Nowhere Else in the World

Nowhere Else in the World

The Arctic Ocean is like nowhere else in the world. Home to walruses, beluga whales, and polar bears, this frozen landscape is teeming with life. But soon this fragile habitat could be swarming with oil rigs instead.

Oil companies may soon be able to start buying up new leases in the Chukchi Sea, the first step to oil drilling and, eventually, oil spills.

Act now to oppose new oil and gas leases in the Chukchi Sea »

The Pacific walrus dives deep down to the seafloor to hunt for shellfish. It needs a stable, healthy environment to survive. If an oil spill were to hit the Chukchi Sea, walruses could be forced to swim through oil. Even worse, the effects of a spill could kill food on which walruses, whales, and other animals depend, leaving these incredible animals hungry.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is preparing to sell oil and gas leases in the Chukchi Sea. Drilling in the Arctic is very risky due to icy waters, bad weather, and the complete lack of proven spill response technologies. Shell’s efforts to drill exploration wells have been met with failure after failure, culminating in the grounding of a drilling rig near Kodiak, Alaska. If oil drilling is allowed in the Chukchi Sea, it will only be a matter of time until a disaster strikes.

Walruses and whales need a safe home. Submit a public comment telling BOEM that oil drills don’t belong in the Chukchi Sea »

If enough of us speak up, we can convince BOEM to keep unsafe oil drills out of the U.S. Chukchi Sea entirely.

This important sea needs to be kept safe for the walruses, whales and polar bears who live, hunt, and migrate within its waters.

For the Arctic,
Rachael Prokop
Oceana

Clean Offshore Wind Energy

Dear Gabriel,

No more oil spills.

Clean offshore wind energy is safer for the oceans and the planet than offshore oil rigs. Tell your Representative to extend the Investment Tax Credit on offshore wind.

It’s time to go in a new direction. After the Gulf of Mexico oil spill nearly three years ago, we dared to hope that offshore drilling might stop, or at least that it would become much, much safer.

That hasn’t happened. Dolphins and other wildlife are still at risk from oil disasters, and the threat is as big as ever.

We can keep fighting oil, and we will. But we can also fight for a safer, cleaner energy source: offshore wind. Offshore wind can harness a clean and infinite source of energy, while eliminating deadly drilling disasters and helping to create many more sustainable jobs than traditional fuel industries.

Act now to tell your Representative to support clean and safe offshore wind energy TODAY»

The biggest barrier to wind is financing. As with other emerging technologies, offshore wind needs a boost to get started. H.R.3238, the Incentivizing Offshore Wind Power Act, will help with some of that cost by extending the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for the first 3,000 MW of offshore wind installed.

But we’ll need your help to get it passed. Contact your Representative today and tell them to cosponsor the Incentivizing Offshore Wind Power Act»

We can prevent another Deepwater Horizon disaster. Support clean offshore wind energy today!

We can do this,
Emily Fisher
Oceana

The Land Is Wasted

Dear Gabriel,

Emmanuel Kuru’s livelihood was destroyed.

In August 2008, the Shell Oil pipeline that ran through his property in the Niger Delta burst, smothering everything in its path with crude oil. His life as a fisherman and a farmer was wrecked.

“The land is wasted. Oil kills everything. We are stranded.”

Shell’s oil spill took away Emmanuel’s livelihood, his drinking water, the economic value of his land — his very way of life.

His neighbors, and tens of thousands of people living along the Niger Delta, have suffered the same devastating fate caused by oil spill after oil spill. While the Niger Delta has been awash in pollution, Shell has been swimming in profits — $30.9 billion globally in 2011.

Tell Shell — Own up. Pay up. Clean up. Make this message loud, clear and inescapable — add your name to Amnesty’s petition demanding justice for Emmanuel and the people harmed by Shell in the Niger Delta.

Ahead of Shell’s Annual General Meeting this May, Amnesty will deliver the signatures of hundreds of thousands of activists from around the world in an unsparing public message to CEO Peter Voser and Shell shareholders.

Oil spills are endemic in the Niger Delta, and Shell is the biggest culprit. Why does the oil giant refuse to come clean about its spills in Nigeria? Just yesterday, Amnesty International and the Nigerian NGO, the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development, released new analysis showing that at least 103,000 barrels of oil were spilled over 72 days in Emmanuel’s town of Bodo — more than 60 times the volume that Shell repeatedly has claimed leaked.

But thanks to activists like you, corporations like Shell can’t hide their human rights abuses anymore. Amnesty International is calling Shell out in a big way, urging the company to make a clear and public commitment to contribute $1 billion as an initial payment to an independent clean-up fund.

People like Emmanuel deserve justice: a full clean-up, real reparations and a beginning to an end to their nightmare.

It’s time to hold Shell accountable and ensure it cleans up its act in Nigeria. Add your name to Amnesty’s petition against Shell today.

In solidarity,

Tanuka Loha
Director, Demand Dignity Campaign
Amnesty International USA

Keystone XL Creates Jobs?

From Nation of Change by Rebecca Leber
December 17, 2011

Myth That Keystone XL Creates Jobs Perpetuated by Oil Lobby, Parroted by Congress’s Oil Reicipients

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) insists that the GOP-led House will fight for the cash-rich oil industry at the expense of the middle-class payroll tax cut. “If that bill comes over to us,” he told reporters, “I will guarantee you that the Keystone pipeline will be in there when it goes back to the United States Senate.” Project advocates, who include Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, misrepresent its economic benefits to favor the oil industry, throwing out claims that Keystone XL creates “tens of thousands of jobs.”

However, studies conducted independently of TransCanada find much smaller jobs numbers, far from “tens of thousands.” An oil contractor hired by the State Department reported it would create between 5,000 and 6,000 temporary jobs, while an independent study by Cornell University found it would create only 500 to 1,400 temporary jobs. Once the costs of the increased pollution and risk of oil spills is factored in, Cornell found, the jobs impact is likely to be negative. The “118,000 spin-off jobs” number used by TransCanada received two Pinocchios from the Washington Post Fact Checker:

As opponents have documented, if the capital costs are lower than predicted, and if the multiplier is smaller, then the number of “spin-off jobs” can shrink dramatically. The same goes for the estimates of “permanent jobs,” which depend also on the price of oil.….Among the list of jobs that would be created: 51 dancers and choreographers, 138 dentists, 176 dental hygienists, 100 librarians, 510 bread bakers, 448 clergy, 154 stenographers, 865 hairdressers, 136 manicurists, 110 shampooers, 65 farmers, and (our favorite) 1,714 bartenders.

How did a grossly exaggerated number become the prevailing argument to build the pipeline? The reason is the oil lobby is in overdrive. At least 42 companies have lobbied on Keystone XL since 2009, and 33 actively campaigned in the most recent quarter.

Read entire story at Nation of Change.