The mayor of the city leading the push for municipalities in British Columbia (BC) to file a class action lawsuit against energy companies for climate damages recently announced that she no longer believes climate lawsuits are the best way to deal with climate change. The announcement from Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps marks another major setback for the
Read More...The U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) recently released two reports examining the impacts of climate liability lawsuits in the United States. Waking the Litigation Monster focuses on the misuse of public nuisance action, while Mitigating Municipality Litigation examines the growing trend of municipalities engaging in costly lawsuits against different industries. The reports detail the ramifications of such
Read More...The switch to natural gas for electricity generation prevented 95 million tons of CO2 emissions in 2018, according to a new International Energy Agency (IEA) report. The report found that global energy emissions increased 1.7 percent in 2018 – largely attributable to increased global energy demand. And as IEA explained, without the switch to natural
Read More...In recent years, attorneys general in the District of Columbia, New York, Maryland and a handful of other states have sought to burnish their climate credentials by pursuing investigations and litigation against oil companies. In some cases, they have welcomed outside support through a controversial, Michael Bloomberg-funded law program, which was set up to help
Read More...Lower heating costs – brought on by increased natural gas production from the shale revolution – reduced winter mortality rates from 2000 to 2010, according to a new National Bureau of Economic Research paper. As the NBER paper explains, “We find that lower heating prices reduce mortality in winter months. The estimated effect size implies
Read More...Two associations representing business interests in the Canadian city of Victoria recently wrote letters to the city’s mayor, Lisa Helps, asking her to back away from a resolution calling for a class-action lawsuit from local municipalities demanding payment for climate related damages to local infrastructure. The Victoria lawsuit would have many hurdles to clear and
Read More...A new wave of aggressive anti-oil and natural gas legislation is cropping up in several states, driven by national “Keep It In the Ground” (KIITG) groups that have failed numerous attempts at the federal level to restrict development. Emboldened by the introduction of the “Green New Deal”, KIITG groups have made it clear that nothing
Read More...Earthquake activity in Oklahoma declined for the third straight year in 2018 even as oil and natural gas development increased in the area, according to the latest data from the U.S. Geological Survey. As EID’s updated infographic shows, seismic activity decreased by a whopping 83 percent – falling from a peak of 887 earthquakes in
Read More...Surging production that made 2018 a banner year for U.S. oil and natural gas is carrying into the new year, data show. Success in shale development across the country spurred natural gas production to hit a new record high in 2018 for the second consecutive year. Meanwhile, oil production continues to outpace 2018’s record highs
Read More...District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine’s investigation of ExxonMobil over climate change has opened the door to hedge funds and other monied interests to directly profit from the #ExxonKnew campaign. Last week, Racine went public with his plans to begin a formal inquiry into the energy company’s business practices. Racine is not the first
Read More...This Thursday, the European Parliament’s (EP) Committee on Petitions and Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety will hold a joint hearing on “Climate Change Denial,” specifically focusing on ExxonMobil and the #ExxonKnew campaign. The hearing was scheduled as a result of a petition submitted to the EP by Food & Water Watch Europe, the
Read More...The United States leads the world in carbon emissions reductions – a fact that has been widely attributed to the increased use of natural gas made possible by shale production. As EID’s latest fact sheet highlights, these incredible emissions reductions have occurred at the same time that U.S. oil and natural gas production has skyrocketed
Read More...The United States is approaching the dawn of a new American energy era, marked by energy abundance, security and choice, speakers said at this year’s CERAWeek by IHS Markit conference in Houston. Thanks to the shale revolution, the United States now leads the world in oil and natural gas production. The International Energy Agency this
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