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Petrochemicals

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This working group focuses on issues surrounding the extraction, processing, and use of petrochemicals.

This working group focuses on issues surrounding the extraction, processing, and use of petrochemicals.

Members

mdmcdonald

Email address for group

petrochemicals@m.resiliencesystem.org

Batista Repudiates Pimco-Led Creditors in OGX Bankruptcy

By Juan Pablo Spinetto & Peter Millard - Oct 31, 2013 9:21 AM ET, Bloomberg

OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA (OGXP3)’s bankruptcy protection filing in Latin America’s largest corporate default is dimming the prospect holders of the world’s worst-performing bonds will recoup their ill-fated investment in Eike Batista’s oil ambitions.

OGX, which transformed Batista into Brazil’s richest man, submitted documents in a Rio de Janeiro court yesterday, culminating a 16-month decline that wiped out more than $30 billion of his fortune and left holders of $3.6 billion of the company’s bonds with losses of as much as 89 percent. OGX has total obligations of 11.2 billion reais ($5.1 billion). 

FULL STORY HERE

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Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign Spreads to Europe

Jamie Henn, Huff Post - Green, October 17,2013

The fast growing fossil fuel divestment campaign is headed to Europe.

This Oct. 27 to Nov. 1, 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben and allies like Greenpeace International's executive director Kumi Naidoo will lead a speaking tour to five cities in Europe to help spark a continent-wide divestment effort.

The tour is modeled on 2012's successful "Do The Math" tour which sold out venues in 21 cities across the United States and jumpstarted the fossil fuel divestment movement that has now spread to over 300 colleges and universities, 100 cities and states, and dozens of religious institutions across America.

Last June, 350.org replicated the tour in Australia and New Zealand (where they called it "Do the Maths"), helping launch a divestment campaign down-under. The tour there was equally successful, garnering national media attention and quickly scoring a few early victories, with a number of large churches committing to divestment and the New Zealand Greens adopting the goal.

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Chevron Goes to Trial in New York Over $18 Billion Ecuador Award

A Chevron gas station sign is pictured at one of their retain gas stations in Cardiff, California October 9, 2013. 
Credit: Reuters/Mike Blake

reuters.com - by Bernard Vaughan - October 14, 2013

(Reuters) - Chevron Corp will try to convince a U.S. judge this week that a group of Ecuadorean villagers and their U.S. lawyer used bribery to win an $18 billion judgment against Chevron from a court in Ecuador, in the latest chapter in a long-running fight over pollution in the Amazon jungle.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

CLICK HERE - Wikipedia - History - Lago Agrio Oil Field

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Increased Mercury Levels Near Tar Sands

priceofoil.org - by Andy Rowell - October 15, 2013

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Mercury Trends in Colonial Waterbird Eggs Downstream of the Oil Sands Region of Alberta, Canada

Scientists have released yet another academic study that indicates the growing ecological impact of the tar sands.

They measured the amount of mercury in birds eggs downstream from the tar sands and compared them to eggs some distance away from the polluting region.

What they found was that the eggs of certain species of predatory birds living downstream from the tar sands were found to have “statistically significant increases” of the dangerous heavy metal, mercury.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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France Cements Fracking Ban

      

Anti-fracking protesters in La Petite Brosse, outside Paris. Photograph: Pierre Andrieu/AFP/Getty Images

A law prohibiting fracking for shale gas has been upheld by France's constitutional court, citing environmental protection

theguardian.com - October 11, 2013

France's constitutional court has upheld a ban on hydraulic fracturing, ruling that the law against the energy exploration technique known as "fracking" is a valid means of protecting the environment.

The court in Paris said on its website on Friday that the 2011 law "conforms to the constitution" and is not "disproportionate".

France banned fracking in 2011 and cancelled exploration licences held by companies including Schuepbach and Total SA, the country's biggest oil company, after protests by environmental groups.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Saturday, October 19, 2013 is Global Frackdown Day - attend an event near you

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On Saturday, October 19, 2013, there will be hundreds of events taking place throughout the world to bring to light the dangers of fracking.

See what events are taking place in your area

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Big Oil Gets a Much Needed Reality Check

      

ecowatch.com - May 16, 2013

Launching today in Canada, Europe and the U.S., TarSandsRealityCheck.com presents up to date, accurate facts about Alberta’s tar sands to counter the high-level pro-oil sands lobbying ongoing in Canada, the U.S. and Europe around the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, and Europe on the Fuel Quality Directive.

The digital campaign launches the same day Canadian Prime Minister Harper is expected in New York to address the Council of Foreign Relations and promote the tar sands and the Keystone XL pipeline. It also comes just days after the Canadian government launched a new website as part of its massive pro-tar sands PR campaign.

For the first time, world renowned economists, scientists and academics, including Dr. Thomas Homer-Dixon from the University of Waterloo and Dr. Danny Harvey from the University of Toronto, have come together to present peer-reviewed, easy to understand facts about the tar sands that counter misinformation spread by the oil industry’s glossy PR machine.

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Norway, Canada, the United States and the Tar Sands

It is crunch time on tar sands. (photo: Greenpeace)

Image: It is crunch time on tar sands. (photo: Greenpeace)

readersupportednews.org - May 11th, 2013 - Dr. James Hansen

Today 36 Norwegian organizations sent an open letter to Prime Minister Stoltenberg expressing opposition to development of Canadian tar sands by Statoil (the Norwegian state is majority shareholder of Statoil). Signatories include not only environmental organizations, but a broad public spectrum, including, appropriately, many youth organizations. It is encouraging that Norwegian youth press their government to stop supporting tar sands development, given the fact that Norway saves much of its oil earnings for future generations and given the fact that Norway is not likely among the nations that will suffer most from climate change.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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The Limits to the Shale Oil Boom

The cleanest form of petrochemical energy is clearly past its peak and is causing significant damage to ecosystems all over the planet.  That is why risky and incredibly expensive resource extraction, such as Deep Water Horizon, is becoming the new reality of oil production.  The impacts of climate change are now escalating rapidly.  But the bigger problem lies in the extents to which the largest and most profitable businesses in the world in the petrochemical industry are willing to go to continue their profitability against all rationality in terms of the  mass extinction and the impact on health and human security. 

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