Petroleum

By Nicole Sadek, Zoha Tunio and Sarah Hunt | Howard Center for Investigative Journalism< When companies flare, they do more than burn natural gas. They burn money ( Cronkite News ) – Every year, U.S. oil and gas companies set fire to billions of cubic feet of natural gas and directly vent an additional unknown […]

Climate Crisis

Conflict with Russia is Raising your Gasoline Bill; an Electric Car is the Answer

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Reporters pressed White House spokesperson Jen Psaki on Wednesday about the likelihood that any Russian military engagement in Ukraine will raise petroleum prices further. Ensuing US sanctions on Russia would keep some of its petroleum off the market, as has already happened to Iran, at a time when demand is […]

Coal

Bet on institution building, not Manchin

Waging Nonviolence

By Katey Lauer | – This story was first published by The Forge. (Waging Nonviolence ) – Last year, I wrote an article in The Forge making the case for leaving Joe Manchin be. The argument went like this: Joe Manchin got elected by amassing a war chest of corporate money and influence. Because of […]

Climate Crisis

‘Huge Climate Victory’ as Judge Blocks Biden’s Oil Lease Sale in Gulf of Mexico

Common Dreams

By Jake Johnson | – A federal judge late Thursday blocked the Biden administration’s massive oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico, a significant win for environmentalists as they work to prevent the Interior Department from handing public lands and waters over to the fossil fuel industry. In his 68-page decision (pdf), […]

Africa

The North Atlantic Put up most Heat-Trapping Gases but Africa has to Deal with the Climate Emergency

The Conversation

By Margaret Kadiri | – The UN climate summit COP26, held in November 2021, focused the world’s attention on the urgent need to tackle climate change and concluded with 197 countries agreeing to the Glasgow climate pact. But opinions on the summit’s success are polarised. We owe a profound gratitude to the developing nations – […]

China

US Maximum Pressure Foiled as Iran’s new Best Friend, China, imports as much as 18 million barrels a month of its Oil

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – China continues to rescue Iran from Washington’s financial and trade blockade on Iran, which by May, 2019, had reportedly reduced its petroleum exports from 2.5 million barrels a day to only about a tenth of that. Petroleum is a major source of income for Iran, and benefits the government and […]

Authoritarianism

In 1953, the Republican Party overthrew the Iranian Government; on 1/6/21 it used the Same Techniques against the elected President

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On January 6, 2021, Trump attempted to make a coup and remain in power despite losing the election to Joe Biden. Although many American pundits speak of Trump’s action as unprecedented, actually the Washington elite has a long history of making or backing coups d’etat in other countries. One of […]

Climate Crisis

Keep it in the Ground: We can’t limit Global Heating to Safe Levels unless We Ban all new Oil and Gas Fields

The Conversation

By David Waltham | – As a professor of geophysics, I have spent 36 years training young geologists destined to work in the fossil fuel industry how to look for oil and gas. But now I believe it’s time to stop fossil-fuel exploration and halt the development of all new oil and gas fields. We […]

Natural Gas

A century of Criminality: How the car and gas industry knew about the health risks of leaded fuel but sold it for 100 years anyway

The Conversation

By Bill Kovarik | – On the frosty morning of Dec. 9, 1921, in Dayton, Ohio, researchers at a General Motors lab poured a new fuel blend into one of their test engines. Immediately, the engine began running more quietly and putting out more power. The new fuel was tetraethyl lead. With vast profits in […]