[TheClimate.Vote] October 28, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News

[Richard Pauli]

/October 28, 2017/

*Federal official pushes ahead pipeline project 
<http://www.recordonline.com/news/20171027/federal-official-pushes-ahead-pipeline-project>*
WAWAYANDA - Federal regulators gave Millennium Pipeline Co. permission 
Friday to start building the 7.8-mile natural gas line that will supply 
the Competitive Power Ventures plant, pushing the project forward even 
as a dispute continues over the state's denial of permits for that pipeline.
The notice to proceed, issued to Millennium by a Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission official, was a victory for Millennium and the 
company building the $900 million power plant in Wawayanda, which is 
largely built and was due to be tested soon. The state Department of 
Environmental Conservation had denied Millennium's permits for the gas 
pipe about two months ago, arguing the company needed to document the 
potential effects of the greenhouse gases that the 650-megawatt power 
station will release. FERC overruled that decision two weeks later, and 
DEC is challenging FERC's ruling.
The DEC rehearing request, and a separate one filed by environmental 
groups opposed to the CPV plant, were still pending when the FERC 
official declared on Friday that construction may start.
Michelle Hook, a Millennium spokeswoman, said afterward that the company 
hopes to begin work in early November and expects to finish in about six 
months, depending on the winter weather.
Pramilla Malick, leader of an Orange County citizens group that has 
fought the power plant, called the FERC official's decision "an 
unprecedented abuse of process and law," and urged Gov. Andrew Cuomo and 
Basil Seggos, the state's environmental conservation commissioner, "to 
use the police powers of the state to protect our water and prevent any 
construction activity." She also asked them to suspend the CPV plant's 
permits.
DEC officials had no immediate response to the FERC decision. They had 
asked the commission to withhold permission for Millennium to start 
construction while the DEC's challenge involving the pipeline permits 
was pending....
"The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation will seek a 
stay of FERC's ruling and is evaluating all options in order to protect 
the environment," said the DEC in a statement Friday. "FERC's decision 
today encroaches on state's rights, runs counter to the federal Clean 
Water Act, and prevents states from protecting precious natural resources."
http://www.recordonline.com/news/20171027/federal-official-pushes-ahead-pipeline-project


*BP and Shell planning for catastrophic 5C global warming despite 
publicly backing Paris climate agreement 
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/bp-shell-oil-global-warming-5-degree-paris-climate-agreement-fossil-fuels-temperature-rise-a8022511.html>*
Companies are trying to 'have their oil and drink it' by committing to 2 
degrees C in public while planning for much higher temperature rises, 
says shareholder campaign group, ShareAction.
Oil giants Shell and BP are planning for global temperatures to rise as 
much as 5 degrees C by the middle of the century. The level is more than 
double the upper limit committed to by most countries in the world under 
theParis Climate Agreement 
<http://www.independent.co.uk/topic/paris-climate-agreement>, which both 
companies publicly support.
The discrepancy demonstrates that the companies are keeping shareholders 
in the dark about the risks posed to their businesses by climate change, 
according totwo new reports <https://shareaction.org/>published by 
investment campaign group Share Action. Many climate scientists say that 
a temperature rise of 5 degrees C would becatastrophic for the planet 
<http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/arctic-circle-sea-ice-free-global-warming-limit-two-degrees-celcius-climate-change-paris-agreement-a7616311.html>.
ShareAction claims that the companies' actions put the value of millions 
of people's pensions at risk. Two years after BP andShell 
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/nigeria-seize-12-oil-bloc-africa-richest-prosecute-shell-eni-corruption-charges-petroleum-federal-a7549626.html> shareholders 
voted resoundingly in favour offorcing the companies to make detailed 
disclosures 
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/bp-shareholders-back-motion-for-company-to-be-more-transparent-about-climate-policy-10182538.html>about 
climate risks, the companies have made unconvincing steps forward, 
according to the reports.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/bp-shell-oil-global-warming-5-degree-paris-climate-agreement-fossil-fuels-temperature-rise-a8022511.html
*Our latest reports <https://shareaction.org/>*
It's been two years since we co-filed shareholder resolutions on climate 
disclosure at BP and Shell. While the oil majors have complied with the 
minimum requirements of those resolutions, their current business models 
continue to ignore the reality of the low-carbon transition. We have 
published two reports analysing each company's performance in order to 
support institutional investors to press the companies to move beyond 
climate disclosure and take meaningful action now.
https://shareaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/InvestorReport-AimingForA-BP.pdf
https://shareaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/InvestorReport-AimingForA-Shell.pdf
https://shareaction.org/


*Shipping executive: 'We have deliberately misled public on climate' 
<http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/10/26/shipping-executive-deliberately-mislead-public-climate/>*
By Karl Mathiesen        Published on 26/10/2017, 12:30pm
Industry veteran said lobbyists at UN shipping talks were 'prostitutes 
employed by our racket to try and put one over on the general public'
A UK shipping executive has turned on the industry for ignoring the 
effect lobbying has had on its efforts to reduce carbon pollution.
In an op-ed published <http://splash247.com/can-honest-damage/>on the 
trade press site Splash 24/7 on Thursday, Andrew Craig-Bennett said 
industry mockery of a report released this week that concluded lobbyists 
had "captured" talks at the UN International Maritime Organisation (IMO) 
was misplaced.
On Monday, the NGO Influence Map released a damning report 
<http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/10/23/un-shipping-climate-talks-captured-industry/>that 
exposed the degree to which these shipping registries and industry lobby 
groups had infiltrated the body intended to regulate them.
While some details in the report were incorrect, said Craig-Bennett, a 
41-year veteran of the shipping industry, "it is basically right, and we 
all know that it is".
"From the feedback I got, it was an eye opener for many [IMO] 
delegates," van Ypersele told Climate Home News. When asked what exactly 
had been surprising for those in the room, he said as far as he knew, 
they had not known that "CO2 is a stock pollutant, and therefore that 
zero net emissions are needed to stabilise the CO2 and temperature". 
Stock pollutants are long-lasting chemicals that accumulate in the 
environment over time.
Craig-Bennett said the industry should move fast to adopt new and 
disruptive technologies. "The only sensible proposal before the IMO is 
the one coming from the Pacific Islands - including the Marshall Islands 
- calling for zero emissions by 2035… Seventeen years is long enough to 
pay down and scrap all existing ships and replace them with something else."
He also sarcastically noted the IMO's "infinite wisdom" in not allowing 
journalists to report on its discussions. Climate Home News' deputy 
editor Megan Darby was banned from the IMO for doing just that in 2016 
<http://www.climatechangenews.com/2016/07/15/offshore-carbon-why-a-climate-deal-for-shipping-is-sinking/>.
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/10/26/shipping-executive-deliberately-mislead-public-climate/
-
*UN shipping climate talks 'captured' by industry lobbyists 
<http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/10/23/un-shipping-climate-talks-captured-industry/>*
Published on 23/10/2017      By Megan Darby
Business interests dominate at the International Maritime Organization, 
analysis shows, steering it towards weak greenhouse gas emissions rules
The shipping industry has "captured" UN talks on a climate target for 
the sector, using its clout to delay and weaken emissions curbs.
That is the conclusion of a report by business lobbying watchdog 
Influence Map 
<https://influencemap.org/report/Corporate-capture-of-the-IMO-902bf81c05a0591c551f965020623fda>on 
the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The study was released to 
coincide with a meeting of an IMO working group on greenhouse gases on 
Monday.
Based on analysis of delegate lists, meeting submissions and outcomes, 
it finds business interests exert an uncommon degree of influence over 
decisions. This, campaigners warn, jeopardises the international climate 
goals adopted in Paris....
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/10/23/un-shipping-climate-talks-captured-industry/
https://influencemap.org/report/Corporate-capture-of-the-IMO-902bf81c05a0591c551f965020623fda 
Report
-more:
*International Maritime Organization (IMO) *
*(opinion) Can we be honest about the damage we are all doing? 
<http://splash247.com/can-honest-damage/>*
Amongst this week's contributions to the gaiety of nations we may 
include the attempt by our industry's lobbying bodies to tell the world 
that they do not do what we pay them to do - to influence national and 
international policy in favour of people who own and operate merchant ships.
on. In my case, I was the observer ... at a session on solid bulk 
cargoes, more than 30 years ago, and I saw a carefully drafted, 
science-based, regulation, which would have improved safety and been 
simple to enforce, turned into a pile of scientifically unsound but 
'commercially helpful' garbage by, in that case, the Australian mining 
industry, who were pretending to be the Australian government.
I have no reason to think that any other sessions, or any other 
governments, are different. Bismarck's remark about making sausages 
comes to mind.
Let's be practical. We are in this business to make money.
How can we make lots of it, whilst at the same time keeping this 
planet's delicate oceans and atmosphere intact? Planets don't come with 
lifeboats.
Most of us will have seen the reports of the study, published last month 
by the University of Washington at Seattle, into the frequency of 
lightning strikes 
<http://splash247.com/study-maps-correlation-busy-shipping-lanes-intense-thunderstorms/> 
at sea and their much higher incidence over heavily used shipping lanes. 
In case you missed it, lightning strikes are twice as common over the 
two busiest shipping lanes in the world, those leading towards and away 
from the Straits of Malacca, as they are elsewhere, and this is because 
of the greater number of particulates in the atmosphere over those 
shipping lanes, which affects cloud formation.
That is direct evidence that our ships are interfering with the climate.
Remember, if you have been in shipping for 30 years, that the world 
fleet is now four times as large as it was when you started.
Our oceans are a mass of churned up fragments of plastic, leopard seals 
are eating krill because there are no penguins, reefs are blanching, 
life in the seas is dying, and all our representatives can do is to 
offer up the prayer of the young Saint Augustine - "O Lord, make me 
virtuous, but not yet!"
It doesn't really do, does it? When we are offered such validations of 
Disraeli as, "Shipping moves 90% of goods at the cost of 3% of 
emissions", which is a running together of numbers from different places 
- the valid comparison would be with transport emissions, not total 
emissions - we can feel nothing but contempt and disgust at the 
prostitutes employed by our racket to try to put one over on the general 
public.
The IMO does not have the power to influence public opinion, all it can 
do is to slow down, or speed up, regulatory charge.
Regulation of emissions exists, in a very feeble form; real regulation 
of emissions is unavoidable; all we can do is to choose to promote it or 
to try to delay it.
We all know that if we try to regulate emissions by measuring fuel 
consumption, and so on, people in our business are going to cheat. It's 
what people in our business do. The only way to keep ourselves honest is 
to ban the infernal combination engine altogether, along with the 
external kind, and to adopt zero emissions.
Before you throw your hands up in horror, take a moment to think about this.
The best way to make loads of money whilst stimulating economic 
development is the same as it always has been - to ride the wave of a 
truly disruptive technology.  Containers, diesel engines, welding, 
steel, refrigeration, wireless, the telegraph cable, compound expansion 
steam, carvel planking, the astrolabe and the mariner's compass - these 
have been the great disruptors, and the biggest of them involved propulsion.
We want to make money, and to lead long, comfortable, lives.
These are the only facts that matter.
I hope we all agree?
Because if we do, we must also agree that the only sensible proposal 
before the IMO is the one coming from the Pacific islands - including 
the Marshall Islands - calling for zero emissions by 2035.
That would give us 17 years to scrap every ship on the planet and 
replace them with ships that do not consume hydrocarbons and emit 
greenhouse gases when in operation.
That's a real disruption, unlike unmanned ships and suchlike, which are 
chicken feed.
Seventeen years is long enough to pay down and scrap all existing ships 
and replace them with something else.
Let's take a blank sheet of paper and think about that. The playing 
field is now quite level...
http://slash247.com/can-honest-damage/


*How Climate Change Affects Cartography 
<https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/climate-change-maps>*
Mapmakers talk about how they approach shifting coastlines and melting ice.
THE MAPS IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC'S 10th edition of its Atlas of the 
World, released in 2014, were similar to those in 50 years' worth of 
previous editions, from the familiar outlines of continents to Nat Geo's 
patented font.
But there was an important difference—the shape of the Arctic.
Using data from NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Nat Geo 
remapped the area in 2013 to show how the Arctic's ice sheet had 
receded. The change was so extensive that President Barack Obama 
mentioned it in a speech on global warming. But as soon as the 
cartographers had finished drawing, their map was already out of date.
"The sea ice changes monthly and daily so it's very hard to capture it 
in one static image," explains Rosemary Wardley, a senior GIS 
cartographer at National Geographic Maps, and part of the world atlas team.
To capture this state of change, Nat Geo has attempted to portray the 
Arctic "a little differently" in its recent visual atlas, presenting 
data about the state of the sea ice over time and during different 
seasons. The ice has a more "physical look" and a less "solid, white 
feel." "We wanted to make sure the user could see the multiyear ice [ice 
that survives more than one melting season] and that while it's 
something solid, it is changing," says Wardley....
...By 2050, an estimated 66 percent of the world's population will live 
in cities, driven in part by climate change, such as extreme flooding or 
drought in rural areas. Expanding cities are at increased risk from the 
effects of climate change, as mapped by the European Environment Agency. 
They also require new maps to help us understand them.
"We live in layers stacked up. A 3D map is hard to navigate partly 
because we are so used to maps being flat," says Bonnett. "It's not just 
a question of physical changes and data changes, but of us trying to get 
our heads around new dimensions in mapping."
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/climate-change-maps


*This Halloween, Samantha Bee Wants to Scare the Disbelieving Pants Off 
of Climate Change Deniers* 
<http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/10/26/watch_samantha_bee_s_climate_change_themed_halloween_special_video.html>
Halloween is just days away, and studies show that Americans are more 
afraid of clowns than climate change. Full Frontal's Samantha Bee is on 
a mission to change that by taking the concept of Hell 
Houses—essentially haunted houses created by religious organizations to 
scare people out of being gay or getting abortions—and using it for her 
own means. Bee partnered with the people behind Terror Behind the Walls, 
a haunted house at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, and set 
up a climate change-themed Hell House that imagines a future in which 
the Earth is ruined beyond repair.
(Video) Full Frontal's (Hot As) Hell House | October 25, 2017 Act 3 | 
Full Frontal on TBS <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFjV8hZR4uM> 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFjV8hZR4uM
At the end, Bee found that the experience had changed at least one 
climate change denier's mind—but it wasn't the cockroaches that did it. 
As for the others in her focus group, maybe Ingrid Michaelson can sing 
some sense into them: Michaelson showed up to sing a parody of her song 
"Be OK" called "(Earth Is) Not OK."
(Video) (Earth is) Not OK ft. Ingrid Michaelson | October 25, 2017 | 
Full Frontal on TBS <https://youtu.be/jAPltvZCt9w> 
https://youtu.be/jAPltvZCt9w
The special effects really are something.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/10/26/watch_samantha_bee_s_climate_change_themed_halloween_special_video.html


*Climate Change and the Human Mind: A Noted Psychiatrist Weighs In 
<http://e360.yale.edu/features/climate-change-and-the-human-mind-a-noted-psychiatrist-weighs-in>*
Author Robert Jay Lifton has probed the psyches of barbaric Nazi doctors 
and Hiroshima survivors. Now, he is focusing on how people respond to 
the mounting evidence of climate change and is finding some reasons for 
hope.
BY DIANE TOOMEY  • OCTOBER 26, 2017
*e360: *At the end of your book, you give an articulate explanation of 
why you, as a 91-year-old who will not see the worst effects of climate 
change, care about this issue. Could you share a bit of that now?
*Lifton: *It's sometimes assumed that when one reaches the last stages 
of life, one shouldn't have to care about the human future. One, after 
all, won't be there. But it can be the reverse for many of us, and I 
think I'm hardly alone in this. If one considers oneself, as I do, part 
of the human flow, part of the Great Chain of Being, part of human 
connectedness, which extends from generation to generation, of course it 
includes one's own children and grandchildren — and I have those. But 
it's more than that. It's continuing the human chain that one has been a 
part of. And in my case, that I sought to in some ways contribute to, in 
a modest fashion, all through my life in my work.
http://e360.yale.edu/features/climate-change-and-the-human-mind-a-noted-psychiatrist-weighs-in


*(opinion) It Doesn't Matter if Cities Are Climate Change-Proof if No 
One Can Afford to Live in Them 
<https://www.thenation.com/article/it-doesnt-matter-if-cities-are-climate-change-proof-if-no-one-can-afford-to-live-in-them/>*
In the wake of this year's devastating hurricanes, cities need to focus 
on equity in all of their future climate-adaptation plans.
Trump and the head of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson, seem 
patently uninterested in shoring up the environmental defenses of 
vulnerable public-housing systems. Carson and Trump both seem committed 
to systematically defunding and deregulating housing programs, and 
outsourcing public infrastructure projects to private contractors. Peter 
Kye, author of PRRAC's recent policy brief on public housing and climate 
adaptation, explains that "areas of Houston that had not previously 
flooded were devastated" by Hurricane Harvey, showing that "extreme 
weather can affect housing in areas not traditionally seen as 
vulnerable." For areas facing unprecedented levels of disaster, 
preparedness has to go beyond the local level, Kye says, making it "more 
urgent than ever that HUD takes a more active role in assessing the 
vulnerability of housing that serves low- and moderate-income people, 
promotes climate-planning efforts that considers housing concerns, and 
takes concrete steps to protect HUD-assisted housing."
Public housing in flood-prone areas can't afford to wait for the next 
catastrophe. After Superstorm Sandy struck New York and exposed stark 
inequalities between richer and poorer neighborhoods, the city got 
serious about disaster preparedness by foregrounding environmental 
justice in its climate-adaptation planning. Housing authorities laid out 
a plan to build for equitable resilience: For example, housing 
authorities can ensure that seniors and people with disabilities living 
in public-housing projects are prioritized in evacuation plans when the 
next storm hits. Working-class neighborhoods should be guaranteed safe 
access to back-up public transit, so they're not isolated when subway 
and bus lines are flooded. To prevent the next Sandy from pushing the 
city into the same backward slide that post-Katrina New Orleans has 
undergone, housing authorities in cities like New York should institute 
a democratic planning and risk-communication system, so that 
reconstruction projects do not become taxpayer-subsidized vehicles for 
gentrification.
https://www.thenation.com/article/it-doesnt-matter-if-cities-are-climate-change-proof-if-no-one-can-afford-to-live-in-them/

*
**A Yoga Meditation for Resilience, Resistance, Equality and Community: 
Sthirasukhamasanam 
<https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-yoga-meditation-for-resilience-resistance-equality_us_59f25256e4b06ae9067ab769>*
How can we help each other remain stable and firm in our resistance and 
resilience without giving up the sweetness of soft moments of surrender, 
interpersonal tenderness and compassion? I've been practicing yoga and 
meditation for decades, but as a member of the LGBTQI community in the 
U.S., finding that balance in each moment currently seems to require 
more consistent, mindful effort as 2017 wears on. The eight limbs of 
ancient yoga invite us to be mindful of the outward and inward 
principles of integrity that guide being in right relationship to our 
environment and ourselves, including but not primarily focused on 
physical postures and mindful breathing, in order to focus so that 
senses and eventually even one's own thinking no longer distracts the 
mind from unity and interconnectedness with All That Is.
My favorite verse of yoga's most ancient text, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, 
is simply "Sthirasukhamasanam" (Book 2 Sadhanapadah, Verse 46). Every 
time I practice, spiritually and physically, in each pose, in teaching, 
and even in breathing, this ancient principle invites me to seek a 
balance of two seemingly opposing dynamics — sthira (alertness and 
strength) and sukha (relaxation and softness). Sthirasukhamasanam 
describes the spiritual and physical balance and wholeness we seek 
through each moment of yoga practice. Yoga is a way to find that balance 
through moment-by-moment adaptation and flexibility to the way things 
are right now — without judging, recoiling, or dominating. Yoga helps me 
to accept myself and others where we are — one moment at a time: "Yoga 
is now," as the ancient text's very first verse begins.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-yoga-meditation-for-resilience-resistance-equality_us_59f25256e4b06ae9067ab769


*Review What do microtones have to do with global warming? Two concerts 
offer an answer 
<http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-franco-american-microtones-notebook-20171025-story.html>*
The 18th-century theorists who devised the well-tempered system of 
tuning instruments meant merely to improve music. This is the 
mathematical way to fiddle with the size of intervals between notes so 
that fixed-pitch instruments, particularly keyboards, can play in all 12 
keys without retuning. This has been the tuning system of Western music 
in all its manifestations ever since. However ill-tempered, the 
civilized world is, for the most part, musically well-tempered....
...We first need to learn to think differently so that we can do 
business differently. Nor should we expect the same solutions for every 
environment. For instance, climate-change deniers in states like Wyoming 
aren't necessarily stupid, Lempert said, rather they just see no options 
when their survival is entirely dependent on the fossil fuel industry.
This was also Harrison's argument against the "industrial gray" of using 
the same tunings for every piece. He liked to move around, between 
styles, between centuries and between cultures. In his alluring "Varied 
Quintet," for violin, harp, harpsichord and percussion, Harrison let 
bells ring the way bells like to ring in all their sonic complexity. 
Harp and harpsichord had Baroque-era tunings and provided extra perfume 
to his most delicious melodies, such as the one for violin sensuously 
played by Shalini Vijayan in a movement honoring Fragonard.
Pairing Johnston's Ninth String Quartet and Philip Glass' String Quintet 
provided a compelling example of how microtones alter perception. After 
a while what first seems out of tune eventually starts to sound right. 
This can be compared to what happens when you don spectacles that turn 
everything upside down. After a while your brain adjusts and when you 
take the glasses off everything is upside down.
Johnston's 1988 quartet, illuminatingly played by the Lyris Quartet, is 
a small masterpiece of altered reality, its every unamplified chord 
taking on the quality of amplification, of righting a topsy-turvy world. 
Glass' sextet (played by an enhanced Lyris, with extra violist and 
cellist) is a reduction of his Third Symphony meant to presumably cut 
through the sonic haze of the original orchestration for 19 strings. But 
it also loses in the process a richness, making me wonder what might 
have happened were it played in a more acoustically natural equal 
temperament.
Sometimes tuning is everything, sometimes not. The watery effects of 
Karen Tanaka's "Jardin des Herbes" for micro-tuned harpsichord, 
performed by Gloria Cheng, suggests the sound of nature in her natural 
state. Steven Stucky's "Two Holy Sonnets of John Donne" performed in 
memory of the composer who died last year, are conventionally tuned, but 
the musky mezzo-soprano of Peabody Southwell filled in earthy nuance.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-franco-american-microtones-notebook-20171025-story.html
example La Ritournelle et le Galop by Pascale Criton 
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmNllWvg620> 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmNllWvg620


*This Day in Climate History October 28, 2005 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/28/business/28oil.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print> 
-  from D.R. Tucker*
October 28, 2005: The New York Times reports:
"A sudden interruption in oil supplies sent prices and profits
skyrocketing, prompting Exxon's chief executive to call a news
conference right after his company announced that it had chalked up
record earnings.
'I am not embarrassed,' he said. 'This is no windfall.'
"That was January 1974, a few months after Arab oil producers cut back
on supplies and imposed their short-lived embargo on exports to the
United States. Oil executives, including J. K. Jamieson, Exxon's chief
executive at the time, were put on the defensive, forced to justify
their soaring profits while the nation was facing its first energy
crisis.
"Three decades later, their successors are again facing contentions
that oil companies are making too much money and have failed to expand
production.
"Politicians and other critics are asking why the industry allowed its
refining capacity to tighten.
"Exxon Mobil, the world's largest oil company, said yesterday that its
third-quarter net income jumped 75 percent, to $9.92 billion. Its
profit in the first nine months of this year - $25.42 billion -
already equals its full-year earnings for 2004. This year's sales,
which topped $100 billion in the last quarter, are expected to exceed
those of Wal-Mart.
"Another oil giant, Royal Dutch Shell, reported a 68 percent jump in
profits yesterday, to $9.03 billion. Chevron is expected to post a
profit of more than $4 billion today.
"This year is shaping up as an exceptionally lucrative one for the oil
industry, thanks to strong global demand, tight supplies and high
prices for oil and natural gas. While the idea that the Bush
administration was considering imposing a windfall profits tax was
knocked down yesterday by officials, longstanding resentments against
Big Oil are resurfacing and could end up imposing some additional
burdens on the industry.
"The sense that government should step in to curb the phenomenal
wealth and power often enjoyed by oil companies goes back to Exxon
Mobil's corporate ancestor from the late 19th century, the Rockefeller
oil trust known as Standard Oil.
"Today, Republicans and Democrats alike, aware of the politically
sensitive issue of high energy prices, are putting increasing pressure
on the oil and gas industry to return some of its profits. The ideas
include forcing the industry to invest in more refining capacity, to
increase inventories to cushion energy shocks, or to provide money
directly to the government program that helps low-income people pay
heating bills."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/28/business/28oil.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print

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