Washington, DC – As the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change opened today in Poznan, Poland, grassroots climate activists took over the Washington DC office of Environmental Defense. The activists stated that they had targeted ED, one of the largest environmental organizations in the world, because of the organization’s key role in promoting the discredited approach of carbon trading as a solution to climate change.

Dr. Rachel Smolker of Global Justice Ecology Project read a statement, which said in part, “My father was one of the founders of this organization, which sadly I am now ashamed of. The Kyoto Protocol, the European Emissions Trading Scheme and virtually every other initiative for reducing emissions have adopted their market approaches. So far they have utterly failed, serving only to provide huge profits to the world’s most polluting industries. Instead of protecting the environment, ED now seems primarily concerned with protecting corporate bottom lines. I can
hear my father rolling over in his grave.”

The activists rearranged furniture in the office, illustrating how marketing carbon is “like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.” Others held signs reading “Keep the cap, ditch the trade” and “Carbon trading is an environmental offense.”

Leo Cerda, an Indigenous activist with Rising Tide Ecuador said, “ED wants to turn the atmosphere and forests into private property, and then give it away to the most polluting industries in the form of pollution allowances that can be bought and sold. Not only is this an ineffective way to control emissions, it is also a disaster for the poor and Indigenous peoples who are not party to these markets and are most impacted by climate change.”

ED has been key in establishing the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a business consortium advocating for a cap and trade system with extremely weak emissions reductions. US CAP allows polluters like Duke Energy, Shell, BP, DuPont, and Dow Chemical to claim they are green while continuing with business as usual. In recognition, activists awarded ED the “Corporate Greenwash Award,” a three foot tall green paintbrush. “We think this award is appropriate since Environmental Defense spends more time painting polluters green than actually defending the environment,” said Matt Wallace of Rising Tide North America.

Opposition to carbon trading is growing as it becomes apparent that market based schemes do little to fight climate change while helping corporations rake in profits. Earlier this year, over 50 groups came together in the US to denounce carbon trading in a Declaration Against the Use of Carbon Trading Schemes to Address Climate Change. Globally, hundreds of environmental, social justice, and Indigenous groups have come together to oppose such market based initiatives as inherently unsustainable and ineffective in creating a just transition away from fossil fuels.

Abigail Singer

On Nov 14, 2008, activists from the Coal River Valley, an area hard-hit by mountaintop removal coal extraction, took action against Citi in Beckley, WV.  They distributed fliers outside a Citi Financial office, informed Citi employees that their employer had a major role in destroying their communities, and handed fliers to customers entering the office.  Then they headed off to a meeting with an Appalachian region-wide effort to stop mountaintop removal.

Vernon Haltom, Coal River Mountain Watch

Emulating the coal industry’s marketing pitch of “clean coal”, activists handed out samples of “green coal” while informing fellow citizens not to expect green coal to be clean, safe, or affordable.

“Although we’ve spent a lot of time and resources researching ways to make coal environmentally friendly, or ‘clean and green’, the best way we found to do it is to paint it green,” said Chris Santorum, one of the Green Coal Salespeople.

To watch a video of this event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doWqvWDRDGM

Rising Tide Boston has been working with local housing and poverty advocacy groups to demand that the big banks stop gambling with the future of people and planet. Real solutions to the climate crisis, that are market-ready and viable, would both address economic equity for local communities and directly reduce the disproportionate burden of impacts that working class communities around the world face from fossil fuel industries such as coal.

Despite the coal lobby’s desperate schemes to sell the “clean coal” concept, coal power generation remains dirty, unsafe and unaffordable as the following facts confirm.

• The coal industry is responsible for nearly 40% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions
• Toxic emissions from coal power plants cause over 26 000 deaths per year in the US alone
• An average coal plant is responsible for externalized environmental and public health costs of over 300 million dollars per year.
• There are currently 110 coal power plants slated for development in the U.S. none of which have the ability to capture the carbon they would emit.

“Without the financial backing of big banks like Citi and Bank of America, the coal industry wouldn’t be able to build over 100 new coal plants. We need real solutions to the climate crisis, not more coal industry greenwash,” said Lulu Debarca of Rising Tide Boston.

In the early hours of commuter traffic, Raleigh commuters encountered banners at key thoroughfares – reminding them that “Coal Ain’t Clean”, and that Bank of America continues to finance the coal industry, including Mountaintop Removal coal mining and dirty coal power companies like Duke Energy.

Earth First & Rising Tide claimed responsibility for these banners.

Later in the day, folks in Wilmington joined Raleigh, as activists went around both cities shutting down dozens of Bank of America ATM machines with global warming crime scene tape.

Even Bank of America Headquarters in Charlotte were not spared on this day, as a group of activists left the bank a gift inside the HQ building – a banner suspended from scores of helium balloons, with the message “Stop Banking on Climate Change”.

A number of public interest groups around Charlotte, North Carolina, have been campaigning against Duke Energy’s plans to build an 800 MW Coal power expansion to their Cliffside facility. Bank of America is one of the primary financiers of Duke. Like many other swing states that turned color on Nov 4th, it appears the color of public opinion on coal in North Carolina may be turning as well.

At noon today, activists affiliated with the New York Action Network convened in midtown dressed in their finest business wear to apologize to the public on behalf of Citi for the bank’s role in the funding of coal, the climate crisis and the financial turmoil worldwide.  Citi recently received 25 billion dollars of US taxpayer money; we thought it was an appropriate moment to thank taxpayers and to apologize for not taking their future into consideration while we were carelessly making all those dirty investments.

Donning laminated name-tags signaling our official status as Citi representatives – Veronica Huffinpuff, Sally Smokestack, Nomar Mountains, Anita Inhaler, Ivanna Bailout, Seymour Solar, Vin Turbine and others- one team of activists entered through the building’s side door looking for Mr. Vikram Pandit to sign a pledge which read: Dear Taxpayer, Thanks for the 700 billion dollars. We apologize for our history of irresponsible investment and promise to do better. We pledge to immediately cease all investment in coal and declare a moratorium on home foreclosures. It’s time to change, the buck stops here!”

Unfortunately, Mr. Pandit was unavailable so we gathered at the front of the building where we apologized  for “the mess we made!” to as many pedestrians as we could engage, handing them an open letter from the Citi family that outlined in detail the company’s new commitments to a more sustainable and just future.  We also had placards that read, “Sorry About Climate Change – Our Bad”, “Sorry about those foreclosures”, “We promise – no more dirty investments”.

It was certainly a lighthearted and humorous approach to protest, with the public and the media reactions being incredibly positive; people were laughing and listening – not something one encounters every day on the sidewalks of New York City.

But here’s the thing; the reason we were there in the first place, why twenty five of us committed our Friday afternoon to standing in the drizzle in suits, are incredibly serious.  Our country is experiencing an economic crisis that is being compared to the 1920′s; thousands of families are losing their homes while taxpayer money is being poured into financial institutions that refuse to acknowledge the error of their ways.  The only thing this does is to avoid the more salient issue – a climate crisis whose risk involves the lives and communities of a billion displaced peoples. We have yet to see significant action that begins to remedy these issues in any real way. We are burning more coal than ever.

The irony of this gap between the facts and the reality was made all the more evident to me by the police presence we experienced today. Both the police and Citi’s private security were out in full force (we locked down at the same site on Fossils Fools Day and discovered they were expecting a repeat ) and not looking to make friends with us.  One security guard aggressively asked me to step back from the side walk and told me diminutively, “I know you think this is silly”.

Actually, I don’t think anything about this is silly. At all.

What I would like to say to him is – we know the system doesn’t care about us, but the real question is, do we care about each other? He’s is in no better shape than the rest of us who make up the majority of the population. Not amongst the upper echelon trying to buy their way out of this mess.  We are out there for his future as well as our own, for his children as well as our own, and I live for the day when, instead of apologizing for standing six inches too far into their “zone”, we can interact as human beings and treat each other with the respect that we both deserve in our united struggle for justice and future.

Lauren Valle

As millions of viewers nation-wide made plans to join their friends for political primetime – the presidential debate, a smaller number of people representing community, environmental and economic justice gathered in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts with a different resolve – firmly rooted in the popular notion that “Change will not come from Washington. It will come to Washington”…..regardless of outcomes at the ballot-box.

A wide array of issues was bridged on this day in Harvard Square – the overarching theme being the “human impacts of dirty, high-risk financing”. Job-loss, home-evictions, thousands of lives threatened and lost to coal strip mining and dirty power generation – all impacts stemming from a fundamental flaw in the world of finance capital. Where big banks and their massive investment power lack any modicum of accountability to the health and wellbeing of people and communities, people are ready to send Wall Street the message: “Not With Our Money”.

Soledad Lawrence of Vida Urbana ignited the rally in front of Bank of America – naming the bank’s role in evicting working poor from their homes. The activists then marched to Citibank – where Alysha Suley of Rising Tide Boston reminded people that in naming dirty financing, we were also standing in solidarity with people living on the frontlines of dirty coal and climate change around the U.S. – from New Orleans to the mountains of Appalachia. And that is where the resolve lies – people standing up for people and proclaiming the public’s role in defending the public interest

The beauty of the day was that there was no space for cynicism. As local collective – Allied Music for People (AMP) began moving people with old union ballads and new songs for change; it became very evident that, people from all walks of life were standing at the doors to the Temple of Freemarketology, sharing a message that resonated with all present and passing by – students, tourists, shopkeepers, workers on their lunch-break. Even a few bank employees decided to join the ranks of those opposing dirty energy, poverty and injustice. “The Empire is Crumbling…..Hallelujah”…

Unlike many inspiring rallies and marches however, this one had a bit of a surprise – especially for the extra reinforcements brought in by Boston’s elite special response team; where members of (local climate justice group) Rising Tide Boston, slipped past more than fifty of these men in Kevlar to shut down the Citibank branch when the march arrived on the scene. It took over two hours for the Boston Police to remove these noble young women and men from the site –while the rally sang praise and appreciation. And the police were compelled to accord a measure of well-deserved respect in response to the confidence and serenity of these youth.

While coal is dirty, Wall Street is rotten and the big banks remain scoundrels, it was solidarity that won the day at Harvard Square…….and later that evening when our friends were released from the Cambridge police station, we decided to sit down in solidarity with many other affinity groups around the nation to share some food, open some beer and tune into prime-time to watch Obama vs. McCain, for a wee bit.

For more about this day: Cambridge Chronicle Fox TV Boston Harvard Crimson Rising Tide North America

Since their announcement of the carbon principles – new environmental standards designed to help banks assess the risk associated with investments in coal power, Citi has continued to provide financial assistance to Dominion Resources. Along with Barclays, JP Morgan Chase and Merrill Lynch, Citibank served as joint book-running managers for the sale of $ 1.2 billion of Dominion debt securities in June, 2008.

Dominion currently operates over 30 coal-fired power plants in the US and is proceeding with the construction of a 585 MW coal plant in Wise County, despite widespread opposition amongst Virginians.

Richmond's Finest

Significantly outnumbering the ranks of Rising Tide, Earth First, Mountain Justice and RAN activists, the coalition forces of the Richmond area police departments, state troopers, county sheriff offices and numerous federal law enforcement officials assumed total control of the city, attempting to protect business as usual in the wake of public protest.

The Southeast Climate Action Camp held in Louisa County, Virginia, had just provided a week full of training and strategizing (the downfall of various fossil fuel empires) and activists from throughout the US Southeast planned and prepared to take on some of the key corporations responsible for climate change in Virginia – they were ready for a good day of action.

Virginia-based utility company – Dominion had received significant attention from both coal and nuclear activists at the Climate Action camp, due to its prominent role in both these high risk energy sectors. With ten coal power and four nuclear power facilities in Virginia, Dominion has in recent years offended many residents of the state with plans to add to add more dirty power plants.

Launching plans in the early hours of the morning, the climate activists gathered at Dominion’s Innsbrook Technical Center – where the latest technologies in both coal and nuclear power generation are being developed. However, their elaborate plan of shutting down the expansive facility was foiled by well-placed police blockades and expansive ground and air surveillance. The activists quickly regrouped in the city – only to find that all access points to other corporate offices responsible for climate change – such as the headquarters of Massey Coal, Dominion and the Bank of America Center were being closely guarded. Not yet willing to admit defeat, the activists launched one last plan – a Rebel Clown Army march through downtown Richmond. Their perseverance paid off.

Rebel Clowns

Alongside a substantial police escort, the activists weaved their way through Richmond streets – singing songs and chanting “No Coal, No Nuclear, No Compromise” – visiting the local coal and energy companies and the banks that finance them. Along the way – the office of the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) was given a finger wagging for “rubber-stamping” dirty coal permits.

Many residents and office workers – who do not often witness public dissent of this nature – greeted the activists with friendly words of encouragement and cheers. The march stopped at Massey Coal’s headquarters where Massey was told to “Keep your hands off our mountains”; then passed the DEQ and stopped at Dominion’s corporate offices where they were met by a line of the Richmond Mounted Police.

Finally the Rebel Clowns and friends marched to Bank of America’s business center where two activists locked themselves to the bank entrance with demands that BoA stop financing the coal companies that are destroying lives and communities in Appalachia and around the world.

Lockdown

After a couple of hours the bank blockaders were arrested and detained, and bank employees were able to return to work. Despite the obstruction of business hours, bank employees seemed more curious and interested in the action than disturbed. Richmond police were unavailable for comment on the fact that two of the activists had managed to slip by their elaborate defenses.

This day in Virginia wrapped up a couple of weeks of global climate activism – with action camps in the UK, Germany, Australia and North America preventing and obstructing business as usual operations at coal power plants, coal export ports and railroads, oil and gas pipelines, nuclear power plants and their corporate offices.

UK Climate Action

The multiple risks of nuclear energy first came into the public spotlight during massive public demonstrations in the 1970s, when 100s of nuclear power reactors were being planned for the US. The mass protests and direct actions of the 70s and 80s led to the shutting down of many proposed nuclear reactors (such as Seabrook 2) when public opposition forced the government to eliminate subsidies to the nuclear power industry – resulting in huge construction cost over-runs and the market realization that nuclear power was unaffordable for utilities and ratepayers

Today, the power sector faces similar questions regarding coal: can coal be cost competitive with existing renewable energy options when both direct and indirect subsidies (such as externalized health impact costs) are removed? With burgeoning construction expenses and a growing public demand that the coal power industry bear the costs of its impacts to communities on the frontlines of climate change, it appears that the anti-nuclear movement days are being re-enacted in this age of climate awareness. Young coal and climate activists at the Virginia Climate Camp had listened to stories from veteran anti-nuke activists about their days of mass direct action – and discussed what it might take to render the coal industry “economically obsolete”.

As the march wrapped up on the streets of Richmond in the late afternoon, and people arranged to have their friends released from police custody, some activists shouted “we’ll be back”. They will be back – the days of dirty energy are numbered.

No Compromise - We'll be back for you!

Friday, July 11, 2008 — Asheville, NC

Today – Asheville Rising Tide’s Billionaire Bloc descended on Bank of America’s regional headquarters to demand that BoA continue to invest their money in coal. The Asheville Police Department did an excellent job of blocking access to the bank entrance and the ATM, scaring off a number of bank customers.

Dressed in top hats, gowns, monocles and feather boas, these Billionaires for Coal staged a demonstration calling for increased coal development. They chanted “Get your dirty mountains off our clean coal!” and thanked B of A customers for their support.

Meanwhile, a group of counter-protesters handed out leaflets about the ecological and human-rights consequences of dirty energy investments and held banners decrying B of A’s support for mountain top removal mining. Some of the protesters apparently went inside the banks, raising a ruckus and handing out information until they were advised that the police were on their way.

Outside the bank – the motley crew of billionaires demonstrated in style, informing the public of BoA’s dirty deeds. Several passers-by who stopped to talk said that they would cancel their B of A bank accounts.

From Abigail in Asheville

The Billionaires for Coal are back on the streets once again – organizing their elite cadre in Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina in defense of Bank of America’s investments in Mountain Top Removal Coal Mining.

Sipping “dirty martinis” made with coal and holding signs with slogans like “More profit, less mountains” and “Our bottom line is the bottom line,” the Billionaires for Coal have been gathering at branches of their favorite bank – calling attention to Bank of America’s investment priorities and defending their choices to fund the coal industry and ignore the environmental and human rights consequences coal mining and power.

In North Carolina, fifty percent of the coal used to produce energy is mined through the use of Mountaintop Removal (MTR), a practice that has leveled hundreds of square miles of Appalachian mountains and buried more that 1,500 miles of streams across the region. These mines have forced entire communities out of the mountains they have inhabited for generations, slowly depopulating the region and replacing rich mountain ecosystems with coal rubble. Coalfields residents have been finding their wells running dry; foundations of their homes being cracked; drinking water being polluted with heavy metals; and many have been killed by speeding, overweight coal trucks. Bank of America is a major funder of both coal companies that practice MTR, as well as power companies like Duke that are using MTR coal to fuel their power plants.

Some North Carolina residents however, seemed to disagree with the billionaires’ sentiments .

Abigail: Thursday, June 26

Activists in Charlotte paid a visit to B of A’s headquarters today, holding a banner that read “DIVEST FROM COAL” and passing out information on the bank’s dirty energy investments to bank employees and passers-by. We were visited a few times by some cops on Segways (you know, those electro-gyroscopic scooters), cops on foot, and cops on bicycles, all seeming very concerned about just how much public sidewalk we were taking up outside B of A’s monstrous building downtown. We spoke with a bunch of Charlotte residents, some of whom were genuinely surprised to hear about B of A’s involvement in financing the coal industry, and were interested to learn about the campaign against them. We were having so much fun that some local high school students joined us in handing out fliers and talking with folks as the business day ended and the street filled with busy businesspeople. A rousing day of public education and outreach was had by all.

Activists in Chapel Hill, NC took further action against climate change and mountain top removal, this time bringing the message to Bank of America Director W.Steven Jones – also the Dean of Kenan-Flagler Business School at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Posters were put up in and around the UNC business school with pictures of Jones’ colleague – CEO Ken Lewis and information on the bank’s socially unethical and environmentally disastrous investment portfolio.

Activists also postered climate disaster posters in the boroughs of Charlotte’s finest – to remind them of our common future. We hope they will appreciate this effort to reach out to them directly, and choose to use their positions of power and influence to call on Bank of America to end its financing of massive social and ecological destruction during this critical time of global climate change.

One of B of A’s many large-scale coal investments is a loan to Duke Energy for the construction of their new Cliffside coal plant, located between Charlotte and Asheville, NC. This plant is currently facing several legal challenges and massive citizen opposition. The climate disaster posters call for the cancellation of Cliffside as well as an end to all of B of A’s investments in dirty energy projects.

Abigail

Public interest groups (from across the country) sent the following letter to Congress, demanding that taxpayer subsidies be disallowed CCS, and that safe, affordable and market-ready energy technologies such as wind and solar be funded instead.

Dear Members of Congress

On behalf of our members and supporters we are writing to express our opposition to any policies that promote or provide taxpayer subsidies for carbon capture and storage (CCS), the practice of trapping carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion and storing it below the sea or beneath the surface of the earth.

As you know, global warming is one of the greatest challenges facing the planet today. To avoid the worst impacts of global warming scientists have warned that we need to reduce global warming pollution by at least 80 percent by 2050. Climate stabilization, national security and economic prosperity depend on substantially reducing our use of fossil fuels. That means no new investments in major infrastructure that increases fossil fuel dependence. Every dollar invested in CCS is a dollar unavailable for investment in renewable energy, efficient vehicles and energy efficiency.

CCS raises a number of serious financial, environmental and safety concerns:

· CCS cannot deliver in time. The best-case scenario is that the technology would be ready by 2030. Every decision made about new power plants today influences the energy mix for the next 30-40 years. We need to make the smartest choices to address the global warming crisis and invest in proven solutions as soon as possible.

· CCS is cost intensive. It increases the cost of power generation by 40 to 80 percent compared with conventional coal plants. Current research shows electricity generated from coal equipped with CCS will be more expensive than other less polluting sources, such as, wind power.

· CCS technology reduces the efficiency of power plants. Up to 30 percent more fossil fuel must be burned when CCS is used to achieve the same power output.

· CCS poses a risk of carbon dioxide leakage. Continuous leakage, even at very low rates, could undermine the climate benefit of CCS and large releases of carbon can also pose significant risk to human health.

As evidenced by mountain-top removal and dangerous emissions, CCS cannot make coal clean. Renewable energy sources are already available without the negative environmental impacts that are associated with fossil fuel exploitation, transport and processing. It is renewable energy together with energy efficiency and energy conservation that has to increase so that the primary cause of climate change – the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas – is stopped.

We strongly urge you to oppose any policies that provide mandates or taxpayer funded incentives for CCS. We should instead fund clean, renewable, domestic sources of energy, energy efficiency and conservation. Congress must prevent the construction of new coal-fired power plants that are inconsistent with an energy future that is good for the economy, the environment, national security, and safe for communities.

Sincerely,

ActionPA • Alliance for Appalachia • Appalachian Voices • Black Mesa Water Coalition • California Communities Against Toxics • Canary Coalition • Cape & Islands Self-Reliance Corporation • Center for Coalfield Justice • Co-op America • Chesapeake Climate Action Network • Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana • Clean Power Now • Coal River Mountain Watch • Cook Inletkeeper • Energy Justice Network • Environmental Alliance of North Florida • Environmental Research Foundation • Friends of the Earth • Global Exchange • The Grand Canyon Trust • Green Delaware • Greenpeace • Heartwood • Help Our Polluted Environment • Indigenous Environmental Network • Jefferson Action Group • Kentuckians for the Commonwealth • Meigs Citizen Action Now • Mountain Watershed Association • North Carolina Waste Awareness & Reduction Network • Nuclear Information and Resource Service • Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition • Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition • Protect Biodiversity in Public Forests • Rainforest Action Network • Residents Against the Power Plant • Rising Tide North America • Save It Now, Glades! • Save Our Cumberland Mountains • Southern Energy Network • Valley Watch

On Friday afternoon, student activists with Ohio Student Environmental Coalition and members of Mountain Justice occupied the lobby of American Municipal Power and forced an impromptu meeting with CEO Mark Gerken – who was not a happy camper.

AMP is planning to build a 1000 MW pulverized coal power plant in Meigs County, Ohio – one of the most impoverished counties in the state, with some of the highest lung cancer and premature death rates due industrial pollution in the country. There are already 4 coal power plants within 10 miles of Meigs and the coal barons of the Midwest are planning on building five more – the largest and dirtiest being the AMP project.

Determined to put an end to this economic and social injustice, concerned Meigs residents have been working with student and youth activists to organize and empower communities to break out of the socio-economic slavery of king coal. Mountain Justice Spring Break – an event where many students, rather than spending their holidays in Florida or Cancun, have opted instead for more meaningful pursuits in building solidarity, developing consensus, discovering affinity and exploring nonviolent direct action – showcased this collaboration over this last week.

Today marked a watershed moment in the movement against King Coal in Ohio. The activists’ demands were simple: cancel plans to build the coal plant, fund renewable energy, and schedule a meeting between the AMP Board of Trustees, local students, and frontline community activists to discuss how AMP can best chart a course towards these goals.

So, this morning, about fifty student and youth activists – most of whom had never participated in a direct action – marched to AMP headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, at which point a group of four negotiators entered the building and demanded a meeting with Gerken. Even when confronted by irate AMP employees, the youth negotiators kept their cool and stuck to their demands. They not only managed to meet with Gerken, but also got him to commit to a meeting between students, Meigs County activists and the AMP Board – and to agree that AMP wouldn’t begin construction on the plant until after this meeting has taken place.

This action was part of an ongoing campaign by activists – including residents of frontline communities, and student activists from groups like Mountain Justice, Ohio Student Environmental Coalition, Earth First, and Student Environmental Action Coalition – against AMP’s plans to bring further destruction to Southern Ohio. On a Sunday morning in early March, a group of concerned citizens visited the home of CEO Marc Gerken, and demanded that AMP reconsider its plans to move forward with the plant. (At that point, Gerken brushed off their requests for a meeting.) Earlier this week – as part of the Listening Project – several students visited the homes of Meigs County residents, listened to their concerns about the AMP project, and empowered them to take action and join the campaign against the coal plant.

Today’s action was the biggest step to date in this campaign, and has laid the groundwork for even bigger victories against King Coal in Ohio. Stay tuned for updates on what this collaboration will do next!

Adrian & Ananda in Columbus

In a recent piece – Oils Hits $100, Jolting Markets, the authors provide some insight into the current power dynamics of big oil and international markets.

Beyond highlighting downstream impacts to big oil’s commercial customer base and the economies of various nation states, the article mentions how peaking oil prices have been driving a massive investment in unconventional and dirty oil sources such as the Alberta tar sands. For those unaware of this juggernaut, the tar sands are the number one source of US oil imports today, the largest untapped oil reserves in the world, as well as the most greenhouse gas intensive source of crude oil currently in use.

Stephen Harper’s boys had good reason to stand firmly behind their liege lords at the Bali climate change negotiations. With every major western oil and gas company now engaged in the Alberta oil rush, over 100 billion USD is expected to be invested in tar sands oil extraction over the next couple of decades.

What the article fails to mention however, is the very direct and negative impact this trend is having on the Canadian economy and peoples as well as many downstream communities in the US .

Whether it’s indigenous communities in Alberta dealing with the destruction of their traditional lands and health – at the source of extraction, Canadian workers dealing with the economic fallout of “Dutch disease” syndrome, or US communities impacted by new pipelines and increased refinery emissions, peaking oil prices appear to leave no room for the development of clean energy markets.

Contrary to the WSJ authors’ notion of big oil’s dwindling political influence and market share, the oiligopoly’s determination and ability to stand in the way of renewable energy innovation and climate change mitigation is underscored by their relentless pursuit of the last drops of dirty crude.

The big question for us wide-eyed activists at the start of 2008 remains: can we stop them in time?