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Page added on June 12, 2016
Anti-petroleum alarmists’ plans to soak oil companies
The oil and gas industry was born in Pennsylvania on Aug. 27, 1859, when Edwin L. Drake drilled the world’s first commercial oil well. A critic said Drake should leave the oil underground because it was needed to fuel the fires of hell, and to pump it out would protect the wicked from their eternal punishment.
That’s how long some people have believed oil companies are in league with the devil.
Today’s anti-petroleum alarmists warn of the hellish climate that someday will result from civilization’s reliance on fossil fuels. Fortunately they’ve hit on a solution: cash payments.
The strategy was hatched in 2012 at a two-day meeting in La Jolla organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Climate Accountability Institute. It brought together 23 experts on law, science and public opinion for a workshop titled, “Establishing Accountability for Climate Change Damages.”
The idea was to compare “public attitudes and legal strategies related to tobacco control” to those related to climate change, according to a report of the meeting.
The group found a few problems with the comparison to tobacco. For one thing, they couldn’t identify a specific harm from climate change that had damaged anybody.
“What is the ‘cancer’ of climate change that we need to focus on?” asked one attendee.
And there was a bigger problem. “The fact is, we do need some form of energy,” one participant said. Another lamented, “The activities that contribute to climate change are highly beneficial to us.”
Oh, that.
Before fossil fuels, people cut trees to heat their homes, slaughtered whales to make lamp oil and bothered horses when they needed to go someplace.
The group debated the public-relations risks and benefits of filing lawsuits against oil companies. Participants said internal documents obtained from tobacco companies had been very useful and discussed various legal tools to force oil companies to open their files.
Today we’re seeing that strategy in action.
New York’s attorney general has subpoenaed ExxonMobil’s internal communications going back decades to see if the company “misled” investors about climate change. The Virgin Islands’ attorney general has subpoenaed the company for all climate-related communications with outside groups.
In California, two Senate committees have approved Senate Bill 1161, the Climate Science Truth and Accountability Act, which would allow prosecutors to charge a business or organization with “unfair competition” for “deceptive behavior relating to scientific evidence of climate change.” The bill would lift the statute of limitations and allow charges for statements made decades ago.
ExxonMobil is under fire because its engineers made contingency plans to safeguard billion-dollar drilling and pipeline infrastructure against the risk of rising sea levels at the same time the company was opposing the Kyoto climate treaty. “The science of climate change is too uncertain to mandate a plan of action that could plunge economies into turmoil,” Mobil Oil argued in a 1997 newspaper ad.
Under SB1161, that might be enough to charge the company with “deceptive advertising” and “unfair competition.” The bill, which is inactive but could make a comeback, would give prosecutors four years to subpoena old documents, bring charges and ask a court to order monetary damages.
It’s about the cash, not the climate.
“Restitution and disgorgement of profits are used primarily to deter future violations,” the Senate’s official analysis of the bill explains.
The money won’t prevent climate change, but it will help to cover the cost of more workshops in La Jolla.
This may become the model for new legal battles over earth science. Imagine the class-action lawsuit that could be filed if public relations experts ever find someone to blame for gravity.
| OCRegister |
13 Comments on "Anti-petroleum alarmists’ plans to soak oil companies"
Davy on Sun, 12th Jun 2016 6:53 am
Radical “greenerism” what a joke. What are they going to replace oil with? Why not attack modern man’s bad attitudes and lifestyles? These green radicals are deceived and stupid to reality of the reasons for what is going on. Their ideas of a renewable world are bogus and unsupported. We have shot these ideas down multiple times here constantly.
I will say this though they are on the right track if you want to create degrowth. They don’t know why buy they are right to attack oil. I have preached this multiple times as the heart of the matter. IF YOU WANT TO SLOW THE ECONOMY DOWN to degrowth and or combat climate change then you restrict oil supply. You don’t do carbon taxes or other gimmicks that can be gotten around. Any other gimmick can be manipulated and suffers corruption. You actually restrict physical supply such that the economy suffers. You institute rationing and other tools but most importantly you restrict physical supply. This is easy to do you just shut down pipelines, wells, and park tanker ships. You nationalize oil supply and production. There is no other way to slow the economy down to degrowth and lower carbon emissions. The economy is slowing down now by a collapse process but we have little idea when and how. This will work NOW! I beg anyone to offer another choice to accomplish a powerdown. It is obvious from all the climate talks nothing is working.
If you restrict oil to the economy transport will slow especially through discretionary driving. If you slow discretionary driving you slow consumerism. Slowing consumerism will knock on to the rest of the economy as the velocity of money falls. We have long term deflation now but if you restrict oil we will have a full blown hard recession. This will slow carbon emissions and cause degrowth. This policy will force localism by restricting travel. It will restrict globalized food and promote localized food. These are “MUSTS” to any effort to change the direction of catastrophic collapse we are on.
I am saying change the direction not get out of jail free. We are screwed but we can manage the process to lower pain, suffering, and death. My proposal may do this. Don’t fool yourself because the bad side of degrowth is debt defaults, bankruptcies, unemployment, and social unrest. This is the end game of modern man because we no longer have any tools to manage an economic down turn. Once you open this door there is no going back. Prosperity is over and over period. We have so much latent and overt bad debt in the form of overcapacity and poor development even without a policy of degrowth things are heading for a crash but an effort like I am proposing is a managed but forced effort of no return.
These radical greenerism folks that are attacking the oil industry are stupid to reality but they are on the right track. They may be economic hypocrites living modern life and blaming oil but their villain is correct. They are on the right track because it is only oil and its restrictions that can slow the economy in true degrowth to combat climate change. Renewables transition will not happen in any environment and it would especially not happen in a restricted fossil fuel environment.
Personally I think we are already cooked with climate change but who knows. I do believe in degrowth as a way to finally change attitudes and lifestyles to prepare for the end game of modern man. We need a global oil supply reduction protocol to initiate the end game of modern man. We know from peak oil dynamics the dead state of oil is very close. We need to start now powering down for this reason and climate change reasons.
Will this happen? No, but we should at least be talking what could work not playing the game of deception we see currently at all levels. All global efforts at climate solutions are a game of deception and denial. I am offering acceptance and action. We need to know what could work and why it could work to understand what is really going on with modern man and his inevitable destruction of stable climate and earth ecosystem. We need to know what really drives economic activity and what can slow that down. So, and global oil supply restriction protocol will not work but it is the only option that could work so obviously we have no hope.
Kenz300 on Sun, 12th Jun 2016 7:00 am
New Documents Show Oil Industry Even More Evil Than We Thought
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/oil-cover-up-climate_us_570e98bbe4b0ffa5937df6ce
Climate Change is real….. we will all be impacted by it.
Oil Giants Spend $115 Million A Year To Oppose Climate Policy
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/oil-companies-climate-policy_us_570bb841e4b0142232496d97
The Kochs Are Plotting A Multimillion-Dollar Assault On Electric Vehicles
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/koch-electric-vehicles_us_56c4d63ce4b0b40245c8cbf6
Inside the Koch Brothers’ Toxic Empire | Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/inside-the-koch-brothers-toxic-empire-20140924?page=2
eugene on Sun, 12th Jun 2016 8:34 am
Regardless of what oil companies did or didn’t do, we all played a roll. Anyone with the ability to not sit stupidly in front of the TV blindly believing everything they are told could find ample evidence of the true situation. But they didn’t and still don’t. I don’t know many people but the ones I do know, including my highly educated daughter/husband, read nothing and know nothing. Playing victim is all too American.
makati1 on Sun, 12th Jun 2016 9:19 am
We are witnessing not only the last days of petroleum, but the last days of everything we thought was forever (or at least until we die). Capitalism, globalism, ever improving life style, longevity, freedom, a healthy planet with predictable weather, etc.
We are probably also witnessing the last days of humanity. Our extinction seems assured in before 2100. Or maybe, 2020 if tensions explode. Exciting, isn’t it?
rockman on Sun, 12th Jun 2016 9:32 am
Eugene – “Regardless of what oil companies did or didn’t do, we all played a roll.” Not just a roll but “we” are the primary cause of climate change. The fossil fuel consumers are THE direct producers of the vast majority of GHG generation. Our supposedly left Lea ing cohorts get pissed when I point it out but none have tried to argue that point for a simple reason: it us a FACT. The tobacco analogy is bogus: no smoker has ever demanded the plant to be grown. Of course once hooked on the weed many can’t break the habit. Not true with the ff consumers: they demand that the govt not only allow ff production but also participate by leading public lands for the hundreds of trillions of Btu’s generated from that oil, NG and coal.And not just domestic production but imports.And they’ve supported (if only by not resisting) the expenditure of thousands of our military lives and $trillions of tax payer monies to stabilize those exporting countries.
If the US consumers werer to cut their ff consumption 50% the country would produce 50% less GHG. But if the US ff industry were forced to reduce its production 50% we wouldn’t reduce GHG because the reduction would be replaced by imports.
So the federal govt could ban imports instead? Right, no problem there: domestic prices would boom. Of course the same govt could fix those prices. Who ch would mean not only a huge deduction in the immediate supply of energy but also very little replacement.
So problem solved: the majority of the US voters need only elect thjthjose politicians that support such a change. And no amount of lobbying would change the result since every politician not following the will of tyhe people knows they’ll be voted out of office.
Obvious that hasn’t ever happened and neverr will. Of course the politicians will make some moves to grab some of the ff industry which will givergiver some false impression of addressing the problem. But it will never happen to a degree that would significantly reduce production because THE VOTERS won’t a!low it. In reality the great majority of tyhe voters won’t even support meaning for govt assistance for alt energy development…except for some in CA and Texas.
Bottom line: no matter how much proof of climate change is developed the ff consumers (and GHG producers) will not accept any significant reduction in their lifestyles. Believing otherwise requires ignoring the entire history of the citizens of this country.
Apneaman on Sun, 12th Jun 2016 11:40 am
The difference is “we” did not conjure up and implement a decades long multi billion dollar denial and disinformation campaign to muddy the scientific waters in the minds of the gullible public. That’s what the oily master of the universe DID that the average person did not. This was done for greed and only greed and is still going strong. Also cunts like rockman who is not a shot caller of the denial, but spreads it to continue to profit from it, get go to the head of the line as well. One day y’all may swing for your crimes, but watching and or knowing your kids are going to suffer and die young will be punishment enough for doing everything possible to prevent any attempt at change or slowing down. Guilty guilty guilty.
Oh and btw, y’all greedy mericans will steal anything including credit for anything you deem valuable (we invented water!).
The first commercial oil well was not in Pennsylvania on Aug. 27, 1859, The first commercial oil well was a year earlier in Oil Springs Ontario Canada. Google it bitches.
Apneaman on Sun, 12th Jun 2016 11:48 am
Environmental Group Alleges Scientific Fraud in Disputed Methane Studies
Advocacy group claims a former EPA science adviser failed to acknowledge technical flaws in his industry-funded studies of methane emissions from oil and gas sites.
“Disputed Readings Spark Debate
Howard has been sparring with Allen over the technical merits of his study ever since it came out. His complaints focus on what he calls the improper calibration of the instrument Allen’s team used to measure methane emissions.
Howard may be uniquely qualified to challenge Allen’s results. In 1996, he patented the technology later used to create the Bacharach Hi-Flow Sampler that Allen used in his 2013 study and, to a lesser extent, his 2014 study. Working as a consultant for industry and government clients since 1988, Howard, who is based in North Carolina, has conducted measurement and training programs at more than 500 natural gas facilities in North America, Europe, and the former Soviet Union. He collaborated on a related EDF study looking at methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.”
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/09062016/environmental-alleges-scientific-fraud-disputed-methane-studies-nc-warn-david-allen-EDF
Apneaman on Sun, 12th Jun 2016 11:57 am
Smog, tobacco, round up/agent orange, climate denial, etc, etc. Big industry works out of a well established and effective play book.
For Oil Industry, Clean Air Fight Was Dress Rehearsal for Climate Denial
Through the Smoke and Fumes Committee, industry blurred the science surrounding air pollution and worked to forestall unwanted regulation.
“That wasn’t what the oil industry wanted to hear. It shelved Johnston’s work and let his contract lapse. Then it conducted its own research to discredit Haagen-Smit’s conclusions and manufacture doubt around the link between oil and smog.”
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/05062016/oil-industry-clean-air-fight-smog-los-angeles-dress-rehearsal-climate-change-denial-exxon
Apneaman on Sun, 12th Jun 2016 12:32 pm
Giant holes are bursting open in Siberia, and you can hear the explosions from 60 miles away
“So how does frozen methane blow a 100-foot-wide hole in the ground?
Given low enough temperatures and high enough pressure, methane and water can freeze together into what’s called a “methane hydrate.” Permafrost keeps everything bottled up, but when it thaws, so does the hydrate. Methane is released as a gas, building up pressure – until the ground explodes.
Scientists gained more evidence for this theory after an expedition to the bottom of the crater. It revealed the air had an extraordinarily high concentration of methane.
It’s not just explosions and melting permafrost we should worry about, either.
The EPA states that methane is a greenhouse gas that could have 25 times the impact of carbon dioxide over the next century.
A significant addition to methane emissions would likely have a disastrous impact on our already troubling atmospheric warming, since it’s 21 times better at trapping heat, according to LiveScience.”
http://www.businessinsider.com/russian-exploding-permafrost-methane-craters-global-warming-2016-6
Apneaman on Sun, 12th Jun 2016 12:45 pm
Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentrations Reach Point of No Return, Oceans Deoxygenating, Heat Records Shattered, Extreme Droughts Intensifying, Glacial Melt Accellerating
“It’s a giant shit sandwich and we’re all gonna have to take a bite. This is what runaway climate change looks like. “Changes that normally occur over a matter of centuries are transpiring over decades…”And this is just the tip of the iceberg. We’re at the point where “A typical person is more than five times as likely to die in an extinction event as in a car crash.” The ranks of “Climate Refugees continue to swell. The Great Barrier Reef and other ocean ecosystems worldwide are dying as the oceans turn increasingly acidic and toxic due to ever increasing CO2 buildup. Wildfires that pump even more CO2 in to the atmosphere are more frequent and persistent. Fresh water sources continue to be depleted, poisoned and evaporated at a breakneck pace. Glaciers and polar ice, once thought to be permanent features of our planet are melting and disintegrating, becoming “fundamentally unstable”. We’re on a runaway train people, A LOT out of touch and certifiably insane. The train is chock full of a constellation of irreversible, non-linear positive feedback loops that cannot be stopped. We need be more mindful of the messages our Great Mother is sending us and like Joanna Macy once said “The most radical thing any of us can do at this time is to be fully present to what is happening in the world.” Dahr Jamail is back with his latest climate dispatch, and as usual it’s a doozy. Buckle up Dorothy, we’re in for a bumpy ride!” -OSJ”
more
https://theoldspeakjournal.wordpress.com/2016/06/08/atmospheric-carbon-dioxide-concentrations-reach-point-of-no-return-oceans-deoxygenating-heat-records-shattered-extreme-droughts-intensifying-glacial-melt-accellerating/
Apneaman on Sun, 12th Jun 2016 12:58 pm
“Published on Jun 12, 2016
Tariq Ali: Global revolt against corporate capitalism & inequality.
In the first episode of ‘On Contact’, host Chris Hedges discusses the global revolt against corporate capitalism with radical intellectual and author Tariq Ali. Ali talks about how the world banking system pitched Greece and other European countries into financial difficulties, and how big business may be behind the impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. RT Correspondent Anya Parampil joins the show with a report on global inequality.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83gnDpVsM10
Kenz300 on Mon, 13th Jun 2016 8:51 am
Climate change……….
Big Oil Could Have Cut CO2 Emissions In 1970s — But Did Nothing
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/big-oil-emissions_us_573c9d81e4b0aee7b8e8a046
Kenz300 on Tue, 14th Jun 2016 8:01 am
Pope Francis’s edict on climate change will anger deniers and US churches | World news | The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/27/pope-francis-edict-climate-change-us-rightwing
Head Of The Episcopal Church Says It’s ‘Sinful’ To Ignore Climate Change
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/26/katherine-jefferts-schori-climate-change_n_6949532.html?utm_hp_ref=green&ir=Green