadly effects on its participants.  Yes, all 7.3 billion of us denizens of Earth will breathe more easily (literally) when …

Coal: Coming to the End of the Line Read More »

Tagged with: , , , ,

Outside of tourists, the most common thing you’ll see on the main drag in Santa Barbara (State St.) is protest marchers. In 2013, my wife, my daughter and I did our thing re: the KXL Pipeline. A less common sight: pianos.  …

Keystone Pipeline Protests Aren't the Only Visible Aspect of Downtown Santa Barbara Read More »

Tagged with: ,

Frequent commenter MarcoPolo makes two interesting points in his recent post: 1) It’s hypocritical for some Americans to smugly claim a moral victory for less U.S. emissions, while exporting emissions-creating industries overseas, while as customers, re-importing the manufactured products of …

Dialog on Coal as an Energy Source Read More »

Tagged with: , , , , ,

With the Alaskan pipeline (pictured) flowing at only about one-quarter capacity, one can only imagine the disappointment that the governor of the state, Bill Walker, felt about yesterday’s announcement that Shell Oil had scrapped its plans to drill in the …

In the Absence of an Energy Policy, Shell’s Withdrawal from the Arctic Is Far from the Last Word on the Subject Read More »

Tagged with: , , , , , ,

After encountering crude deposits of disappointing size, Shell has decided to withdraw from oil exploration in the arctic, meaning that, at least for now, the assault on that pristine environment will not go forward.  Obviously, it’s a great moment for …

Shell Abandons Arctic Drilling Read More »

Tagged with: , , , ,

As I predicted a few years ago, the oil companies are headed in the direction that the tobacco industry took 50 years ago.  They: • Conducted research that confirms the damage that its product causes • Aggressively denyied the truth …

Big Oil Faces Big Legal Trouble Read More »

Tagged with: , , ,

Here’s an interesting article that analyses the schizophrenic nature of our society.  We know that climate change is caused in large measure by the consumption of fossil fuels, but we spend $200 billion per year subsidizing them.  Spoiler alert: The …

The Two Faces of Fossil Fuel Consumption Read More »

Tagged with: , ,

The “bottomless war chest” of the oil companies has succeeded in gutting the State of California’s proposed Senate Bill 350, a measure calling for a 50 percent cut in petroleum use by 2030.  On Wednesday, state law-makers announced  that a …

A Week of Environmental Victories and Defeats: Just Another Day At the Office Read More »

Tagged with: , , , , ,

Over the past few years, I’ve written several articles calling out Chevron’s nauseating behavior in defiling the rain forests and people of Ecuador. As I’m fond of saying, there are over 200,000 groups around the world whose mission and purpose …

Justice May Be Nigh in Ecuador's Case Against Chevron Read More »

Tagged with: ,

According to the Writer’s Almanac, today is the 156th anniversary of the first oil well, which was drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania.  Although petroleum had been seen and used much earlier, this was humankind’s first foray into exploration for the stuff. We all …

Oil! Read More »

Tagged with: , , , ,