Andy Rowell

Living close to a shale gas well affects the price of your house, according to new research published in the American Economic Review, one of the country’s oldest and most respected economic journals.

Some of the world’s best known oil companies, including Shell, BP, Statoil and Total, face the humiliation of having a ratings downgrade, the internationally respected ratings agency, Moodys, has warned.

The oil barons from Exxon will wake up to a double headache this morning. The carnage on the international oil markets is playing havoc with their share price. Yesterday afternoon the company’s stock was down nearly 5 per cent as the oil price continued its free-fall.

So the slide continues with no end in sight. As expected this morning, the oil price has fallen below $28 a barrel on the back of the historic news over the weekend of sanctions being lifted on Iran.

Well we will have to wait for another day and another trial for an American jury to rule on the “necessity defence” for direct action to prevent climate change.

Every day, it seems, brings more bad news for the fossil fuel industry. The week started badly with the news that they US coal giant Arch Coal, which owns the world’s biggest coal-mining complex, was filing for bankruptcy.