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Tag:

oil companies

OIl Companies Admit Climate Change Is Real In Court Case

written by Sponsored Content

By Steve Hanley

William Alsup is a federal district court judge for the northern district of California. His courtroom is in San Francisco, where he is presiding over a case brought by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland against 5 major oil companies — Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Shell, and BP.

 

The cities allege they will be on the hook for billions of dollars worth of infrastructure upgrades to protect their citizens from rising ocean levels brought on by global warming. Climate scientists say that temperatures in the Arctic this winter have been as much as 30 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than usual. Those warm temperatures are causing glaciers and sea ice in the region to melt faster than anyone expected. All that melting water is making ocean levels rise.

 

The plaintiffs in the suit claim the higher temperatures are directly related to higher levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere caused by burning fossil fuels. The two cities say the oil companies have known about the connection between fossil fuels and global warming for decades, but kept their knowledge secret in order to continue doing business as the usual manner.

Naturally, the oil companies dispute those claims, saying it was impossible to predict the impact of burning fossil fuels until quite recently. They deny misleading the public about the harm that could come from using their products.

Judge Alsup is a bit of a legend in legal circles. In a patent infringement case some years ago, he taught himself the computer program Java so he could better understand the technical aspects of the case. Recently, he presided over a high profile case in which Waymo accused Uber of stealing proprietary information about self driving car technology.

To school himself to hear this current litigation, the judge propounded a set or 8 questions for the litigants to answer. This is what the judge came up with:

  • What caused the various ice ages (including the “little ice age” and prolonged cool periods) and what caused the ice to melt? When they melted, by how much did sea level rise?
  • What is the molecular difference by which CO2 absorbs infrared radiation but oxygen and nitrogen do not?
  • What is the mechanism by which infrared radiation trapped by CO2 in the atmosphere is turned into heat and finds its way back to sea level?
  • Does CO2 in the atmosphere reflect any sunlight back into space such that the reflected sunlight never penetrates the atmosphere in the first place?
  • Apart from CO2, what happens to the collective heat from tail pipe exhausts, engine radiators, and all other heat from combustion of fossil fuels? How, if at all, does this collective heat contribute to warming of the atmosphere?
  • In grade school, many of us were taught that humans exhale CO2 but plants absorb CO2 and return oxygen to the air (keeping the carbon for fiber). Is this still valid? If so, why hasn’t plant life turned the higher levels of CO2 back into oxygen? Given the increase in human population on Earth (four billion), is human respiration a contributing factor to the buildup of CO2?
  • What are the main sources of CO2 that account for the incremental buildup of CO2 in the atmosphere?
  • What are the main sources of heat that account for the incremental rise in temperature on Earth?

Those questions have sparked a lively date on social media. Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M created a forum on Twitter where people could post their answers.

The major development in the case so far is that the oil companies have admitted, on the record in open court, that climate change is real. That flies in the face of the furious denials emanating from political leaders in Washington who are in thrall to organizations like the American Petroleum Institute and Koch Industries.

That admission may mark a change in how investors value fossil fuel stocks. Savvy investors are using tools like spread betting from CMC Markets to manage their portfolios in uncertain times. The world of investments can change rapidly. Online tools from CMC Markets can help.

This post is supported by CMC Markets; images from StockSnap



March 26, 2018 0 comment
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Subsidies for Renewable Energy No Longer Needed by 2025

written by Walter Wang

Those who think that federal subsidies for renewable energy are an unacceptable extravagance will be pleased to know that, by 2025, they will no longer be necessary, according to this report by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Of course, this will create a certain irony: the

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August 28, 2013 0 comment
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12 Green Groups Push for End to Oil Industry Tax Breaks

written by Walter Wang

Oil companies are reaping massive profits and skirting taxes (with the help of fossil-fuel-friendly politicians) while the U.S. is in a debt crisis. Is that fair?

While the general public suffers through very difficult economic times and the threat of government shutdowns, the oil industry is reaping good profits,

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August 12, 2011 0 comment
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Government Subsidies to the Oil Companies

written by Walter Wang

All Americans should be aware of what’s happening in Washington in this critically important area that affects every one of us. Earlier this week, 48 Senators, including three Democrats and all but two Senate Republicans voted to defeat a bill that would have ended tax breaks for the five biggest oil companies.

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May 20, 2011 1 comment
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Despite Rhetoric, Cutting Oil Subsidies Would Have Little Effect on Gas Prices

written by Walter Wang

Democrats renewed their push to cut oil subsidies this week, saying high gasoline prices and big revenues for oil and gas companies make this as good a time as any to eliminate billions in annual tax incentives to the industry. Republicans countered that higher taxes on oil companies would only mean higher prices for consumers.

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May 12, 2011 0 comment
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Obama to Congress: Subsidize Clean Energy Not Oil and Gas

written by Walter Wang

This afternoon the President wrote a letter to leaders of both parties in Congress on the subject of tax breaks for oil companies.  The President's letter comes a day after Speaker of the House John Boehner said that eliminating those tax breaks is "certainly something we should be looking at," adding that, "We're in a time when the federal government's

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April 26, 2011 1 comment
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Ecuador Gives Oil Profits to the People

written by Earth & Industry

After burning through five energy ministers, President Rafael Correa was finally able to pass the petroleum reform that replaces a production-sharing model with a flat rate per barrel produced payment scheme. The oil of Ecuador now belongs to the Ecuadorian state.

As the IPS reported, January 23rd marked

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February 4, 2011 0 comment
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Government Subsidizes Deepwater Drilling With Big Tax Breaks

written by Walter Wang

By now there’s little debate that the technology used to obtain oil in deeper waters was developed and rapidly put into use before safety technology could keep up. As we’ve noted, that’s a development that regulators allowed, despite their concerns.

But the expansion of deepwater drilling wasn’t solely a result of industry rushing into deeper waters and toward greater profit. According to the Los Angeles Times, it was also encouraged by the federal government, which gave oil companies tens of billions in tax breaks, subsidies, and royalty relief. Many of these incentives have outlasted their initial purpose, according to the Times:

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May 26, 2010 1 comment
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