go beyond oil

Update: Over 6,000 emails to Ford bosses. Yet to receive a reply.

As the clock ticks down to some pretty important laws that could potentially save us millions of barrels in oil consumption (3.6m in the UK alone), one car manufacturer is doing its best to scupper this important legislation: Ford.

We've just heard from some high-level sources that Ford is pressuring Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, to weaken the UK's position on proposed European emissions targets.

Why are car companies hiding their progress? Photo: drinksmachine

It's not often you see car companies trying to hide their green achievements. We're more used to seeing them worn boastfully on the outside. The way Superman wears his underpants.

So why would they hide them now?

The Corporate Social Responsibility guys must be choking on their almond croissants. Today's news is something they want to shout about: fast, tangible progress on vehicle efficiency technology that reduces emissions. Greener cars, greener company. This time they don't have to make it up. But they're being hushed up by the lobbyists in the boardroom, who know that talking about these gains is going to counter their main argument with politicians: that their companies can't comply with proposed CO2 targets in time.

Now's your chance to stop an oil rig. Well, quite a few really.

Right now, in the corridors of Brussels, our politicians and civil servants are haggling over our future. Specifically the future of our oil consumption.

We know the vast majority of oil is used in transport, and that's why the forthcoming European decisions on emissions targets for vans and cars are so important to our Go Beyond Oil campaign.

One of Cairn's tugs, towing an iceberg out the way of its Arctic oil rig

Bing. Email received. Cairn Energy sent its “Greenland Operational Update” this morning at 7.05am with news to investors of its Arctic drilling. Despite its best efforts to put a positive spin on the news, the important words stood out:

“Plugged”, and “abandoned” for its first two drill sites. “Primary objectives were not reached” for number three, with “further re-entry work depending on the results of further evaluation”.

The media were more blunt, with headlines saying “Cairn Energy fails in Arctic oil drilling”.

In 2009, our US campaigners protested against Big Oil-funded spin which aimed to nobble the climate change debate

If you ever wanted to witness the grimy political hand of Big Oil, now's your chance: it's US mid-term election time.

The web of dirty money is global, with BP and other European companies complicit in funding climate change denier candidates for the US senate.

Several weeks after BP announced that the leaking well was firmly capped, the Arctic Sunrise is still in the Gulf assessing the damage caused to marine life and habitats. Oceans campaigner John Hocevar is part of the investigation team and his latest blog is below. More blogs, photos and videos from the Arctic Sunrise's expedition can be found on our US website.

A couple days ago, we advanced the cause of science and conservation by throwing someone else's hundred thousand dollar piece of equipment over the side of the ship.  It sank to the bottom.

Fortunately, this was all part of the plan. The scientists we are working with, Steve Ross and Mike Rhode from University of North Carolina Wilmington and Sandra Brooke from the Marine Conservation Biology Institute and the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, plan to come back next year to retrieve the equipment, called a benthic lander, and use it to learn how deep sea corals are surviving in a rapidly changing and heavily impacted environment.