Titans of Industry category archive
Frack the Clouds 0
Warning: Language. Also, strange and a bit strained, but a noble effort.
Spill Here, Spill Now 0
Facing South looks at the long term effects of Buccaneer Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon spill. Here’s few of the stats; follow the link for more.
As of last year, number of studies published on physical health effects reported by people directly affected by BP’s spill: 2
Number of those studies that found a higher frequency of respiratory illness, headaches, skin rash, and cough: 2
In one study looking at the disaster’s effect on cleanup workers’ lungs, number of genes in human airway cells found to be affected by exposure to a chemical oil dispersant used on the Gulf oil spill — with many of those same changes also observed in lung diseases like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: 84
Buccaneer Petroleum, where the motto is “Safety Worst.”
Everybody Must Get Fracked 0
Ron Littlepage is not impressed with the oil industry’s Trojan horse of a fracking “regulation” bill.
Never mind that with Florida ground zero for sea-level rise, we should be looking for completely clean alternative energy sources to reduce greenhouse gases.
And never mind that when fracking runs awry, which will surely happen sometime, Florida’s water supply and environment will absorb another damaging blow.
The bill is promoted as a way to set statewide standards for fracking. See above about lipstick and pigs.
What the bill does is take away the rights of local governments to control what goes on in their backyards.
Given the geology of Florida, I see visions of the biggest sinkhole yet.
Everybody Must Get Fracked 0
Did fracking open a wellspring of methane?
State regulators don’t seem to know what caused the leak, or how to stop it. But newly uncovered documents show that hydraulic fracturing was commonly used in the Aliso Canyon gas storage wells – including a well less than a half-mile from the leak.
Follow the link. Get the fracks.
TPPing the Economy’s Front Yard 0
The president of the Maine Nurses Association speaks out against the TPP and it’s protection of the corporacracy. A snippet:
Monopoly pricing protections for giant pharmaceutical firms in the Trans-Pacific Partnership could be a death sentence for countless patients in need of affordable medications around the world.
(snip)
This agreement is an all out assault on not only health and safety but also on the democratic rights of the American people to pass public protections. It’s another reminder that the pharmaceutical industry and other corporate lobbyists, who wrote many of these provisions, continue to dominate and corrupt our political system.
The Rich Are Different from You and Me 0
. . . and they have a card that proves it.
So even though the settlement itself blames individuals for the problems at GM, there will be no trials or jail time for those who knowingly concealed information from the government about the deadly ignition switches for years. While the settlement celebrates GM for “terminating” the wrongdoers, in reality the guilty profited during a decade of delaying the recall, then left the company with golden parachutes.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said that his hands were tied because, unlike other industries, the auto industry is not breaking any law by putting a potentially deadly product (GM’s faulty ignition switches–ed.) on the market.
