As if night follows day, it was only a matter of time before the climate deniers would try and serenade their climate denying President, Donald Trump, to kick the US out of the UN agreement on climate, long seen as their bete noir.
Once again Big Oil has been forced to rely on brutal militarized force to bludgeon, bully, beat and intimidate peaceful water protectors fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline. But in the face of such violence and intimidation, the growing movement against new fossil fuels will not be intimidated, it will only grow.
For years it has been apparent that the days of the oil industry finding so-called “easy oil” are over. And in its desperate attempt to continue our fossil fuel addiction, the industry is either attempting to exploit unconventional oil, like shale or the tar sands, or explore in new frontier areas like the Arctic.
Earlier this month when Donald Trump cancelled legislation that required oil and gas companies to disclose taxes and other payments to foreign governments, the President said he was “bringing back jobs big-league.”
Later today, Scott “Polluting Pruitt” could be confirmed as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, after a vote in the Senate. The fact that Pruitt, a man who has sued the EPA fourteen times, could be even considered for the job is a scandal. But it gets worse.
Yesterday, a federal judge refused to issue a temporary injunction against construction of the highly controversial Dakota Access Pipeline. The latest setback for the First Nations fighting the pipeline means that it could be “operational in as little as 30 days”, according to a lawyer for the company building it, Energy Transfer Partners.
