Just a totally harmless cloud of heavy metal-laden black dust, no problem at all The large piles of petcoke that have been stored on the banks of the Detroit River delivered a little surprise to the residents of Windsor across the border last weekend in the form of a thick black cloud of dust kicked up by a storm. Here’s […]

Hmmm…where have I heard that company’s name before…? Team Services, LLC, self-described as “the leading provider of well services to the oil and gas industry throughout the United States”, has been caught spraying oilfield brines containing toxic solvents on unpaved roads in Benzie County. Brining is done for dust suppression. I was first alerted to this by Karla and Bryan […]

Nothing to see here, please hold your breath and move along As if they weren’t already dealing with enough in their daily lives, residents of downtown Detroit now have something else to contend with: exposure to toxic petroleum coke or “pet coke” dust. The Detroit Free Press is reporting that the state confirms that the dust is prevalent in the […]

The misinformation is rampant. Get informed.

The two biggest lies perpetuated by the fossil oil industry (“Big Oil”) and their corporatist minions in decision-making roles in our government are that TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline will bring thousands and thousands of jobs to the U.S. and, perhaps more importantly, will increase our national security by making us less reliant on oil imported from the Middle East and other foreign countries that aren’t allies like Canada.

Both are complete and utter lies and there is solid proof to dispel both.

Much, much more after the jump.

Big Oil subsidies are, simply put, indefensible

Conservatives who are dead set against making any investments in new technologies that can help propel our country and its economy forward are famous for using the argument that this is “picking winners and losers”. The irony is that, in order to even be considered for federal government subsidies, new technologies — like renewable energy projects, for example — must have already proven themselves as winners that are simply in need of a kickstart to make them affordable and profitable.

With negotiations over the upcoming sequester — automatic, across the board budget cuts — ready to dominate the headlines, both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Obama administration are suggesting that it’s time to end one the most glaring examples “picking winners” that we have in this country today: $4 billion in subsidies to Big Oil companies.

More after the jump.

Subsidizing hugely profitable companies is a good idea why again? President Obama is leading the charge on ending taxpayer subsidies to the massively profitable oil companies. This week, the Senate voted in a procedural vote on Senate bill 2204, the Repeal Big Oil Subsidies Act, to do just that. The vote was a lopsided 92-4 but that’s not because Senate […]