Refining oil is a dirty, dangerous business. Understandably, few private sector firms want to build, upgrade, or expand refineries at a time when the nation is trying to pivot to a renewable energy future.
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A century of tragedy: How the car and gas industry knew about the health risks of leaded fuel but sold it for one hundred years anyway
For decades, most gas sold in the U.S. contained a lead additive. Historian Bill Kovarik sees this anniversary as a time to reflect on the role of public health advocates and environmental journalists in preventing profit-driven tragedy.
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Michael Moore’s partner Jeff Gibbs debuts new film Planet of the Humans — and it’s free to watch on YouTube
Planet of the Humans is “a documentary that dares to say what no one else will — that we are losing the battle to stop climate change on planet earth because we are following leaders who have taken us down the wrong road.”
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Trump’s executive order to open Arctic waters to oil drilling was unlawful, federal judge rules
A victory for clean water and climate justice, via The New York Times: “In a major legal blow to [Donald] Trump’s push to expand offshore oil and gas development, a federal judge ruled that an executive order by Mr. Trump that lifted an Obama-era ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean and parts of the North Atlantic coast was unlawful.”
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Bill Gates: Why I’m for Washington state’s pollution fee
Bill Gates has thrown his support behind Initiative 1631, spearheaded by a coalition that includes the Northwest Progressive Institute.
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Thousands of marchers in British Columbia say no to Trans Mountain pipeline
“If the opposition movement in British Columbia and Washington state has a totem animal, it is the critically-endangered southern resident killer whale that travels the waters even more tankers will use if the pipeline is built,” writes Lynda Mapes
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Sorry, Hanford: Your radiation leaks aren’t as important as tax cuts
“The whole mess is like a metaphor for how the entire federal government is run today. There is talk about big needs, even as they cut taxes on corporations and the wealthy, making it harder to address those needs. We the people are distracted by our borrowed bonuses. The crippling disconnect from reality isn’t even acknowledged.”
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Here’s what oil drilling looks like in the Arctic Refuge, thirty years later
“These satellite images of a small part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge show the site of what, so far, is the only oil well ever drilled in the refuge, an exploratory well known as KIC-1 that was completed in the mid-1980s. The well was plugged and abandoned, and the drilling equipment and a special timber pad it sat on have long since been removed. “
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Even Cathy McMorris Rodgers thinks privatizing the Bonneville Power Administration is a bad idea
The regime of Donald Trump may be enthusiastic about privatizing the Bonneville Power Administration, but Republicans in the Pacific Northwest are not.
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The Weather Channel goes after Trump, climate deniers after Rose Garden announcement
Chris Matyszczyk: “After Donald Trump’s staged announcement that the US would be withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, the people who sometimes give you the right weather reacted with a coruscating collage of disbelief.”
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ExxonMobil shareholders pass resolution demanding accounting of climate damage policy risks
In a groundbreaking rebuke of the company’s management, a supermajority of ExxonMobil shareholders approved a nonbinding resolution that calls for an open, transparent accounting of the risks posed to its business by policies aimed at reversing climate damage.
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WATCH: Trailer for Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power
Al Gore is back! Watch the new trailer for An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, the sequel to An Inconvenient Truth. In theaters July 28,
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Attorneys general of Washington, Oregon, and California sign on to letter warning Trump not to undo Clean Power Plan
Excerpt from a letter to Donald Trump from attorneys general representing New York, California, Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, the District of Columbia, Boulder (CO), New York City, Broward County (FL), and South Miami (FL).
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5.0 magnitude quake rumbles Oklahoma oil town of Cushing, nearby region
A strong earthquake has caused serious damage in the central Oklahoma oil town of Cushing, which is home to the United States’ largest commercial oil
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Shell cancels major oil train project near Anacortes
“On the heels of the release of a draft environmental impact statement earlier this week, the Shell Puget Sound Refinery announced Thursday it is no longer pursuing the rail unloading facility addressed in the document,” the Skagit Valley Herald reports.
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Washington tribes stand with Standing Rock Sioux against North Dakota oil pipeline
“Tribes from across Washington and the Northwest have journeyed to remote Cannon Ball, N.D., to join the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in a peaceful occupation of ancestral lands where the tribe seeks an injunction to stop construction of an oil pipeline until its waters and cultural resources are protected,” Lynda Mapes reports.
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Back to the dark ages: Power outage brings downtown Seattle to a standstill for an hour
We can’t do any work right now… The phones work, but the computers don’t. And attorneys are pretty much helpless without their computers. — Barbara
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Ruined Chernobyl nuclear plant will remain a threat for 3,000 years
We don’t have the technology to fix the problem… We don’t have the process to develop the technology to fix the problem, and we don’t
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Wind and solar are crushing fossil fuels
Bloomberg’s Tom Randall documents and discusses the recent clean energy investment boom, which is outpacing oil and gas two to one.
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Shell says it’s ending Alaska offshore oil exploration
Shell says it’s ending Alaska offshore oil exploration In a huge victory for the environment, Royal Dutch Shell PLC says it has decided to cease
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Politico takes an in-depth look at the success of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign
Politico takes an in-depth look at the success of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign Republicans like Mitch McConnell of Kentucky have repeatedly and continually
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