Transocean to Pay $1.4 billion for its Role in the Gulf Oil Spill of 2010

On January 3, 2013, the Department of Justice announced that it has reached an historic settlement with Transocean for its role in the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The $1.4 billion settlement will be paid under the Clean Water Act for civil and criminal penalties.

Much of these funds will go towards restoring the Gulf, as directed by the RESTORE Act. Gulf restoration and economic development groups lauded the announcement and issued the following statement:

“This is a great day for the Gulf environment and the communities that rely on a healthy ecosystem for their livelihoods,” said Environmental Defense Fund, Greater New Orleans Inc., National Wildlife Federation, National Audubon Society, The Nature Conservancy, Oxfam America and Ocean Conservancy. “We thank the Department of Justice for their leadership in holding Transocean accountable and look forward to full resolution of the case with other responsible parties, which will allow restoration efforts in the Gulf to get fully underway.”

“With this settlement, the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council finally has some funding to begin implementing a comprehensive plan for ecosystem restoration that will rebuild the environment of the Gulf and the communities that rely upon it.”

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Religious Leaders Join the Protest Against Keystone XL Pipeline

On Monday August 28, more than 60 religious leaders risked arrest and joined NASA’s lead climate scientist Dr. James Hansen to make their voices heard in front of the White House. This is part of an ongoing protest to push President Obama to deny the permit for the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline. This pipeline would transport environmentally disastrous tar sands oil from Alberta all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico.

On Monday morning, participants led an interfaith prayer service starting at 9 a.m. in Lafayette Park and proclaim from scripture on the sacredness of God’s creation. The faith community has launched a petition asking President Obama to say “no” to the Keystone XL pipeline and “yes” to climate justice, a central moral tenet of religious social justice.

“The tar sands represent a catastrophic threat to our communities, our climate, and our planet,” reads the petition. The leaders urge the president to “stand by your religious tradition and your commitment to clear moral leadership on climate change by rejecting the requested permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and instead focus on developing safe, clean energy that manifests reverence for God and God's creation.”

At Monday's protest leading climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City was joined by leaders of faith communities’ climate justice, environmental racism, and social witness ministries.

Other participants include Rose Berger, religious witness organizer for Sojourners; Marie Dennis, director of Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns; Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation; Bill McKibben, Methodist environmentalist, and protest organizer; Fr. Jacek Orzechowski, OFM, Franciscan priest and chair of the Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Directorate for the Franciscans of the Holy Name Province; Rev. Craig C. Roshaven, Witness Ministries Director, Unitarian Universalist Association; Rev. Kathleen Stone, chaplain of the Church Center for the United Nations.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Bill McKibben and other Protestors Jailed for their Opposition to the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline

Over 150 people, including 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben, were arrested in front of the White House for their peaceful opposition to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Bill and others spent 48 hours in a tiny cell.

As part of a two week wave of peaceful sit-ins at the White House gates, over 2,000 courageous people came from across the US & Canada, to let President Obama know that tar sands oil jeopardizes our future. Specifically, these people are calling for the President to block the fossil fuel industry from building a 2,000-plus mile pipeline to transport tar-sands oil (among the most carbon-intensive of all the fossil fuels) from Northern Alberta all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

As reported in the Guardian, this is “the largest act of civil disobedience for the climate in US history.” Even Hollywood stars like Danny Glover, John Cusack, Sophia Bush, and Mark Ruffalo are showing their support by protesting the pipeline.

Help support the protestors who want to stop the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline. These protests will continue over the next two weeks and what the activists in DC need more than anything is the knowledge that there is a massive global movement backing them up.

Here are three ways that you can stand in solidarity with the protestors:

1. Sign the petition to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline, will be delivered to White House officials on September 3rd.

2. Send in a solidarity message or photo to the people taking action at the White House.

3. Take part in Moving Planet -- a worldwide climate rally on September 24 -- and as the 350.org team put it, "move beyond all fossil fuels in the loudest, most beautiful way possible."

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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High Oil Prices Stimulate Renewable Energy

Higher oil prices stimulate renewable energy. Renewable energy enables the world economies to grow sustainably, where our current reliance on fossil fuels is entirely unsustainable.

To stimulate renewable energy we must see what is known as supply shock. A supply shock is an event that suddenly changes the price of a commodity or service. In the case of oil this will be caused by a sudden decrease in the supply relative to demand. This sudden change affects the equilibrium price.

When oil approaches $200 per barrel we should get the shock and a stimulus effect on renewable energy. This will occur when the oil supply out paces demand by something like 10 percent.

Instability in the Middle East may very well be the catalyst that causes oil prices to go sharply higher, which in turn will create the shock that will stimulate renewable energy.

There are a great many unknowns, but renewable energy will be driven by how market demand reacts to higher oil prices.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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