This Can’t Be Happening – 09.21.16

Levi Rickert, editor of Native News Online, a national publication about indigenous peoples of North America, talks about what he calls the most significant political action by Native Americans since the 1973 Wounded Knee occupation on the Pine Ridge reservation. He tells how activists from over 200 Indian tribes as well as representatives of indigenous peoples from around the world have converged at Standing Rock in North Dakota to help the local embattled Standing Rock Sioux People defend their land and water against despoilation by the Army Corps of Engineers, which is trying to construct a pipeline across Sioux lands to carry Bakkan Field crude oil to St. Louis.

Michael T. Klare – Debacle at Doha

Sunday, April 17th was the designated moment.  The world’s leading oil producers were expected to bring fresh discipline to the chaotic petroleum market and spark a return to high prices. Meeting in Doha, the glittering capital of petroleum-rich Qatar, the oil ministers of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), along with such key non-OPEC producers as Russia and …

Juan Cole – 3 Surprising reasons Saudi Arabia may be getting out of the Oil Business

Saudi crown prince Muhammad bin Salman announced Friday that Saudi Arabia would use its oil assets to back a $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund. The move suggested to many observers that the kingdom is preparing for a likely end of the petroleum business and transitioning to being primarily an investor. While it is true that the money for the sovereign wealth fund …

Emerson Urry – The Department of Defense Is the Third Largest Polluter of US Waterways

Advocacy group Environment America has “crunched the numbers” in an effort to reveal who the largest polluters of American waterways are. The culprits that crack the top-15 list may very well surprise you. If you ask people on the street who America’s biggest water polluter is, for many, oil Goliaths like Exxon or Chevron might be first to come to …

F. William Engdahl – What’s Really Going on With Oil?

If there is any single price of any commodity that determines the growth or slowdown of our economy, it is the price of crude oil. Too many things don’t calculate today in regard to the dramatic fall in the world oil price. In June 2014 major oil traded at $103 a barrel. With some experience following the geopolitics of oil …

Oil Prices Slide so Far Some Crude Is Now Worth Literally Less than Nothing

From a glut in the U.S. supply to fears concerning what will happen now that sanctions on Iran have been lifted, the market for oil is tanking considerably — so much so that one supplier of crude in North Dakota finds itself in the odd positionof paying people to take its product. North Dakota Sour, a high-sulfur crude that’s more …

Wenonah Hauter – Lifting Crude Oil Export Ban Locks In Fossil Fuel Dependency for Decades to Come

ne year ago this week, Gov. Cuomo banned fracking in New York, listening to the growing movement to keep fossil fuels in the ground. So it’s especially disheartening that Congress, through a provision included in the omnibus appropriation, has just lifted the decades-old crude oil export ban—locking us into fossil fuel dependence for decades to come. At a time when we need to be investing …

Rebecca Solnit – Oil fuels war and terrorists like Isis. The climate movement can bring peace

Greed for petroleum has produced plenty of war. War can be defined narrowly, as conflict between nations, or broadly, as large-scale violence in pursuit of gain. This is why so many see the climate movement as a peace movement – especially after the recent massacres in Paris. In the fossil-fuel era, some oil corporations became powers equal to states, and …

US Shale Oil and Gas Industry is a Ponzi Scheme Facing Collapse – Dylan Murphy

The mainstream media keeps churning out good news stories about the booming shale oil and gas industry in the United States. Apparently, the fracking industry is going to lead to America becoming the next Saudi Arabia with a hundred years of oil and natural gas. It will provide cheap energy supplies that will boost U.S. Industry and give a major …

Oil Market Uncertain As US Shale Boom “Goes Bust”

Oil market is uncertain as the US shale oil output is expected to fall for the first time in four years, and the coming months are likely to see a continuing price war between OPEC producers. Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and HIS are now projecting that US oil production growth will now end. The global oil price rose slightly in …