Senate Staff, Not Senators, Decided to Close Pentagon Budget Debate

SHARED FROM

May 23, 2015            Editor's Choice Senate Staff, Not Senators, Decided to Close Pentagon Budget Debate The votes to keep debate of the Pentagon budget behind closed doors were cast by staffers and not the actual senators who sit on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Allowing staff to vote on the key decision whether to open or close the markup of a bill that determines how to spend over half a trillion dollars is not only a violation of the Senate rules, but a breach of the public trust. Read more on POGO's Blog. Email Shows How Credit Suisse Works the Revolving Door Former Department of Labor lawyer Melanie Nussdorf could not say thank you enough to her former agency after getting a favorable response on behalf of her client, Credit Suisse, so she wrote it 600 times in an e-mail. Nussdorf was worried that Credit Suisse would have to tell all its clients that their retirement accounts would be overseen by a company that had just admitted to helping Americans evade U.S. taxes. The Department of Labor told her that wouldn't be necessary. Read more on POGO's Blog. The Pentagon Conned Washington..AgainPOGO's Mandy Smithberger, of the Straus Military Reform Project, joined Christopher Preble, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute in explaining how Congress' Pentagon spending budgetary shenanigans are likely to postpone a series of reforms that nearly everyone in Washington knows are long overdue. Years of bloated budgets have insulated the Pentagon from the need to make smart strategic choices, and have allowed policymakers to avoid a needed debate about whether our use of force in the last two decades has made us any safer. Read more at War Is Boring. Tweets of the Week Let's See Action: 8 contracting transparency proposals for the 3rd National Action Plan http://t.co/iIFfexaAO1 via @POGOBlog — Neil Gordon (@NEGordon) May 21, 2015 The trifecta of terrible. Throw in the fact that DoD tried to sneak in #FOIA exemptions and it's basically anarchy. https://t.co/11EwSnphH4 — Liz Hempowicz (@lizzy_loo_hoo) May 19, 2015 War=waste. This unused and unneeded $36 million headquarters in Afghanistan makes that clear. https://t.co/dpNzOcQuKE pic.twitter.com/suLBAPFGEG — Mark Thompson (@MarkThompson_DC) May 20, 2015

We rely on people like you to spread the word about our work. Tell a friend about POGO! POGO :: 1100 G Street, NW, Suite 500 :: Washington, DC 20005 :: (202) 347-1122

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

Oil hunt raises risk of climate disaster

Oil hunt raises risk of climate disaster

May 22nd, 2015 

by John Donovan. 

No comments yet

By Peter Husk: Saturday May 23, 2015

There’s an Alice-in-Wonderland quality about Royal Dutch Shell’s attitude towards the risks involved in its plan to drill for oil in the US Arctic.

The decision has sparked protests in Seattle, where the Polar Pioneer, one of two rigs the Anglo-Dutch oil giant intends to use, is berthed.

Shell sees the risks in its plan as financial. Critics see a far worse threat to the world’s climate.

Another rig, the Noble Discoverer, is docked along the coast at Everett. Both vessels are expected to sail north to Alaska next month and start exploratory drilling in the Chukchi prospect, between the United States and Russia, in late July.

read more

Share this:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Email
• Print

Like this:

Loading...

Posted in: Alaska, Arctic, Beaufort Sea, Ben van Beurden, Chukchi Sea, Climate Change,Environment, Greenpeace, Human Rights, Litigation, Oil, Oil Spill, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell, Shell Project Delays, Shell Project Overruns, United States.
Tagged: Alaska · Arctic Ocean · Chukchi Sea · Environment · Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

Shell boss endorses warnings about fossil fuels and climate change

Shell boss endorses warnings about fossil fuels and climate change

May 22nd, 2015 

by John Donovan. 

No comments yet

Ben van Beurden, chief executive of Shell, acknowledges that we cannot burn all the world’s fossil fuel reserves without risking a breach of the 2C limit needed to prevent catastrophic climate change. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty

Terry Macalister and Damian Carrington: Friday 22 May 2015 

read more

Share this:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Email
• Print

Like this:

Loading...

Posted in: Alternative Energy, Alternative Fuels, Ben van Beurden, Climate Change,Environment, Oil, Pollution, Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
Tagged: Ben van Beurden · Environment · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

Shell handpicked auditor to sign off on government’s Arctic drilling renewal

Shell handpicked auditor to sign off on government’s Arctic drilling renewal

May 22nd, 2015 

by John Donovan. 

No comments yet

Rose Hackman in New York: 22May 2015

The Obama administration’s process for giving Shell the go-ahead for restarting its drilling in the Arcticlacked transparency and prevented an informed public response, environmental groups have warned.

FULL ARTICLE WITH WORKING LINKS

Share this:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Email
• Print

Like this:

Loading...

Posted in: Alaska, Arctic, Business Principles, Environment, Litigation, Oil Spill,Pollution, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, United States.
Tagged: Alaska · Arctic Ocean · Chukchi Sea · Environment · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc ·Shell

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

SHELL CEO: WORLD ‘DESPERATELY NEEDS’ ALASKA OIL

SHELL CEO: WORLD ‘DESPERATELY NEEDS’ ALASKA OIL

May 22nd, 2015

by John Donovan. 

No comments yet

Article by Demid Getik published 22 May 2015 by nltimes.nl 

SHELL CEO: WORLD “DESPERATELY NEEDS” ALASKA OIL

Alaska has large potential oil reserves that the world is going to demand in the future, Shell CEO Dick Benschop told AD. Oil in the region is increasingly difficult to recover, however, the company’s technological potential fits the challenge.

There is an increasing need in the new sources of oil, said Benschop explaining the company’s decision to come to the state. “Annually, 4 percent of world supplies are consumed. We should therefore continue to invest in new supplies,” he said. “Alaska plays an important role in this.”

read more

Share this:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Email
• Print

Like this:

Loading...

Posted in: Alaska, Arctic, Chukchi Sea, Environment, Gas, Oil Spill, Pollution, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, United States.
Tagged: Alaska · Arctic Ocean · Chukchi Sea · Environment · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc ·Shell

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

Out to Stop Shell’s Giant Oil Rig

Out to Stop Shell’s Giant Oil Rig

May 22nd, 2015 

by John Donovan. 

No comments yet

Extracts from a Rolling Stone article by ANTONIA JUHASZ published 22 May 2015

Meet the Rappers and ‘Kayaktivists’ Out to Stop Shell’s Giant Oil Rig

…several hundred people trying to disrupt business as usual for the world’s largest oil company…

Their target, Royal Dutch Shell’s 400-foot-long, 300-foot-tall offshore oil rig, dubbed the Polar Pioneer, was just out of sight in Elliott Bay, behind the terminal building. In January, Seattleites learned Shell is planning to park the rig at their port for eight months of the year, when it isn’t drilling for oil in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea. Since then, a growing group of citizen-activists, elected officials and non-governmental organizations has been plotting ways to not only kick the rig out of the city, but also halt Shell’s Arctic drilling plans altogether. 

read more

Share this:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Email
• Print

Like this:

Loading...

Posted in: Alaska, Arctic, BP, Chukchi Sea, Environment, Gas, Greenpeace, Gulf of Mexico, Litigation, Oil Spill, Pollution, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, United States.
Tagged: Alaska · Arctic Ocean · BP · Gas · Gulf of Mexico · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc ·Shell

The TRUTH will set you FREE.