Tuesday, August 11, 2015

BP plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc Will Have To Survive Without $100 Oil

Aug 11th, 2015

By Harvey Jones – Tuesday, 11 August, 2015

Low oil prices have sunk share prices at BP (LSE: BP) and Royal Dutch Shell (LSE: RDSB) and there is no sign of immediate respite.

There was a flicker of hope as Brent crude climbed to nearly $68 a barrel in May, but it has now slid below $50 again, and worse could follow.

The notion that lower prices would put the skids on supply, especially from US shale rigs, has been discredited. Shale technology is coming on in leaps and bounds, driving constant cost savings for drillers.

US frackers continue to add an extra million barrels of oil a day to global supply, even before Iran floods the market with its stockpiles.

Posted in: BP, Oil Company Profits, Oil Prices, Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
Tagged: BP · Oil Prices · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell · The Motley Fool

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

Shell asks for approval on deeper Arctic drilling

Aug 11th, 2015

by John Donovan.

No comments yet

By Jennifer A. Dlouhy: August 10, 2015

WASHINGTON – Shell is asking federal regulators for permission to drill deeper into potential oil-bearing rock thousands of feet below the Chukchi Sea.

Although the company has been drilling a well at its Burger Prospect since July 30, Interior Department regulators have limited the company’s work to the top 3,000 feet.

The restriction stems from regulators’ insistence that Shell have an emergency device called a capping stack nearby and ready to be deployed on top of a damaged well within 24 hours of an incident. But for weeks, that capping stack and the icebreaker used to deploy it have been unavailable while a hole in the hull of that vessel was fixed in a Portland, Ore., shipyard.

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

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

For the sake of the Inupiat, Shell should give up drilling in the Arctic

Aug 11th, 2015

by John Donovan.

No comments yet

Othniel Art Oomittuk Jr.: August 10, 2015

Inupiaq people, who have inhabited the uppermost one-third of the state of Alaska, known as the Arctic, for millennia, are part of a larger circumpolar indigenous Inuit nation. The current population of the Inupiat in Alaska is about 13,500 (source: University of Alaska Fairbanks). Point Hope is the longest continuously inhabited community on the North American continent, the second largest village with a population of 800 inhabitants and the most culturally traditional village on the North Slope of Alaska.

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

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

CHINA: BABY GIRL FLUSHED DOWN TOILET, RESCUED

A message from the campaign to

End Gendercide Now

Invite your friends to sign the petition to The President of the United States, UN Secretary General, Leaders of the European Parliament, The General Secretary of the Communist Party of China

Posted By: Women's Rights Without Frontiers (campaign leader)

CHINA: BABY GIRL FLUSHED DOWN TOILET, RESCUED

BEIJING. A newborn baby girl was discovered flushed down a public toilet in Beijing, according to CNN and the Beijing Times. Beijing police rescued the tiny girl, wedged face down in the toilet pipe, when residents reported the sound of an infant crying.

"Her head was upside down and her body was falling into the drain. We could only vaguely see her feet from the side," Qian Feng, the local police chief, told the Beijing Times. At first the police wanted to dismantle the toilet, but then worried there would not be enough time. "She just kept crying. I looked again, and thought we should try to pull her out even if the possibility [of her survival] might be slim."

The baby is reportedly in stable condition, and police are trying to find her mother. A young woman was seen walking away from the public toilets just before the infant was heard crying. No one recognized the woman or knows where to find her.

Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women's Rights Without Frontiers, stated: "It breaks my heart that this precious little girl was stuffed down a dirty, public toilet, and I'm grateful that she has been rescued. Who knows what unique contribution she will make with her days upon this earth? When girls are selectively aborted or abandoned, this conveys the message that females do not deserve to live. Gendercide is the most violent form of discrimination against women and girls."

Littlejohn continued: "Meanwhile, this incident powerfully demonstrates that gendercide still exists in China, despite the so-called 'relaxation' of the One Child Policy. Even under the newest exception to the Policy (which allows a second child to couples with one parent who is an only child), it is still illegal for an unmarried woman to have a baby. If they won't agree to an elective abortion, these women may be forcibly aborted. Perhaps the woman who abandoned her daughter was unmarried and fell into desperation, thinking she had no alternative. Unfortunately, we may never know."

Women's Rights Without Frontiers is ending gendercide, one baby girl at a time. We have saved nearly 200 baby girls. Learn more about our campaign here

Read the original CNN report: Newborn baby pulled alive from toilet in Beijing

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US Mayors Fed Up With Paying Wall Street Interest and Fees

Posted: 11 Aug 2015 05:52 AM PDT

They Will Consider Establishment of Public Banks

By John Lawrence

At their meeting on June 19-22, the US Conference of Mayors considered the possibility of establishing public banks as an alternative to Wall Street. Instead of spending a fortune in Wall Street fees and interest, a public bank would keep the money right in each Mayor's jurisdiction. Finally, Mayors are wising up. The Mayors Resolution on Strengthening Municipal Finances addresses the millions of dollars in fees that Wall Street banks charge cities and challenges mayors to negotiate with bankers to reduce these fees or to consider the possibility of a public bank. Public banking is distinguished from private banking in that its mandate begins with the public's interest. Privately-owned banks, by contrast, have shareholders who generally seek short-term profits as their highest priority. Public banks are able to reduce taxes within their jurisdictions, because their profits are returned to the general fund of the public entity. The costs of public projects undertaken by governmental bodies are also greatly reduced, because public banks do not need to charge interest to themselves. Eliminating interest has been shown to reduce the cost of such projects, on average, by 50%. [Read more...]

shared from

San Diego Free Press

The Chargers Stadium Proposal is a Joke, Right?

Posted: 11 Aug 2015 11:04 AM PDT

By Doug Porter (I’ve published two versions of the Starting Line for Tuesday. One on the stadium deal and one on the events taking place in Ferguson.) Yesterday reporters were summoned to a vacant lot overlooking Mission Valley to hear the latest news about efforts to build a new football stadium for the San Diego Chargers. Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer, County Supervisor Ron Roberts and City Attorney Jan Goldsmith solemnly announced a “real path to success,” complete with artist renderings, an environmental report and financing plan. [Read more...]

Ferguson Report: Black Lives, Still Trying to Matter

Posted: 11 Aug 2015 11:04 AM PDT

By Doug Porter (I’ve published two versions of the Starting Line today. One on the stadium deal and one on events taking place in Ferguson.) It’s hard for me even to write about what’s going on in Ferguson, Missouri on the first anniversary of Michael Brown’s death. On the one hand there’s been the rise of a new civil rights movement taking aim at the institutional underpinnings of racism in this country. Sometimes the media even acknowledges that everyday racism amounts to more than police brutality and Confederate flags. And sometimes they don’t. [Read more...]

A Driving Force: Electric Vehicles are on the Verge of Disrupting Energy Markets

Posted: 11 Aug 2015 05:58 AM PDT

By Emily Schwartz Greco /OtherWords Back in 1898, New York City hosted a global environmental summit. Flummoxed, the assembled experts disbanded early without agreeing on workable solutions. What daunting crisis brought about this precursor of today’s big UN climate conferences? Fast-growing cities were propelling travel via horse-drawn buggies and wagons to unprecedented and unsustainable levels. Staggering quantities of equine manure and urine made urban life hazardous and stinky, Clemson University assistant professor Eric Morris explains in his colorful essay From Horse Power to Horsepower. [Read more...]

US Mayors Fed Up With Paying Wall Street Interest and Fees

Posted: 11 Aug 2015 05:52 AM PDT

They Will Consider Establishment of Public Banks By John Lawrence At their meeting on June 19-22, the US Conference of Mayors considered the possibility of establishing public banks as an alternative to Wall Street. Instead of spending a fortune in Wall Street fees and interest, a public bank would keep the money right in each Mayor's jurisdiction. Finally, Mayors are wising up. The Mayors Resolution on Strengthening Municipal Finances addresses the millions of dollars in fees that Wall Street banks charge cities and challenges mayors to negotiate with bankers to reduce these fees or to consider the possibility of a public bank. Public banking is distinguished from private banking in that its mandate begins with the public's interest. Privately-owned banks, by contrast, have shareholders who generally seek short-term profits as their highest priority. Public banks are able to reduce taxes within their jurisdictions, because their profits are returned to the general fund of the public entity. The costs of public projects undertaken by governmental bodies are also greatly reduced, because public banks do not need to charge interest to themselves. Eliminating interest has been shown to reduce the cost of such projects, on average, by 50%. [Read more...]

The TRUTH will set you FREE.