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  • Rejecting Destruction to Communities, Groups Sue Biden Admin Over Offshore Lease Sale

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    Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    Canadian wildfire 2023
    Canadian wildfire 2023

    “This vast lease sale—for millions of acres—poses threats to Gulf communities and endangered species while contributing to the climate crisis this region knows far too well,” said one advocate.

    Calling the Biden administration’s plan to go ahead with an offshore drilling lease sale “mind-boggling” as the United States faces escalating climate harms including “record heat, fires, and flooding,” several advocacy groups filed a federal lawsuit Friday challenging the U.S. Interior Department’s impending sale of 67 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to the fossil fuel industry.

    Groups including the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), Earthjustice, and Friends of the Earth (FOE) filed the lawsuit saying that in moving forward with Lease Sale 261—the last of three offshore lease sales mandated by the Inflation Reduction Act—the Interior Department did not sufficiently consider the environmental impacts on people and wildlife across Gulf communities.

    “As steward of the country’s public lands and waters, Interior has a duty to fully consider the harms offshore leasing can cause, from air pollution to oil spills, and beyond,” said Julia Forgie, attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the plaintiffs. “This vast lease sale—for millions of acres—poses threats to Gulf communities and endangered species while contributing to the climate crisis this region knows far too well. We are holding the agency to its obligation to carefully assess these risks and the climate fallout of this giveaway to Big Oil.”

    “If we are going to make a dent in the climate crisis, business as usual must stop.”

    A study published in May in Environmental Research showed that people living near offshore drilling rigs are at heightened risk for respiratory and cardiovascular issues as well as other serious illnesses, along with facing the rising threat of extreme weather due to fossil fuel emissions from such projects.

    Lease Sale 261 could result in the production of more than 1 billion barrels of oil and 4 trillion cubic feet of fossil gas over the next 50 years, noted the groups, leading to more than 370 tons of greenhouse gases at a time when scientists and energy experts are warning that continued fossil fuel extraction is threatening the planet.

    The sale is scheduled to be held on September 27, around the same time that the Interior Department is expected to release its proposal for a five-year offshore oil and gas leasing program.

    That proposal could include as many as 11 new offshore lease sales “with the potential to emit up to 3.5 billion tons of carbon pollution,” said the groups.

    The lawsuit filed on Friday accused the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) of presenting “an incomplete and misleading picture of oil spill impacts and risks based on flawed modeling that failed to properly consider reasonably foreseeable accidents” in its analysis of environmental impacts that could be caused by Lease Sale 261.

    “The final SEIS [supplemental environmental impact statement] failed to take the required ‘hard look’ at the significant impacts of this action,” reads the lawsuit. “For example, the bureau did not rationally evaluate the impacts of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, relying instead on problematic modeling and assumptions to conclude that these massive lease sales will result in only slightly higher emissions than not leasing at all, and further failed to consider the impacts of such fossil fuel development on climate goals and commitments. With regard to environmental justice, the final SEIS arbitrarily dismissed the impacts of onshore oil and gas infrastructure—refineries, petrochemical plants, and other industrial sources that process fossil fuels and related products from these lease sales—on Gulf communities.”

    The lawsuit was filed as thousands of people in Louisiana’s so-called “Cancer Alley” were ordered to evacuate due to a chemical leak and fire at a petroleum refinery.

    Hallie Templeton, legal director for Friends of the Earth, said the group will “keep fighting until the Gulf of Mexico is off the table for good.”

    “Unfortunately, given BOEM’s history of sacrificing the Gulf of Mexico to Big Oil, this lease sale decision comes as no surprise,” said Templeton. “Our lawsuit should also come as no surprise, since BOEM continues to rely on the same outdated, broken environmental analysis. If we are going to make a dent in the climate crisis, business as usual must stop.”

    Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

  • Millions of households to face higher energy bills this winter despite price cap

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    Image of cash and pre-payment meter key
    Image of cash and pre-payment meter key

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/splash-millions-households-face-higher-energy-bills-winter-following-ofgem-price-cap

    MILLIONS of cash-strapped households are facing higher gas and electricity bills this winter despite a lower energy price cap, the labour movement warned yesterday.

    Amid declining wholesale prices, regulator Ofgem announced a new average annual energy cost across Britain of £1,923 from October 1 — down from £2,074.

    Typical prepayment meter customers will see their bills falls to £1,949 a year.

    But experts warned a decision by Tory ministers to cut government energy support alongside an increase in compulsory standing charges would hike costs for some, while many would see little or no change.

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/splash-millions-households-face-higher-energy-bills-winter-following-ofgem-price-cap

  • Whitehall cleaning, security and support staff to strike for five days

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/h-150-whitehall-cleaning-security-and-support-staff-strike-five-days

    WHITEHALL cleaners, security guards and support staff are to strike for five days after being offered a below-inflation pay rise.

    They are angry to have been offered just a 3.5 per cent rise by outsourced contractor ISS when inflation is running at 6.8 per cent, the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union said.

    Nearly 100 PCS members at the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero, Department for Business & Trade and Department for Science, Innovation & Technology are set to take action from September 4 to 8.

    PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “It’s obscene that ISS can afford to pay board members £988,000 — a rise of 8.9 per cent from last year — yet claim they can’t afford to pay cleaners a fair rise.

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/h-150-whitehall-cleaning-security-and-support-staff-strike-five-days

  • Britain’s biggest oil and gas producer’s £337m profit comes ‘at the expense of every living thing on the planet,’ campaigners warn

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    Image of InBedWithBigOil by Not Here To Be Liked + Hex Prints from Just Stop Oil's You May Find Yourself... art auction. Rishi Sunak, Fossil Fuels and Rupert Murdoch appear.
    Image of InBedWithBigOil by Not Here To Be Liked + Hex Prints from Just Stop Oil’s You May Find Yourself… art auction. Rishi Sunak, Fossil Fuels and Rupert Murdoch appear.

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/britain-biggest-oil-and-gas-producer-337m-profit-comes-at-the-expense-of-every-living-thing-on-the-planet-campaigners-warn

    BRITAIN’S biggest oil and gas producer Harbour Energy’s whopping £337 million profit comes “at the expense of every living thing on the whole planet,” campaigners said today.

    …

    It is thought that the company benefited from tax loopholes Prime Minister Rishi Sunak put in place while he was chancellor.

    This means that for every £100 a company invests in new oil and gas capacity, they can benefit from as much as £45 in windfall tax relief.

    …

    Climate activists This is Rigged commented: “The profit these private companies make is at the expense of every living thing on the whole planet, the least they can do is pay some f****** tax.

    “The Orwellian windfall tax introduced by Mr Sunak provides massive tax loopholes for oil and gas companies meaning they can claim almost half the profits back, if they reinvest it directly into —not renewable energy — no, more oil and gas projects.

    “That sounds like a bit of policy dreamt up by an arsonist, not a politician.”

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/britain-biggest-oil-and-gas-producer-337m-profit-comes-at-the-expense-of-every-living-thing-on-the-planet-campaigners-warn

  • US Billboard Campaign Blasts Fossil Fuel Giants for Causing Extreme Heat

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    A billboard in Austin, Texas shows a U.S. map with high temperatures across the nation.
     (Photo: Fossil Free Media)

    Original article by ULIA CONLEY republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

    “From Alaska to Maui, our communities are struggling to survive the rapidly worsening impacts of the climate crisis, all the while, Big Oil is raking in billions at our expense.”

    As about 111 million people in nearly two dozen states continued to face heat advisories, with temperatures reaching as high at 115°F in some cities, the nonprofit media lab Fossil Free Media unveiled a multicity campaign with one simple goal: ensuring that all Americans understand that the intense heatwaves across much of the country this summer have not been a natural phenomenon, but the result of continued fossil fuel extraction.

    Starting Thursday drivers along stretches of highway in Phoenix, Arizona; Austin, Texas; and Fresno, California will pass by prominent billboards displaying a map of record-breaking temperatures that have been recorded across the U.S. this summer.

    Fresno drivers will be reminded of a 109°F day in their city while those in Phoenix will see 117°F plastered over their hometown on the map, accompanied by the words, “Brought to you by Big Oil” and ThankYouBigOil.com.

    That website redirects to Fossil Free Media’s (FFM) Stop the Oil Profiteering (STOP) project, where visitors can read about the estimated cost of climate-related disasters such as hurricanes, extreme heat, and wildfires—over $600 billion from 2016-20 alone—and the 5,000 people killed by such events in that same time period.

    “The fossil fuel industry has known for decades that their products are fueling climate change and extreme weather, yet they have failed to act,” reads the website. “Instead, major oil and gas companies continue to invest billions into new projects that lock in decades more fossil fuel extraction while our communities take the heat… literally.”

    Jamie Henn, director of the organization, said on social media that the public “needs to understand that this summer’s brutal heatwave was brought to you by Big Oil.”

    The World Weather Attribution said last month that the heatwaves experienced by people across the U.S. and Europe in July would have been “virtually impossible” without the climate crisis, which scientists have for years said is being fueled by heat-trapping emissions from oil, gas, and coal extraction.

    The organization also reported this week that wildfires in eastern Canada in recent weeks were made twice as likely by the climate emergency, which as STOP said, has created “tinderbox conditions” by making droughts longer and more intense.

    “From Alaska to Maui, our communities are struggling to survive the rapidly worsening impacts of the climate crisis, all the while, Big Oil is raking in billions at our expense,” said Cassidy DiPaola, spokesperson for FFM and STOP. “There’s no denying that this summer’s brutal heatwaves are being fueled by the same Big Oil companies who are spreading climate disinformation and blocking much needed climate progress.”

    More than 100 people in the U.S. have died of heat-related causes so far this year, and weather experts have continued to report high temperatures throughout August after July set a world record for the hottest month in recorded history.

    Jennifer Falcon, a resident of Austin, told FFM that the climate crisis has emerged as an economic justice issue in her community as Texas broke its all-time record for power consumption last month, with people across the state struggling to stay cool.

    “Texans are paying 800% more to cool their homes during the extreme heat that blankets our state,” she said. “This means choosing between food on the table or cooling your home to mitigate health impacts from the sweltering heat while Big Oil profits.”

    As millions of people in the U.S. faced sweltering temperatures this summer—raising the risk of heat-related illness and even severe contact burns—ExxonMobil reported $7.9 billion in profits, its second-highest profit margin for a second quarter in over a decade.

    Along with the billboards, STOP unveiled an ad showcasing the Big Oil’s link to the climate extremes Americans are increasingly at risk of facing.

    “Record heatwaves? You can thank Big Oil for that,” said STOP. “Deadly wildfires? Yep, that’s Big Oil. Catastrophic storms? Smog-covered cities? You guessed it—Big Oil.”

    The group is one of several scheduled to lead a March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City on September 17, with the rally being held as the United Nations holds a Climate Ambition Summit.

    Aimed at pressuring U.S. President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency, Fossil Free Media said the march is expected to be “the largest climate action since before the pandemic.”

    Original article by ULIA CONLEY republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).