Read the latest insights and analysis from the experts at Oil Change International.
Last Sunday was a grim and painful anniversary for the people of Lac-Mégantic in Quebec. It was a year ago that a crude by rail train, which was carrying highly volatile crude from America’s Bakken fracking fields, derailed and exploded, effectively incinerating 47 people.
As war rages in Iraq, and oil and gasoline prices rise, the impotence of the US oil boom is exposed.
Ignoring the potential threat of further sanctions, both Exxon and BP have strengthened ties with Russia’s state-controlled oil company, Rosneft, in deals that can also only be seen as bad news for the climate.
On average, Senators voting against the moratorium have received nearly 3 times as much in Big Oil contributions than those voting for it.
The American authorities have “slashed” the amount of recoverable oil from the vast California Monterey shale deposits by a whopping 96 per cent.
The percentage of people who support fracking is now below 50 per cent in both the UK and US and is continuing to decline. Conversely the amount of people opposed to the controversial technique continues to grow.
As the evidence mounts that fracking is causing chronic air pollution and health problems, American civil society organisations are pressuring the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take action.
Last week the Chief Executive of Occidental Petroleum, a mega-fracker, told analysts and investors if “towns don’t want us there, we won’t be there.” What he failed to mention is that they’ve got the Governor in their pockets doing the dirty work for them.
The British Government is set to unleash a fracking frenzy across large parts of the country as politicians try and replicate the American energy revolution.
The North American fracking industry is hailing the production of its billionth barrel of fracked oil from the vast Bakken oil fields as a cause for celebration.
