Chevron’s solar panels won’t clean up it’s filthy oilfield
Chevron’s solar panels won’t clean up its filthy oilfield
Chevron plans to use solar energy to power pumps at one of the oldest and dirtiest oilfields on the planet
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- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 8 April 2010 12.16 BST
- Article history
Solar panels are used to power Chevron operations. Illustration: Chip Chipman/ Getty Images
Project Brightfield has a nice ring to it. Chevron, the California-based oil giant, is turning the site of an old oil refinery into an eight-acre field of solar panels, showcasing seven new technologies from an array of cutting-edge companies. It seems to fit the company’s current online slogan: “Finding newer, cleaner ways to power the world”.
But there is a problem for Chevron, which has over a thousand Texaco filling stations in Britain. It plans to use the solar energy to help power pumps and pipelines at what will remain one of the oldest, dirtiest and most greenhouse-unfriendly oil fields on the planet – the Kern River heavy oil facility near Bakersfield.
Stagnant Sydney set to pack in arrivals
How much credence should we give to this report. Sounds like Govt.induced spin to me. 7mn. population in Sydney would be a disaster. Neville Gillmore Stagnant Sydney set to pack in arrivals Stephen Lunn and George Megalogenis From: The Australian April 10, 2010 12:00AM Source: The Australian MELBOURNE and Brisbane have accommodated Continue Reading →
Bring on the population debate
Bring on the population debate
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Treasury’s recent Intergenerational Report shows Australia heading towards a population of 36 million people by 2050. (ABC News: Giulio Saggin, file photo)
The politics of the current population debate are not hard to read.
The Coalition is returning to an old playbook, tapping into concerns about an increasing number of asylum seekers arriving by boat and linking that to the overall issue of immigration. That in turn links into people’s fears about rocketing house prices, water shortages and a fluctuating job market in recent troubled times and bingo – a scare campaign is born. One underlined nicely by Treasury’s recent Intergenerational Report shows Australia heading towards a population of 36 million people by 2050. A scary number that nicely wraps around a lot of current scary pressures. And a scary number that the Opposition then promises to cut.
The population discussion going on behind closed doors.
The population discussion going on behind closed doors
There are two population debates going on in Australia.
The first is the public debate that has inundated the media in recent weeks; all about forecasts, sustainability, infrastructure, economics, demographics and really serious-sounding matters.
The second is the subterranean debate that’s rarely discussed in public because it contains two unpalatable truths that require … oxymoron coming … really careful handing by politicians and media.
Unpalatable Truth #1: The majority of Australians are opposed to meaningful population growth, dislike the idea of high levels of immigration and want political refugees refused entry. These unfortunate attitudes are supported in poll after poll — this one and this one in recent days and weeks.
Unpalatable Truth #2: There is private acknowledgement among government and strategic decision-makers that Australia has a moral responsibility, as the richest and most underpopulated nation in the Asian region, to be seen to be growing its population and assuming its share of humanitarian migration. This is partly because of the terrible optics of a fortress Australia approach, and partly because such an approach is so out of sync with population trends in our region that it could generate enough resentment among our neighbours to present a serious security risk to Australia.
Bob Carr: Why our cities will really choke with population growth
Bob Carr: Why our cities will really choke with population growth by former NSW premier Bob Carr The debate is not about immigration and its benefits. We all believe in them — Australia is a migrant nation. The debate is not about multiculturalism and it’s not about the source of migrants. The debate is about whether immigration should Continue Reading →
Obama will open large sections of Southeast and Alaskan coasts to offshore drilling
Shorely it’s not so
Obama will open large sections of Southeast and Alaskan coasts to offshore drilling 23
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President Obama will open large swaths of the Atlantic, Gulf, and Alaskan coasts to offshore oil and natural gas drilling in a stunning concession to fossil-fuel companies, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and others are reporting.
On Wednesday morning Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced an end to a longstanding moratorium on oil drilling along the East Coast from Delaware to the central coast of Florida.
The Arctic Ocean north of Alaska will be opened too, while the Bristol Bay in southwestern Alaska would be protected—the sole new protection. New areas of the southeast Gulf Coast would also be opened, despite bipartisan opposition from political leaders in Florida and Alabama. The Times has a map of all of this, and you need to see it to comprehend the size of the affected area.