oil

Liquid War: Postcard from Pipelineistan

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.

Posted in oil, water, Afghanistan, Asia, Iraq, Pakistan, Russia

Exxon Valdez, 20 Years Later

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.

Posted in oil

Oil Plagues Sound 20 Years After Exxon Valdez

Twenty years after the Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil in Alaska's Prince William Sound, oil persists in the region and, in some places, "is nearly as toxic as it was the first few weeks after the spill," according to the council overseeing restoration efforts.

Posted in biodiversity, conservation, Environment, oil, pollution

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 23, 2009
11:12 AM

CONTACT: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)
Rick Steiner (907) 786-4156; Luke Eshleman (202) 265-7337

$100 Million Still Owed From Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

US and Alaska Fail to Collect $92 Million Damage Claim Filed Back in 2006

WASHINGTON - March 23 - As the 20th anniversary of the massive Exxon Valdez oil spill dawns tomorrow, the federal and state governments have yet to collect all that the oil company agreed to pay. A final $92 million claim for harm to wildlife, habitat and subsistence users filed in 2006 has languished ever since.

###

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) is a national alliance of local state and federal resource professionals. PEER's environmental work is solely directed by the needs of its members. As a consequence, we have the distinct honor of serving resource professionals who daily cast profiles in courage in cubicles across the country.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) Links:

Posted in Environment, Equality/Justice, oil, pollution

Oil Spill Fears Deepen as Ship Firm Admits Error

The full scale of the environmental disaster on the Queensland coast was becoming clear last night as a shipping company admitted that its earlier estimates of the size of the oil spill were "substantially" wrong.

An oil slick was blackening beaches along the Sunshine Coast, Bribie Island and Moreton Island.

Even as authorities focused on the damage to these areas - now declared disaster zones - more oil spilt into the Brisbane River. This 500-metre-long slick was contained quickly.

Posted in ecology, Environment, oceans, oil, pollution

Ottawa Wades Into Oilsands Debate

OTTAWA - The House of Commons environment committee is wading into a raging public relations war over the Alberta oilsands with a study of the industry's impact on water resources.

The MP who proposed the study is Montreal-area Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia. In an interview, he said he assured Conservative MPs - sensitive about an industry in the heart of their political bastion - that the study "is not about a witch hunt" in a sector of the energy industry that some environmentalists are campaigning to have shut down.

Posted in conservation, Energy, Environment, Indigenous peoples, oil, oil sands

Huge Oil Slick From Russian Ship Heads for British Coastline

Coastguards in Britain and Ireland were on red alert today after a Russian aircraft carrier spilt an estimated 1,000 tonnes of oil off the southern Irish coast.

The spill, which happened as the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier was refuelling at sea, caused a slick that is now more than three miles long and almost as wide.

It is the biggest oil spill in waters around the British Isles since the Sea Empress ran aground off Milford Haven in 1996, causing widespread damage to the Pembrokeshire coast.

Posted in biodiversity, Environment, oceans, oil, pollution

The Human Cost of Bush's Arctic Policy

Wainwright, Alaska - "We'll have to give you an Eskimo name if you like our food!" Kenneth "Kenny" Tagarook teased as he sliced another piece of frozen raw caribou meat for me with his ulu - a hand-sized, flat piece of metal with a small handle opposite the sharp, curved edge.

Kenny and his wife Ann are Inupiat ("In-OU-pe-at" or "Eskimo"). They are hosting me and Kenny's cousin Rosemary Ahtuangaruak during our visit in Wainwright. The village of 520 mostly Inupiat people lies along Alaska's North Slope over 200 miles above the Arctic Circle.

Posted in conservation, Energy, Environment, Human Rights, offshore drilling, oil

Debate Persists About Long-Term Effects of Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

An already fragile population of killer whales that hunts Prince William Sound never recovered from the Exxon Valdez oil spill and is doomed to die off, biologists said this week.

Marine mammal biologist Craig Matkin of Homer has tracked the animals since the mid-1980s and said he never thought he'd see an entire population of whales -- even a small one -- disappear.

"To blame it all on the spill would not be fair, but that's the final death blow," Matkin said.

Posted in biodiversity, Environment, oil, pollution

Repudiate the Carter Doctrine

Twenty-nine years ago, President Jimmy Carter adopted the radical and dangerous policy of using military force to ensure U.S. access to Middle Eastern oil.

Posted in Energy, foreign policy, obama, oil