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BUILDING A WORLD THAT WORKSTM
CONTACT
"First they laugh at you,
then they ignore you, then they fight with you, then you win." -- Ghandi
"Mankind's future depends
on America's energy choices. Let's clean house and abandon the
phony solutions that result in war, environmental ruin,
poverty, hunger, hatred and disease.
We must lead. We must set the example and Build A World That
Works!"TM -- Richard D.
Masters
Discovery of Second Pipe in Deepwater Horizon Riser
Stirs Debate Among Experts David Hammer
Times-Picayune, LA
July 9, 2010
The Coast Guard's acknowledgement of the two metal tubes
Friday -- and a subsequent reference by BP to its plans to tie
the two pipes together as the company installs a new oil
collection system over the shaved-off riser -- actually comes
more than a month after the Department of Energy noted the
existence of two pipes using special imaging technology. At
the time, BP dismissed the Energy findings as "impossible"
because only one pipe in sections was used for drilling, a
Tribune News Service story reported last month.
Matt Simmons tells a 'real ugly story'
Linda Clancy
Herald Gazette (Maine-US)
Jul 14, 2010
Simmons believes the image of the
oil spewing from the blowout preventer displayed on news sites
around the world fails to illustrate the reality of the
situation. He maintains that a vast lake of oil seeping from
the ocean floor and the well head lies approximately six miles
from the site where BP says it is trying to cap the oil flow —
"flowing like lava and now probably the size of two Washington
states," said Simmons.
Iraq struck a deal with
Russian energy giant Lukoil on Saturday to develop one of
the world's biggest untapped oil fields as part of efforts
by Baghdad to dramatically ramp up its crude output. The
agreement over the West Qurna-2 reservoir with Lukoil, which
will share the project with Norway's StatoilHydro, comes a
day after consortiums led by Shell and CNPC were awarded
contracts. ...Lukoil will take 85 percent and StatoilHydro
15 percent. ...China's CNPC led a group comprising Petronas
and France's Total on Friday to capture Halfaya, also in
southern Iraq.
The world is much closer to
running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a
whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been
deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic
buying. The senior official claims the US has played an
influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of
decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding
new reserves. The allegations raise serious questions about the accuracy
of the organisation's latest World Energy Outlook on oil demand and supply
to be published tomorrow – which is used by the British and many other
governments to help guide their wider energy and climate change policies.
Colin Campbell's Response to the Guardian IEA Reporting Colin Campbell Energy Bulletin
November 16, 2009 Briefly, Regular Conventional Oil peaked in 2005. The
shortfall was made good by expensive oil mainly from deepwater fields
and Canadian tar sands, which led to rising prices. This trend was
spotted by shrewd traders who started buying contracts on the Futures
Market, while the industry maintained high levels of storage, watching
it appreciate in value at no cost or effort. The rising prices also
delivered a flood of petrodollars to the Middle East where it still
costs on average about $10 to produce a barrel. The surplus was in turn
partly returned to Western financial institutions, contributing to their
instability. The surge in price reached extreme levels in mid 2008,
approaching $150 a barrel, which prompted the shrewd traders to start
selling short on the Futures Market and for the industry to start
draining their tanks before they lost value. The high prices in parallel
triggered an economic recession which dampened demand causing prices to
fall back to 2005 levels before edging up to around $75 today.
NATIONAL RESEARCH
COUNCIL REPORT CASTS DOUBT ON DECISION TO PRODUCE ELECTRIC CARS IN ABSENCE
OF RENEWABLE ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE
"...When the damages attributable to the other parts of the lifecycle were
included, especially the emissions from the feedstock and the fuel
(emissions from electricity production),
the aggregate damages for the
grid-dependent and all-electric vehicles become comparable to, or somewhat
higher than, those from gasoline."
-- page 146
DESPITE ITS TITLE, THE REPORT
OMITS THE GREATEST HIDDEN COST OF ENERGY: THE MILITARY SECURMENT OF MIDDLE
EAST OIL FIELDS FOR U.S. TRANSPORTATION
A new report from the National
Research Council examines and, when possible, estimates "hidden" costs of
energy production and use -- such as the damage air pollution imposes on
human health -- that are not reflected in market prices of coal, oil,
other energy sources, or the electricity and gasoline produced from them.
The report estimates dollar values for several major components of these
costs. The damages the committee was able to quantify were an estimated
$120 billion in the U.S. in 2005, a number that reflects primarily health
damages from air pollution associated with electricity generation and
motor vehicle transportation. The figure does not include damages from
climate change, harm to ecosystems, effects of some air pollutants such as
mercury, and risks to national security, which the report examines but
does not monetize.
Requested by Congress, the report assesses what economists
call external effects caused by various energy sources over their entire
life cycle -- for example, not only the pollution generated when gasoline
is used to run a car but also the pollution created by extracting and
refining oil and transporting fuel to gas stations. Because these effects
are not reflected in energy prices, government, businesses and consumers
may not realize the full impact of their choices. When such market
failures occur, a case can be made for government interventions -- such as
regulations, taxes or tradable permits -- to address these external costs,
the report says.
The committee that wrote the report focused on monetizing the damage of
major air pollutants -- sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, and
particulate matter – on human health, grain crops and timber yields,
buildings, and recreation. When possible, it estimated both what the
damages were in 2005 (the latest year for which data were available) and
what they are likely to be in 2030, assuming current policies continue and
new policies already slated for implementation are put in place.
The committee also separately derived a range of values for
damages from climate change; the wide range of possibilities for these
damages made it impossible to develop precise estimates of cost. However,
all model results available to the committee indicate that
climate-related damages caused by each ton of CO2
emissions will be far worse in 2030 than now;
even if the total amount of annual emissions remains steady, the damages
caused by each ton would increase 50 percent to 80 percent.
more
"Oil is not responsible," the producer group's
Secretary General, Abdullah al-Badri, told reporters on Thursday on the
sidelines of the International Oil Summit in Paris. "It is the
industrialised countries which are making all this pollution in the
world". ...Badri criticised the subsidies developed countries offer to
promote renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.
U.N.
Proposes OPEC Finance
Visionary Global Green
New Deal
The world today finds itself in the worst financial and economic
crisis in generations. The financial crisis has triggered an
unprecedented policy response: interest rates have been
dramatically reduced, in some cases down to almost zero, and
hundreds of billions of dollars in liquidity support and fresh
capital have been provided to banking systems around the world.
Moreover, governments are planning to deploy fiscal resources on
an unprecedented scale: at the time of writing, proposed fiscal
stimulus packages totaled around USD 3.0 trillion globally. The
question arises: are these responses
going to create a post-recession economy that is sustainable in
the medium to longer term? And would it not be
efficient and wise to invest now to build that future
sustainability, whilst stimulating the economy for growth, jobs
and tackling poverty?
A recent research paper commissioned by UNEP argues that an investment of 1
percent of global GDP over the next two years could provide the
critical mass of green infrastructure needed to seed a
significant greening of the global economy...
We propose that the fiscal stimulus (to be applied over 2009
and 2010) should
prioritize energy efficient buildings and investments in
sustainable transport and renewable energy. Developing
countries should prioritize investment in agricultural
productivity measures, freshwater management, and sanitation, as
these have demonstrable and exceptional social returns. Domestic policy reforms
are recommended to substantially reduce perverse subsidies (eg:
fossil fuels) and instead to create positive incentives and
appropriate taxes which will encourage a greener economy.
UN: $750 Billion "Green" Investment Could Revive Economy Alister Doyle
Reuters
March 19, 2009 "The
opportunity must not be lost," Steiner, head of the U.N.
Environment Program (UNEP), told Reuters of a UNEP study that
will be put to world leaders meeting in London on April 2 to
work out how to spur the ailing economy.
"Nigeria is the eighth largest oil
producer in the world, the first in Africa. It is the most populous country
on the continent with 147 million inhabitants. Life expectancy is only
forty-seven years. Over 70% of the population lives in extreme poverty.
Malnutrition is permanent. There are no schools, no health services. All
this because of the endemic corruption of military dictators who have
successively held power since 1966.
"The oil companies
exploiting the immense wealth of the country, Shell, Elf, Exxon, Texaco,
Repsol ..., are the active accomplices of the generals.
Oil companies favor
corruption because it serves their interests. When negotiating the sharing
of wealth and property, it is infinitely better to have corrupted leaders to
deal with rather than a democratically elected government that defends the
public interest. I condemn corruption. The generals of Abuja are crooks, but
all the same, we must see the origin of this evil power system where the
accomplices keep the corrupt in place." Jean Ziegler, Swiss member of the UN
Human Rights Council "This World Order is not just murderous, it is absurd" Cathy Ceibe l'Humanite (FR)
November 18, 2008
Mission improbable: Does petroleum-related aid address the resource curse? I. Kolstad, A. Wing, A. Williams
Energy Policy December 11, 2008 The narrow sector focus that characterizes
petroleum-related aid makes it unlikely that it will produce the higher
order institutional changes needed to lift the resource curse.
Petroleum-related aid activities address the issue of corruption only to a
limited extent. Given the commercial and political interests of donor
countries, questions about the integrity and credibility of these types of
programmes can be raised.
Two smaller agreements have
already been signed with Shell and the China National Petroleum
Corporation, but today's sale will ignite arguments over whether the
overthrow of Saddam Hussein was a "war for oil" that is now to be
consummated by western multinationals seizing control of strategic
Iraqi reserves.
...Heinrich Matthee, a senior Middle East analyst at the
specialist risk consultant Control Risks Group, also believes there
are many pitfalls for those considering whether to make an offer.
...He said that if the conspiracy theory that western oil companies
egged on US and British governments to invade Iraq were true, the
plan could backfire on them and benefit rivals in Asia instead. "It
is possible the American army has provided the economic stability
that will encourage Malaysian, Chinese and other Asian companies to
become involved," he said.
Exxon Mobil: Biggest Profit in U.S. History Largest U.S. oil company surges past analyst estimates
to post net income of $14.83 billion Aaron Smith CNN Money
October 30, 2008
BREAKING NEWS DEMS CLEAN HOUSE!
DEMOCRATS REMOVE BIG OIL/COAL/AUTO PROXY DINGELL FROM HOUSE
ENERGY LEADERSHIP
Henry Waxman
Henry Waxman defeats John Dingell
for Chairmanship of House Energy and Commerce Committee
Why would Honda hold back on its
own marvelous technology? Japanese Honda has understood that if it
mass produces the Clarity and Home Energy Station, the public will
flock to it as fast as they have been fleeing from Honda SUVs and
similar gas guzzlers. While Honda makes some of the most
fuel-efficient and well-engineered cars in America, the Japanese
company also makes gas guzzlers, such as the Honda Ridgeline
crossover pick-up which only achieves about 15 MPG in the city, the
snazzy S-2000 sports car at 18 MPG, and the Pilot midsize SUV at
about 16 MPG. In July, 2008, sales of the Pilot, manufactured in
Alabama, posted a 47 percent drop over the previous year, just 7,486
compared to 13,136 in July, 2007. Pilots were down more than 21
percent for 2008. Sales of other Honda gas guzzlers plummeted as the
market for such vehicles by all makers completely collapsed in
mid-July, 2008. When the market for SUVs collapsed, SUV leasing
programs by numerous auto companies nearly all terminated during a
several-day period in July, 2008.
Helping America and the world out of its financially wracking
oil addiction would hamstring overall profits for the Japanese
carmakers. In the case of the Honda Civic GX and Clarity, the
company may have indeed gone slowly on its best alternative fuel
vehicles, keeping them out of America’s anxious hands, for no reason
other than the preservation of profits on gas guzzling vehicles well
into the third decade of the 21st century. Honda cars, generally
among the best built in the world, boast a scrappage rate that can
easily exceed a decade. Vehicles sold in 2009 and 2010 can be
expected to require parts and service for at least a decade.
more
"[Palin's]
a very colorful person,
but I don't think there's a scrap of evidence that she knows anything
about energy."
Oil Analyst and
Investment Banker Matt Simmons
Here Comes $500 Oil
Brian O'Keefe Fortune
September 22, 2008
"John McCain is energy illiterate," Simmons is saying. "He's just witless
about this stuff. As a lifelong Republican, I'm supporting Obama." A dozen
oil and gas men sitting around a conference table in Lafayette, La.,
chuckle nervously as he continues. "McCain says, 'Oh, we're going to wean
ourselves off foreign oil in four years and build 45 nuclear plants by
2030.' He doesn't have a clue."
In 2007, she stalled
the Fire Island Wind Farm Project by placing a veto on $20 million of
state support. Even though she later rescinded this decision, enabling the
project to move ahead, she has vetoed a further $268 million in budget
items this year, including other renewables projects; This same budget
contributed $2 million towards a bizarre conference to “highlight
arguments that global warming isn’t threatening the survival of polar
bears.” In opposition to the recommendations of state biologists, she has
also argued against listing the polar bear as endangered; Due to lack of
financial support, several renewable energy projects in the state have
been stalled; The Alaskan policy of distributing the state’s ‘oil
royalties fund’ to residents, instead of ploughing it back into clean
energy development, has led some commentators to suggest that any sort of
large scale renewables infrastructure is doomed from the start.
Governor Sarah Palin
today signed legislation that will help Alaskans combat the high cost of
energy. ...SB 4002 uses revenues generated from the state’s natural
resources to provide a one-time special payment of $1,200 to every Alaskan
eligible for the 2008 Permanent Fund dividend. The bill also raises by 50
percent the maximum amount of loans that bulk fuel bridge and bulk fuel
revolving loan funds can make to communities and cooperatives.
Gwen Holdmann, the
group’s director, said Tuesday the $500,000 in state funding was needed as
a match for federal grant money. “It really cripples us in our ability to
bring federal funding,” she said of the governor’s veto. Holdmann said she
was hoping to use some of the funding to bring a top expert in geothermal
energy to Alaska to help develop a research program in the field. She said
she also applied for federal grants to study new technologies involving
river current, tidal energy, and combined wind and diesel power systems.
Palin vetoed $71.5
million in requested fund projects, including
$20 million for a Chugach Electric Association wind farm.
A HARD-WON GLOBAL
PEACE -- LOST FOR OIL?
U.S. RENEWS AN OLD ENEMY TO BOOST
OIL PRICES
OILMAN CHENEY ESCALATES PIPELINE WAR
WITH RUSSIA "President Bush has sent me here
with a clear and simple message to the people of Azerbaijan and the entire
region: The United States has deep and abiding interests in your well
being and security." Dick Cheney, US VP and
former CEO of Halliburton
Cheney: U.S. Wants Stability for Georgia Region CNN Europe
September 3, 2008
THE WAR FOR FOSSIL FUEL
RUSSIAN STRANGLEHOLD: GEORGIAN WAR
KILLS INVESTMENT IN EUROPE'S PROPOSED NATURAL GAS LIFELINE
-- RDM "Nabucco is all but dead." Borut Grgic, director
Institute for Strategic Studies, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
With Georgia still in turmoil and
Russia's recognition of the independence of the breakaway Georgian regions
of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, analysts said investors and creditors of
the $11.8 billion project would be even more wary of putting their money
into a project already running behind schedule. The pipeline is designed
to skirt Russia and deliver natural gas from Azerbaijan directly to
Europe, stretching over 3,000 kilometers, or about 1,800 miles, from
Turkey's borders with Georgia or Iran to Austria.
Exxon Mobil: Biggest Profit in U.S. History
Largest U.S. oil company surges past analyst estimates
to post net income of $14.83 billion Aaron Smith CNN Money
October 30, 2008
THE OIL
WAR STEPS TO CENTER STAGE Commentary by Richard D. Masters
August 14, 2008
Many visitors to the
International Clearinghouse for Hydrogen Commerce will be unaware of the
obvious: that the Russian President, Dmitri Medvedev remains essentially
the head of Gazprom, the state oil company, hand-picked by Alexandar
Putin, former head of the Soviet KGB. Opposite him in this Georgian
conflict is the U.S. president George W. Bush, the son of the former head
of the CIA, a family itself awash in Saudi oil wealth. His second is, of
course, Dick Cheney, who, before becoming Vice President, ran the oil
services firm Halliburton, the major beneficiary of grossly inflated,
no-bid Iraq War government contracts. Backing them in their actions is the
entire former conservative party, which has long sold out to the
international oil interests, serving as a monolithic
voting bloc and
mouthpiece for Big Oiland a bulwark against any hope for an actual alternative energy
economy.
We are now witnessing the early orchestration of growing
military confrontations over US-Saudi and Russian-held oil, each
respectively discovering that, in addition to protecting their foreign
stake-holds from local rebellion of the disenfranchised, the arms-rattling
of worthy adversaries can dramatically raise the price of oil in the global
markets where they are deeply entrenched. All this, of course, adds to
the glee of their weapons makers who constantly struggle behind the scenes to create
a more dangerous world desirous for their lucrative, anti-human goods.
We were warned by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
We were warned by U.S. President Thomas Jefferson.
One might think Americans would recognize this cynical
nightmare but instead they salivate like Pavlov's dogs when the numbers
spin like jackpots on Exxon's fuel pumps and their children march off in
patriotic fervor as if they were defending their own country against
invasion, rather than to seize foreign oil fields and pipeline routes for
Big Oil's profit.
As the War in Iraq has demonstrated, inherently
vulnerable oil pipelines are the first target of convenience against oil
export either by those who regard export as theft of national treasure or
those hoping to manipulate world markets through artificial shortages. Is there really a defense against pipeline destruction between
worthy adversaries? Possibly not, in which case pipelines become an easy
on-off switch for high oil prices.
My treatise for ten years has been that none of this is
necessary. We should simply switch over to the use of domestic energy.
Even renewable hydrogen, long derided as too expensive an alternative, has now
become cheaper than gasoline.
So why are we engaged in these foreign adventures that place
our populations at risk? We who are so capable. We who put men on the moon
again and again in the previous century?
The answer seems simple, if disturbing. We have lost control
of our government. It has become an imperial power, answerable only to Big
Oil. We must discard it in November or forfeit our claim to democracy
forever.
In the meantime, I encourage all citizens to endorse the
Pickens' Plan.
“Russians treasured the fact they had
a monopoly on oil and gas pipelines from Central Asia, as it gave them
considerable clout,” said Marshall I. Goldman, a senior scholar for
Russian studies at Harvard and the recent author of “Petrostate: Putin,
Power, and the New Russia.” “By agreeing to having an oil pipeline,
Georgia made itself more vulnerable.”
A big concern for the future is what will happen to oil from
Kashagan, the giant oil field in the Caspian Sea that holds over 10
billion barrels of reserves. Located off Kazakhstan, Kashagan is the most
ambitious attempt to date by Western companies to develop new supplies in
the Caspian. It will be at least five years before oil starts flowing from
there, but the operating consortium, which includes Exxon Mobil and
ConocoPhillips, plans to transport some of Kashagan’s oil through the BTC
pipeline.
The Pipeline War
Russian Bear Goes for West's Jugular Svetlana Skarbo and Jonathan Petre
Daily Mail (UK) August 10, 2008
After a day of heightening
international tensions, Georgian leaders claimed that the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
pipeline, which transports oil from the Caspian Sea to Turkey, had been
attacked. ...Their claims came after Russian jets struck deep into the
territory of its tiny neighbour, killing civilians and ‘completely
devastating’ the strategic Black Sea port of Poti, a staging post for oil
and other energy supplies. ...The pipeline is 30 per cent owned by
BP and supplies 1 per cent of the world’s oil needs, pumping up to a
million barrels of crude per day to Turkey.
Bush Plays Host at Camp David to Ruler of Dubai Ben Feller
AP
August 3, 2008
The UAE has few political freedoms
for its citizens, which makes Bush's warm treatment somewhat awkward in
the face of his push to seed democracy, particularly in the Arab world.
Exxon Posts Record $11.68 Billion Profit Steve Hargreaves
CNNMoney
July 31, 2008
Several bills have been introduced
in Congress to enact a "windfall" profits tax on these earnings, or at the
very least eliminate manufacturing tax exemption oil companies now enjoy.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama wants to tax oil
companies at a special rate every time crude goes over $80 a barrel. Most
plans would either use this newfound tax money to fund investments in
renewable energy, or give it to low income Americans struggling with high
energy prices. But so far those efforts have been blocked - mainly by
Republicans - who say raising taxes on oil companies will only discourage
investments in finding new oil and raise the price of crude.
"Democracy is not working the
way it's intended to work." James Hanson, NASA Climate Scientist
James Hansen, one of the world's
leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of
large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against
humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about
global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links
between smoking and cancer.
Big Oil and Big
Government Caught in Bed Together Snorting Cocaine, Smoking Pot and Taking
Bribes Oil,
Sex,
Drugs
& Graft
"This is why we must not allow Big Oil's agenda to
be jammed through Congress." Senator Bill
Nelson, D-Florida
Scandal May Affect Drilling Debate H. Josef Hebert AP
September 11, 2008
The two-year, $5.3 million
investigation by Interior's inspector general found workers at the
Minerals Management Service's royalty collection office in Denver
partying, having sex, using drugs and accepting gifts and ski trips and
golf outings from energy company representatives with whom they did
government business.
“I am outraged by the immoral
behavior, illegal activities, and appalling misconduct of several former
and current long-serving career employees in the Minerals Management
Service’s Royalty in Kind program."
Statement by Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne
Office of the Secretary, US Dept of the Interior
Sept 11, 2008
??? -- U.S. Department
of Justice Refuses to Prosecute -- ???
Is
DOJ Accountable to Big Oil -- Not the American People?
THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG?
Date: September 10, 2008
Memorandum
To: Secretary Kempthorne
From: Earl E. Devaney Inspector General
Subject: OIG Investigations of MMS Employees
This memorandum conveys the final results of three
separate Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigations into allegations
against more than a dozen current and former Minerals Management Service
(MMS) employees. In the case of one former employee, Jimmy Mayberry, he
has already pled guilty to a criminal charge. The cases against former
employees, Greg Smith and Lucy Querques Dennet, were referred to the
Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice (DOJ). However,
that office declined to prosecute.
The remaining current employees await your discretion in imposing
corrective administrative action.
Others have escaped potential administrative action by departing from
federal service, with the usual celebratory send-offs that allegedly
highlighted the impeccable service these individuals had given to the
Federal Government. Our reports belie this notion. Collectively, our recent work in MMS has taken well over
two years, involved countless OIG human resources and an expenditure of
nearly $5.3 million of OIG funds. Two hundred thirty-three witnesses and
subjects were interviewed, many of them multiple times, and roughly
470,000 pages of documents and e-mails were obtained and reviewed as part
of these investigations.
I know you have shared my frustration with the length of
time these investigations have taken, primarily due to the
criminal nature of some of these
allegations, protracted discussions with DOJ and
the ultimate refusal of one major
oil company - Chevron - to cooperate with our investigation. Since
you have already taken assertive steps to replace key leadership and staff
in the affected components of MMS, I am confident that you will now act
quickly to take the appropriate administrative action to bring this
disturbing chapter of MMS history to a close.
A Culture of Ethical Failure
The single-most
serious problem our investigations revealed is a pervasive culture of
exclusivity, exempt from the rules that govern all other employees of the
Federal Government. In the matter involving Ms. Dennet, Mr. Mayberry and
Milton Dial, the results of this investigation paint a disturbing picture
of three Senior Executives who were good friends, and who remained
calculatedly ignorant of
the rules governing post-employment restrictions, conflicts of interest
and Federal Acquisition Regulations
to ensure that two lucrative MMS
contracts would be awarded to the company created by Mr. Mayberry -
Federal Business Solutions - and later joined by Mr. Dial. Ms. Dennet
manipulated the contracting process from the start. She worked
directly with the contracting officer, personally participated on the
evaluation team for both contracts, asked for an increase to the first
contract amount, and had Mayberry prepare the justification for the
contract increase. Ms. Dennet also appears to have shared with Mr.
Mayberry the Key Qualification criteria upon which bidders would be
judged, two weeks before bid proposals on the first contract were due.
In the other two cases, the results of our investigation
reveal a program tasked with implementing a "business model" program. As
such, Royalty in Kind (RIK) marketers donned a private sector approach to
essentially everything they did. This included
effectively opting themselves out
of the Ethics in Government Act, both in practice, and, at one
point, even explored doing so by policy or regulation.
Not only did those in RIK consider themselves special,
they were treated as special by their management. For reasons that are not
at all clear, the reporting hierarchy of RIK bypassed the one supervisor
whose integrity remained intact throughout, Debra Gibbs-Tschudy, the
Deputy Associate Director in Denver, where RIK is located. Rather, R1K was
reporting directly to Associate Director Dennet, who was located some 1500
miles away in Washington, DC, and to whom the
unbridled, unethical conduct
of RIK employees was apparently invisible (although the Associate Director
had been made aware of the plan by RIK to explore more formal exemption
from the ethics rules.)
More specifically,
we discovered that between 2002
and 2006, nearly 1/3 of the entire RIK staff socialized with, and received
a wide array of gifts and gratuities from, oil and gas companies with whom
RIK was conducting official business. While the dollar amount of
gifts and gratuities was not enormous, these employees accepted gifts with
prodigious frequency. In particular,
two RIK marketers received
combined gifts and gratuities on at least 135 occasions from four major
oil and gas companies with whom they were doing business - a textbook
example of improperly receiving gifts from prohibited sources. When
confronted by our investigators, none of the employees involved displayed
remorse.
We also discovered
a culture of substance abuse and
promiscuity in the RIK program - both within the program, including
a supervisor, Greg Smith, who engaged in
illegal drug use and had sexual
relations with subordinates, and in consort with industry. Internally,
several staff admitted to illegal drug use as well as illicit sexual
encounters. Alcohol abuse appears to have been a problem when RIK staff
socialized with industry. For example, two RIK staff accepted lodging from
industry after industry events because they were too intoxicated to drive
home or to their hotel. These same RIK marketers also engaged in brief
sexual relationships with industry contacts. Sexual relationships with
prohibited sources cannot, by definition, be arms-length. Finally, we discovered that
two of the RIK employees who
accepted gifts also held inappropriate outside employment and failed to
properly report the income they received from this work on their financial
disclosure forms. Smith, in particular, deliberately secreted the true
nature of his outside employment - he pitched oil and gas companies that
did business with RIK to hire the outside consulting firm - to prevent
revealing what would otherwise, at a minimum, be a clear conflict of
interest.
Conclusion
As you know, I have gone on record to say that I believe
that 99.9 percent of DOI employees are hard-working, ethical and
well-intentioned. Unfortunately, from the cases highlighted here, the
conduct of a few has cast a shadow on an entire bureau.
In summary, our investigation revealed a relatively
small group of individuals wholly lacking in acceptance of or adherence to
government ethical standards; management that through passive neglect, at
best, or purposeful ignorance, at worst, was blind to easily discernible
misconduct; and a program that had aggressive goals and admirable ideals,
but was launched without the necessary internal controls in place to
ensure conformity with one of its most important principles: "Maintain the
highest ethical and professional standards." This must be corrected.
...
Attachments
Investigative Report
Gregory W. Smith
Report Date: August 7, 2008
Date Posted to Web: September 11, 2008
This report contains information that has been redacted
pursuant to 5 U.S.C. §§ 552(b)(2), (b)(6), and (b)(7)(C) of the Freedom of
Information Act. Some references indicating gender were written in the
masculine form to protect the identities of individuals and to facilitate
the reading of the report. Supporting documentation for this report may be
obtained by sending a written request to the OIG Freedom of Information
Office.
RESULTS IN BRIEF
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) initiated this
investigation in late 2006 based on the allegations of a Confidential
Source (CS) regarding misconduct by Gregory W. Smith, Program Director,
Royalty in Kind Program (RIK), Minerals Revenue Management (MRM), Minerals
Management Service (MMS), Lakewood, CO. The CS alleged that Smith had
engaged in outside employment that conflicted with his RIK position, that
he accepted gifts from the oil and gas industry, and that he engaged in
sex and drug use with subordinates. Our
investigation disclosed that between April 2002 and June 2003, Geomatrix
Consultants, Inc. (Geomatrix), an environmental and engineering consulting
firm, paid Smith over $30,000 for his work in marketing Geomatrix to
various oil and gas companies, most of whom, because of their business
relationships with RIK, were considered prohibited sources. We also
confirmed that Smith received almost $1,000 in gifts from the oil and gas
industry and engaged in sex with two subordinates and drug use with at
least one subordinate. When interviewed by the OIG, Smith minimized the
drug use and sexual activity. In addition, we learned that he also
suggested to other RIK employees that they should lie to OIG
investigators. Smith retired
from MMS during the course of this investigation. The results of
this investigation, to include a substantial amount of information
obtained through the federal grand jury process that is not included here,
were provided to the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of
Justice (DOJ) in March 2008 for prosecutorial consideration.
In May 2008, DOJ advised that it
was declining to prosecute Smith on various charges.
BACKGROUND
MRM is a Denver-based division of MMS and is responsible
for managing all royalties associated with both onshore and offshore oil
and gas production from federal mineral leases. Federal law allows MRM to
collect royalty payments either in value, meaning in the form of cash
payments from companies producing from federal leases, or in kind, meaning
in the form of actual oil or gas production.
When MRM collects royalties in kind, the oil or gas
received from producers is offered for sale on the open market, and the
proceeds from these sales are included with other collections made by MRM.
The RIK program, within MRM, is responsible for managing these in kind
sales. Between October 2005 and September 2006, RIK reported collecting
approximately $3.75 billion.
Gregory W. Smith served as the deputy program manager of
RIK between approximately 2001 and 2004. In 2005, he was promoted to be
the RIK director, a Senior Executive Service position, where he remained
until he was detailed out of RIK in January 2007. Smith retired from MMS
in May 2007. While at RIK, Smith oversaw all of RIK’s operations, managed
its 65 or so employees, and served as the public face of RIK as its
senior-most representative to the oil and gas industry.
DETAILS OF INVESTIGATION
The OIG initiated this investigation in late 2006 based
on the allegations of a CS regarding misconduct by Smith. The CS
specifically alleged that Smith had (1) engaged in outside employment with
a consultant company that conflicted with his RIK position, (2) accepted
gifts from oil and gas companies conducting business with the RIK Program,
and (3) engaged in sex and drug use with RIK subordinates.
We initially focused our investigation on the three
specific allegations made by the CS. However, we later expanded the scope
of our investigation when we developed evidence that
Smith had lied to investigators
during his initial OIG interview and that he may have directed other
witnesses to lie to the OIG. During the course of this
investigation, we conducted over 50 interviews with MMS employees and
industry representatives and ultimately reviewed thousands of e-mails,
numerous ethics files, and other relevant documents. We have organized our
report in four specific sections that mirror the allegations made by the
CS and one developed by the OIG.
Agent’s Note: We conducted this investigation separately
from another OIG investigation regarding nine RIK employees suspected of
unethical behavior and personal improprieties.
Geomatrix
According to its Web site, Geomatrix Consultants, Inc.,
(Geomatrix) is “a diversified technical consulting and engineering firm”
with offices located throughout the United States. Geomatrix employs over
450 scientists, engineers, and technical experts and performs work for
various industries.
We interviewed Tony Daus, the President of Geomatrix,
who stated that he first met Smith in November 2001 on a flight from
Denver to Houston. According to Daus, he and Smith were seated next to
each other in the first-class cabin when they began talking. During the
course of this conversation, Daus said he learned that Smith was employed
by MMS and worked in the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf). Daus said he explained to
Smith that Geomatrix wanted to further develop its work for oil and gas
companies in the Gulf.
At the conclusion of the flight, Daus said he and Smith
agreed to discuss Smith’s possible employment with Geomatrix, and after
subsequent discussions, they agreed that Smith would begin work as a
consultant for the firm. Daus said he was concerned about possible
conflict-of-interest issues, but Smith assured him that MMS would approve
his work with Geomatrix. In fact, Daus said Smith told him he routinely
performed outside consulting work and that it was not necessarily frowned
upon by MMS.
Daus explained that he hired Smith with the intent of
Smith helping Geomatrix develop more business with oil and gas companies
in the Gulf. For example, he explained that if Smith had advance knowledge
of large projects underway in the Gulf, Geomatrix would have the potential
opportunity to “get in the door quickly” and find out how it could become
involved in these projects. In addition, Daus said he believed that if
Smith had connections in the Gulf, he would be able to put Geomatrix in
contact with the companies who were planning these projects. Daus stated
that what “attracted” him to Smith was his knowledge of “what’s going on
and who’s doing what” in the Gulf.
Daus also said he hired Smith because he was
well-connected in the oil and gas industry – not because of Smith’s
technical background in geology. He stated that
he did not view Smith as a person
who was going to provide technical support to Geomatrix and instead viewed
him as an “entrée” to prospective clients....
Payments to Smith by Geomatrix
...A review of Smith’s MMS e-mail messages identified
one of these e-mail invoices. It is dated June 8, 2003, and was sent from
Smith’s personal e-mail account to Daus. Smith forwarded a copy of it to
his MMS e-mail account. The invoice reported the number of hours he worked
for the month of May 2003 and the total cost of his work, and it then
described the work he had performed that month.
Smith wrote that he had contact
with Marathon Oil Company, Forest Oil, Amerada Hess, Burlington Resources,
GulfTerra, Apache, Enbridge, Koch, CMS, and Millennium....
Smith’s Work for Geomatrix
...Record reviews and interviews with industry personnel
disclosed that in connection with his marketing work for Geomatrix, Smith
communicated with numerous oil and gas firms between April 2002 and June
2003. Smith’s interaction with these companies took place by telephone and
through face-to-face meetings. In
many instances, evidence shows that Smith used his position with RIK to
gain access to the prospective customer, as demonstrated in the following
four examples involving Enterprise Products Company (Enterprise), El Paso
Corporation (El Paso), Millennium Midstream Partners (Millennium), and
Enbridge Energy Company, Inc., (Enbridge). Enterprise and El Paso
were engaged in business activities with RIK, and each potentially needed
the kind of services offered by Geomatrix. The evidence also shows that
while discussing RIK matters with Millennium, a new company that was not
involved in RIK, Smith made a decision in his role as RIK Deputy Program
Manager that impacted Geomatrix.
more
New York's Chrysler
Building, an Art Deco icon that helps define the New York skyline, was
bought by an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, the second purchase of a
Manhattan landmark by Middle East investors in as many months.
...Last month a Dubai
fund, Boston Properties Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. paid $2.8
billion for the General Motors Building.
OIL EMPIRE
An Oil-owned Congress Turns the
American Dream to Trash Those whom we trusted. Those whom
we elected. We traded our republic for this?
How the Oil Empire Treats Our Soldiers
A SOBERING INDEPENDENCE DAY MESSAGE
"Congress has never been more
cowardly, nor more corrupt. All Bush has do is to make sure certain amounts
of money go in the direction of certain important congressmen and that's end
of any serious investigation. ...We no longer have a country. We don't have
a republic any more. ...They managed to destroy the United States - why?
Because they're oil and gas people and they're essentially criminals." Author Gore Vidal Gore Vidal: 'The US is Not a
Republic Anymore' PressTV (IR)
June 30, 2008
"To me it's abysmal
that it has come to this: after 50 years of Nasa, and after putting about
$100 billion into the space station, we can't get our own astronauts to our
space station without relying on the Russians."
Buzz Aldrin, the second man
on the moon
---- JUNE 20, 2008
----
BUSH INVOKES
EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE
TO SAVE BIG OIL FROM CO2
RESPONSIBILITY
"I don't think we've had a situation
like this since Richard Nixon was president; where the president of the
United States may have been involved in acting contrary to law, and the
evidence that would determine that question for Congress in exercising our
oversight is being blocked by an assertion of executive privilege." Henry Waxman, Chairman
U.S. House Committee on Oversight
and Government Reform
White House Asserts Executive Privilege in EPA Investigation Erica Werner
AP June 20,
2008
Waxman contends the White House
intervened with EPA to produce more industry-friendly outcomes in setting
new smog standards and denying California and more than a dozen other
states permission to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.
For
months, the Committee has been investigating EPA's decision to prevent
California and other states from reducing greenhouse gas emissions from
motor vehicles and its decision to adopt new ozone air quality standards
weaker than those recommended by the agency's scientific experts.
These investigations have shown that the decisions in these
important environmental matters were made not at EPA, but in the White
House. In both cases, the scientists, the agency career staff, and EPA
Administrator Johnson wanted to take stronger action to protect the
environment. And in both cases, the White House rejected the agency's
position.
Today the President has asserted executive privilege to
prevent the Committee from learning why he and his staff overruled EPA.
There are thousands of internal White House documents that would show
whether the President and his staff acted lawfully. But the President has
said they must be kept from Congress and the public.
In the case of the California motor vehicle standards, we
learned that EPA's experts and
career staff all supported granting the California petition. In a
briefing prepared for Stephen Johnson, the Administrator of the
Environmental Protection Agency,
EPA's own lawyers said: "we don't believe there are any good arguments
against granting the waiver. All of the arguments ... are likely to lose
in court if we are sued."
Administrator Johnson listened and was prepared to support a
partial approval to California's request. But then the White House
intervened. In December, after secret communications with White House
officials, Administrator Johnson ignored the law and the evidence and
denied California's petition.
In the case of the ozone standards, the same pattern
happened. We learned that EPA's
expert advisory panel unanimously recommended a new standard for
protecting the environment. After considering all of the
alternatives, Administrator Johnson agreed with the new approach.
He was opposed, however, by industry and Susan Dudley, the
Administrator of the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs. And once again, the White House intervened.
On the evening before the final
rule was released, President Bush rejected the unanimous recommendation of
both EPA's experts and Administrator Johnson and instructed EPA to abandon
the new standard.
The Clean Air Act is clear about what can be considered and
what cannot be considered when EPA makes decisions under its authority. In
both cases, the EPA's methodical and scientific process pointed to
specific outcomes. In both cases, the outcome dramatically changed when
the White House became involved.
This Committee has a fundamental obligation to learn the
truth about what actually happened on these critical health and
environmental decisions. That is why we have been seeking documents in
both cases that would provide important details about the President's role
in directing Administrator Johnson's actions. This morning I have
been informed that the White House is asserting executive privilege over
thousands of documents the Committee is seeking. This is an
extraordinary step. Administrator Johnson has repeatedly insisted he
reached his decisions on California's petition and the new ozone standard
on his own, relying on his best judgment. Today's assertion of
executive privilege raises serious questions about Administrator Johnson's
credibility and the involvement of the President. Without the
remaining documents, it will be nearly impossible to fully understand the
President's role in overruling the unanimous recommendations of EPA's own
experts.
We had scheduled a vote on a contempt resolution for this
morning for Mr. Johnson and Ms. Dudley. We will not have that vote in
light of the executive privilege claim. I want to talk with my colleagues
on both sides about this new development and consider all our options
before deciding how we should proceed.
RESOLUTION RECOMMENDING THAT THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FIND
STEPHEN L. JOHNSON, ADMINISTRATOR, U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY,
AND SUSAN DUDLEY, ADMINISTRATOR, OFFICE OF INFORMATION AND REGULATORY
AFFAIRS, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET, WHITE HOUSE, IN
CONTEMPT OF CONGRESSFOR REFUSAL TO COMPLY WITH SUBPOENAS DULY ISSUED BY THE
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM U.S. House Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform
June 20, 2008
"SHAMEFUL,
OUTRAGEOUS AND IRRESPONSIBLE!" Governor O'Malley, Maryland "A DERELICTION OF DUTY!"
Senator Frank Lautenberg STATE
GOVERNORS EXPRESS EXTREME OUTRAGE AT EPA DENIAL OF CALIFORNIA EMISSIONS
WAIVER
January 24, 2007
FED EPA DIRECTOR JOHNSON GRILLED
BY CALIFORNIA'S BOXER ON C-SPAN
Transparency International said the
report aimed to help fight the so-called "resource curse" — oil can
generate great wealth for a country, but if poorly managed can also
discourage the development other areas of the economy, spur corruption and
trigger conflict. The report said that if 10 percent of the estimated
US$866 billion generated worldwide in oil revenues in 2006 was set aside,
it would have been enough to cover the total cost of meeting the
United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. The cost of meeting the
set of development standards on education, health, literacy and poverty
was estimated at US$73 billion in 2006, the report said.
"Gas prices? It's not our fault!" Republicans Reveal Energy Crisis Caused by
Democrats
THE SOLUTION: DRILL, SUCK AND
SELL UNTIL ITS GONE.
THEN LET YOUR KIDS DEAL WITH IT.
“I keep no secret from you that when
there were some new finds, I told them, ‘no, leave it in the ground, with
grace from God, our children need it’.” King Abdullah of Saudi
Arabia
Reuters
April 13, 2008
AN UNENDING FUTURE
OF PROFITABLE OIL WARS
U.S. SENATE BETRAYS ELECTORATE
"With 116,000 jobs and nearly $19 billion in investment at risk in the
renewable energy industries, a minority of the Senate has again frustrated
the desire of millions of Americans across the political spectrum who
overwhelmingly support clean, home grown energy." Randall Swisher, American
Wind Energy Association
Senators Block Stimulus Package with PTC Extension Jeff Siegel
North American Windpower
February 7, 2008
Chevron announced
Friday that it replaced just 10% to 15% of its reserves in 2007, a rate
lower than the already pessimistic 50% to 60% analysts estimated. And
although Chevron's report is expected to be the weakest among the oil
giants, analysts also expect ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp., and Royal
Dutch Shell PLC to report reserves replacement shy of 100%.
Peak Oil Rapidly Approaching Warns Oil Analyst
AME Info February
7, 2008
...Oil output
is already shrinking in 60 of the world's 98 oil producing countries,
with new countries joining the list almost yearly. Since the late 1990s,
new entrants to the list have included significant producers such as
Britain, Norway, Denmark, Mexico, Argentina, Columbia, Australia and
Oman. This trend
suggests that aggregate oil output for non-OPEC countries will peak in
about 2010, leading to greater reliance on OPEC's reserves. However,
Strahan said relying on OPEC is a worrisome prospect, as he believes the
leaders of OPEC have greatly exaggerated the organisation's reserves.
Traders Bet Oil Will Hit $200 a Barrel Grant Smith
Bloomberg/Montreal Gazette January
8, 2008
Simmons, whose firm is a Houston-based investment bank that focuses on
energy, said in an interview that inventories "are tight as a drum and I
don't see how we get out of this box. Demand clearly isn't starting to
slow down."
Several rivals accepted
the government's new terms. Exxon, along with ConocoPhillips, another
American firm, chose to invoke the arbitration clause in its contract
(which had over two decades to run). More than the money, it is reputed to
want to send a firm message to the world's resource nationalists. Or, as
Venezuela's deputy oil minister, Bernard Mommer, put it, to “intimidate
other producers”.
Venezuela Halts Oil Sales to Exxon Mobil Fabiola Sanchez
Seattle Intelligencer (WA) February
12, 2008
Venezuela's announcement came
after Ramirez, the oil minister and PDVSA president, reiterated in a
newspaper interview Tuesday that Venezuela is ready to cut off oil
supplies to the United States if pressed into an "economic war."
...Ramirez said Venezuela is selling the U.S. a daily average of 1.5
million barrels of crude and other products derived from oil.
Chavez
Threatens US Oil Cutoff Sandra Sierra AP
February 11, 2008
Venezuela
accounted for about 12 percent of U.S. crude oil imports in November, the
latest figures available from the U.S. Energy Department. The 1.23 million
barrels a day from Venezuela makes that country the U.S.'s fourth-biggest
oil importer behind Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico.
Chevron announced
Friday that it replaced just 10% to 15% of its reserves in 2007, a rate
lower than the already pessimistic 50% to 60% analysts estimated. And
although Chevron's report is expected to be the weakest among the oil
giants, analysts also expect ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp., and Royal
Dutch Shell PLC to report reserves replacement shy of 100%.
Peak Oil Rapidly Approaching Warns Oil Analyst
AME Info February
7, 2008
...Oil output
is already shrinking in 60 of the world's 98 oil producing countries,
with new countries joining the list almost yearly. Since the late 1990s,
new entrants to the list have included significant producers such as
Britain, Norway, Denmark, Mexico, Argentina, Columbia, Australia and
Oman. This trend
suggests that aggregate oil output for non-OPEC countries will peak in
about 2010, leading to greater reliance on OPEC's reserves. However,
Strahan said relying on OPEC is a worrisome prospect, as he believes the
leaders of OPEC have greatly exaggerated the organisation's reserves.
Traders Bet Oil Will Hit $200 a Barrel Grant Smith
Bloomberg/Montreal Gazette January
8, 2008
Simmons, whose firm is a Houston-based investment bank that focuses on
energy, said in an interview that inventories "are tight as a drum and I
don't see how we get out of this box. Demand clearly isn't starting to
slow down."
BP's Alternative Energy Ploy Don't miss this outstanding web documentary!
-- RDM Burning
Capital -- BP Exposed
What does "Beyond Petroleum" really mean?
Platform Research (UK)
February 5, 2008
...82 per cent of the World
Bank Group (WBG) financing has been for projects that primarily export
oil to developed countries and therefore do nothing to meet the energy
needs of developing countries.
....far from helping the world's poorest people - such aid
often serves instead its wealthiest corporations, leaving the poor worse
off than before and aggravating global climate change.
The ‘Curse’ of Venezuela
Southwest Economy Fed Reserve Bank Dallas An important observation by
resource curse economists is that a positive relationship generally does
not exist between a nation’s natural resources and other forms of economic
wealth. Much more telling, resource-rich countries grow slower on average
than resource-poor countries. The term on average is a conservative one.
In fact, very few resource-rich countries grow as fast as the average
resource-poor country.
How It Works If all this means that a large natural resource
base is somehow a curse, how does the curse work? In the simplest, purely
economic version of the curse story, a boom in natural resources generates
inrushes of financial capital. When the money comes in, prices for
nontradable goods and services—ranging from office buildings to farmland
to haircuts—go up and stay there.
When the prices of these goods and services are bid up beyond
a certain point, types of production that use them can no longer compete
internationally. Export-based agricultural production falls off.
Export-based manufacturing—the growth engine of the Asian tigers—never
buds and certainly never blooms. Governments often try to “sow” their oil
gains in subsidies to manufacturing and create other market distortions to
offset the cost disadvantages infant industries face. The infants never
grow up, although with continued government subsidies, they can grow very
fat.
Price distortions are not the only deterrents to broad
economic development in resource curse countries. Thorvaldur Gylfason, a
professor at the University of Iceland, finds that a nation’s educational
attainment is negatively related to the share of natural resources in
national wealth.[2] Education levels have important implications for
future industry mix and so, for growth. Workers with more education learn
faster on the job. Education shifts comparative advantage away from
resource production, where learning by doing is less important, toward
manufacturing and services, where it is very important.
Partly as a result of these factors—the crowding out of
nonresource industries, the discouragement of education that could allow
advancement in manufacturing and services—players in resource-based
countries focus more on fighting over pieces of the nation’s economic pie
and less on efforts to make the pie bigger.
BIG OIL THANKS YOU! NOW BEND
OVER.
Iraq "War" Now Exceeds the Cost of a
Nationwide U.S. Hydrogen Economy "The bill for Iraq over the past five years is
now approaching a cumulative $500 billion, or about $100 billion per year
on average." Larry Lindsy, Director of the National
Economic Council
What the Iraq War Will Cost the U.S.
Fortune
January 11, 2008
Uh, you
mean like our world?
New Combat Videogame Depicts a World at War Over Rapidly Dwindling Crude
Supplies
Steve Hargreaves CNN Money
January 18, 2008
On a futuristic battlefield littered with broken oil
wells, burnt-out electric cars and dilapidated wind turbines, you are
leading crack military unit on a mission to secure the world's last
remaining oil supplies. Your enemies are the Russians and Chinese, who are
of course after the same prize.
Frontlines: Fuel of War
The Oil War can be addicting!
"President Bush is
over in the Gulf now begging the Saudis and others to drop the price of
oil. How pathetic. We should have an energy policy right now, putting
people to work in green-collar jobs as a way to stave off the recession,
moving us towards energy independence." U.S. Presidential Candidate
Hillary Clinton
Bush Oil Price 'Begging' Is Pathetic: Clinton
Australia Network
January 16, 2008
At least
$61.3 billion in
international money has gone to subsidizing the oil and gas and
industries worldwide since 2000.
...The $61.3 billion in oil aid is
in addition to the estimated
$150-$250 billion in domestic
subsidies that national governments provide to
their oil and gas industries annually, according to the recent Stern
Review on the Economics of Climate Change. They also do not include any
of the costs of military operations around the world which are often
fairly characterized as a subsidy to the oil industry.
"The World Bank Group should phase out investments
in oil production by 2008 and devote its scarce resources to investments
in renewable energy resource development..."
Dr. Emil Salim
The World Bank Group's Extractive Industries
Review Report, 2004
The World Bank Group remains the
single largest multilateral leader in oil aid, with about $8 billion
since 2000. Recent analysis by the End Oil Aid coalition has revealed
very disturbing trends at the Bank:
In 2006, the World Bank increased its energy
sector commitments from $2.8 billion to $4.4 billion. Oil, gas and
power sector commitments account for 77 per cent of the total energy
sector program while renewables account for only 5 per cent.
In 2007, the International Finance Corporation
private-sector lending arm of the World Bank provided more than $645
million to oil and gas companies. This is an increase of at least 40
percent from 2006.
More than 80 per cent of the World Bank Group's
oil extraction projects since 1992 are designed for export, rather
than the alleviation of energy poverty. -- excerpted from the Executive Summary
...The world's addiction to oil
runs deep and oil corporations are among the most influential companies
in the world. They are actively using their influence to develop allies
within government and block much needed reforms. The result is that we
are pursuing an incoherent and often contradictory energy policy whereby
governments are promoting the expansion of the oil industry and working
to overcome oil addiction at the same time.
The world should keep its promises to the poor. The developed
world has committed to doing its part to fight global poverty, yet every
year it spends some of its valuable development assistance resources on
oil and gas subsidies instead of poverty alleviation. This misuse of
funds must stop.
It's fiscally irresponsible to spend billions of dollars to
subsidize the oil and gas industry while spending billions more to fight
oil addiction and combat climate change. Continuing to subsidize the
fossil fuel industry undermines investments in new, clean energy
technologies, and increases the risk of dangerous climate change.
The report does
"not include any of the costs of military operations around the world
which are often fairly characterized as a subsidy to the oil industry." "Just wait 'till they add in the cost
of WWIII." -- RDM
"I can say with
some professional knowledge and experience that if Bush invades yet
another Muslim oil state, it would mark the end of U.S. influence in the
crucial Middle East for decades." George McGovern Why I Believe Bush Must Go
Washington Post
January 6, 2008
America's elder statesman of finance,
Alan Greenspan, has shaken the White House by declaring that the prime
motive for the war in Iraq was oil. ...“I am saddened that it is
politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war
is largely about oil,” he says.
BUSH OIL WAR BACKFIRES
JOHNNY DIED FOR PETROCHINA
Iraq Revives Saddam Deal with China Jamil Anderlini, Steve Negus
Financial Times (UK) June 22, 2007
China National Petroleum Corporation,
the country’s largest oil company and the parent of listed group
Petrochina, signed a deal with Iraq in 1997 to develop the al-Ahdab oil
field. The field is one of the first to be offered to foreign investors
since the 2003 US-led invasion.
Iraq has been reluctant to revive Saddam-era contracts, but seems to have
turned to China as security problems and uncertainties over Iraqi
investment law have deterred other investors.
NOW
IT'S OUR WAR?
RALPH, GET A CLUE! YOUR WAR IS AGAINST RENEWABLE ENERGY FOR THE PROFIT OF FOSSIL
STAKEHOLDERS.
- RDM "There's a war going on against energy from
fossil fuels. I can't understand
the pure venom felt against the oil and gas industry."
Rep.
Ralph Hall, Republican - TX Career recipient of $985,530 in funding from oil, gas & utilities
THE
TRAITOROUS U.S. POLITICIANS WHO HAVE BEEN BOUGHT BY THE INTERNATIONAL
OIL INDUSTRY - AND WHO ARE PREVENTING THE EXPANSION OF CLEAN, CHEAP DOMESTIC RENEWABLE
ENERGY - ARE POLITELY DESCRIBED AS SUFFERING FROM "MISPERCEPTIONS" AS THEY
CREATE A CATASTROPHIC FOREIGN POLICY OF PERPETUAL RESOURCE WARS TO BENEFIT
THE PROFITS OF BIG OIL. THE
VOTERS WHO KEEP RE-ELECTING THESE BASTARDS DESERVE THE WORLD THEY CREATE -- BUT THEIR
CHILDREN DON'T.
-- Richard D. Masters
The world’s second largest car
company now views hydrogen fuel cell power as the “the end game,”
according to its director of advanced technology vehicle concepts Dr
Christopher Borroni-Bird. ...“Hybrids are not a solution,” he said. “They
just delay the day of reckoning. The debate about hybrids being cleaner
than diesel is irrelevant - the diesel is a dead end because it uses
fossil fuels.” Dr Borroni-Bird said that hydrogen-powered and electric
cars would develop alongside each other, and that GM would have a
“cost-effective” fuel cell car by 2010. “We will build a car that runs on
renewable energy, but it’s not our responsibility to produce the fuels,”
said a GM spokesman.
Dr. Chris
Boronni-Bird
"Imagine a world where we do not have to
concern ourselves with the supply of oil from the Middle East -- it would
revolutionize government priorities, military spending and make Americans
feel much more safe and secure. Imagine that the hydrogen fuel could come
from a variety of sources, such as from corn (Midwest), hydroelectric
power (Quebec), nuclear power (California), solar cells (Southwest), wind
(Dakotas), etc. Not only
would this create very many, technologically advanced new
jobs, but this diversity would also dramatically stabilize the economy
from fluctuations in supply from one source.
"At a more personal level, imagine being
able to refuel at home (using home electrolyzers or reformers) each night
and, in a pinch, being able to provide back-up power for the home if there
is a blackout. These capabilities would give individuals more independence
and options, and make life easier for them. The benefit and flexibility of
this technology is so powerful that it could literally open up hundreds of
new markets around the world to where entire populations who now only
dream of owning an automobile will soon be able to buy one."
Hydrogen Power: A Discussion with Chris Boronni-Bird PBS
May 19, 2004
WHY SUPPORT RENEWABLE
ENERGY, ANYWAY?
NATIONS TO BECOME FO$$IL ENERGY ROBBER BARONS!
Beware of Energy Nationalism, Warns Global Agency
A growing trend towards nationalism over
resources in Russia and even Britain could backfire by cutting expenditure on
oil and gas worldwide at a time when demand is likely to rise faster than
expected over the next five years, the International Energy Agency warned
yesterday. Guardian (UK)
July 27, 2007
BODMAN'S EPIPHANY?
"We can no longer explain (high oil
prices) here in this country on the basis of refinery problems." U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman
(the
seventh wealthiest man in the U.S. government)
US Economy 'in Danger Zone with Oil Price' Reuters
August 3, 2007 Near record high crude oil prices have
put the US economy in the "danger zone" and the world's producers must boost
supply to prevent shortages, US Energy Secretary Sam Bodman has said.
“Our
addiction to oil is hurting consumers, undermining the economy,
exacerbating international conflicts, damaging the environment, and
threatening the health of the planet.” Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, announcing
the
Automotive X-Prize
Pickens: Global Oil Production Capacity Has Hit Peak York Dispatch/AP
March 1, 2007
Alternative energy sources will begin to
take a share of the energy market until the world evolves from a
hydrocarbon-based economy to "something that's a mix of hydrocarbons and
something else." Everything from nuclear, coal, wind, solar, hydrogen and
biofuels stands a chance to assuage growing demand for energy, Pickens said.
Uncertainty about Future Oil Supply Makes It
Important to Develop a Strategy for Addressing a Peak and Decline in Oil
Production February 2007
United States Government
Accountability Office Report of Congressional Requesters
The prospect of a peak in oil
production presents problems of global proportion whose consequences will
depend critically on our preparedness.
The consequences would be most
dire if a peak occurred soon, without warning, and were followed by a
sharp decline in oil production because alternative energy sources,
particularly for transportation, are not yet available in large
quantities. Such a peak would require sharp reductions in oil
consumption, and the competition for increasingly scarce energy would
drive up prices, possibly to unprecedented levels, causing severe economic
damage. While these consequences would be felt globally,
the United States, as the largest
consumer of oil and one of the nations most heavily dependent on oil for
transportation, may be especially vulnerable among the
industrialized nations of the world.
....In the past, the private sector has responded to higher
oil prices by investing in alternatives, and it is doing so now.
Investment, however, is determined largely by price expectations, so
unless high oil prices are sustained, we cannot expect private investment
in alternatives to continue at current levels.
If a peak were anticipated, oil
prices would rise, signaling industry to increase efforts to develop
alternatives and consumers of energy to conserve and look for more
energy-efficient products.
WHY HYDROGEN?
FOR THAT
MATTER, WHY SHELL HYDROGEN?
CORRUPT NATIONS ARE GOOD PICKINGS FOR
SHELL
Big Shell Iran Deal Could Bring US Sanctions
Officials
say they will likely review Shell's deal with Spain's Repsol
to develop Iran's
biggest natural gas field.
CNN
January 29, 2007
"In energy as in politics, power corrupts. Through
the ages, power has indeed corrupted those who produce it, those who
control it, and those who need it. Today our high-energy world teeters at
the brink. The gauge is edging toward empty, and as it does, the
political, environmental, medical, and economic cost continue to squeeze
humanity. The crisis is not new, but now it has become more urgent. This
time it is not money at stake--it is mankind.
"It has been impossible for the general public to wipe its
collective windshield clear enough to actually see the truth. But once the
haze is rubbed away--even a little--the world will peer into the past and
discover that to achieve clean energy independence and petropolitical
security we do not need to reinvent the wheel. We need to exhume that
wheel from whence it was deliberately buried by those who have diligently
worked to keep us focused on petroleum." -- Edwin Black, Internal
Combustion
In the absence of a government-launched Manhattan Project to ignite the
alternative fuel revolution, the public must turn not just to the White
House or the state house but also to the largest fleet owners in the
country.
Carmakers such as Honda, BMW and Toyota are waiting for only
one thing before they redirect their considerable resources away from
gasoline cars and toward hydrogen, electric, natural gas (CNG) or other
alternatively fueled vehicles. Those companies want tangible demand.
Fleets -- governmental, commercial and private -- have a compelling volume
purchasing power no automaker can ignore.
CALIFORNIA MOVE OVER...
BEGINNINGS OF WORLD'S LARGEST LAWSUIT?
The Royal Society of the United Kingdom Questions ExxonMobil about
Conducting a Worldwide Misinformation Campaign on Global Warming
"My analysis indicates that ExxonMobil last year provided more than $2.9
million to organizations in the United States which misinformed the public
about climate change through their websites. ...I have shared the contents
of your documents with some climate researchers who are Fellows of the
Royal Society and it would be useful to update them about whether
ExxonMobil will be continuing to express views that are inconsistent with
the findings of their work."
Bob Ward, Senior Manager, Policy
Communication, Royal Society
Letter from Bob Ward to Nick Thomas
September 4, 2006
WHY WE FIGHT FOR OIL
THE WAR ON RENEWABLE
ENERGY -- AMERICA'S SHAME
Confidential Document on Iraq Oil Lobbying CommentaryJames Paul Global Policy Forum
July 14, 2006 The
document reveals that, in private, the Coalition
governments were extremely interested in oil and that intense
negotiations were going on, even while the initial fighting was still
under way, to parcel out Iraq’s major oil fields. The main decisions
were being taken in Washington.
The Iraq Oil Bonanza: Estimating Future Profits James A. Paul Global Policy Forum
January 28, 2004
In order to understand the magnitude of these profits, it is
useful to know that the worldwide profits of the world’s five largest
oil companies in 2002 were $35 billion. Our estimate of the “most
probable” annual profits in Iraq are $95 billion, three times this sum!
Total company profits in Iraq, over time, would be an enormously large
sum – ranging from a low of about $600 billion to a high of about $9
trillion.
ExxonMobil Accused of War Profiteering Randy Hall CNS News
May 31, 2006 Activists from a
coalition of environmental and public interest groups Tuesday called on
ExxonMobil shareholders to clean up the corporation's "dirty practices."
Those practices, according to the activists, include conspiring with the
government to invade Iraq and then making $7 billion in "unearned profit"
from the war.
INVESTORS REVOLT AGAINST EXXON "Shareholders deserve to
know if the companies they own are going down the prudent path -- adopting
environmental practices that will enable them to survive and thrive in a
world of increasing environmental concern and regulation - or whether they
are following a path that will damage both our environment and our bottom
line."
-- California State
Treasurer Phil Angelides
Seventeen leading U.S. pension fund and other institutional investors
controlling $658 billion in assets are pushing for a face-to-face meeting
with independent members of the ExxonMobil board of directors as a result
of growing financial world concerns that ExxonMobil is "a company that
fails to acknowledge the potential for climate change to have a profound
impact on global energy markets, and which lags far behind its competitors
in developing a strategy to plan for and manage these impacts."
Pension fund trustees from seven states, New York City, and
eight other major institutional investors with over 110 million ExxonMobil
shares worth an estimated $6.75 billion made the request for the meeting
this week. All those seeking the action from Exxon Mobil are members of
the
Investor Network on Climate Risk. The group of 17 consists of
six state treasurers (Connecticut, California, Pennsylvania, Maryland,
Maine, Vermont), the California State Controller, the California Public
Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the New York State Comptroller,
New York City Comptroller, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, General
Board of Pension and Health Benefits of the United Methodist Church,
International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Tri-State Coalition for
Responsible Investment, Walden Asset Management, The Nathan Cummings
Foundation, and the Sheet Metal Workers Pension Fund.
GreenbizMay 22, 2006
A Future Without Oil? Elizabeth Douglass Los Angeles
Times
April 16, 2006
Bush's Advanced Energy Initiative, which he promoted in a February tour of
research sites, would inject badly needed money into alternative-fuel
programs. Critics say the commitment is paltry. Bush's fiscal 2007 budget
seeks about $150 million for biofuels and $290 million for hydrogen-related
research. By comparison, the government spends an estimated $150 million
a day in Iraq. But proponents believe the decades of inertia could be
broken by a rare convergence of technology, money, political will and
motivated motorists.
"We need to get an alternative to
petroleum." Larry Burns, General Motors
GM Official: We Need Alternatives to Oil Greg Livadas Rochester Democrat & Chronicle (NY)
April 30, 2006
Please help us to continue
this important independent information resource.
"It could well be that the first country to
seriously address the issues of creating a market for renewables would
become the central location for a major new international business
sector - with all the positive consequences that carries in terms of
economic activity and employment." ------------- Rodney Chase
CEO BP
--------------
"We all share the responsibility for carrying out this project, for the
assumption of responsibility is part of the dignity of human beings."
------------
Juergen Shrempp
Chairman
DaimlerChrysler
-----------
"Energy sources like coal and oil once overcame an economy based on
horsepower. So, I suspect, our carbon-based economy may itself pass from
the scene to be replaced, perhaps, by hydrogen."
-------------
Spencer Abraham
Secretary,
US Dept of Energy
-------------
"General Motors absolutely sees the long-term future of the world being
based on a hydrogen economy.” ------------
Larry Burns
Director of R&D
General Motors
-------------
Got
water?
THE OIL
WAR STEPS TO CENTER STAGE
“Our
addiction to oil is hurting consumers, undermining the economy,
exacerbating international conflicts, damaging the environment, and
threatening the health of the planet.”
