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BP raking in obscene profits at expense of people and planet

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Climate protest
Climate protest

Fossil fuel giant BP is profiteering at the expense of people and planet, say the Scottish Greens. The comments from the party’s climate spokesperson, Patrick Harvie, come as BP has published its profits for Q3 2025.

Earlier this year BP announced that it would cut its renewable energy investments and instead focus on increasing oil and gas production.

Patrick said: 

“It has been yet another year of climate chaos around the world, with wildfires and flooding taking a deadly toll. 

“Yet times have rarely been better for the polluters and fossil fuel giants who are raking in eye-watering profits while our planet burns and households and families are hammered with escalating bills.

“What makes BP’s profiteering particularly obscene is that they know the damage they are doing and are doubling down on it by rolling back on the few climate commitments that they had made.

“Our energy market will never be fit for purpose as long as it is run by and for multibillion pound corporations like BP and those who are determined to exploit every last drop of oil at the expense of people and planet.”

Patrick added: 

“The UK government has a major decision on its hands when it comes to Rosebank. Will they keep the ban in place, or will they cave-in to pressure from the polluter lobby?

“Scotland has a huge renewables potential, but we need our governments to step up, do the work and make the investment that is needed in workers and green jobs.”

Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.
Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.
Continue ReadingBP raking in obscene profits at expense of people and planet

Household energy debt soars to £4.43 billion

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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/household-energy-debt-soars-ps443-billion

HOUSEHOLD energy debt has soared to £4.43 billion, leaving hundreds of thousands trapped in arrears, new figures revealed today.

Figures from Ofgem show that energy debt has more than tripled since the end of 2020, when the figure stood at £1.45bn.

The regulator reported that there are currently 1,133,683 electricity customers and 926,545 gas customers in debt without any repayment arrangement in place. 

The debt is leaving households facing up to an extra £145 a year on their bills to cover the collective shortfall.

End Fuel Poverty Coalition co-ordinator Simon Francis said: “Energy debt is now driving people into dangerous financial positions as we approach the fifth winter of the energy bills crisis.

…

A new analysis by think tank Common Wealth shows that 24 per cent of the average energy bill went towards pre-tax profits by the energy industry.

Robert Palmer, deputy director of Uplift, said: “Yet again while shareholders are celebrating rising prices and huge profits, people are facing stark choices of how to ration their energy.

“Only by supporting struggling households now, improving energy efficiency and getting us off expensive gas through homegrown renewable energy will ministers be able to get a grip on the situation.”

…

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/household-energy-debt-soars-ps443-billion

Keir Starmer confirms that he's proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Image of Keir Starmer and a poor child.
Zionist Keir ‘Kid Starver’ Starmer. Image thanks to The Skwawkbox.

Continue ReadingHousehold energy debt soars to £4.43 billion

Profits from NHS England eye care outsourcing same as 100 PFI contracts, research finds

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/04/profits-from-nhs-england-eye-care-outsourcing-same-as-100-pfi-contracts-research-finds

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c66599b10d3bfce3f78393d3c0a00fae7db8de4e/86_139_2881_1710/master/2881.jpg?width=620&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none

CHPI thinktank found five firms made an ‘eye-watering’ £169m in 2023-24, as calls for profit cap grow

Profits made from treating NHS eye patients by five private firms are so large they equal those made by the 100 with private finance initiative (PFI) hospital contracts, research shows.

The disclosure has led to calls for ministers to cap what can be “eye-watering” levels of profit made by private operators when they take over key public services.

Research by the Centre for Health and the Public Interest (CHPI) thinktank found the five main companies providing cataract removals and other eye treatments to the NHS in England made an estimated £169m in profit collectively during 2023-24 – the same profit generated by the 100 PFI deals.

David Rowland of the CHPI, who carried out the research, said: “For years the biggest scandal of wasted money in the NHS has been PFI, with huge amounts of taxpayer money leaking out of the health system and into the profit accounts of private firms.

“But our research shows that the outsourcing of NHS eye care is an even bigger scandal. Just five eye care companies have generated the same profits in one year as the companies running all 100 NHS PFI schemes.”

…

Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/04/profits-from-nhs-england-eye-care-outsourcing-same-as-100-pfi-contracts-research-finds

Continue ReadingProfits from NHS England eye care outsourcing same as 100 PFI contracts, research finds

Report Outlines Which Companies Are Most Responsible for Climate Crisis

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

“It is morally reprehensible for companies to continue expanding exploration and production of carbon fuels in the face of knowledge now for decades that their products are harmful,” said Richard Heede, who established the Carbon Majors dataset.

A report released by Carbon Majors on Thursday says that 57 companies were responsible for 80% of the world’s CO2 emissions from fossil fuel and cement production between 2016 to 2022.

Saudi Aramco, Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom, and state-owned producer Coal India were at the top of the list. Carbon Majors has been keeping track of which companies are contributing the most to the climate crisis since 2013.

“The Carbon Majors research shows us exactly who is responsible for the lethal heat, extreme weather, and air pollution that is threatening lives and wreaking havoc on our oceans and forests,” Tzeporah Berman, international program director at Stand.earth and chair at Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, said in a statement. “These companies have made billions of dollars in profits while denying the problem and delaying and obstructing climate policy.”

The report states that nation-state producers account for 38% of CO2 emissions in the database. That’s the highest percentage of any of the types of companies listed in the database.

“The Carbon Majors database finds that most state- and investor-owned companies have expanded their production operations since the Paris agreement. Fifty-eight out of the 100 companies were linked to higher emissions in the seven years after the Paris agreement than in the same period before,” the report reads.

In terms of investor-owned companies, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and BP contributed the most to CO2 emissions. ExxonMobil alone was responsible for 3.6 gigatons of CO2 emissions over a seven-year period.

“It is morally reprehensible for companies to continue expanding exploration and production of carbon fuels in the face of knowledge now for decades that their products are harmful,” said Richard Heede, who established the Carbon Majors dataset, told The Guardian. “Don’t blame consumers who have been forced to be reliant on oil and gas due to government capture by oil and gas companies.”

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

Continue ReadingReport Outlines Which Companies Are Most Responsible for Climate Crisis

Business as usual as Starmer proves his loyalty with every rightward move

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Image of Keir Starmer sucking up to the rich and powerful at the World Economic Forum, Davos
Image of Keir Starmer sucking up to the rich and powerful at the World Economic Forum, Davos

https://www.counterfire.org/article/business-as-usual-as-starmer-proves-his-loyalty-with-every-rightward-move-weekly-briefing/

Lindsey German on … [Keith Starmer] , the establishment’s friend …

The fate of Thames Water should be the end of the privatisation model pioneered by Thatcher in the 1980s. The major utilities and public companies were sold off at undervalued prices, their shares rapidly snapped up by big corporations and investors, prices for consumers rose rapidly, and profits went to shareholders, not to investment. That’s why today the common refrain about most parts of public life in Britain is that nothing works. And it is epitomised by Thames Water drowning in debt and likely to be taken back into public ownership temporarily.

But any form of nationalisation is going to be resisted to the bitter end, not just by the greedy privatised companies themselves, but by the Tories and the increasingly right-wing Labour Party under Keir Starmer. The cheek of the privatised companies was illustrated when the head of another, Severn Trent, convened a meeting of all the water firms to explicitly discuss ways of resisting nationalisation. And it’s no use going to the supposed regulators for help. As the Observer reported, ‘27 former Ofwat directors, managers and consultants [are] working in the industry they helped to regulate, with about half in senior posts.’ So a number of those regulating the industry have moved over to take lucrative positions in…. the privatised water companies.

While investors take the money and run, working class people are left with dire and expensive services that fail frequently because there is no investment. The water companies are publicly disgraced because of their dumping of sewage in rivers and seas, rather than invest in new treatment plants. But in London (and no doubt elsewhere) there have been several burst water mains, risking lives as they cause disruption sometimes for months, because of lack of investment. In the southeast of England, drinking water supplies have failed ‘because of the hot weather’, in what must be the lamest excuse from a company supposed to provide just that.

The answer from government and industry alike is that future investment will have to be paid for by us, through much higher bills and higher taxes. Already gas and electricity is beyond affordable for millions. But the energy companies will set the benchmark for other industries as profits are protected. No wonder nearly 13 million adults struggle to pay bills.

…

https://www.counterfire.org/article/business-as-usual-as-starmer-proves-his-loyalty-with-every-rightward-move-weekly-briefing/

dizzy: Under Capitalism failing companies would normally go bankrupt so that the companies’ debts would be transferred to it’s creditors. This is not the case with the banks in the banking crisis of 2008, the energy companies failures of recent years and it looks like failing water companies now. Instead of the companies creditors shouldering the debt as part of the normal process, the poor public is instead burdened with it. This is great for the banks of course because it means that they can borrow without any risk of default, knowing that they will profiteer from the public regardless.

Dianne Abbott: The idea of renationalisation refuses to die

Take Thames Water into public ownership petition amasses tens of thousands of signatures

Continue ReadingBusiness as usual as Starmer proves his loyalty with every rightward move