Shell said in February it would seek approval for the Pioneering Spirit, thought to be the largest ship ever built, to lift and remove the topside in one piece, shunning more traditional methods which involve cutting installations into smaller sections.
The federal government approved Shell’s plan to drill for oil and natural gas in the Arctic north of Alaska on May 11. Shell signed a deal with a Seattle company to use the port as home base for its drilling fleet, but local officials have tried to stop that from happening.
Last week, the state’s Department of Natural Resources sent Shell a letter telling them that mooring their drilling fleet in the port might violate the state’s constitution, according to the Post-Intelligencer.
The World Bank could soon decide whether the tiny nation of El Salvador will have to pay millions for rejecting a destructive gold mine.
OceanaGold’s mine would ruin the little remaining clean water left in El Salvador -- tell the World Bank tribunal to side with Salvadorans!
DEAR FRIEND,
This is a matter of mining versus life.
In just a few weeks, a World Bank tribunal could decide whether the tiny Central American nation of El Salvador will have to dish out millions to a Canadian-Australian mining giant -- just for rejecting a destructive gold mine. OceanaGold is suing El Salvador for a whopping $301 million under investor laws that allow corporations to shamelessly sue countries. El Salvador has the right to reject the mine to protect its water and people -- 90% of the country's water is contaminated already, and OceanaGold’s mine would ruin its last remaining sources of clean water.
With a decision coming any day, now is the time to pile on the pressure. Let's raise an outcry the World Bank can't ignore, and convince it to throw out this deeply unpopular case. Sign the petition telling the World Bank to throw out OceanaGold's case!
Allowing OceanaGold to go ahead with the mine could be disastrous. It would pollute El Salvador's last bit of clean water, something the country has been fighting tooth and nail to protect after decades of reckless industrial activity. Without clean drinking water, Salvadorians will be at risk of waterborne illness and food shortages.
Stopping OceanaGold is not just about helping El Salvador. If OceanaGold gets its way it could set a dangerous precedent, making it easier for companies to sue countries when their laws or policies hurt profits. That’s why we’re also working hard to kill two shady international trade deals (TTIP and TPP) that would allow more companies to do what OceanaGold is doing to El Salvador.
In this campaign, hundreds of thousands of SumOfUs members have stood with El Salvador from the very beginning -- last year we delivered almost 200,000 signatures to OceanaGoldtogether with our amazing partners. We’ve also pressured AMP, a huge Australian investment fund and one of the largest investors in OceanGold, to tell the company to drop the lawsuit.
If we’re to win this campaign, we’ve got to take it to the next level. The World Bank will be making a decision imminently. We need to give one big push to make sure the tribunal stands with the people of El Salvador and throws out this ludicrous lawsuit now. Ask the World Bank to let El Salvador protect its water from corporate exploitation.
Thank you for all that you do,
Taren, Kat, Ledys, and the team at SumOfUs
More economic growth, higher wages, shared prosperity—all by doing one simple thing. And here's a hint: 50 or 60 years ago, it was considered obvious.
The first step is to spread the word by sharing this message right now, because MoveOn will be campaigning for the idea that gets the most traction in our Big Picture series.
Jack Rothman: The trickle down theory holds that when financial elites heap up profits, good stuff cascades down to poor folks at the bottom. What I've seen trickle down is meager jobs and hardly-livable housing. Mansions never seem to trickle down. READ MORE
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THURSDAY, 28 MAY 2015
Minimum Wage? How About a Maximum Wage?
Jack Rothman: The trickle down theory holds that when financial elites heap up profits, good stuff cascades down to poor folks at the bottom. What I've seen trickle down is meager jobs and hardly-livable housing. Mansions never seem to trickle down.
Norman Solomon: A dozen years before his recent sentencing to a 42-month prison term, former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling was in the midst of a fruitless effort to find someone in Congress willing to look into his accusations about racial discrimination at the agency.
Cleveland's Police Department Needs a "Culture Change"
Cheryl Dorsey: Why was Brelo the only officer charged when it is obvious to me that the 13 officers involved in the shooting acted, in my opinion, unreasonably?
Vindicating the Ways of God to Man in Gihembe Refugee Camp
Georgianne Nienaber:International media did not broadcast this moving ceremony, but camp residents used photography and social media to communicate thousands of words that demanded to be heard.
Robert Reich: We’re now in a new gilded age of wealth and power similar to the first gilded age when the nation’s antitrust laws were enacted. But unlike then, today’s biggest corporations have enough political clout to neuter antitrust.
Posted: Updated:
WASHINGTON -- House Republicans are again attacking measures aimed at protecting U.S. troops from predatory lending practices, two weeks after a similarGOP effort failed.
The military has been grappling with the financial impact of predatory lending on service members for years. In 2006, Congress passed legislation cracking down on some forms of high-interest credit, particularly payday lending. Lenders responded by exploiting loopholes in the law, and late last year, the Department of Defense proposed a new set of regulations designed to curb these creative workarounds that target troops.
Republicans have been working to kill those regulations before they can take effect. This week, Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) will offer legislation that would block DOD from finalizing its rules until a host of unrealistic technical certifications could be made for a database of active-duty military members. The House will vote on Stivers' plan as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, a major bill that establishes military funding.
Huibert Vigeveno is to lead the integration of FTSE-100 giants Shell and BG after their mega-merger, Sky News learns.
By Mark Kleinman, City Editor: Thursday 28 May 2015
The head of Royal Dutch Shell’s operations in China is to spearhead the oil major’s integration with BG Group as the industry’s biggest-ever takeover inches forward.
Sky News understands that Shell informed senior managers this week that it was naming Huibert Vigeveno, its executive chairman for China, as executive vice-president for integration, with the appointment due to take effect at the beginning of August.
The role being handed to Mr Vigeveno, a long-serving Shell executive, will be a crucial one.
The Polar Pioneer’s shit has run into a snag with King County sewers.
A waste management company contracted by Shell applied for a permit to dump the Arctic drilling rig’s human excrement directly into a King County manhole. Today we learn that King County said “no.”
The county’s reasoning:
First off, Shell didn’t apply for the permit directly, and permits from third parties who aren’t the ones generating the waste are usually denied. Secondly, the contractor didn’t provide any data about the shit to King County’s industrial waste program. You’re supposed to test the shit, then send data about the shit to the regional officials. And that didn’t happen.
SEE BELOW FOR THE 1001STTIME THE REITERATION OF DEMAND PAYMENT OF RETIREMENT PAY WHICH SHELL REFUSED TO HONOR IN THE PRESENCE AND DEEMED APPROVAL OF THE HONORABLE MAGISTRATES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE PHILIPPINES