Research

Oil Change International publishes upwards of 20 reports and briefings every year focused on supporting the movement for a just phase-out of fossil fuels.

Runaway Train: The Reckless Expansion of Crude-by-Rail in North America

This report tracks the rise of crude-by-rail in North America, detailing where crude trains are being loaded and unloaded, how many trains carrying crude oil are crossing the North American continent, and who is involved in this burgeoning trade.

Crude-by-Rail Resources

Big Oil is working to extract every last drop of oil on the continent — regardless of the cost to our communities or climate. To succeed, they need ways to transport their explosive fuels, which is why they’re pushing new pipelines and increased crude-by-rail simultaneously. But recent pipeline spills and train accidents show that neither is safe. That’s why we’ve developed the materials on this page to help push back against the industry’s dangerous expansion.

Polluting Our Democracy and Our Environment: Dirty Fuels Money in Politics

A new report by Oil Change International and the Sierra Club, Polluting Our Democracy and Our Environment: Dirty Fuels Money in Politics, demonstrates the enormous amount of campaign finance contributions pouring into Congress by the fossil fuel industry, a problem that is only getting worse. With the 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, super-wealthy donors can now funnel unlimited amounts of outside money into political campaigns and elections. As a result of this ruling, outside spending increased by an enormous11,761 percentbetween the 2008 and 2012 elections.

World Bank Group financed $1 billion in fossil fuel exploration projects in 2013

World Bank Group finance for fossil fuel exploration projects from FY2008 to 2013 was highest in 2013, at nearly $1 billion out of $2.7 billion total for fossil fuel projects.

Lifting the Ban, Cooking the Climate

The U.S. oil industry’s biggest players, including ExxonMobil and the American Petroleum Institute, are calling for an end to the U.S. ban on crude oil exports that has been in place for more than four decades since the 1973 Arab oil embargo. Their reasons are clear, as lifting the ban would boost profits by enabling companies to sell American oil at higher global market prices.

Frozen Future: Shell’s Ongoing Gamble in the US Arctic

Frozen Future' warns investors of the risks to shareholder value from Royal Dutch Shell’s Alaskan Arctic drilling program.

Kerry’s State Department Ignored Obama’s Climate Action Plan

In 2009, President Obama made a commitment to reduce U.S. greenhouse gases by 17 percent by 2020.  The Obama administration put this forward as the U.S. share of a global effort to limit climate change to no more than two degrees Celsius – the target scientists tell us may be safe.  Achieving this target, which has been unanimously agreed on a global level, is central to the success of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, announced in June of last year.

RefineryReport.org

The Refinery Report project will develop and publish data on North America’s refineries, beginning with the amount of crude oil refined from the world’s dirtiest and most destructive source of oil: the Canadian tar sands.

A Call for Reason in Warsaw: Finance Climate Action, not Fossil Fuel Subsidies

But as shown in a briefing released by Oil Change International today, while Annex 2 (developed) countries continue to debate how to honor their commitment to provide $100 billion each year by 2020 to help developing countries reduce emissions and adapt to climate impacts, these same countries are providing five times more public support for fossil fuel production and consumption than they have so far pledged in climate finance. These fossil fuel subsidies are driving the global growth in greenhouse gas emissions and therefore directly undermining investments to reduce climate impacts.

Ship, Baby, Ship! The push for U.S. crude oil exports has started. Here’s why it’s a terrible idea

Our latest report released today exposes U.S. oil producers that want to export crude oil despite the fact that they still only produce barely more than 50% of U.S. oil demand. 40 years on from the Arab oil embargo and America’s oil producers have only one thing on their minds; profits.