Petroleum

By Greg Dotson | (The Conversation) | – – The Trump administration on Monday, April 2, took steps to ease pollution and efficiency rules for new passenger cars and trucks, giving automakers a reprieve from more stringent Obama-era standards. But in the process, the move could yield global leadership in the auto sector to the […]

China

Could China oil Exchange & Green Energy pull the plug on the Dollar?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Kate Duguid at Reuters reports the alarm at UBS that China’s new oil futures exchange will hurt the standing of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. That development in turn would start the reverse snowball down the hill, with the dollar falling against other currencies, […]

Donald Trump

Pompeo, Big Oil and the attack on Iran Deal

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – All you need to know about Mike Pompeo, the four-term congressman from Kansas who is actually from California, is that most of his life he has been in business with the Koch brothers. His appointment as Secretary of State puts a seal on Trump’s withdrawal from […]

Corruption

Blood oil: more than half of the oil traded across the world has been stolen

Juan Cole

By Leif Wenar | (The Conversation) | – – Donald Trump tweeted something true recently. Responding to the protests in Iran, the US president stated that “The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered.” Trump’s point is correct: what vice-president Mike Pence called Iran’s “unelected […]

Environment

EVs are Better: Iranian oil tanker in East China Sea could burn for a month

contributors

Middle East Monitor | – – The stricken Iranian oil tanker in the East China Sea could burn for as long as one month, South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries told Reuters on Wednesday, as the blaze raged for a fourth day following a collision with a freight ship. Dozens of rescue boats battled […]

Climate Change

Take That! NYC pulls $5 bn from Big Oil, Sues Majors for Climate Damage

contributors

Andrea Germanos, staff writer | ( Commondreams.org ) | – – “We are taking the largest action by any city to confront the growing climate crisis and demonstrate the leadership necessary to win this fight against fossil fuels and the damages they’ve caused.” Climate advocates hailed what they say is a “watershed” moment on Wednesday […]

Donald Trump

‘Trump Talks Too Much’: Iran Shrugs Off Oil Boycott Threat

Juan Cole

TeleSur | – – An Iranian official said Trump sees himself as the chief of a global village: “This comes as he is just the president of the U.S., and a hated one.” Iran has denounced a potential boycott of the country’ss crude oil recently floated by U.S. President Donald Trump, slamming the statements as […]

Petroleum

Despite Trump Pledge: Keystone Pipeline Spills 210,000 Gallons of Oil in Dakota

contributors

TeleSur | – – Environmental activist group Greenpeace said the leak demonstrated that approval should not be given for another section of the 2,600-mile pipeline planned for Nebraska. At least 210,000 gallons of oil have leaked from the Keystone Pipeline in South Dakota in the United States, just days before a crucial decision due on […]

Denialism

Under Trump, Arctic Refuge to be Ravaged by Oil Drills

contributors

By Subhankar Banerjee | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – What happens in the Arctic doesn’t just stay up north. It affects the world, as that region is the integrator of our planet’s climate systems, atmospheric and oceanic. At the moment, the northernmost places on Earth are warming at more than twice the global average, a […]