Fossil Fuels

In a move to help the country meet its Paris Accord climate goals, France announced this week that it will ban the sale of gas- and diesel-powered automobiles by 2040. That will be a big shift, as only 1.1 percent of new cars sold in France are currently pure electric vehicles. Even with the pending ban it will still take a long time to get older cars off the road: French consumers currently keep their gas-powered cars running for an average of 8.5 years, well below the 11.6 years in the United States. 

Warming waters are already having a chilling effect on the state’s lobster industry.

Less than three weeks after crude oil started flowing through the Dakota Access Pipeline, a judge has ruled that the pipeline’s environmental review was inadequate and did not address potential impacts to the  Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s fishing and hunting rights, or on environmental justice. President Trump ordered an expedited approval process for the Dakota and Keystone XL pipelines this past January, following years of protests by environmental groups. 

Texas Billionaire Jeffery Hildebrand’s operations have left a long trail of environmental and safety violations, with few repercussions.

Feds give company two years to install modern pipeline-testing technology.

Hilcorp Energy’s history of violating Louisiana coastal protection regulations leads to citizens’ Clean Water Act lawsuit.

Over the past 12 months, the company has been responsible for more than 23,000 gallons of oil spills.

Owner Jeffery Hildebrand’s emphasis on cost-cutting collides with Alaska regulators.

A planned $12.3 billion coal mine in Australia has been “deferred” for now, a major victory for climate activists and conservationists trying to protect the nearby Great Barrier Reef. The Carmichael coal mine would have reportedly created as many as 5,000 construction jobs, but a study published last week found that it would have doubled Australia’s carbon emissions. The Queensland government had offered Indian billionaire Gautam Adani a “royalties holiday” subsidy that would have saved his company hundreds of millions of dollars, making it a potentially lucrative endeavor, but growing resistance to that tax scheme seems to have paved the way for Adani to pull out—at least for now. 

Cook Inlet pipeline ruptures expose fractures in billionaire Jeffery Hildebrand’s Hilcorp Energy companies.