California City Wins $22 Million Against Shell Oil Over Toxic Drinking Water

By Andrea Castillo for McClatchy DC – The city of Clovis won its more than three-month-long civil trial against chemical manufacturing giant Shell Oil Co. over the cleanup of a toxic chemical found in drinking-water wells around the city of 108,000 people. The chemical is 1,2,3-trichloropropane, or TCP, which is a waste product from making plastic. TCP was in farm fumigants last used in the 1980s, which were injected into the ground to kill tiny worms called nematodes. A jury on Wednesday awarded the city nearly $22 million, finding that Clovis residents were harmed by the design of the fumigant, that Shell did not prove the benefits of its product outweighed the risks, and that those risks were known at the time it was sold.

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Mosquito Fleet Escalates Water-Based Protests Against Shell

By Kit O’Connell for Mint Press News – ANACORTES, Washington — After years of marches and land-based blockades, environmental activists are now taking to the seas to stop the growth of the fossil fuel industry and protest the environmental threats facing them. Inspired by actions last year against Shell Oil Co.’s plans to drill in the Arctic Circle, which included a kayak-based blockade, activists in the Pacific Northwest are forming a new “Mosquito Fleet” — a swarm of tiny boats that they hope will have a big impact by acting together.

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Did Shell’s Failure To Disclose Climate Risks Break The Law?

By David Hasemyer for Inside Climate News – Three members of Congress have asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Shell Oil Co. violated securities laws by failing to adequately disclose material business risks from climate change. Members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, led by California Democrat Ted Lieu, said in a letter to the SEC that Shell understood the consequences of climate change and made business decisions based on that knowledge.

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Bye Bye To Shell’s Polar Pioneer

By John Servais for Northwest Citizen. Merry Christmas and Seasons’ Greetings. The Grinch has left the building. We can all breath a bit easier. The huge Shell Oil floating drill platform is – as I write this – going west out the Straits of Georgia, leaving us for good at a speed of 11 mph. Bye bye.

The Port Angeles newspaper, the Peninsula Daily News, has been watching and reporting on the oil rig for the past week and you can read the full story there. There are links to the specific articles below this post. The photo above shows actually two vessels – the yellow legged Shell drilling rig Polar Pioneer that normally floats and is towed by tugs – and the Dockwise Vanguard, one of the largest vessels in the world that is carrying the drilling rig.

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Shell Scraps Alberta Tar Sands Project

By Staff of CTV News – CALGARY — Royal Dutch Shell is scrapping its Carmon Creek oils ands project in northwestern Alberta, citing a lack of pipelines to coastal waters as one reason for the decision. The move comes after a review of the project’s design and costs and where it stacks up against other projects Shell has in its portfolio. The European energy giant first announced it would build the 80,000-barrel-a-day, steam-driven operation near Peace River, Alta., in October 2013. But last March, the company said it would slow down the project while attempting to lower costs and improve its design.

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Newsletter: Their Greed Is Our Ally

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flower for Popular Resistance. The radical transformation that is needed is not on the agenda of anyone running for president in either the Democratic or Republican primary. The reality is that nothing offered by mainstream politics will achieve the transformational change that is needed. A normally mainstream Democrat, Robert Kuttner writes: “This is one of those moments when there is broad popular frustration, a moment when liberal goals require measures that seem radical by today’s standards. . . . Muddle-through and token gestures won’t fool anybody.”

Consciousness is rising and with that so will the demands and actions of an organized populace. Sometimes it will take the shape of protests, other times a rebellion, sometimes cities will be shut down and there will be riots. The system is not responding to the reasonable demands for social, economic, racial and environmental justice.

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Newsletter – No Justice, No Peace

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance. Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report writes that “No justice, no peace” is “a vow by the movement to transform the crisis that is inflicted on Black people into a generalized crisis for the larger society, and for those who currently rule.”

In reality, given the violence being inflicted upon people, particularly people of color, whether directly or indirectly through rising poverty, unemployment, homelessness, lack of access to health care and more, and the government’s failures to address these crises and listen to the people, disruption is a necessary element of political change. In 1968 the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke outside a prison in California where people were being held for protesting the Vietnam War. In the speech he drew the connections between the Civil Rights movement and the peace movement against the Vietnam War. Today we see the links between racism, inequality, imperialism, militarism and ecocide and his comment on that day continues to ring true: “There can be no justice without peace. And there can be no peace without justice.”

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Two People Chain Selves To Shell Ship

BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Two people have chained themselves to a support ship that is part of Royal Dutch Shell’s exploratory oil drilling plans and currently moored in Washington state.

Eric Ross of the Backbone Campaign said on Saturday morning that Matt Fuller joined student activist Chiara D’Angelo in suspending themselves from the anchor chain of the Arctic Challenger, which is in Bellingham Bay.

D’Angelo suspended herself from the ship with a climbing harness on Friday night.

“We’re doing really good, yeah. Our spirits are really high. We’ve got enough food. We’ve got enough to keep warm. Yeah, we feel really good about things right now,” Fuller said in a telephone interview on Saturday afternoon.

“I’m up here… I’ll speak for myself…

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Shell Oil Rig Coming To Seattle Despite Port Vote To Delay

Since Shell ignore the request of the Port of Seattle to delay their arrival, the Kayactivists participating in the Paddle in Seattle are ready to greet Shell when it comes to Seattle on May 16th. Hundreds of Kayactivists have been trained, the project has already gotten national attention in The New York Times, as well as international news coverage, and the cover of local newspapers, as well as garnering continued coverage from multiple television outlets. It is going to be a highly visible, creative and aggressive action to say sHell No! On Thursday May 14th they are holding their FINAL Kayaktivism Training before the Flotilla. Reserve your kayak & RSVP for the May 16th Paddle In Seattle so we can send you the most up to date information!!!

Port of Seattle commissioners asked that Shell’s Arctic drilling rigs delay their arrival at Seattle’s waterfront while the port appeals a city ruling that a new permit is needed. But Foss Maritime expects to move ahead with the planned arrival of the Polar Pioneer on Thursday.

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