Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) has filed an amendment to the $32.1 billion FY10 Interior-Environment appropriations bill that would block any of the bill’s funds from being used to carry out orders from Carol Browner, director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, who is often referred to in the press as the White House “climate czar“:
Lawmakers have filed more than 20 amendments to the $32.1 billion FY10 Interior-Environment appropriations bill, including a proposal from Sen. David Vitter, R-La., that would prohibit any of the bill’s funds from being used to carry out directives from the White House climate change czar.
The amendment will ensure the climate czar is not directing actions of the departments and agencies funded in the bill, Vitter said.
While the right may be dedicated to portraying Browner’s position as unaccountable, unprecedented, and even “radical,” the fact is that Browner was originally brought into the executive branch as head of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1993 — a position in which she was unanimously approved by the Senate.
Since taking her role, Browner has been a vital part of efforts to combat climate change. She was involved in negotiating crucial new emissions standards with automakers last spring, and is a major part of congressional discussions over cap and trade.
Vitter’s amendment is likely more motivated by his anti-environmental views than any of his absurd claims that the White House’s use of special advisers is “unconstitutional.” In 2008, Vitter recieved the lowest possible rating — 0 percent — from three leading environmental groups: Environment America, the League of Conservation Voters, and the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund. Last summer, Vitter told a room full of Exxon Mobil employees that he doesn’t think the science of global warming isn’t “clear and settled,” and has made opposition to climate change legislation one of his major priorities.Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) has filed an amendment to the $32.1 billion FY10... more
O, those oil companies; they sure do love to play dirty. And the biggest US oil company, Exxon Mobil, has just got caught with its hand in the well--the oil well that it purposefully sabotaged so no other company could use, that is. The Texas General Land Office has just revealed that Exxon "maliciously" destroyed its own oil fields so that no one else would be able to tap them--and it's getting slapped with a $1 billion fine for the crime. And wait till you hear what they did to the wells--and what that fine will go towards cleaning up.
It's not pretty. In fact, it's pretty disgusting. According to Bloomberg:
Jerry Patterson, commissioner of the land office that oversees oil leases that help fund Texas schools, asked the Texas Railroad Commission to conduct hearings into an alleged 1990s program at Exxon Mobil of plugging abandoned wells with trash, sludge, explosives and cement plugs. The barriers made it impossible for other producers to revive the wells, Patterson said in a statement he gave to Bloomberg News yesterday.
So that's an environmentally offending twofer--it both further degrades the area around the wells, and wastes the ever more scarce natural resource that had already been drilled for exploitation. On the bright side, I guess it's a bit of petrol that won't get burned . . .
So why the spiteful rampage? It seems Exxon had a bit of a falling out with one of Texas's most prominent oil families, the O'Connors.
From the 1950s to the late 1980s, the O’Connors earned more than $40 million in royalties on crude and gas pumped from 121 wells that Exxon Corp., as the company was then known, and a predecessor, Humble Oil & Refining Co., drilled on the family’s land near Corpus Christi, according to court filings.
The relationship between Exxon and the family deteriorated in the late 1980s, when the company’s request for a reduction in the 50 percent royalty rate was rebuffed, court documents showed. Exxon said the field was no longer profitable and began shutting wells, a process that concluded in August 1991, the documents showed.
After Exxon packed up and left town, the O'Connors decided to tap the rest of the oil from the partially sapped fields.
Two years later, Emerald Oil . . . agreed to lease from the O’Connors one-third of the area formerly operated by Exxon. When Emerald drilled into the plugged wells to revive production, drill bits collided with cement, severed pipes and explosive charges normally used to perforate rock formations, Patterson said.
Bad form indeed.O, those oil companies; they sure do love to play dirty. And the biggest US oil... more
Despite pledges from ExxonMobil that it would cease funding groups which question the scientific validity of global climate change, last year the company "handed over hundreds of thousands of pounds" to climate skeptic groups.
Among the groups receiving funding were the National Center for Policy Analysis, which received $75,000, and advocates that not only are the causes of global warming not sufficiently known, but that there is "little or nothing to prevent global warming regardless of its cause."
The Heritage Foundation was also singled out, the group receiving $50,000 in 2008.
ExxonMobil has been briefing journalists for three years that they were going to stop funding these groups. The reality is that they are still doing it. If the world's largest oil company wants to fund climate change denial then it should be upfront about it, and not tell people it has stopped.
Exxon Takes Climate Change "Very Seriously"
For its part an ExxonMobil spokesperson responded by saying that, "We have the same concerns as people everywhere, and that is how to provide the world with the energy it needs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We take the issue of climate change very seriously and the risks warrant action."
Which is perfectly adequate response, but if that's the truth then why give any money to groups that actively campaign to delay action on climate change and call into doubt the science using pseudo-scientific methodology? The Heritage Foundation is notorious for blurring the distinction between weather and climate, citing short periods of cooler weather as definitive proof that climate change is a bunch of hooey, despite an upward long-term warming trend.
For a company of ExxonMobil's size and business savvy they must know that the world is watching their every move on climate change, so why fund groups which the green community will take issue with at all?Despite pledges from ExxonMobil that it would cease funding groups which question the... more
Washington, D.C., June 26, 2009—The Competitive Enterprise Institute is today making public an internal study on climate science which was suppressed by the Environmental Protection Agency. Internal EPA email messages, released by CEI earlier in the week, indicate that the report was kept under wraps and its author silenced because of pressure to support the Administration’s agenda of regulating carbon dioxide.
The report finds that EPA, by adopting the United Nations’ 2007 “Fourth Assessment” report, is relying on outdated research and is ignoring major new developments. Those developments include a continued decline in global temperatures, a new consensus that future hurricanes will not be more frequent or intense, and new findings that water vapor will moderate, rather than exacerbate, temperature.
New data also indicate that ocean cycles are probably the most important single factor in explaining temperature fluctuations, though solar cycles may play a role as well, and that reliable satellite data undercut the likelihood of endangerment from greenhouse gases. All of this demonstrates EPA should independently analyze the science, rather than just adopt the conclusions of outside organizations.
The released report is a draft version, prepared under EPA’s unusually short internal review schedule, and thus may contain inaccuracies which were corrected in the final report.
“While we hoped that EPA would release the final report, we’re tired of waiting for this agency to become transparent, even though its Administrator has been talking transparency since she took office. So we are releasing a draft version of the report ourselves, today,” said CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman.Washington, D.C., June 26, 2009—The Competitive Enterprise Institute is today making... more
"Imperial Oil, the Canadian subsidiary of US oil giant ExxonMobil, said Monday it is going ahead with a 7.1-billion-US-dollar first phase of its Alberta oil sands mining project.
The company's Kearl oil sands project -- a surface mining operation northeast of Fort McMurray, Alberta -- is to be developed in three phases and could ultimately produce more than 300,000 barrels of bitumen per day.
The first phase of the project would produce an average of 110,000 barrels per day starting in late 2012, Imperial Oil said in a statement.
It was initially due to come online in 2010 or 2011, but the company delayed its launch, citing a sudden drop in crude oil prices.
Canadian authorities had also revoked and then reinstated permits to Imperial Oil to develop the project, criticized by environmentalists a massive potential source of greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming.
The Kearl mine is estimated to hold 4.6 billion barrels of bitumen."
~~
end of excerpt, and the boreal forest.
So much for emissions caps. They are already in the red.STOP THE INSANITY!
"Imperial Oil, the Canadian subsidiary of US oil giant... more
HOUSTON - Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday reported a profit of $45.2 billion for 2008, breaking its own record for a U.S. company, even as its fourth-quarter earnings fell 33 percent from a year ago.
The previous record for annual profit was $40.6 billion, which the world's largest publicly traded oil company set in 2007.
The extraordinary full-year profit wasn't a surprise given crude's triple-digit price for much of 2008, peaking near an unheard of $150 a barrel in July. Since then, however, prices have fallen roughly 70 percent amid a deepening global economic crisis.
In the fourth quarter alone crude tumbled 60 percent, prompting spending and job cuts in an industry that was reporting robust, often record, profits as recently as last summer.
With piles of cash and diversified operations, the majors like Exxon Mobil have fared better than many smaller oil and gas companies, but Friday's results show no one is completely insulated from the ongoing malaise.
Irving, Texas-based Exxon said net income slid sharply to $7.8 billion, or $1.55 a share, in the October-December period. That compared to $11.7 billion, or $2.13 a share, in the same period a year ago, when Exxon set a U.S. record for quarterly profit. It has since topped that mark twice, first in last year's second quarter and then with earnings of $14.83 billion in the third quarter.
Revenue in the most-recent quarter fell 27 percent to $84.7 billion.
On average, analysts expected the company to earn $1.45 per share in the latest quarter on revenue of $69.1 billion.
Meanwhile, Exxon rival Chevron said it earned $4.9 billion in the fourth quarter though revenues plunged 28 percent with oil prices in sharp decline.
Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company, reported Friday it earned $2.44 per share in the three months ended Dec. 31. It earned $4.88 billion, or $2.32 per share, in the quarter a year ago.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $1.81 per share.
San Ramon, California-based Chevron says revenue dropped to $43.1 billion, from nearly $60 billion a year ago.
For the full year, Chevron made $23.93 billion, or $11.67 per share, compared with $18.69 billion, or $8.77 per share, in 2007.HOUSTON - Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday reported a profit of $45.2 billion for 2008,... more
In recession these guys are making more than ever? Somethings not right with this pictures.In recession these guys are making more than ever? Somethings not right with this... more
Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, says it shattered its own record for the biggest profit from operations by a U.S. corporation, earning $14.83 billion in the third quarter.Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, says it shattered... more
This post is from Sierra Club Deputy Press Secretary Josh Dorner, who is also in Denver for the Democratic National Convention.
As has been reported by ThinkProgress and others, ExxonMobil has paid for a significant portion of the convention's media coverage and the energy industry (and most others) are lavishing sponsorships on events, parties, and receptions from dusk 'til dawn. But the entrenched dirty energy interests seem particularly intent on using the convention to push their issues.
Upon arriving at the swirling maelstrom that was Denver International Airport, I was immediately greeted by ads from the American Coalition Clean Coal Electricity (nee Americans for Balanced Energy Choices), the coal industry front group. (Their ads were even more prominent at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport where I had flown in from and where thousands of Republicans will pass through during their own convention next week.) A stroll down and around the 16th Street Mall, Denver's main drag, revealed even more energy idiocy. For those less ambulatory (or less willing to walk around in wool on a 90-degree day), clean coal even brings the message to you (click here to see the full photo):
2008-08-25-cleancoal.jpg
And, everyone's favorite slogan from the Newt Gingrich crew (click here if you can't see the full photo): 2008-08-25-photo.jpg
Energy Idiocy Seen on the Streets of Denver
This post is from Sierra Club Deputy... more
Exxon Mobil Corp. reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion Thursday, the biggest quarterly profit ever by any U.S. corporation, but the results were well short of Wall Street expectations and its shares fell.Exxon Mobil Corp. reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion Thursday, the... more
Rising Oil Prices Swell Profits at Exxon and Shell
Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, reported on Thursday that second-quarter income rose 14 percent, to $11.68 billion, the highest-ever for an American company.
Net income of $2.22 a share compared with $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, in the quarter a year ago.
Revenue rose 40 percent, to $138.1 billion, from $98.4 billion in the quarter a year ago.
Excluding an after-tax charge of $290 million tied to an Exxon Valdez court settlement, earnings were $11.97 billion, or $2.27 a share.
Excluding one-time charges, analysts had expected Exxon Mobil to earn $2.52 a share on revenue of $144 billion, according to Thomson Financial.
With this quarter’s result, Exxon topped its own record of $11.66 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.
Earlier in London, Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, reported a 33 percent increase in second-quarter profit on Thursday, helped by a higher oil price even as production declined.
Like a smaller rival BP earlier this week, Shell profited from an oil price that almost doubled in the second quarter from the year earlier, but a 13 percent drop from a record on July 11 raised some concern among investors about whether oil companies can keep up the pace of earnings growth. BP said earlier this week that higher oil prices have started to affect consumer demand for gasoline.
Shell’s profit rose to $11.56 billion from $8.67 billion in the period a year ago. BP reported a 28 percent increase in profit earlier this week and the Italian oil company Eni said on Thursday that profit in the second quarter rose 52 percent.
...Rising Oil Prices Swell Profits at Exxon and Shell
Exxon Mobil, the world’s... more
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) said on Thursday soaring oil prices pushed its second-quarter earnings up 14 percent, again breaking its own record for the highest-ever profit by a U.S. company.
Net income in the quarter rose to $11.68 billion, or $2.22 a share, from $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, last year.
Exxon -- the world's largest publicly traded company -- previously set the high-water mark for quarterly earnings in the fourth quarter of last year, when it brought in $11.66 billion.
Despite the new record, Exxon's results lagged behind analyst expectations.
The company posted operating earnings of $2.27 a share in the quarter, which exclude a $290 million charge related to the recent Supreme Court ruling in the Exxon Valdez case. Analysts, on average, had expected the company to earn $2.53 a share, according to Reuters Estimates.
Revenue in the quarter rose about 40 percent to $138.07 billion.
Exxon both produces oil and refines it to make gasoline, and profit margins for gasoline were weak during the quarter, holding back earnings slightly.
The company said earnings from its exploration and production business rose about 68 percent to $10.01 billion. But its refining and marketing earnings fell about 54 percent to $1.56 billion.
U.S. oil prices averaged slightly less than $125 a barrel in the quarter, nearly double prices from a year earlier. Gasoline prices only rose 25 percent during that same period, resulting in weak profit margins for the fuel.
Shares of Exxon Mobil fell 2.2 percent in pre-market trade after its earnings were announced. Through Wednesday's close, they were down about 10 percent this year, underperforming the Chicago Board Options Exchange's oil index (.OIX), which has fallen about 5.2 percent over the same period. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) said on Thursday soaring oil prices... more
Neither Honest Nor Trustworthy: The 10 Worst Corporations of 2007
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
The U.S. public holds Big Business in shockingly low regard.
A November 2007 Harris poll found that less than 15 percent of the population believes each of the following industries to be "generally honest and trustworthy:" tobacco companies (3 percent); oil companies (3 percent); managed care companies such as HMOs (5 percent); health insurance companies (7 percent); telephone companies (10 percent); life insurance companies (10 percent); online retailers (10 percent); pharmaceutical and drug companies (11 percent); car manufacturers (11 percent); airlines (11 percent); packaged food companies (12 percent); electric and gas utilities (15 percent). Only 32 percent of adults said they trusted the best-rated industry about which Harris surveyed, supermarkets.
With the 10 Worst Corporations of 2007, we aim to show - again - that Big Business is out of control and to connect comparable abuses to the failure of government overseers, regulators and enforcers.
The oil giant ExxonMobil has admitted that its support for lobby groups that question the science of climate change may have hindered action to tackle global warming. In its corporate citizenship report, released last week, ExxonMobil says it intends to cut funds to several groups that "divert attention" from the need to find new sources of clean energy.
The move comes ahead of the firm's annual meeting today in Dallas, at which prominent shareholders including the Rockefeller family will urge ExxonMobil to take the problem of climate change more seriously. Green campaigners accuse the company of funding a "climate denial industry" over the last decade, with $23m (£11.5m) handed over to groups that play down the risks of burning fossil fuels.
The ExxonMobil report says: "In 2008 we will discontinue contributions to several public policy research groups whose position on climate change could divert attention from the important discussion on how the world will secure the energy required for economic growth in an environmentally responsible manner."
Nine groups have reportedly lost the company's support, including the George C Marshall Institute, the Washington DC-based think tank that asserts there is no scientific consensus on climate change, and that changes in the sun, not greenhouse gases, could be responsible for rising temperatures.
A survey carried out by the UK's Royal Society found that in 2005 ExxonMobil distributed $2.9m to 39 groups that the society said "misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence". In 2006 the society wrote to the company to ask them to stop funding such groups.
Kert Davies of Greenpeace said: "The organisations eliminated in this latest rounds of cuts could be called the engine room of the climate sceptic industry, but if Rex Tillerson [head of ExxonMobil] is serious about his company shaking off this shameful legacy, he needs to make a wider sweep."
Greenpeace says ExxonMobil continues to fund over "two dozen other organisations who question the science of global warming or attack policies to solve the crisis." The oil giant ExxonMobil has admitted that its support for lobby groups that question... more
The president of Nigeria Umaru Yar'Adua has taken steps to indoctrinate the abundance of militants in the oil rich Niger Delta region into a defence scheme for the pipelines in the area.
The Defence Minister Alhaji Yayale Ahmed stated to the House of Representatives Committee that the federal government in conjunction with local and state levels have cultivated plans of “constructive engagement " meaning the forming of limited liability companies for the legitimate employ of the militants.
The area of the Niger Delta has suffered from unrest for many years due to the rich wealth in resources of the region and its exploitation paralleled with the poverty of the population in the region and the damage to the environment caused that effect all life in the area. MarianaVanZeller's pod will explain a lot about the situation: http://current.com/items/77541711_rebels_in_the_pipeline.
MEND have not stated if they will be involved with this “constructive engagement “scheme but their leader in negotiations has recently given his faith to peace in negotiations with the
Peace and Conflict Resolution Committee chairman Chief James Jeftha. There has been criticism of “constructive engagement " in the Nigerian and international communities, as questions such as; whose arming them, who do they answer to, how do you know they won’t continue hostile actions inside installations ? More constructive questions consist of; why not focus efforts on the Nigerian Local Content Policy to stop sucking up money and actually be applied to areas in need of it. Abubakar Atiku Nuhu-Koko addresses these issues in the linked article, here is a taste:
“The truth of the matter is that offering security jobs to the militants will not solve the problems at hand in the Niger Delta. A holistic approach, which requires integrating and domesticating the largely foreign-controlled “enclave” oil and gas economy, is what, is desirable. The militant youths need education, quality of life that comes with productive employment, training opportunities and an environment free from oil and gas related pollution etc.” The president of Nigeria Umaru Yar'Adua has taken steps to indoctrinate the abundance... more
A shareholder revolt at ExxonMobil led by the billionaire Rockefeller family has won the support of four significant British institutional investors who will call on Monday for a shakeup in the governance of the world's biggest oil company.
Guardian.co.uk has learned that F&C Asset Management, Morley Fund Management, the Co-Operative Insurance Society and the West Midlands Pension Fund are throwing their weight behind a resolution demanding that ExxonMobil appoints an independent chairman to stimulate debate on the company's board.
Exxon is facing a rebellion from its investors over its hardline approach to global warming. The firm has refused to follow rival oil companies in committing large-scale capital investment to environmentally friendly technology such as wind and solar power.A shareholder revolt at ExxonMobil led by the billionaire Rockefeller family has won... more
A tiny and impoverished Alaskan village of Inupiat Eskimos located in the Arctic Circle, Kivalina, filed a lawsuit March 4 against industrial corporations that emit large quantities of greenhouse gases.
Kivalina faces imminent destruction from global warming due to the melting of sea ice that formerly protected the village from coastal storms during the fall and winter. The diminished sea ice due to global warming has caused a massive erosion problem that threatens the village's existence and urgently requires the village be relocated.
The Native village of Kivalina filed the case against defendants ExxonMobil Corp., Peabody Energy Corp., Southern Company, American Electric Power Co., Duke Energy Co, Chevron Corp. and Shell Oil Co., among others.
The suit claims damages due to the defendant companies' contributions to global warming and invokes the federal common law of public nuisance. The suit also alleges a conspiracy by some defendants to mislead the public regarding the causes and consequences of global warming. The residents of Kivalina are among the nation's poorest people.
Colleen Swan, tribal administrator of Kivalina, said, ''The campaign of deception and denial about global warming must stop.'' She added, ''Global warming and its effects are a reality we have to deal with. People's lives are in danger because of it.
Official reports from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Government Accountability Office have found that Kivalina is directly harmed by global warming and must relocate at an expense that could cost $400 million or more.'' A tiny and impoverished Alaskan village of Inupiat Eskimos located in the Arctic... more
Venezuela's state oil company said Tuesday that it has stopped selling crude to Exxon Mobil Corp. in response to the U.S. oil company's drive to use the courts to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets.
Exxon Mobil is locked in a dispute over the nationalization of its oil ventures in Venezuela that has led President Hugo Chavez to threaten to cut off all Venezuelan oil supplies to the United States.
Venezuela is currently the United States' fourth largest oil supplier.Venezuela's state oil company said Tuesday that it has stopped selling crude to Exxon... more
President Hugo Chavez on Sunday threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States in an "economic war" if a corporation wins court judgments to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets.
Article Below:
"AP
Chavez Threatens to Halt Oil Sales to US
Sunday February 10, 6:23 pm ET
By Sandra Sierra, Associated Press Writer
Venezuelan President Threatens to Cut Off Oil Sales to US, Calls Exxon Mobil 'Outlaws'
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez on Sunday threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States in an "economic war" if Exxon Mobil Corp. wins court judgments to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets.
Exxon Mobil has gone after the assets of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA in U.S., British and Dutch courts as it challenges the nationalization of a multibillion dollar oil project by Chavez's government.
A British court has issued an injunction "freezing" as much as $12 billion in assets.
"If you end up freezing (Venezuelan assets) and it harms us, we're going to harm you," Chavez said during his weekly radio and television program, "Hello, President." "Do you know how? We aren't going to send oil to the United States. Take note, Mr. Bush, Mr. Danger."
Chavez has repeatedly threatened to cut off oil shipments to the United States, which is Venezuela's No. 1 client, if Washington tries to oust him. Chavez's warnings on Sunday appeared to extend that threat to attempts by oil companies to challenge his government's nationalization drive through lawsuits.
"I speak to the U.S. empire, because that's the master: continue and you will see that we won't sent one drop of oil to the empire of the United States," Chavez said Sunday.
"The outlaws of Exxon Mobil will never again rob us," Chavez said, accusing the Irving, Texas-based oil company of acting in concert with Washington.
Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Margaret Ross said the company had no comment. A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman in Caracas did not return a call.
Venezuela accounted for about 12 percent of U.S. crude oil imports in November, the latest figures available from the U.S. Energy Department. The 1.23 million barrels a day from Venezuela makes that country the U.S.'s fourth-biggest oil importer behind Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico.
Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez has argued that court orders won by Exxon Mobil have "no effect" on the state oil company PDVSA and are merely "transitory measures" while Venezuela presents its case in courts in New York and London.
Exxon Mobil is also taking its claims to international arbitration, disputing the terms it was granted under Chavez's nationalization last year of four heavy oil projects in the Orinoco River basin, one of the world's richest oil deposits.
Other major oil companies including U.S.-based Chevron Corp., France's Total, Britain's BP PLC, and Norway's StatoilHydro ASA have negotiated deals with Venezuela to continue on as minority partners in the Orinoco oil project.
ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil, however, balked at the tougher terms and have been in compensation talks with PDVSA.
Associated Press writer John Porretto in Houston contributed to this report."President Hugo Chavez on Sunday threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States... more
