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POPSExxon sabatoages oil wells in Texas “When the relationship turned sour in the 1990s, Exxon-Mobil terminated the lease and plugged the wells,” states Patterson’s report. “As per state rules, Exxon filed paperwork with the Railroad Commission outlining its well-plugging procedures and filed sworn affidavits as to the final condition of the wells. The O’Connor family soon learned those reports to the Railroad Commission were fraudulent. “When an independent producer, Emerald Oil, attempted to capitalize on new legislative incentives to reopen abandoned wells, they found the old Exxon-Mobil wells hadn’t been plugged but sabotaged — filled with junk, cut well casings, contaminated oil tank sludge and even explosives. Many of the wells were left unrecoverable.”
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POPSBig Oil poised for return to Iraq The winners of the War in Iraq? Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Repsol, China National Petroleum & Chemical Company and Russia’s Lukoil. Just as was planned all along.
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POPSExxon Oil Spill Ordered to Pay--Again This Environmental Disaster Saga has been going on for 2 decades. With litigators, the art of the lawsuit is to outlive your opponents. Since the oil spill, families have had children, the children in turn have grown to adults and gone on to college, joined the military and had children of their own. Kind of strikes an angry cord when a jury awards damages, then a judge is simply asked by the defendants lawyers to set aside the verdict or reduce the amount of the award. And, magic, all is good with the world for the defendant.
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POPS(No) Drill, Baby, Drill But when Costa Rica put one minister in charge of energy and environment, “it created a very different way of thinking about how to solve problems,” said Rodríguez, now a regional vice president for Conservation International. “The environment sector was able to influence the energy choices by saying: ‘Look, if you want cheap energy, the cheapest energy in the long-run is renewable energy. So let’s not think just about the next six months; let’s think out 25 years.’ ” As a result, Costa Rica hugely invested in hydro-electric power, wind and geo-thermal, and today it gets more than 95 percent of its energy from these renewables. In 1985, it was 50 percent hydro, 50 percent oil. More interesting, Costa Rica discovered its own oil five years ago but decided to ban drilling — so as not to pollute its politics or environment! What country bans oil drilling?
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POPSSell-fest on Wall Street/Global Mkts, Bailouts Not Working Financial markets are not stabilized, no confidence either. Investors are bailing out of bank stocks, destabilizing the markets further. No government bailout plans can correct this: “You have almost no reason to own a bank stock,” Keith Wirtz, who helps oversee $20 billion as chief investment officer at Fifth Third Bancorp Even Warren Buffet is being more blunt now.
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POPS Gas Prices About To Go Up? The nation's biggest refiner, Valero, said it will shut down some facilities if workers strike, as will European oil company BP. Shell Oil Co., the lead negotiator for the industry, along with Exxon Mobil, said its refineries will continue to make gasoline, diesel and other fuels using nonunion or replacement workers.
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POPSChávez Reopens Oil Bids To West As Prices Plunge Top executives like Eulogio del Pino, the Stanford-educated vice president of exploration and production, spent much of 2008 negotiating unfinished deals like the takeover of a cement company. But all the while, Petróleos de Venezuela has faced its own difficulties. It claimed it produced about 3.3 million barrels a day throughout most of 2008. But other sources like OPEC, of which Venezuela is a member, place the figure closer to 2.3 million and show a fall of about 100,000 barrels a day from a year earlier. When Chávez rose to power a decade ago, Venezuela was producing about 3.4 million barrels a day. After weathering the turmoil of recent years, Western oil companies here are loath to speak publicly about their plans. "We don't elaborate on bidding processes beyond the fact that we evaluate every opportunity and our decisions will be based on economics and other factors," said Scott Walker, a spokesman for Chevron.
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POPSHigher Gas Prices Likely On The Horizon more than $4 per gallon for gas on average - helped slash demand for oil. From November 2007 to October 2008, Americans drove 100 billion fewer miles than the year before, according to government figures. The nation's biggest automakers lurched toward bankruptcy as sales of sport utility vehicles and trucks plummeted. "We wouldn't be bailing out the automobile industry today ... had we not had this crazy situation with oil prices," said Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates. Oil giants like Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips have yet to announce their 2009 capital spending plans, but analysts say most companies are likely to shelve some projects. Already, Royal Dutch Shell has postponed a near-doubling of production in Canada. Marathon Oil says it expects to cut capital spending by 15 percent in 2009.
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POPSBut They Are Not The First To Fake The New York Times Other headlines declared that the "Maximum Wage Law Succeeds," "Nationalised Oil to Fund Climate Change Efforts" and "Nation Sets Its Sights On Building Sane Economy." There is also a full page fake advertisement on page three from the world's largest publicly traded oil company Exxon Mobil saying the company applauded the end of the Iraq war and that peace is "an idea the world can profit from". In a pamphlet handed out to volunteers when they picked up copies of the newspaper to distribute there was a "Frequently Asked Questions" section. In response to "who made this?" it said: "Who knows? Rumors are it's a group of writers from several mainstream dailies - including The New York Times." The Yes Men, who were the subject of a book and documentary in 2004, have pulled off pranks including posing as Exxon Mobil and National Petroleum Council representatives to deliver a speech at a Canadian oil conference.
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POPSBig Oil's Charm Offensive The money grabbers are putting on masks of altruism, hoping we won’t notice their pockets bulging with our dollars – and hoping we won't demand that Congress take away the billions of dollars they get each year in tax subsidies. Oil company image ads aren't fooling anyone. Their attempts to appear touchie-feelie are as hopeless as hanging an air freshener on the tail of a hog. Couldn't have said it better myself. By the way, notice how the gas prices fell after people stopped consumming so much gas. Let's keep this in mind when prices start going up again. It truly is all about supply and demand.
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POPSLives lost in the name of greed and BIG oil This article highlights why the wars that have cost in so many ways - it's all about greed and profit by the bloated, powerful oil barons. We have been misled totally - and the cost to the World in human tragedy has been horrendous. This needs to be exposed - BIG time>
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