by Naomi Klein
23. FOOTNOTE: Maxime Combes, “Let’s Frackdown the Fracking Companies,” in Leah Temper, et al., “Towards a Post-Oil Civilization: Yasunization and Other Initiatives to Leave Fossil Fuels in the Soil,” EJOLT Report No. 6, May 2013, p. 92.
24. Esperanza Martínez, “The Yasuní—ITT Initiative from a Political Economy and Political Ecology Perspective,” in Temper et al., “Towards a Post-Oil Civilization,” p. 11; KC Golden, “The Keystone Principle,” Getting a GRIP on Climate Solutions, February 15, 2013.
25. “Chop Fine: The Human Rights Impact of Local Government Corruption and Mismanagement in Rivers State, Nigeria,” Human Rights Watch, January 2007, p. 16; “Niger Delta Human Development Report,” United Nations Development Programme, 2006, p. 76; Adam Nossiter, “Far from Gulf, a Spill Scourge 5 Decades Old,” New York Times, June 16, 2010; Christian Purefoy, “Nigerians Angry at Oil Pollution Double Standards,” CNN, June 30, 2010.
26. Nigeria flared about 515 billion cubic feet (14.6 billion cubic meters) of natural gas in 2011, according to satellite data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; assuming 127 kilowatt hours per Mcf of natural gas, following the U.S. Energy Information Administration, this could theoretically produce nearly three times as much electricity as Nigeria consumed in 2011 (which was about 23.1 billion kWh). Roughly half of Nigerians do not currently have electricity access. Also according to EIA data, CO2 emissions from gas flaring in Nigeria totaled about 31.1 million metric tons in 2011, just over 40 percent of Nigeria’s total emissions from energy consumption that year. For data sources, see: “Estimated Flared Volumes from Satellite Data, 2007–2011,” World Bank, Global Gas Flaring Reduction, http://web.worldbank.org; “Frequently Asked Questions: How Much Coal, Natural Gas, or Petroleum is Used to Generate a Kilowatthour of Electricity?” U.S. Energy Information, U.S. Department of Energy, http://www.eia.gov; “International Energy Statistics,” U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, http://www.eia.gov. DELTA COMMUNITIES LACK: Paul Francis, Deirdre Lapin, and Paula Rossiasco, “Niger Delta: A Social and Conflict Analysis for Change,” Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2011, p. 10; Richard Essein, “Unemployment Highest in Niger Delta,” Daily Times Nigeria, March 30, 2011; “Communities Not Criminals: Illegal Oil Refining in the Niger Delta,” Stakeholder Democracy Network, October 2013, p. 4.
27. Jedrzej George Frynas, “Political Instability and Business: Focus on Shell in Nigeria,” Third World Quarterly 19 (1998): 463; Alan Detheridge and Noble Pepple (Shell), “A Response to Frynas,” Third World Quarterly 3 (1998): 481-482.
28. Note that after Shell pulled out, pipelines crossing Ogoni territory from other wells remained active. Godwin Uyi Ojo, “Nigeria, Three Complementary Viewpoints on the Niger Delta,” in Temper et al., “Towards a Post-Oil Civilization,” pp. 39–40; “Nigeria Ogoniland Oil Clean-up ‘Could Take 30 Years,’ ” BBC News, August 4, 2011; Carley Petesch, “Shell Niger Delta Oil Spill: Company to Negotiate Compensation and Cleanup with Nigerians,” Associated Press, September 9, 2013; Eghosa E. Osaghae, “The Ogoni Uprising: Oil Politics, Minority Agitation and the Future of the Nigerian State,” African Affairs 94 (1995): 325–344.
29. Osuoka interview, January 10, 2014; Ojo in Temper et al., “Towards a Post-Oil Civilization,” p. 40.
30. Elisha Bala-Gbogbo, “Nigeria Says Revenue Gap May Reach as Much as $12 Billion,” Bloomberg, November 1, 2013; Ed Pilkington, “14 Years After Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Death, Family Points Finger at Shell in Court,” Guardian, May 26, 2009; Frank Aigbogun, “It Took Five to Hang Saro-Wiwa,” Associated Press, November 13, 1995; Andrew Rowell and Stephen Kretzmann, “The Ogoni Struggle,” report, Project Underground, Berkeley, California, 1996.
31. Bronwen Manby, “The Price of Oil: Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights Violations in Nigeria’s Oil Producing Communities,” Human Rights Watch, HRW Index No. 1-56432-225-4, January 1999, pp. 123–26.
32. “The Kaiama Declaration,” United Ijaw, 1998, http://www.unitedijaw.com.
33. Ibid.
34. Personal interview with Isaac Osuoka, January 10, 2014.
35. Isaac Osuoka, “Operation Climate Change,” in Climate Change: Who’s Carrying the Burden? The Chilly Climates of the Global Environmental Dilemma, ed. L. Anders Sandberg and Tor Sandberg (Ottawa: The Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, 2010), 166.
36. Bronwen Manby, “Nigeria: Crackdown in the Niger Delta,” Human Rights Watch, Vol. 11, No. 2 (A), May 1999, pp. 2, 11, 13–17.
37. Ojo in Temper et al., “Towards a Post-Oil Civilization,” p. 44.
38. Paul M. Barrett, “Ecuadorian Court Cuts Chevron’s Pollution Bill in Half,” Bloomberg Businessweek, November 13, 2013; “Supreme Court will hear Chevron appeal in Ecuador environmental damages case,” The Canadian Press, April 3, 2014.
39. Bob Deans, “Big Coal, Cold Cash, and the GOP,” OnEarth, February 22, 2012.
40. Clifford Krauss, “Shale Boom in Texas Could Increase U.S. Oil Output,” New York Times, May 27, 2011.
41. Brian Milner, “ ‘Saudi America’ Heads for Energy Independence,” Globe and Mail, March 18, 2012; “Moving Crude Oil by Rail,” Association of American Railroads, December 2013; Clifford Krauss and Jad Mouawad, “Accidents Surge as Oil Industry Takes the Train,” New York Times, January 25, 2014; “Kim Mackrael, “How Bakken Crude Moved from North Dakota to Lac-Mégantic,” Globe and Mail, July 8, 2014; Jim Monk, “Former Gov. Sinner Proposes National Rail Safety Discussion,” KFGO (North Dakota), January 7, 2014.
42. Nathan Vanderklippe and Shawn McCarthy, “Without Keystone XL, Oil Sands Face Choke Point,” Globe and Mail, June 8, 2011.
43. “Energy: The Pros and Cons of Shale Gas Drilling,” 60 Minutes, CBS, November 14, 2010.
44. “Glenn Beck—Bernanke Confused, a Coming Caliphate and Rick Santorum,” Glenn Beck, June 23, 2011; Suzanne Goldenberg, “Fracking Hell: What It’s Really Like to Live Next to a Shale Gas Well,” Guardian, December 13, 2013; Russell Gold and Tom McGinty, “Energy Boom Puts Wells in America’s Backyards,” Wall Street Journal, October 25, 2013.
45. Kim Cornelissen, “Shale Gas and Quebecers: The Broken Bridge Towards Renewable Sources of Energy,” in Temper et al., “Towards a Post-Oil Civilization,” p. 100; Emily Gosden, “Half of Britain to Be Offered for Shale Gas Drilling as Fracking Areas Face 50 Trucks Passing Each Day,” Telegraph, December 17, 2013; Damian Carrington, “Fracking Can Take Place in ‘Desolate’ North-East England, Tory Peer Says,” Guardian, July 30, 2013.
46. David Mildenberg and Jim Efstathiou Jr., “Ranchers Tell Keystone: Not Under My Backyard,” Bloomberg Businessweek, March 8, 2012; Goldenberg, “Fracking Hell.”
47. Daniel Gilbert, “Exxon CEO Joins Suit Citing Fracking Concerns,” Wall Street Journal, February 20, 2014; “Polis Welcomes ExxonMobil CEO into ‘Exclusive’ Group of People Whose Neighborhood Has Been Fracked,” Congressman Jared Polis, press release, February 21, 2014.
48. Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, Common Sense, and Other Political Writings, ed. Mark Philp (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 25.
49. Nick Engelfried, “The Extraction Backlash—How Fossil Fuel Companies Are Aiding Their Own Demise,” Waging Nonviolence, November 22, 2013.
50. Mark Dowie, Losing Ground: American Environmentalism at the Close of the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996), 125.
51. “Americans, Gulf Residents and the Oil Spill,” poll, CBS News/New York Times, June 21, 2010; Bruce Alpert, “Obama Administration ‘Cannot Support’ Bill Increasing Offshore Revenue Sharing,” Times-Picayune, July 23, 2013; Annie Snider and Nick Juliano, “Will Landrieu’s Rise Give New Life to Revenue Sharing?” E&E Daily, February 25, 2014; “The Damage for Gulf Coast Residents: Economic, Environmental, Emotional,” poll, ABC News/Washington Post, July 14, 2010.
52. “Current High Volume Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing Drilling Bans and Moratoria in NY State,” FracTracker.org, http://www.fractracker.org.
53. “Min
isink Compressor Project: Environmental Assessment,” Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, March 2012; Mary Esch, “NY Town of 9/11 Workers Wages Gas Pipeline Fight,” Associated Press, February 14, 2013; “Blow-Down Events at Minisink Compressor Frighten Un-Notified Residents,” Stop the Minisink Compressor Station and Minisink Residents for Environmental Preservation and Safety, March 11, 2013, http://www.stopmcs.org.
54. Maxime Combes, “Let’s Frackdown the Fracking Companies,” in Temper et al., “Towards a Post-Oil Civilization,” p. 91, 97.
55. Vince Devlin, “Proposed Big Rigs 9 Feet Longer than Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose,” Missoulian, November 13, 2010; “747-8: Airplane Characteristics for Airport Planning,” Boeing, December 2012, p. 7; “Vertical Clearance,” Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov.
56. Personal interview with Marty Cobenais, October 17, 2010.
57. Betsy Z. Russell, “Judge Halts Megaloads on Highway 12 in Idaho,” Spokesman-Review (Spokane), September 13, 2013; personal interview with Alexis Bonogofsky, October 21, 2010.
58. Marc Dadigan, “Umatilla Tribe Battles Mega-Loads Headed for Alberta Oil Sands,” Indian Country Today Media Network, December 11, 2013.
59. Lesley Fleischman et al. “Ripe for Retirement: An Economic Analysis of the U.S. Coal Fleet,” The Electricity Journal 26 (2013): 51–63; Michael Klare, “Let Them Eat Carbon: Like Big Tobacco, Big Energy Targets the Developing World for Future Profits,” TomDispatch, May 27, 2014.
60. KC Golden, “Live on Stage in the Great Northwest: King Coal’s Tragic Puppet Show, Part 1,” Getting a GRIP on Climate Solutions, March 4, 2013.
61. Michelle Kinman and Antonia Juhasz, ed., “The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report,” True Cost of Chevron network, May 2011, pp. 13–14; “Contra Costa County Asthma Profile,” California Breathing, http://www.californiabreathing.org; Jeremy Miller, “The Bay Area Chevron Explosion Shows Gaps in Refinery Safety,” High Country News, September 3, 2012; Robert Rogers, “Chevron Refinery Fire One Year Later: Fallout, Impact Show No Sign of Warning,” Contra Costa Times, August 10, 2013.
62. David R. Baker, “Judge Deals Setback to Chevron Refinery Plan,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 9, 2009; Katherine Tam, “Court Rules Richmond Refinery Plan Is Inadequate,” Contra Costa Times, April 26, 2010; “Chevron Refinery Expansion at Richmond, CA Halted,” EarthJustice, press release, July 2, 2009.
63. Personal interview with Melina Laboucan-Massimo, July 5, 2013.
64. Hannibal Rhoades, “ ‘We Draw the Line’: Coal-Impacted Lummi Nation and Northern Cheyenne Unite in Solidarity,” IC Magazine, October 9, 2013.
65. “Jonathan Chait, “The Keystone Fight Is a Huge Environmentalist Mistake,” New York Magazine, October 30, 2013; Joe Nocera, “How Not to Fix Climate Change,” New York Times, February 18, 2013; Joe Nocera, “A Scientist’s Misguided Crusade,” New York Times, March 4, 2013.
66. Jad Mouawad, “U.S. Orders Tests on Rail Shipments,” New York Times, February 25, 2014; Jad Mouawad, “Trailing Canada, U.S. Starts a Push for Safer Oil Shipping,” New York Times, April 24, 2014; Curtis Tate, “Regulators Take Voluntary Route on Tank Car Rules,” McClatchy Newspapers, May 7, 2014.
67. There is evidence suggesting that dilbit can be more corrosive than other crudes under certain conditions, particularly at high temperatures, but the matter has been contested in recent years. There is also evidence that dilbit may be more likely to cause other kinds of pipeline failure, such as cracking. Anthony Swift, Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, and Elizabeth Shope, “Tar Sands Pipelines Safety Risks,” Natural Resources Defense Council, 2011, p. 3.
68. Vivian Luk, “Diluted Bitumen Sinks When Mixed with Sediments, Federal Report Says,” Globe and Mail, January 14, 2014; “Properties, Composition and Marine Spill Behaviour, Fate and Transport of Two Diluted Bitumen Products from the Canadian Oil Sands,” Federal Government Technical Report, Government of Canada, November 30, 2013.
69. FOOTNOTE: Bob Weber, “Syncrude Guilty in Death of 1,600 Ducks in Toxic Tailings Pond,” The Canadian Press, June 25, 2010; Syncrude, Suncor Cleared After Duck Death Investigation,” CBC News, October 4, 2012; Colleen Cassady St. Clair, Thomas Habib, and Bryon Shore, “Spatial and Temporal Correlates of Mass Bird Mortality in Oil Sands Tailings Ponds,” report prepared from Alberta Environment, November 10, 2011, pp. 17–18.
70. Although there is year-to-year fluctuation based on the size of reserves, the value of the oil sands has risen in line with the industry’s expansion, from C$19 billion in 1990 to C$460 billion in 2010: “Energy,” Canada Year Book 2012, Statistics Canada, http://www.statcan.gc.ca. Bill Donahue was not an author of the study he commented on: “Oilsands Study Confirms Tailings Found in Groundwater, River,” CBC News, February 20, 2014; Richard A. Frank et al., “Profiling Oil Sands Mixtures from Industrial Developments and Natural Groundwaters for Source Identification,” Environmental Science & Technology 48 (2014): 2660–70. DIFFERENT CASE: Mike De Souza, “Scientists Discouraged from Commenting on Oilsands Contaminant Study,” Postmedia News, November 4, 2012.
71. Florence Loyle, “Doctor Cleared over Suggested Link Between Cancer, Oilsands,” Edmonton Journal, November 7, 2009; Vincent McDermott, “Fort Chipewyan Cancer Study Set to Begin,” Fort McMurray Today, February 20, 2013; Michael Toledano, “We Interviewed Dr. John O’Connor, One of the First Tar Sands Whistleblowers,” Vice, March 3, 2014.
72. Peter Moskowitz, “Report Finds Doctors Reluctant to Link Oil Sands with Health Issues,” Al Jazeera America, January 20, 2014; Mike De Souza, “Scientist Speaks Out After Finding ‘Record’ Ozone Hole over Canadian Arctic,” Postmedia News, October 21, 2011.
73. Mike De Souza, “Federal Budget Cuts Undermine Environment Canada’s Mandate to Enforce Clean Air Regulations: Emails,” Postmedia News, March 17, 2013; “Silence of the Labs,” The Fifth Estate, CBC News, January 10, 2014.
74. FOOTNOTE: Abha Parajulee and Frank Wania, “Evaluating Officially Reported Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Emissions in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region with a Multimedia Fate Model,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111 (2014): 3348; “Oil Sands Pollution Two to Three Times Higher than Thought,” Agence France-Presse, February 3, 2014.
75. “Regulation of Hydraulic Fracturing Under the Safe Drinking Water Act,” Environmental Protection Agency, http://water.epa.gov; Mary Tiemann and Adam Vann, “Hydraulic Fracturing and Safe Drinking Water Act Regulatory Issues,” Congressional Research Service, Report R41760, January 10, 2013; Lisa Song, “Secrecy Loophole Could Still Weaken BLM’s Tougher Fracking Regs,” InsideClimate News, February 15, 2012.
76. Robert B. Jackson et al., “Increased Stray Gas Abundance in a Subset of Drinking Water Wells Near Marcellus Shale Gas Extraction,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110 (2013): 11250-11255; Mark Drajem, “Duke Fracking Tests Reveal Dangers Driller’s Data Missed,” Bloomberg, January 9, 2014.
77. Cliff Frohlich, “Two-Year Survey Comparing Earthquake Activity and Injection Well Locations in the Barnett Shale, Texas,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109 (2012): 13934–13938.
78. Ibid.; Won-Young Kim, “Induced Seismicity Associated with Fluid Injection into a Deep Well in Youngstown, Ohio,” Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 118 (2013): 3506–3518; Charles Q. Choi, “Fracking Practice to Blame for Ohio Earthquakes,” LiveScience, September 4, 2013; Nicholas J. van der Elst et al., “Enhanced Remote Earthquake Triggering at Fluid-Injection Sites in the Midwestern United States,” Science 341 (2013): 164–167; Sharon Begley, “Distant Seismic Activity Can Trigger Quakes at ‘Fracking’ Sites,” Reuters, July 11, 2013.
79. “Report Regarding the Causes of the April 20, 2010 Macondo Well Blowout,” U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, September 14, 2011, p. 191; “Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling,” National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offsh
ore Drilling, January 2011, p. 125; Joel Achenbach, “BP’s Cost Cuts Contributed to Oil Spill Disaster, Federal Probe Finds,” Washington Post, September 14, 2011.
80. Elizabeth McGowan and Lisa Song, “The Dilbit Disaster: Inside The Biggest Oil Spill You’ve Never Heard Of, Part 1,” InsideClimate News, June 26, 2012.
81. Ibid.; Charles Rusnell, “Enbridge Staff Ignored Warnings in Kalamazoo River Spill,” CBC News, June 22, 2012; “Oil Cleanup Continues on Kalamazoo River,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, June 2013.
82. In explaining his previous denials, Daniel appears to have been trying to argue that because the diluted bitumen traveling in Enbridge’s pipeline had been extracted with newer “in situ” steam injection technology, rather than mined, it would not qualify as tar sands oil: Todd Heywood, “Enbridge CEO Downplays Long-Term Effects of Spill,” Michigan Messenger, August 12, 2010. MORE THAN A WEEK: McGowan and Song, “The Dilbit Disaster”; DANIEL: Kari Lyderson, “Michigan Oil Spill Increases Concern over Tar Sands Pipelines,” OnEarth, August 6, 2010; Kari Lyderson, “Michigan Oil Spill: The Tar Sands Name Game (and Why It Matters),” OnEarth, August 12, 2010.
83. Cobenais interview, October 17, 2010.
84. Dan Joling, “Shell Oil-Drilling Ship Runs Aground on Alaska’s Sitkalidak Island,” Associated Press, January 1, 2013; Rachel D’Oro, “Nobel Discoverer, Shell Oil Drilling Vessel, Shows No Signs of Damage, Coast Guard Claims,” Associated Press, July 15, 2012; John Ryan, “Sea Trial Leaves Shell’s Arctic Oil-Spill Gear ‘Crushed Like a Beer Can,’ ” KUOW.org, November 30, 2012.
85. Mike Soraghan, “Oil Spills: U.S. Well Sites in 2012 Discharged More Than Valdez,” EnergyWire, Monday, July 8, 2013; Dan Frosch and Janet Roberts, “Pipeline Spills Put Safeguards Under Scrutiny,” New York Times, September 9, 2011.
