Back in 2013 a plan to start fracking on Federal lands in California was stopped by a lawsuit. Rather than it being a final victory that permanently banned fracking in California, the Bureau of Land Management launched a process to redesign the plan to satisfy the judgement in the lawsuit.…
The fossil fuel companies have given us an abundance of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, coal, natural gas, and other fossil fuel products, that after 100+ years our society is rather confused. We think these fuels are endless, and there’s no obvious direct impact (other than slightly stinky exhaust). Therefore we…
According to stolen/hacked/leaked emails, Hillary Clinton claimed in 2014 that anti-fracking groups were being funded by Russia (Putin). The emails came from John Podesta’s email account, and are transcripts of a private speech she gave on June 18, 2014, sponsored by tinePublic, a Canadian promotional group. According to the leaked email,…
In tonight’s Democratic Party Presidential Debate (hosted by CNN on March 6, 2016) we had another round of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders having a most interesting policy debate. Compare this to the Republican Party debates, the latest one had a long segment concerning penis sizes and manliness, and it’s…
What’s the scope of a local planning commission authority? When that commission is considering construction project approval at an oil refinery to enable five oil trains (each a mile long) arrive per week at that refinery, does the local planning commission have the authority to consider issues outside on-site safety and…
Today the Obama Administration took a welcome step concerning coal consumption. The news arrived to me saying they’d frozen new Coal leases on federal lands. While that’s true, what’s actually happened is potentially better, depending on who the next President is. Namely, the Interior Department has launched a review of…
The legal impact of Volkswagen’s illegal skirting of US Emissions Control laws is starting to be levied. Today, the U.S. Department of Justice, on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, launched a civil lawsuit against the Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen AG, Audi AG, Volkswagen Group of America, Inc., Volkswagen Group of…
Today, the Obama Administration delayed an oil and gas lease sale that was inconveniently scheduled for December 10, 2015, or right in the middle of the Paris COP climate talks. Activist groups, like 350.org, are claiming this as a “win” because the action was taken after pressure from those groups. Having…
The Obama Administration has (finally) rejected the Keystone XL pipeline proposal, in a hollow victory for environmentalists who’ve staged this as a key battle in preventing climate catastrophe. While this is an important victory, other news from today’s news feed demonstrates that the oil companies plan to simply take the…
Volkswagen Group CEO Matthias Müller announced today five steps that Volkswagen will take to rehabilitate itself from the Dieselgate scandal. In reading through the proposal, I don’t quite grok how it’s going to fix the problem. There are some aspects which may help, but nothing in this indicates that upper management…
Fracking for natural gas (gazelor de sist) is apparently coming back to Romania. During 2013 and 2014, Chevron started exploratory fracking operations in the region of Romania known as Moldova, while facing down intense anti-fracking protests. After several months during which Chevron managed to start drilling, completed an exploratory well, taking…
According to a report published on Wednesday in Der Spiegel, Volkswagen’s Dieselgate scandal was not caused a small handful of people as Volkswagen upper management has claimed. Instead, at least 30 managers responsible were involved in deciding to commit to the Dieselgate fraud, or what Der Spiegel called “Abgasaffäre”. I’ve written…
There’s more evidence that Volkswagen’s diesel vehicles are just the beginning of faked emissions. A couple weeks ago I’d reported on research from Transport & Environment showing the vast majority of cars sold in Europe give much worse emissions on the road than in the lab. Now, the Guardian has…
On Sept 18, 2015, the EPA and CARB jointly announced the Volkswagen Group had been caught cheating on emissions tests with its 2.0 liter TDI Diesel cars. The fraud had been perpetrated over a 6 year period during which the cars in question had been lauded as ultra-clean wonder cars.…
Where within Volkswagen was the decision made to cheat on emissions tests? Earlier I’d reported on statements by Volkswagen’s supervisory board suggesting that the top management was not responsible, and that instead pointed fingers at engineers within the company. Upon Winterkorn’s resignation (the previous CEO), the supervisory board explicitly…
