New York city sues oil companies over climate change, says it plans to divest

by Nicholas Kusnetz, InsideClimate News New York City is suing five of the largest oil companies over the billions of dollars it spends protecting the city from the effects of climate change, and it plans to divest its pension funds’ $5 billion in assets involving fossil fuel producers, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday. As […]

Trump Admin. removes Florida from offshore drilling targets (California not so lucky)

by Ledyard King, The News-press Washington bureau WASHINGTON – In a sudden about-face, the Trump administration has decided to exclude Florida from its plan to expand offshore oil and gas drilling. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced the decision Tuesday evening after meeting with Florida Gov. Rick Scott at Tallahassee International Airport. Scott had joined with […]

Trump plan to expand oil and gas leasing in West draws, for the most part, a big yawn from industry

by Keith Schneider, LA Times During his years in the White House, President Obama erected barriers to oil and gas development on the West’s public lands. President Trump, mindful of the energy industry’s view that those rules were too restrictive, has set his sights on dismantling them. Yet for all the president’s support, federal lease […]

Tianjin, China power plant

China is methodically building the world’s most ambitious carbon market

by David Roberts, Vox On December 19, China officially announced that it would create the world’s largest carbon trading system, meant to help the country meet its ambitious climate change and clean energy targets. (The country wants to get 20 percent of its energy from renewables, and peak its emissions, by 2030.) It can be […]

‘The fear of dying’ pervades Southern California’s oil-polluted enclaves

by Jim Morris, Public Integrity LOS ANGELES – In their worst moments, the victims’ faces are blue. Their skin is cool and damp to the touch. They are starving for oxygen. Pedora Keo, a critical-care nurse, sees them with distressing regularity: asthmatics in the thrall of attacks that can kill them or decimate their brains. […]

Big Oil pulls Democratic lawmakers through the revolving door

By Laurel Rosenhall, CALmatters Inside the California Assembly chamber on the night of June 1, the presiding officer urged lawmakers to recognize former members in their midst, “the honorable Henry Perea and Felipe Fuentes.” In a familiar Capitol ritual, the former assemblymen waved from the balcony as applause rang out from their one-time colleagues. But […]

California’s climate commitment is good for business

Many companies are choosing to locate in California because of the state’s strong climate leadership. This flies in the face of the myth that climate regulation might be a bad deal for California’s economy. Proterra, the Burlingame builder of electric buses, opened a factory in the Los Angeles area recently, in an effort to move some […]

Oil Industry

Amid fading oil boom, Canada’s roughnecks seek green energy jobs

by Chris Arsenault, Reuters TORONTO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - After nearly a decade of riding Canada’s oil boom, drilling contractor Jennifer Turner found herself low on work, like thousands of other employees in the fossil fuel business left jobless following a plunge in oil prices. Today, she helps unemployed oil workers find jobs in the burgeoning […]

More groups line up in support for Senate Cap and Trade bill

Wieckowski’s SB 775 would create a post-2020 framework to meet California’s strict 2030 limits Sacramento – A growing number of statewide and regional organizations in California, representing thousands of members, are lining up in support of SB 775, the Cap and Trade bill unveiled last month by Senator Bob Wieckowski and Senate President Pro Tem […]

Activists Dump 1000 Lbs of Coal Waste at EPA Headquarters | by Rainforest Action Network

Is the Exxon-backed Climate Leadership Council’s proposal worth the cost?

The below article by Ellen R. Wald of Forbes presents an interesting question about what we can hope for from the oil industry-backed Climate Leadership Council. Is the trade of carbon dividends worth the cost of regulatory rollbacks?  The Climate Leadership Council’s devious plan to distract American carbon consumers Today, June 20, the new Climate […]