Obama Wants to Raise Your Gas Prices to Pay for Trains

"The president will propose more than $300 billion worth of investments over the next decade in mass transit, high-speed rail, self-driving cars, and other transportation approaches designed to reduce carbon emissions and congestion. To pay for it all, Obama will call for a $10 "fee" on every barrel of oil, a surcharge that would be paid by oil companies but would presumably be passed along to consumers…The fee could add as much as 25 cents a gallon to the cost of gasoline."
http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2016/02/obama-oil-tax

The Enviromental Disaster Nobody Is Talking About

TRANSCRIPT
January 29, 2016

SAMANTHA PAGE, ThinkProgress: California’s gas leak has released almost 90,000 metric tons of methane since October.

That’s the equivalent of $14 million worth of natural gas. And the environment effects? It’s about equal to putting an extra 1.41 million cars on the road.That’s right, this is pretty much California’s biggest leak ever.

SoCal Gas, which owns the leaking storage facility, doesn’t know what cause the rupture, and stopping this volcano of gas? It’s complicated. They expect it’ll take about another whole month.

But don’t worry...

The U.S. is the largest consumer of natural gas in the world. We have about 400 storage facilities like this. So it's just a matter of time before this happens again. Isn’t that something?
https://youtu.be/2lV2uFZF7TA

Canada Just Announced A Major Pipeline Reform | ThinkProgress

Pipelines and natural gas export terminals proposed in the country will now be subject to a climate test, which will seek to determine how the project will impact greenhouse gas emissions, Canadian officials announced Wednesday. That test will take into account the “upstream” impacts of a project — meaning the emissions from the extraction of the oil or gas that the pipeline would carry or the gas the terminal would store — as well as the emissions created from building and maintaining the project...
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/01/28/3743272/canada-new-pipeline-climate-test/

Oklahoma Residents Sue Energy Companies Over Earthquake Damage

“As a direct and proximate result of defendants’ negligence, plaintiffs have suffered and will continue to suffer severe and permanent damage to their persons and property,” the lawsuit states. This damage includes “cracked and broken interior and exterior walls” and “movement of the foundations beneath their dwellings.” These damages have taken a toll on the residents psyches, too, causing “mental and emotional anguish, fear, and worry.”...
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/01/12/3738417/oklahoma-earthquake-residents-lawsuit/

More People Work In U.S. Solar Industry Than In Oil And Gas Extraction

“It’s incredible,” SolarCity CEO and co-founder Lyndon Rive told ThinkProgress. “The industry employs over 200 thousand people — more than the coal industry.”...
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/01/12/3737971/solar-job-growth/

Gas Company Understated Benzene Exposure From California Leak

The leak at Porter Ranch, which recently prompted California to declare a state of emergency, has been spewing enormous quantities of the greenhouse gas methane into the air for months. It's expected to take months more to fix. The disaster has been compared to the BP oil spill for its impact...
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/15/463178568/gas-company-understated-benzene-exposure-from-california-leak?sc=tw

How Is This Not National News?

--A massive methane leak in Porter Ranch, California, has displaced thousands of residents and is releasing over 30,000 kilograms of methane per hour...
https://youtu.be/7x-4VRg-cRc

California’s Oil And Gas Industry Spent $10 Million Getting Rid Of Environmental Review

“Proposed and paid for by the oil industry, the [new regulations] purport to authorize the development of up to 3,647 new oil and gas wells and extensive associated construction and operational activities, each year for 20 to 25 or more years, without any further, site-specific assessment of those activities’ health and other environmental impacts,” the complaint says. “The ordinance jeopardizes the health and well-being of hundreds of thousands of people across Kern County.”...
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/12/11/3730723/kern-county-sued-over-environmental-review/

This One Suit Could Take Down Oklahoma's Oil And Gas Industry | ThinkProgress

“You, the industry, needs to pay the cost of your operations,” Geis said. “If that turns out to be uneconomical, than you need to rethink your economic model.”...
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/12/11/3730531/oil-gas-doesnt-want-to-pay-for-earthquake-damage/

Fracking Companies Have Been Getting Worse About Disclosing The Chemicals They Use

According to a new study published in the journal Energy Policy, fracking companies have become less forthcoming since 2013 about the chemicals used in their operations, citing “the use of proprietary compounds” as grounds for limiting their disclosure.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/11/25/3725778/fracking-chemicals-who-knows/

Here’s How Much The World’s Biggest Economies Spend On Fossil Fuel Subsidies

Despite pledging to end fossil fuel subsidies in 2009, the world's major economies still spend billions each year on fossil ... Read more

What the oil and gas industry isn't telling investors

A new report suggests demand for fossil fuels could remain low. ... Read more

The 800 Ways Taxpayer Money Supports Fossil Fuel Industries

As world leaders converge on New York for a United Nations gathering that’s expected to have a strong emphasis on climate change, the OECD is pointing out 800 ways rich industrial nations support fossil fuels with taxpayer money, along with a handful of countries that are catching up quickly...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-21/the-800-ways-taxpayer-money-supports-fossil-fuel-industries

Going After The Arctic (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

President Obama, out on a glacier in Alaska today with wilderness survivalist Bear Grylls. A melting glacier. To make the point that we’ve got a hot planet to worry about. The heat goes north of Alaska, too. All the way to the North Pole. The Arctic is being transformed by climate change. Global warming. The polar ice cap is melting away, melting back. For environmentalists, that’s a five-alarm fire bell. For would-be Arctic developers, that’s an opportunity. To fish, to mine, to drill, to sail. This hour On Point: going after the Arctic. /Tom Ashbrook
Interview:
https://onpoint.wbur.org/2015/09/01/competition-for-resources-in-the-arctic

Ted Cruz’s Bank Account Would Soar If We Increased Oil And Gas Production

"His own personal financial well-being rests on how well the energy sector is doing," one expert said.  ... Read more

Methane Emissions Draw EPA Limits (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

Cows make a lot of it, when they make cow pies. The oil and gas industry makes more. Methane It’s the gas that escapes and bleeds off of oil and gas drilling sites, wellheads, processing plants, distribution lines. It’s a super global-warmer when it hits the atmosphere – 25 times more potent there than the big global culprit carbon dioxide, CO2. Now the Obama administration, through the EPA, wants to start to rein in that methane leakage from oil and gas production. It’s a big deal at the drilling site, and for the climate. This hour On Point: putting the plug in methane. /Tom Ashbrook
Interview:
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2015/08/20/methane-emissions-natural-gas-epa

The Dry Weather That’s Hitting The Tar Sands Industry Is ‘A Preview Of The Future,’ Scientist Says

Oil and gas extraction contributes to climate changes, which causes drought, which affects oil and gas production. To ... Read more

Fracking Industry Billionaires Give Record $15 Million To Ted Cruz's Super PAC | Alternet

Thanks to the Citizens United decision at the Supreme Court, the ultra-rich and corporations are essentially freed up to give unlimited amounts of money to organizations called Super Political Action Committees (PACs) that, while technically legally barred from directly coordinating with campaigns, can do everything else they can to promote candidacies.
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/fracking-industry-billionaires-give-record-15-million-ted-cruzs-super-pac

Jeb Bush Wants To Kill Subsidies For Oil, Gas, And Renewables

Not everyone in the environmental community is impressed with Bush's comments.  ... Read more

Methane Leakage from Natural Gas Production Could Be Higher Than Previously Estimated

...Even in small quantities, methane leakage is an important part of the climate change equation for natural gas because methane (the primary component of natural gas) is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Different greenhouse gases are ranked according to their Global Warming Potential (GWP), which describes their warming impact as a multiple of the impact caused by carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas....
Read more