Oil Watchdog

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Ohio’s Earthquake: Top 10 New Ways to Use Toxic Gas-Drilling Waste

Ohio has shut down the natural gas drilling wastewater disposal well that triggers earthquakes. Politicians are finally reacting to drinking water contamination, too. We need new disposal methods for the salty, toxic waste and ways to hold oil companies accountable. Here are 10 great ways to do both!

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2012: Few Jobs, But Gobs of Profit for Oil

The reviled “jobless recovery” of the U.S. economy won’t improve much in 2012, say the usual forecasters. But oil company executives and market speculators can break out the champagne now as the price of crude oil starts the year with a huge jump. It’s not about Iranian threats or rising demand, it’s about speculative profits.

BP Lies Down With Russia, Gets Up With Fleas

British oil giant BP would like us all to forget its record oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year, a deadly 2005 explosion at its Texas City oil refinery and a major Alaskan oil spill in between–all of them the result of a company that cared more about the bottom line than about [...]

Wall Street Oil Speculators Hurt Families, U.S. Economy

OilWatchdog and other critics of commodity speculation have long said that rampant speculation in oil futures markets  has hurt families, cost jobs and kept the U.S. economy teetering on the edge of recession. Energy analyst Marc Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America, in a nailed-down new study. finds that speculators are adding about $600 to [...]

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Fracking and Yakking

Exxon Mobil, which is making big bets worldwide on hydraulic fracturing for deeply buried natural gas, is also making big bets on its sincere, earnest advertising about clean, safe natural gas. The ads turn me into a crazy person, yelling at the television during halftimes and seventh-inning stretches. Their claim that they ensure compliance with all “applicable [...]

Take Action on Gas Prices

Here’s a petition from our ally Public Citizen, calling on federal regulators to quit stalling and rein in the financial speculators who are jacking up gasoline prices. It’s well worth the few seconds to click on the link and sign the petition. Fight back against Goldman Sachs and the other big banks whose speculation costs [...]

Chevron Oil Leak in Gulf of Mexico?

Hard to interpret the technical language in this early Reuters report, but not good that Chevron refused to comment. When the screwup is not an explosion in view of the world, it’s all too easy to delay, downplay and diminish what’s going on. Maybe it’ll turn out to be minimal. Or not. However, it’s all [...]

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Report on Gas Blast Sounds Too Familiar

A deadly brew of corporate carelessness and failed regulation caused the natural gas pipeline explosion that killed eight residents in a quiet neighborhood of San Bruno, CA., says a long-awaited report by the National Transportation Safety Board. The harsh conclusions and strong language echo a similar report on the causes of a 2005 refinery explosion that killed 15 workers [...]

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Why Is Gasoline Price Staying High?

The old adage about gasoline prices, “up like a rocket, down like a feather,” has never been so true. The price of crude oil in recent days has been down near $80 a barrel, translating to about $1.92 a gallon. But the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline, according to AAA, is [...]

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Natural Gas Drillers: ‘We Don’t Need Your Stinking Air Rules’

Whenever regulators try to clean up our air or water, industry issues its standard “job killer” press release. Let your children keep their asthma and we won’t shut down our (oil, gas, coal) (refinery, drilling facility, surface mine), is the general theme. No surprise, then, that a coalition of deep-well natural gas drillers responded sternly [...]

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Oil Will Grease a Debt-Limit Recession

If the U.S. ends the coming weekend without national debt limit deal, it won’t just be bond defaults sending the nation back into a deep, ugly recession. A hint came Tuesday as the price of oil rose a little, nearing $100 a barrel once again even as stocks did a mini-tank, with the Dow down [...]

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If Exxon Can’t Deal With the Montana Spill…

Exxon is still fumbling to deal with a 42,000-gallon oil pipeline spill on the Yellowstone River west of Billings, Montana. Its initial response was pathetic–it was slow to turn off the gushing pipeline, had no plan for dealing with a spill in high water (i.e. every spring) and, most alarmingly, “misspoke” about how deeply the [...]

Energy Drillers: Water Pollution Info Is Our Secret

The surge in energy company drilling for deep-rock natural gas has generated a matching surge in complaints of water contamination, including faucets pouring out so much methane gas that you can light it (video) with a match. The drillers, which include Exxon and other major energy operators, long denied the contamination had anything to do [...]