DERRAME DE CRUDO EN CHINA

ALARMA EN CHINA POR UNA GIGANTESCA MANCHA DE PETRÓLEO

Imagen: Corbis

De RT/ MSK
Una mancha de petróleo de 4.250 kilómetros de extensión ha llegado a la costa noreste de China. Los medios oficiales del país han divulgado la información hoy, aunque al parecer el incidente se produjo hace tiempo.

Fracking/ Gas Drilling’s Environmental Threat

Oil and Gas Drilling Surges Despite Increased Oversight

by Nicholas Kusnetz
ProPublica

(David McNew/Getty Images)

Energy companies have spent the last couple of years fighting off added government regulation, saying red tape is slowing development.

ECOCÍDIOS SE REPETEM

A Terra precisa de advogados contra “ecocídios”

por Ido Liven, da IPS

Aarhus, Dinamarca, 17/6/2011 – As imagens da imensa mancha negra de petróleo que cobriu o Golfo do México percorreram o mundo como testemunho de um dos maiores desastres ambientais da história. Outras, como as da “Grande Mancha de Lixo do Pacífico” – uma gigante pilha de dejetos que flutua no Norte deste oceano –, as das incontáveis árvores cortadas na Amazônia ou das areias de alcatrão do Canadá, não tiveram tanta repercussão, mas também atestam o preço que tem a ambição humana.

Erika Blumenfeld/IPS

Bancos de areia nas Ilhas Chandeleur.

Para impedir desastres semelhantes e exigir justiça em nível mundial, a advogada e ativista Polly Higgins, radicada em Londres, apresentou, em abril de 2010, uma proposta legal à Organização das Nações Unidas (ONU) para considerar os danos ambientais graves como crime contra a paz, chamando-os de “ecocídios”.

ESSAY: OILSPILL

Big Business and the Environment:

Different Conditions, Different Outcomes

One of the biggest struggles our generation faces today is finding the balance between satisfying the interests of big business and those of environmentalists.  Often times, there is no room for compromise.  In this chapter of Jared Diamond’s book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, the famous scientist, author, and UCLA professor delves into the business practices and motives of several “extraction” industries: oil, hardrock mining and coal, logging, and marine fishing.

DERRAME DE CRUDO EN CANADA

UN DERRAME DE 28.000 BARRILES DE CRUDO

AFECTA A LA PROVINCIA CANADIENSE DE

ALBERTA

De Noticiero/ MSK

Uno de los derrames más vastos de petróleo en la historia de Canadá se ha registrado en la provincia de Alberta. Se estima que el vertido puede alcanzar los 28.000 barriles de crudo.

BP’S TEXAS CITY REFINERY

Authorities Give Conflicting Accounts of Latest Toxic

Releases From Texas City Refineries

by Marian Wang
ProPublica

BP’s Texas City refinery (Abrahm Lustgarten/ProPublica)

BP’s troubled Texas City refinery as well as another refinery operated by Valero Energy Corporation have reportedly released more than 150,000 pounds of pollutants into the air after power troubles forced emergency shutdowns at several refineries in the area. That figure is expected to grow as the companies restart their equipment and file more emissions reports with regulators.

GULF OIL SPILL

Chief Offshore Drilling Regulator Criticizes Lack of

Oversight for Contractors

by Sasha Chavkin
ProPublica

Offshore oil rigs are seen at night near Santa Barbara, Calif.

The top regulator of offshore drilling said this week that his agency is exploring expanding its oversight to include thousands of contractors on offshore rigs.

GIGANTE PETROLERO AMENAZA PUEBLOS INDIGENAS AISLADOS

Indígenas aislados: lo que no se ha contado de las

exploraciones de Repsol en la Amazonia peruana

El gigante petrolero Repsol-YPF podría estar amenazando la existencia de dos de los últimos pueblos indígenas aislados en el mundo, según un crítico informe que acaba de publicar la organización Survival International.

La petrolera hispano-argentina es el objetivo de las críticas por las operaciones que realiza en el “Lote 39”, ubicado en el norte de Perú, una de las áreas con mayor biodiversidad del planeta.

BP OIL SPILL – ONE YEAR

A Year After Gulf Tragedy, Offshore Oil Companies

Still Shielded by Liability Limits

by Marian Wang
ProPublica

(Deepwater Horizon Response/Flickr Images)

When the Deepwater Horizon disaster killed 11 men at sea last April and set off the worst oil spill in U.S. history, the tragedy exposed a number of weaknesses—not least of which were decades-old laws that limited the liability of major players.

GULF OIL SPILL

‘Spillionaires’: Profiteering and Mismanagement in

the Wake of the BP Oil Spill

Aerial view of the BP oil spill site off the coast of Houma, La., on July 13, 2010. (Melanie Burford/ProPublica)

by Kim Barker
ProPublica

A version of this story was co-publishedwith The Washington Post.

The oil spill that was once expected to bring economic ruin to the Gulf Coast appears to have delivered something entirely different: a gusher of money.

BURIED SECRETS

Deteriorating Oil and Gas Wells Threaten Drinking Water,

Homes Across the Country

Gas company employees must test this temporary vent to see if it’s safe for Nick Kellington and his family to visit their home. The Kellingtons were evacuated after gas from a nearby abandoned well caused a small explosion in West Mifflin, Pa. (Nicholas Kusnetz/ProPublica)

by Nicholas Kusnetz
ProPublica

A version of this story was co-publishedwith the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

In the last 150 years, prospectors and energy companies have drilled as many as 12 million holes across the United States in search of oil and gas. Many of those holes were plugged after they dried up. But hundreds of thousands were simply abandoned and forgotten, often leaving no records of their existence.

OIL COMPANIES, VIOLATE FOREIGN LAWS

Evidence Undercuts Oil Companies’ Argument That

Disclosures Would Violate Foreign Laws

by Marian Wang
ProPublica

As we’ve noted, oil companies have been lobbying against a provision in Dodd-Frank that would require them to disclose their payments to foreign governments. Some have argued that the rule would conflict with some host countries’ non-disclosure laws.