Category:Fossil Fuels: Difference between revisions

'Vertical slab in front of the Statoil building, imprinted with an image of an Easter Island’s moai — a haunting stone, pinnacle of a great, but vanished, Rapa Nui civilization'

The headquarters of Statoil, outside Oslo. Credit Andrew C. Revkin

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2024

For all of the focus on an energy transition, the American oil industry is booming, extracting more crude than ever from the shale rock that runs beneath the ground in West Texas.

After years of losing money on horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, the companies that have helped the United States become the leading global oil producer have turned a financial corner and are generating robust profits. The stocks of some oil and gas companies, such as Exxon Mobil and Diamondback Energy, are at or near record levels.

2023

November

US oil fields are gushing again, helping to drive down fuel prices but also threatening to undercut efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Only three years after U.S. oil production collapsed during the pandemic, energy companies are cranking out a record 13.2 million barrels a day, more than Russia or Saudi Arabia. The flow of oil has grown by roughly 800,000 barrels a day since early 2022, and analysts expect the industry to add another 500,000 barrels a day next year.

• https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/01/business/energy-environment/us-oil-production-record-climate.html

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October

U.S. oil production hits all-time high, conflicting with efforts to curb climate change

Via PBS

• https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/u-s-oil-production-hits-all-time-high-conflicting-with-efforts-to-curb-climate-change

OPEC says oil demand will hit 110 million barrels per day in 2045

“We see global energy demand increasing by 23% through 2045,” said the oil cartel’s secretary general.

* https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/26/opec-says-oil-demand-will-hit-110-million-barrels-per-day-in-2045.html

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CERAWeek

Oil/Gas Biggest Annual Conference

• https://twitter.com/hashtag/CERAWeek

• https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/saving-planet-big-oil-profits-17832500.php

• https://twitter.com/apienergy/status/1633123424192061440

• https://twitter.com/SvitlanaRomanko/status/1632779448801017856

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Profit-taking in a Profitable Year

Saudi oil giant Aramco posts record $161.1 billion profit for 2022

Four oil companies had total sales of $1 trillion last year

Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon and Shell all reported record profits in 2022

Oil giant Saudi Aramco has reported earning $161bn last year, claiming the highest-ever recorded annual profit by a publicly listed company and drawing immediate criticism from activists.

The monster profit by the firm, known formally as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., came off the back of energy prices rising after Russia launched its war on Ukraine in February 2022, with sanctions limiting the sale of Moscow’s oil and natural gas in Western markets.

• https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/12/oil-giant-saudi-aramco-records-historic-161bn-profit-in-2022

Exxon, Shell, BP, Chevron....

BP dials back climate pledge amid soaring oil profits

• https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/02/07/bp-climate-emissions-oil-profits/

BP is scaling back its climate goals and deepening its investments in oil and gas, casting new doubts on big oil companies’ promises to embrace clean energy.

The British energy giant had aggressively embraced the energy transition, adopting a green starburst logo and the slogan “Beyond Petroleum.” But on Tuesday, the company announced less ambitious targets for cutting oil production as it reported making more money than ever in 2022.

In its quarterly earnings report, the company said it made $27.7 billion last year, more than double its 2021 profits. It was the latest in a string of reported windfalls in the industry that are drawing rebuke all the way up to the Oval Office. Shell posted a $41.6 billion profit for last year, more than $10 billion higher than its previous record. ExxonMobil and Chevron both announced their highest profits ever, too, with $55.7 billion and $36.5 billion, respectively.

Chevron Reports Record-Breaking Profits For 2022

• https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Chevron-Reports-Record-Breaking-Profits-For-2022.html

Chevron (NYSE: CVX)... highest annual profit ever...

Chevron earnings for last year more than doubles from 2021 to $36.5 billion... record U.S. production.

Plans (Substantive or Not?) for investing in 'Green and Clean' energy...

2022

Today (July 30), oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron reported historic profits from the last three months. Exxon made $17.9 billion (not a typo) last quarter, up 273% from the same time last year, while Chevron made $11.6 billion. Exxon’s rate of income was $2,245.62 every second of every day for the past 92 days; Chevron made $1,462.11 per second.

Together, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies are expected to announce $60 billion in profits for the past three months. They plan to spend much of the profit not on reinvesting in their businesses, but on stock buybacks, which drives up the price of the stock. (HCR)

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Did You Know BTW?

Natural gas is composed of 70-90% methane, a potent greenhouse gas and major contributor to global warming. The American public perceives “natural gas” much more favorably (76% favorable) than other fossil fuels like oil (51% ) or coal (39%). They also believe natural gas is much less harmful to human health than is coal or oil.

How much does natural gas benefit from its name, which includes the word “natural”? To answer this question, we conducted an experiment to investigate the public’s emotions and associations regarding the terms “natural gas” and “methane.” We randomly assigned respondents to one of four conditions in which each respondent was asked to rate their positive and negative feelings (affect) about one of the following four terms: “natural gas,” “natural methane gas,” “methane,” or “methane gas.”

We found that the term “natural gas” evokes much more positive feelings than do any of the three methane terms. Conversely, the terms “methane” and “methane gas” evoke much more negative feelings than does “natural gas.”

The hybrid term “natural methane gas” is in the middle — it is perceived more positively than “methane” or “methane gas,” but more negatively than “natural gas.” That is, the addition of the word natural substantially increases respondents’ positive feelings about methane, indicating that the positive feelings generated by the word “natural” partially compensate for the negative feelings generated by the word “methane.”

Should it be called “natural gas” or “methane”?

• https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/should-it-be-called-natural-gas-or-methane/

2022

CNBC Interview: Exxon CEO says no new gas cars globally by 2040

Via Electrek -- CNBC

June 26, 2022

• https://electrek.co/2022/06/26/exxon-no-new-gas-cars-by-2040-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing-co2/

• https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/25/exxon-mobil-ceo-all-new-passenger-cars-will-be-electric-by-2040.html

Every new passenger car sold in the world will be electric by 2040, according to Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods, in an interview aired this weekend by CNBC.

The interview also covered the company’s climate ambitions, putting a flashy coat of paint on an organization that is the world’s 5th largest historical polluter and has pushed climate denial at a high level for half a century.

Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods sat down with CNBC’s David Faber for a long interview about climate change. The full interview is 35 minutes long (on top of a previous hour-long interview) and mostly discusses climate change and Exxon’s carbon capture and storage desires....

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The oil giant is predicting that by 2040, every new passenger car sold in the world will be electric, CEO Darren Woods told CNBC’s David Faber in an interview. In 2021, just 9% of all passenger car sales were electric vehicles, including plug-in hybrids, according to market research company Canalys. That number is up 109% from 2020 says Canalys.

In light of its modeling, Woods said Exxon Mobil is evaluating how the decline in gasoline sales could impact its business. Exxon Mobil is one of the largest publicly traded international gas companies and a leader in the industry. Its website boasts that it is the largest “refiner and marketer of petroleum products,” as well as a chemicals company.

Woods, who spent a part of his career on the chemical side of the company’s operations, says chemicals will be key to keeping the company profitable during the clean energy transition. The plastics that Exxon Mobil produces can be used in the manufacturing of electric vehicles.

ExxonMobil’s calculations predicted that oil demand in 2040 would be equivalent to what the world needed in 2013 or 2014. Woods explained to CNBC that the company was still profitable at that time.

Woods seemed unfazed by the prediction, saying “that change will not make or break this business or this industry quite frankly.”

May 2022

Oil Price Continues to Surge

* https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/15/saudi-oil-giant-aramco-reports-82-rise-in-quarterly-profits-to-record-395bn

April 2022

March 2022

* https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Daniel_Yergen_talks_oil-gas-fracking-energy-renewables..._war_and_geopolitics.png

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Big Oil/Gas Companies: Profits Up

Russia-Ukraine War Brings Disruptions and Sanctions: Oil/Gas/Fuel Prices Surge in 2022

(2021 Report) The largest oil and gas companies made a combined $174bn in profits in the first nine months of the year as gasoline prices climbed in the US, according to a new report.

The bumper profit totals, provided exclusively to the Guardian, show that in the third quarter of 2021 alone, 24 top oil and gas companies made more than $74bn in net income. From January to September, the net income of the group, which includes Exxon, Chevron, Shell and BP, was $174bn.

• https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/06/oil-companies-profits-exxon-chevron-shell-exclusive

December 2021

23rd World Petroleum Congress opens in Houston

October 2021

Climate News

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Climate_News

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Externalities

Oil Production 2020 / National Top Producers / Barrels per Day / Change Year on Year

May 2021

March 2021

"Banking on Climate Chaos" (PDF)"

Introduction: This report analyzes fossil fuel financing from the world’s 60 largest commercial and investment banks — aggregating their leading roles in lending and underwriting of debt and equity issuances — and finds that these banks poured a total of $3.8 trillion into fossil fuels from 2016–2020.

1. Fossil fuel financing dropped 9% last year, parallel to the global drop in fossil fuel demand and production due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

2. And yet 2020 levels remained higher than in 2016, the year immediately following the adoption of the Paris Agreement.

60 largest banks in the world invested $3.8 trillion in fossil fuels: Report

"Despite the economic recession induced by the coronavirus pandemic, more money went into the industry in 2020 than in 2016"

The world’s 60 biggest banks have financed the fossil fuel industry to the tune of nearly $4 trillion in the five years since the Paris climate agreement, according to a report released March 24th by a coalition of environmental organizations.

The report was authored by Rainforest Action Network, BankTrack, Indigenous Environmental Network, Oil Change International, Reclaim Finance, and Sierra Club, and is endorsed by over 300 organizations from 50 countries around the world.

• https://www.marketwatch.com/story/major-banks-including-jpmorgan-and-citi-have-invested-3-8-trillion-in-fossil-fuels-since-the-paris-agreement-11616635285

• https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2021/03/24/new-report-worlds-60-largest-banks-have-poured-38-trillion-fossil-fuels-paris-0

January 2021

October 2020

Conoco Buys Concho

Doubling down on the Permian Basin

Both companies have lost more than 40% of their value in 2020

Conoco is focusing on the West Texas/South New Mexico Permian Basin, the shale and fracking hotbed that made the United States the world's largest oil producer. Concho is viewed as one of the best Permian operators and brings along a large amount of expertise on the region.

The move will also make Conoco even more exposed to the same forces that have swiftly moved against fossil fuels.

"It is a bit of a contrarian move to double down on oil and gas at a time when it's unpopular in the investment community," said Pavel Molchanov, energy analyst at Raymond James Financial in Clearwater, Florida. "Many investors are turned off by the commodity volatility, regardless of what they think about climate," said Molchanov.

Europe is moving the opposite direction

The broader challenge to the deal is the climate crisis.

The mood is so glum in the oil industry that European oil majors are pivoting away from oil and gas in favor of renewables and low-carbon solutions.

BP revealed plans in August to slash its oil production by 40% and pour billions of dollars into clean energy as it attempts to deliver net-zero emission by 2050. The UK company also warned that world demand for oil may have peaked last year.

ExxonMobil, once the world's most valuable company, was recently surpassed in market capitalization by wind and solar company NextEra Energy.

August 2020

Exxon Mobil replaced by software stock after 92 years in Dow is 'sign of the times'

Exxon Mobil's been in the Dow in some form since 1928, but its tenure as the longest-serving component is coming to an end.

S&P Dow Jones Indices announced the largest changes to the 30-stock benchmark in seven years.

Exxon will be replaced by Salesforce. Amgen and Honeywell International are replacing Pfizer and Raytheon Technologies.

• https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/08/25/exxon-mobil-replaced-by-a-software-stock-after-92-years-in-the-dow-is-a-sign-of-the-times.html

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May / April 2020

Collapse

• https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/04/20/coronavirus-us-oil-prices-collapse-as-storage-runs-out.html

Down, Down, Down

• https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/news/oil-price-plunges-dismal-outlooks-global-demand-continue-coronavirus-opec-2020-4-1029102492

Bank/Lender Takeovers Shock the Shale/Oil Patch

• https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Big-Banks-Set-To-Seize-Shale-Oil-Assets.amp.html

U.S. Shale Bust Like No Other

• https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN21X0HC

Oil Price Spiral Puts Fracking Industry in the Crosshairs

• https://oilprice.com

• https://www.bloomberg.com/energy

“It’s a financial bloodbath,” said Clark Williams-Derry, an analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “With oil prices at the current level, there’s a real risk many of them will simply go bankrupt.”

Fracking now makes up 63% of U.S. oil production, the Energy Information Administration estimates. That figure was set to increase as oil/gas drilling grew faster in the U.S. than any other country, and 90% of that is dependent on fracking, according to a report by scientists at more than a dozen environmental groups.

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Ten million barrel cut and/or performance art?

• https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/opinion/articles/2020-04-02/trump-s-10-million-oil-barrel-tweet-is-performance-art

Brett McGurk, Energy policy 'spasms'

• https://mobile.twitter.com/brett_mcgurk/status/1245743926293610496

• https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/people/brett-mcgurk

Oil/Gas Stock Prices Continue to Plunge

Gasoline Demand Falls ... Covid Times

• https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/04/01/the-other-bomb-thats-dropping-cramers-warning-as-first-shale-company-files-for-chapter-11.html

• https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN21J3RE

• https://www.msn.com/en-us/finance/markets/saudis-boost-oil-output-defying-trump-e2-80-99s-plea-to-end-price-war/ar-BB120I0d

• https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/01/gop-sen-dan-sullivan-calls-on-saudis-to-end-its-oil-price-war.html

• https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-meet-oil-executives-reeling-190014896.html

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March 2020

'Oil prices plunge to 17-year lows as demand drop threatens to overwhelm storage facilities

• https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/news/crude-oil-prices-plunge-price-war-storage-and-coronavirus-fears-2020-3-1029043473

Crude oil prices tank as continued fears over the Covid / Coronavirus pandemic slam energy demand.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) the US benchmark dropped below $20 a barrel in Asian trading while Brent crude hit $23.03, its lowest price since 2002.

The ongoing price war between producers Russia and Saudi Arabia alongside concerns over storage capacity has sunk prices.

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February 2020

BP pledges to cut emissions, NetZero by 2050, as memories of the Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico disaster continue

BP 'Reimagining Energy' ... Our purpose is reimagining energy for people and our planet. We want to help the world reach net zero and improve people’s lives.

We will aim to dramatically reduce carbon in our operations and in our production, and grow new low carbon businesses, products and services.

We will advocate for fundamental and rapid progress towards Paris and strive to be a leader in transparency.

We know we don’t have all the answers and will listen and work with others.

We want to be an energy company with purpose; one that is trusted by society, valued by shareholders and motivating for everyone who works at BP.

We believe we have the experience and expertise, the relationships and the reach, the skill and the will, to do this.

This will mean tackling around 415 million tonnes of emissions – 55 million from our operations and 360 million tonnes from the carbon content of our upstream oil and gas production. Importantly these are absolute reductions, to net zero, which is what the world needs most of all. We are also aiming to cut the carbon intensity of the products we sell by 50% by 2050 or sooner.

The world’s carbon budget is finite and running out fast; we need a rapid transition to net zero. -- Bernard Looney, chief executive officer

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• https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2020/02/14/hold-bp-to-pledge-on-cutting-emissions-editorial/

• https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/florida-keys/article240263391.html

• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-11/why-company-carbon-cuts-should-include-scope-check-quicktake

• https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/13/deepwater-horizon-disaster-oil-worse-impact-study-finds

• https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/7/eaaw8863

• https://climatereality.com/blog/actions-vs-words-look-fossil-fuel-greenwashing

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Climate_News

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January 2020

Famous Money Advisor - Author - TV Personality, Jim Cramer, is down on fossil fuel companies

I'm done with fossil fuels. They're done... We're in the death-knell phase.

(Video interview)

• https://twitter.com/CNBC/status/1223246855015993345

Real Money's Jim Cramer explains...

• https://realmoney.thestreet.com/jim-cramer/jim-cramer-once-again-why-fossil-fuels-are-on-the-wrong-side-of-history-15227698

ExxonMobil Down Again

• https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/02/05/business/exxonmobil-oil-stock/index.html

(CNN Business) ExxonMobil used to have bragging rights as the world's most valuable public company. Now, America's largest oil company is in steady decline... $184 billion has been wiped off Exxon's market valuation since its 2014 peak...

Exxon's (XOM) stock plunged to nine-year lows Tuesday after posting dreadful results that suggest a turnaround is unlikely any time soon.

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(CNN) At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland

U.S. president touts US oil/gas production -- and dismisses concerns about CO2 greenhouse gas emissions

President Donald Trump attacked climate activists as "perennial prophets of doom" on Tuesday while addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where the agenda is focused on tackling the climate crisis.

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Trump's remarks underscored the chasm between his denialist view of climate change and the overwhelming scientific consensus driving the rest of the developed world to action. Speaking shortly after the teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg accused world leaders of not taking action, Trump rejected calls for urgent action and encouraged the world to instead embrace "optimism."

"To embrace the possibilities of tomorrow, we must reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse," Trump said.

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Royal Dutch Shell Capital Investments on New Production Set to Rise

• https://www.reuters.com/article/us-shell-climate-exclusive/exclusive-no-choice-but-to-invest-in-oil-shell-ceo-says-idUSKBN1WT2JL

Time to add in 'Environmental Full-Cost Accounting'

https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Environmental_full-cost_accounting

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US Gas-Oil Production Dominates

• https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/oil-gas-and-mining/us-set-to-drown-world-oil

When it comes to these new oil and gas fields, production from the US is set to eclipse the rest of the world.

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Norway’s $1tn wealth fund set to cut oil and gas stocks

• https://www.ft.com/content/d32142a8-418f-11e9-b896-fe36ec32aece

Norway’s $1tn sovereign wealth fund is set to sell out of a host of oil and gas companies but stop short of abandoning the biggest energy majors such as BP and ExxonMobil as it prepares for one of the largest divestments of fossil fuel assets.

The Norwegian oil fund, which is the world’s largest sovereign investor, would dispose of about $7.5bn of oil and gas companies that are focused purely on exploration and production under the proposal from the centre-right government in Oslo.

The move is designed to reduce the dependence of Norway — western Europe’s biggest petroleum producer — on an industry that is facing growing questions about its long-term future. Global oil demand is forecast by many experts to peak by the 2030s while climate targets are speeding up efforts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

Financial Times: "Shockwaves through the energy sector"

EIA Interactive Chart (Beta) / Crude Oil Proved Reserves

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_proven_oil_reserves

• https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-world-s-largest-oil-reserves-by-country.html

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Fossil Fuel Exports from the U.S. Grow, Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Ship Carrier Orders Rise, Impacts on Climate Change are Locking in Long-term

Energy Priorities, Geo-politics & Fracking in the U.S.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Shale-US_biggest_oil_producer_by_fall_2018.png

• http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/28/investing/permian-basin-oil-texas/index.html

• http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/20/news/economy/us-oil-production-shale/index.html

Production Up, Priorities Go to Fossil Fuels

New Fracking Production Technology Changes Near-term Projections

Costs of Environmental Impacts Put Off by the Trump Administration

• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-25/the-dark-side-of-america-s-rise-to-oil-superpower

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Let's Talk Coal

• https://www.sciencealert.com/worrying-energy-chart-coal-consumption-production-renewables

• https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/media/latest-news/fuel-shares-in-power-generation.html

• https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/6/15/17467164/energy-chart-renewables-coal-climate-change

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Elon Musk Talks Need for Alternatives to Fossil Fuels

Time for a Price on Carbon

Elon Musk:

"The greater the change to the chemical composition of the physical, chemical makeup of the oceans and atmosphere [due to increased carbon emissions], the greater the long-term effect will be... [W]hy would you run this crazy experiment to see how bad it'll be? We know it's at least some bad, and the overwhelming scientific consensus is that it'll be really bad."

“Even if you put the environmental consequences of dramatically changing the chemical composition of the oceans and atmosphere aside, we will eventually run out of oil...

"If we don’t find a solution to burning oil for transport, and we then run out of oil, the economy will collapse and civilization will come to an end as we know it. And so if we know that we have to ultimately get off oil no matter what — we know that is an inescapable outcome, it’s simply a question of when, not if...

"Then, why would you run this crazy experiment of changing the chemical composition of the atmosphere and oceans by adding enormous amounts of CO2 that’ve been buried since the pre-Cambrian era? That’s crazy. That is the dumbest experiment in history, by far. Can you think of a dumber experiment? I honestly cannot. What good could possibly come of it?”

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Fossil Fuel Bubbles

• https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/10/8/084023

Pipeline Futures

• https://medium.com/@AlexSteffen/trump-putin-and-the-pipelines-to-nowhere-742d745ce8fd

World Oil Report

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:World_Oil_Report_-_Dec2016.png

International Climate Policy Plans

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:INDC

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Strategic Demands / Gas/Oil, Global Conflict

Costs of War

• https://www.strategicdemands.com/costsofwar/

Oil, Power, and War follows the oil industry from its heyday when the first oil wells were drilled to the quest for new sources as old ones dried up. It traces the rise of the Seven Sisters and other oil cartels and exposes oil’s key role in the crises that have shaped our times: two world wars, the Cold War, the Great Depression, Bretton Woods, the 2008 financial crash, oil shocks, wars in the Middle East, the race for Africa’s oil riches, and more. And it defines the oil-born trends shaping our current moment, such as the jockeying for access to Russia’s vast oil resources, the search for extreme substitutes for declining conventional oil, the rise of terrorism, and the changing nature of economic growth.

(The Chelsea 2018 English edition book has been translated from the French title, Or Noir)

The author, Matthieu Auzanneau, is the director of The Shift Project, a European think tank focusing on energy transition and the resources required to make the shift to an economy free from fossil fuel dependence, and also from greenhouse gas emissions. Previously he was a journalist, based in France, and mostly writing for Le Monde. He continues to write his Le Monde blog, Oil Man, which he describes as “a chronicle of the beginning of the end of petroleum.” The original French edition of this book, Or Noir: La grande histoire du pétrole, was awarded the Special Prize of the French Association of Energy Economists in 2016.

"How Fossil Fuel Money Made Climate Change Denial the Word of God"

Classical Economics and 'Invisible Hand' @Work

In 2005, at its annual meeting in Washington, D.C., the National Association of Evangelicals was on the verge of doing something novel: affirming science. Specifically, the 30-million-member group, which represents 51 Christian denominations, was debating how to advance a new platform called “For the Health of a Nation.” The position paper—written the year before An Inconvenient Truth kick-started sense of public urgency around climate change—included a call for evangelicals to protect God’s creation, and to embrace the government’s help in doing so. The NAE’s board had already adopted it unanimously before presenting it to the membership for debate.

At the time, many in the evangelical movement were uncomfortable with its close ties to the Republican anti-environmental regulation agenda. That year, a group called the Evangelical Alliance of Scientists and Ethicists protested the GOP-led effort to rewrite the Endangered Species Act, and the NAE’s vice president of governmental affairs Richard Cizik pushed for the organization to endorse John McCain and Joe Lieberman’s cap-and-trade bill. “For the Health of a Nation,” which Cizik also pushed, was an opportunity to draw a bright line between their support of right-wing social positions on abortion and civil rights and a growing sentiment that God’s creation needed protection from industry.

“Evangelicals don’t want themselves identified as the Republican Party at prayer,” the historian and evangelical Mark Knoll said at the time in support of the platform.

He was wrong. The rank-and-file membership rejected the effort. Like the oil and utilities industries, they decided that recognizing climate change was against their political interests....

ExxonMobile: Politics & Power

July 2016 - Attorneys General Exxon investigation faces investigation by US House Science Com't

June 2016 - Exxon Is Fighting for its Right to Deny Climate Change

May 2016 - Letter from President of Union of Concerned Scientists to Lamar Smith, Chair of House Science Com't

“There is no doubt”: Exxon Knew CO2 Pollution Was A Global Threat By Late 1970s

Wall Street Journal Editorial Board Meltsdown over Exxon with Bizarre Accusation: Like Cromwell Did Catholics?

>U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island Democrat, leading voice on climate change, locked in bitter brawl with Wall Street Journal editorial page over his proposal to sue fossil fuel companies for fraud

NY's State Attorney and Calif's AG Go After ExxonMobil

Exxon Bkrd

Exxon, the Road Not Taken

FBI Probe, More AGs Support Investigation of ExxonMobil

>Money-in-Politics: Giants of the oil and gas industry spend millions in 2015 to manipulate lawmakers and public discourse on climate change

Oil Change International ... "Exposing the true costs of fossil fuels"

Markets Are Spooked

While Renewable Energy expands globally with a wide range of investments in energy alternatives to fossil fuels, ExxonMobil predicts "long-term energy demand growth", increased oil/gas profits and "gains in energy efficiency and increased use of renewable energy and lower carbon fuels such as natural gas likely will help lower by half the “carbon intensity of the global economy.”

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"Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power"

NYT: Private Empire -- "A Well-Oiled Machine"

Guardian: "Thorough and accessible portrait of a secretive corporation is fascinating and deeply disturbing"

Paperback: 704 pages

Publisher: Penguin - May 2013

“ExxonMobil has met its match in Coll, an elegant writer and dogged reporter… extraordinary… monumental.”

-- Washington Post

“Fascinating… Private Empire is a book meticulously prepared as if for trial, a lawyerly accumulation of information that lets the facts speak for themselves… a compelling and elucidatory work.”

-- Bloomberg

“Private Empire is meticulous, multi-angled and valuable… Mr. Coll’s prose sweeps the earth like an Imax camera.”

-- Dwight Garner, NY Times

"ExxonMobil has cut a ruthless path through the Age of Oil. Yet intense secrecy has kept one of the world's largest companies a mystery, until now. Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power is a masterful study of Big Oil's biggest player… Coll's in-depth reporting, buttressed by his anecdotal prose, make Private Empire a must-read. Consider Private Empire a sequel of sorts to The Prize, Daniel Yergin's Pulitzer-winning history of the oil industry… Coll's portrait of ExxonMobil is both riveting and appalling… Yet Private Empire is not so much an indictment as a fascinating look into American business and politics. With each chapter as forceful as a New Yorker article, the book abounds in Dickensian characters.”

-- San Francisco Chronicle

"Coll makes clear in his magisterial account that Exxon is mighty almost beyond imagining, producing more profit than any American company in the history of profit, the ultimate corporation in 'an era of corporate ascendancy.' This history of its last two decades is therefore a revealing history of our time, a chronicle of the intersection between energy and politics."

-- Bill McKibben, NY Review of Books

"Groundbreaking... Masterful as a corporate portrait, Private Empire gushes with narrative."

-- American Prospect

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Threat Environment

ExxonMobil Under Investigation

NY's State Attorney and Calif's AG Go After ExxonMobil

Exxon Bkrd

Exxon, the Road Not Taken

FBI Probe, More AGs Support Investigation of ExxonMobil

Money-in-Politics: Giants of the oil and gas industry spend millions in 2015 to manipulate lawmakers and public discourse on climate change

Oil Change International ... "Exposing the true costs of fossil fuels"

Markets Are Spooked ... Oil Slide Continues

70 percent drop in oil prices over the last 18 months

Exxon Mobile predicts "long-term demand growth" and profits in investor report...

Today in Energy -- US Energy Information Agency -- https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/

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