VIDEO: Tar Sands Action By “Gasland” Director Josh Fox

“There’s only been one tool that people have turned to in desperate times to change the world: Civil disobedience.” Director Josh Fox was nominated for an Oscar for his film Gasland, which exposed the impact of hydraulic fracturing of the earth for natural gas, also known as fracking. Today, he turns his documentarian skills towards [...]

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Top Scientists to President: Tar Sands Oil “Does Not Make Sense To Exploit”

In a letter released today, twenty top scientists wrote to President Obama to ask him to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline, the 1,700 mile-long fuse that, if lit, could help ignite climate chaos. If built, the pipeline would carry bitumen from Canada to the Gulf Coast, putting fresh water supplies at risk and further increasing [...]

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As Exxon’s Oil Poisons Montana, Study Finds Keystone XL Risks Underestimated

The Yellowstone oil spill has fouled land and water in Montana, but a leak from the Keystone XL pipeline would be far more disastrous. Less than two weeks after the Yellowstone River oil spill, the situation is as nasty as you might expect. Exxon maintains that oil has been found 25 miles downstream, but the [...]

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Did Exxon Ignore An Early Warning Of The Yellowstone Spill?

UPDATE 07/07/11 10:34AM PST: Please write President Obama to demand a ban on new oil pipelines until our communities are safe from the ones already in the ground. It was two years ago that U.S. regulators first discovered problems with the Exxon pipeline that ruptured this past weekend and spilled 1,000 barrels (42,000 gallons) of [...]

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API’s Circular Argument On Keystone XL Pipeline Wouldn’t Pass Your High School Philosophy Class

In my freshman logic course, now a long time ago, I learned about Petitio Principii, Circulus in Probando, also known as arguing in a circle. It’s a basic fallacy popularly demonstrated in a formulation like this: Daniel always tells the truth. I know this because he told me so. But of course Daniel might be [...]

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Banks on Notice: Dump Enbridge!

As Canadians were casting their votes in the Federal Election, another important decision was playing out in the board rooms of Canada’s top banks: what to do with Enbridge, sponsor of the Northern Gateway Pipeline. Over the last several weeks, RAN  teamed up with First Nations of the Yinka Dene Alliance to put senior banking [...]

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RBS Still Mired In Tar Sands

Last Summer we had a rather public row with RBS over its role in bankrolling fossil fuel expansion. Since then, the Bank’s PR team has been working overtime to clear the bank’s name — even releasing a 10-page report dedicated to the topic. Trouble is, its bankers continue to close lucrative deals in the tar [...]

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A Bad Year for Dirty Energy

April 5th is the one-year anniversary of the disaster at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine, in which 29 coal miners lost their lives needlessly thanks to Massey’s disregard for worker safety in its reckless pursuit of profits. It was also something of a kickoff for what would turn out to be a really bad [...]

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Keystone XL Won’t Decrease “Unfriendly” Oil Imports Either

Yesterday, AP reported that the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline to Texas won’t decrease gas prices (I broke that story last month, but who’s counting). In fact, a report commissioned by pipeline sponsor TransCanada now shows that connecting tar sands producers with Gulf Coast refiners actually pushes gas prices up for everybody. That same [...]

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HSBC Takes a Step Away from Tar Sands

This week, HSBC became the second international bank in as many months to take a step away from financing in the Tar Sands. The bank hinted in press reports last year that it was reviewing its tar sands business. Now the London-based bank has come through. In a post to its website, the bank quietly [...]

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