Check this out. The video above is a live feed from a tar sands facility in Canada, where Greenpeace teams are shutting down a conveyor belt and blocking a bridge. It just started in the last half hour so details on this side of the Atlantic are scant, but keep an eye on the live feeds from the two locations (location one here, location two here) and keep up with the #stoptarsands tag on Twitter, helpfully Scribbled below.
Posted by jossc — 20 September 2009 at 1:53pm
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On the eve of the Harper-Obama meeting in Washington D.C., climate and energy campaigner Mike Hudema explains why Greenpeace is locking down and blockading a giant dump truck and shovel at Shell’s massive Albian Sands open-pit mine in northern Alberta to send the message that the tar sands are a global climate crime that must be stopped.
New report increases pressure on BP and Shell as oil majors prepare to post disappointing quarterly results
27 July, 2009
A new analysis of oil demand forecasts from the world's leading energy agencies
has uncovered a significant emerging risk for international oil companies
investing in Canada's environmentally destructive tar sands. The report,
entitled Shifting Sands, calls into question the long term profitability of
unconventional oil assets due to major downward revisions of growth in global
oil demand over the next decade.
Not every barrel of oil has the same carbon footprint - some extraction processes radically increase the amount of greenhouse gases which are released. We've been collaborating on research to identify the worst offenders, and our report (released yesterday to coincide with the company's Annual General Meeting) singles out Shell as the most carbon intensive oil company in the world, based on its total resources.
Posted by jossc — 5 May 2009 at 11:35am
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Getting to be 100 years old is a proud milestone, but it usually comes with some complications - which can include a loss of critical faculties. As BP directors and shareholders meet to celebrate the company's centenary in London this evening, they'd be well advised to seriously question whether BP's massive investment in Canadian tar sands (pictured here) is evidence of senility setting in.
Last month our Emerald Paintbrush award presented to BP highlighted how far the company, which previously styled itself as going 'beyond petroleum', has moved back to its traditional profit source at the expense of its alternative energy division, and most likely its long-term profitability.
Investors may have been patting themselves on the back yesterday as BP posted record profits for 2008, but they should be wary - a quick trawl through the figures reveals major flaws in the company's long term investment strategy. Massive profits during the first half of the year (when oil prices reached over $100 per barrel) were undermined by a collapse in the final quarter, when prices fell back to around $40 per barrel.
