SHUSHUFINDI, Ecuador - Mention to Anita Ruíz the name of the giant oil company Chevron, and she trembles with rage. At her wooden hut here in the Amazon forest, where oil-project flares illuminate the night sky, she points to a portrait of her youngest son, who died seven years ago of leukemia at age 16.
"We believe the American oilmen created the pollution that killed my son," said Ms. Ruíz, 58, who lives in a clearing where Texaco, the American oil company that Chevron acquired in 2001, once poured oil waste into pits used decades ago for drilling wells.
As Barack Obama heads into his second hundred days in office, let's
head for the big picture ourselves, the ultimate global plot line, the
tumultuous rush towards a new, polycentric world order. In its first
hundred days, the Obama presidency introduced us to a brand new
acronym, OCO for Overseas Contingency Operations, formerly known as
GWOT (as in Global War on Terror). Use either name, or anything else
you want, and what you're really talking about is what's happening on
the immense energy battlefield that extends from Iran to the Pacific
Ocean.
Gov. Sarah Palin told the new secretary of Interior on Tuesday that Alaska needs new offshore oil and gas development or risks an early shutdown of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.
"Once that line shuts down, it will mean the end of oil production on the North Slope," Palin said, adding that plans for a new pipeline to carry natural gas to Lower 48 markets are at stake, too.
OTTAWA - The Harper government has named a former oil and gas industry executive who led a company active in the Alberta oilsands as a representative on a U.S.-Canada working group on clean energy.
Charlie Fischer, who until recently served as president and chief executive officer of Calgary-based Nexen Inc., will head up one of three working groups with American counterparts as part of the Clean Energy Dialogue, Environment Minister Jim Prentice has confirmed.
Ken Saro-Wiwa swore that one day Shell, the oil giant, would answer for his death in a court of law. Next month, 14 years after his execution, the Nigerian environmental activist's dying wish is to be fulfilled.
In a New York federal court, Shell and one of its senior executives are to face charges that in the early 1990s in Nigeria they were complicit in human rights abuses, including summary execution and torture.
The state is aiming to collect "several hundred million dollars" from BP as compensation for pipeline leaks in 2006 that hobbled North Slope oil production and cut into state revenue, a state lawyer said.
The claim is the heart of a meticulous and highly technical lawsuit the state filed Tuesday against BP.
The federal government this week filed its own suit against the London-based company alleging violations of federal pollution laws.
Millions of dollars in free heating fuel will flow through Alaska villages early next month courtesy of a controversial giveaway program paid for by the Venezuelan government.
The sooner the better, say many villagers and rural nonprofits who appear more concerned about their towering energy bills than international politics.
"The whole town, we've been waiting all winter," said Margaret Schaeffer of Kiana, a Inupiat village of about 380 people where heating fuel costs $6.64 a gallon.
Twenty years ago, the Exxon Valdez supertanker spilled at least 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska's pristine Prince William Sound. The consequences of the spill were epic and continue to this day, impacting the environment and the economy. Instead of seeing it as just a pollution story, Riki Ott considers the Exxon Valdez disaster to be a fundamental threat to U.S.
What happens on the immense battlefield for the control of Eurasia will
provide the ultimate plot line in the tumultuous rush towards a new,
polycentric world order, also known as the New Great Game.
Today marks the 20th anniversary of one of the worst environmental disasters in history, the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
After two decades, the memory of the spill persists for the commercial fishermen and Alaska natives whose livelihoods were destroyed by Exxon's recklessness. Sadly, the oil persists, too: A 2007 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study showed that 26,600 gallons of crude oil from the spill are still lingering below the surface of Alaska's beaches.
