Climate Change / Emissions

Shell May Close or Sell Montreal East Oil Refinery
By Guy Collins

July 9 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc may close or sell its Montreal East refinery in Quebec, Canada, among various options it’s considering for the plant as part of a global review of assets.

Possibilities include the sale of the refinery and some associated downstream businesses; closure of the plant; conversion into a terminal; establishment of a joint venture; or continued operation, a Shell spokesman said today by telephone, declining to be identified in line with company policy.

An alternative anniversary
Charlotte Hilling
Northern News Services
Published Friday, July 3, 2009

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The social justice coalition Alternatives North has been making life easier for some, and uncomfortable for others, according to a raft of speakers at the 17th anniversary get together last Friday.

Union of Northern Workers president Todd Parsons said he would struggle to cope with his workload if it were not for the volunteer organization.

"I could not do all this work by myself - and because Alternatives North exists - I don't have to," he said.

** Community and Public Health Advocates Halt Chevron Refinery Expansion
_________________________________________________

For Immediate Release: July 2, 2009

Contact:

Will Rostov, Earthjustice, (510) 550-6725
Torm Nompraseurt, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, (510) 323-5245
Greg Karras, Communities for a Better Environment, (415) 902-2666
Henry Clark, West County Toxics Coalition, (510) 232-3427

Community and Public Health Advocates Halt Chevron Refinery Expansion at
Richmond, CA

Martinez, CA – Contra Costa County Superiior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga has

Shell: Shifting Sands
From Canadian Business magazine, July 20, 2009
How Shell lost the goodwill of stakeholders.

Looking beyond Yellowknife

Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, July 1, 2009

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Patrick Doyle has been elected president of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce at a gloomy time for the city, and he's casting his net beyond Yellowknife.

Book documents discarding of three decades of oilsands knowledge
By Darcy Henton, Edmonton Journal
June 29, 2009

Some might call it '32 lost years.'

When Edmontonian Larry Pratt wrote his book Tarsands in 1976, he warned Albertans about the environmental, social and economic ramifications of rapid development of the oilsands, north of Fort McMurray. Thirty-two years later, Calgarian Andrew Nikiforuk provides in shocking detail in his book, also called Tarsands, just where that frenzied development has got us.

It raises the question: Where was everybody during those three decades?

Peak Oil And World Food Supplies
By Peter Goodchild
29 June, 2009
Countercurrents.org

Only about 10 percent of the world’s land surface is arable, whereas the other 90 percent is just rock, sand, or swamp, which can never be made to produce crops, whether we use “high” or “low” technology or something in the middle. In an age with diminishing supplies of oil and other fossil fuels, this 10:90 ratio may be creating two gigantic problems that have been largely ignored.

Tribal members fight Enbridge oil pipeline
Some members from Fond du Lac and Leech Lake bands will petition Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to block the Enbridge project.

By: John Myers, Duluth News Tribune

Saying the environmental damage to their native brothers’ land in Canada is too great, tribal dissidents on two Minnesota Indian reservations are battling a major new oil pipeline across northern Minnesota.

UPDATE: Shell To Become Most CO2-Intensive Oil Co -Study

LONDON (Dow Jones)--Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) is on track to become the most carbon intensive international oil company because of its focus on unconventional oil resources like Canadian tar sands, said a study published by a coalition of environmental groups Monday.

"In the age of carbon reduction, Shell is fast heading in the opposite direction, massively increasing the carbon intensity of its production of oil and gas," the report said. "This represents a real risk for Shell, for investors and for the climate."

Cap-and-trade does more harm than good
Bill offers incentives for businesses that pollute.
Jun. 24, 2009 // Philadelphia Inquirer.
By Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel

We would support legislation in Congress to address climate change if it were capable of accomplishing that goal. Unfortunately, despite the best intentions of its proponents, the bill known as Waxman-Markey would disable our ability to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions for at least a decade, hugely increasing the risk of irreversible climate calamity.