5-Year Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in Solidarity with Gulf Coast Communities:

MAKE BIG OIL PAY!

Sun Aug 29, 1-4pm

Teach-In:Big Oil, Community Resilience and Creative Nonviolent Direct Action

Frank Ogawa Plaza, near 14th St & Broadway (12th St BART), Oakland

* Brief Teach-In on BP, Big Oil and Local Impacts– positive solutions and what we can do. Followed by:
* Nonviolent Direct Action Training: a public preparation for the campaign on nonviolent direct action against big oil and for climate justice. This will prepare participants to join the nonviolent direct action part of the following day’s demonstration, or just learn about what’s involved. Please come on time and stay for the whole time.
* Community Resilience Skills: Movement Generation and Bay Localize teach this workshop to understand the importance of meeting our own basic needs to prepare our communities to weather economic, ecological and social instability. Learn to evaluate our community’s relative strengths and vulnerabilities, and learn concrete skills to build self-reliance and resilience. It covers the topics of; Resilient communities as part of resisting oppression; Food, Water & Energy; Transportation & Housing; Jobs & Economy; Civic Preparedness & Social Service.

Mon, Aug 30, 11:30 am

March on BP & Nonviolent Direct Action

Justin Herman Plaza (Embarcadero BART), SF

Join:
Jonathan Henderson, who leads the BP drilling disaster field operations in the Gulf of Mexico for the Gulf Restoration Network

Rev Kenneth Davis (Civil Rights veteran and community leader from North Richmond)

Antonia Juhasz, author of the Tyranny of Oil, just back fron meeting with impacted communities in the Gulf.

Rebecca Solnit, author and activist who has written on Katrina and the current Gulf disaster.

Carla Pérez, Movement Generation

Dave Room, Bay Localize

Join us for a march on BP and Big Oil’s SF locations and those who choose to will risk arrest taking nonviolent direct action in what may be the largest nonviolent direct action since the BP Gulf disaster. We’ll be targeting the offices of BP for their roles in environmental and community destruction in the Gulf, in the Bay Area, and around the world.  We’ll also visit the U.S. EPA to demand an end to the use of toxic dispersants, to follow the Clean Air Act that mandates they regulate the greenhouse gas pollution that causes climate change and stand up to industry pressure to expand drilling and prevent action to stop climate change.

Join us in demanding:

Moratorium on New Offshore Drilling. No Use of Dispersants.

Full Access to Media and Civil Society.

Big Oil corporations pay their debt to all impacted communities – Gulf Coast to Richmond, CA and around the world.

Big Oil pay for community livelihood and ecosystem restoration, clean energy, public transportation, and healthcare for impacted communities.

Big Oil Out of Politics!

Big Oil Corporations destroy our health, environment and the livelihoods of our communities. From the Gulf Coast Oil disaster to the Niger Delta, from the Canadian Tar Sands to Richmond, California – these corporations pollute our communities and cause climate change, destroying the environments we depend on. Big Oil makes billions, while buying and lobbying governments for subsidies, against public oversight, and against solutions to climate change.

As BP tries to spin the ongoing Gulf of Mexico worst-environmental-disaster- in-US-history out of view, Gulf Coast communities ask us to keep the spotlight on and to increase the pressure for justice. George Monbiot, author of Heat: how to stop the planet burning writes, “The oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon well is scarcely more damaging, and its eventual impacts scarcely more expensive, than the oil which is captured by neighboring rigs then processed and burnt as intended.” And as climate-related extreme weather disasters sweep the globe killing thousands and displacing millions, Amy Goodman writes, “The U.N. climate conference will convene in Cancun, Mexico, in December, where prospects for global consensus with binding commitments seem increasingly unlikely. Ultimately, policy in the United States, the greatest polluter in human history, must be changed. That will come only from people in the United States…”

Join us in taking action to stop Big Oil’s destruction and support clean energy and positive solutions.

Get Involved:
Form an “Affinity” or Action Group: to participate in the nonviolent direct action– ask your friends, family, co-workers, fellow students or group members. Come to the training on Aug 29, take the day off work or school and take action!

Get the Word Out: Send this email with a personal note, link to our facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=138322482869220&ref=nf

Watch and share the BP & Big Oil Video Teach-In at:
http://www.youtube.com/ClimateJusticeWEST

Download flyers, make copes and get them out at:
http://west.actforclimatejustice.org/resources/imagery-and-fliers/

Sign up for action updates: text message to 40404 with the message “follow mcjwest”

mcjbay@gmail.com
ActForClimateJustice.org/West


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remember saro-wiwa UNEP Report: Analysis & action Following coverage in The Guardian today of UNEP’s outrageous decision to “exonerate” Shell over oil spills in Nigeria, we present analysis of this controversial issue. Read on and take action below. Global Outrage at UN Report The UNEP’s report is in direct conflict with local environmentalists and communities who have witnessed and monitored spills for many years. We take a look at the manipulative PR and politics behind Shell’s ‘exoneration’. Read more. What’s Shell & UNEP Trying to Hide? Any child educated in Nigeria knows that oil was discovered in Oloibiri, Nigeria in 1956, and that the history of oil spills is almost as long. So why does UNEP think otherwise? Read more. More Harm Than Good? There are some things the debate over oil spills in Nigeria cannot change. Shell must clean up all oil spills. But the UNEP could undermine the pressure on Shell to take action. Read more. Take Action You can help hold Shell to account: email Mike Cowing , (head of the UNEP study) and cut and paste the following questions. Please personalise, share and add your own views. 1. Why has the UNEP decided to echo Shell’s widely disputed analysis of the number and causes of oil spills in Ogoni? 2. How does UNEP justify announcing its findings on the causes of oil spills when this is not the subject of the study? 3. Why does UNEP claim that oil spills in the Niger Delta have been occurring for only 9 years? 4. What guarantees can UNEP give that its study will not be subject to undue influence from either Shell or the Nigerian government, since both are funding the project?

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By Ben Amunwa on August 24, 2010

Today Amnesty International joined the chorus of disapproval and outrage at UNEP’s decision to clear Shell of all responsibility for oil spills in Nigeria. UNEP has been widely criticised for recently using Shell data to announce that the company is only 10% responsible for the causes of oil spills.

“Relying on these figures would be a serious misjudgement, with potentially significant ramifications for those living in the Niger Delta,” said Audrey Gaughran, Director of Amnesty International’s Global Thematic Issues Program. “UNEP must be aware that the figures have been strongly challenged for years by environmental groups and communities. They are totally lacking in credibility.”

Amnesty went on to highlight how UNEP’s use of Shell data raises serious anomalies:

Between 1989 and 1994 Shell itself estimated that only 28 percent of oil spilt in the Niger Delta was caused by sabotage. In 2007 Shell’s estimate had risen to 70 per cent. The figure now given by Shell has increased to more than 90 per cent. Amnesty International has repeatedly asked Shell to produce evidence to support these figures. Shell has been unable to do so.

Friends of the Earth International, the worlds largest network of environmentalists, also condemned UNEP’s uncritical announcement of the disputed Shell data. Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends the Earth International and director of Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria said:

We monitor spills regularly and our observations often contradict information produced by oil companies and Nigerian regulatory agencies. If the UNEP team would ask community monitors it would avoid falling into the trap of spinning Shell’s figures. The UN assessment is being paid for by Shell so we are not surprised that it tells Shell’s version of the facts. But the reality is that several studies have placed the bulk of the blame for oil spills in the Niger Delta on the doorsteps of the oil companies; particularly Shell.

Link to article on .

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Report blaming 90% of spills in Ogoniland on locals stealing crude from pipelines allows companies to shirk responsibility

Outrage at UN decision to exonerate Shell for oil pollution in Niger delta

Nnimmo Bassey
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 25 August 2010 15.13 BST

Oil leaks from the Shell flow station in Eriemu, Nigeria Oil leaks from a Shell flow station in Nigeria. The claim that pipelines have been sabotaged is particularly attractive to oil companies. Photograph: George Osodi/AP

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is preparing to issue a report announcing that 90% of the oil spills in Ogoniland, Nigeria, are caused by the locals stealing crude from pipelines – and that Shell’s aged pipelines and ill maintained installations account for a mere 10% of the spills. Why so little, we might ask?

The UNEP has now admitted this figure is based on data from the oil industry and the Nigerian government. It’s not surprising that this is in line with what Shell used to claim in the 1980s – that about 80% of the oil spills were caused by vandalism or sabotage. This claim that infrastructure has been sabotaged is particularly attractive to oil companies, because they are then exempted from paying compensation for any resulting spills. Why accept responsibility for polluting the locals’ creeks, swamps and farmlands and destroying their livelihoods when you can blame the very same people for the mess now coating their own backyards with a toxic gloss?

Yet crucial expertise which could have painted a very different picture was sidelined. Prof Richard Steiner, an international expert on oil spills, was contracted to write the manual on oil damage assessment and restoration by the UNEP in 2004. But when Shell hired the agency to carry out the present study, Steiner’s offer to provide scientific advice and guidance to the Ogoniland report was declined.

Steiner has already said that the findings now uncovered are incorrect, and has gone on to say: “Our earlier results suggest that much of the oil spilled there was due to poor practice by Shell, rather than bunkering and sabotage… it is entirely implausible that 90% of the oil spilled was due to bunkering [the act of criminal gangs stealing oil].” In short, his opinion is that this is not an independent, credible assessment.

The report does indeed rely heavily on figures produced by oil companies and Nigerian state statistics rather than on testimonies from those most affected – the communities in Ogoniland.

The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency of Nigeria has reported a total of 3,203 oil spills in the Niger Delta region in the last four years alone.

That list lengthens every day. The records of the Nigerian Directorate of Petroleum Resources show that nearly 2.5m barrels of crude oil were spilt between 1976 and 1996. Most damning of all, 77% of this oil was not recovered and contaminated the local environment. This is an environmental catastrophe which has a long history – some notable past spills include the Escravos spill of 1978 in which 300,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled into the coastal waters and another, in the same year, caused by tank failure at Forcados Terminal in which 580,000 barrels were spewed into the environment.

It is in this polluted environment that the people of Ogoniland have had to live for decades with spill after spill. The UNEP must be, and be seen to be, an independent arbiter of what has really happened there. There should be no room for suspicion that the $10m (£6.5m) Shell paid the agency for this report will influence the outcome.

Nnimmo Bassey is chairman of Friends of the Earth International

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• John Vidal, environment editor
• guardian.co.uk, Sunday 22 August 2010 18.36 BST

Oil pipelines in Okrika, near Port Harcourt. The UNEP denies it has been influenced by Shell, which paid for its $10m, three-year study. Photograph: Ed Kashi

A three-year investigation by the United Nations will almost entirely exonerate Royal Dutch Shell for 40 years of oil pollution in the Niger delta, causing outrage among communities who have long campaigned to force the multinational to clean up its spills and pay compensation.

The $10m (£6.5m) investigation by the UN environment programme (UNEP), paid for by Shell, will say that only 10% of oil pollution in Ogoniland has been caused by equipment failures and company negligence, and concludes that the rest has come from local people illegally stealing oil and sabotaging company pipelines.

The shock disclosure was made by Mike Cowing, the head of a UN team of 100 people who have been studying environmental damage in the region.

Cowing said that the 300 known oil spills in the Ogoniland region of the delta caused massive damage, but added that 90% of the spills had been caused by “bunkering” gangs trying to steal oil.

His comments, in a briefing in Geneva last week, have caused deep offence among the families of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight other Ogoni leaders who were hanged by the Nigerian government in 1995 after a peaceful uprising against Shell’s pollution.

With 606 oil fields, the Niger delta supplies 40% of the crude oil imported by the US. Life expectancy in its rural communities, half of which have no access to clean water, has fallen to little more than 40 over the past two generations.

Communities accept that bunkering has become rife in some areas of Ogoniland, but say this is a recent development and most of the historical pollution has been caused by Shell operations.

Last year, Amnesty calculated that the equivalent of at least 9m barrels of oil has been spilled in the delta over the past half a century, nearly twice as much as the 5m barrels unleashed in the Gulf of Mexico by the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Tonight the investigation was accused of bias by Nigerians and environmental groups who said the study – paid for by Shell and commissioned by the Nigerian government, who both have massive oil interests in the region – was unbalanced.

Ben Ikari, an Ogoni activist, said: “Nobody from Ogoniland would be surprised, because the federal government of Nigeria and Shell are the same cabal that killed Ken Saro-Wiwa and others.”

Ben Amunwa of London-based oil watchdog group Platform said: “The UNEP study relies on bogus figures from Shell and incomplete government records. Many Ogoni suspect that the report’s focus on sabotage and bunkering will be used to justify military repression notorious in the Niger delta, where non-violent activists, including Ken Saro-Wiwa, were executed.”

Cowing defended the UN report. In a series of emails seen by the Guardian, he said: “UNEP is not responsible for allocating responsibility for the number of spills being found in Ogoniland. Rather, we are focusing on the science. The figures referred to are those of the ministry of the environment and the department of petroleum resources.

“This is a Nigerian issue, not a UNEP issue. However, I would add that from our extensive field work throughout Ogoniland we have witnessed, on a daily basis, very large scale bunkering operations.

“It’s very controversial. We cannot say whether a particular spill is from one cause or another. Our observation is that there is a serious [bunkering ] problem. I am being seen to be siding with the oil companies, but I am not.

“We were provided with the official spill site list. This is given by the oil companies themselves but is endorsed by the [government] agencies. We are not on the side of the oil companies.”

He denied the UN was being influenced by Shell or the government. “We believe that it is correct that Shell [Nigeria] fund the study, as this is in compliance with the internationally accepted norm of the ‘polluter pays’. No party … will be able to influence the science.”

The full report, due to be published by December, is expected to warn of an environmental catastrophe.

“This is not directly comparable to the spills that occurred in the Gulf [of Mexico],” said Cowing. “But we have a serious and profound problem.”

Tonight, environmental groups expressed shock at the report. Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends the Earth International and director of Environmental Rights Action, Nigeria’s leading environment group, said: “It is incredible that the UN says that 90% is caused by communities. The UNEP assessment is being paid for by Shell. Their conclusions may be tailored to satisfy their client. We monitor spills regularly and our observation is the direct opposite of what UNEP is planning to report.”

A June 2009 report by Amnesty International called the damage in the delta a “human rights tragedy”, and blamed the government and oil firms, mainly Shell, for years of pollution. It recognised that oil bunkering had caused spills, but said “the scale of this problem is not clear”.

The UN report saw more than 1,000 soil and water tests and other investigationscarried out, and hundreds of communities consulted. The data generated is the first step towards a massive clean-up.

Oil production in the delta started during the 1950s, but was suspended in the 90s due to unrest. The oil fields in Ogoniland have since remained dormant.

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Bono Versus Big Oil: The Resource Curse Battle Moves to the SEC

By Kirsten Korosec | August 17, 2010

Activists, including U2 frontman Bono, cheered — while Big Oil blasted — an 11th-hour insertion into the Dodd-Frank financial reform law last month that will require all companies registered with the SEC to disclose their royalties, bonuses and other payments to foreign governments for the extraction of oil, gas and minerals. But the fight isn’t over. It’s just moving to the SEC.

How can I be so sure? The American Petroleum Institute, the powerful oil and gas lobby group, told me so. API spokeswoman Misty McGovern wouldn’t go so far as to reveal the group’s plans, saying only that they were “in the early stages of formulating a strategy.” But she did confirm that the SEC will be the next battleground.

The amendment, inserted by Sens. Richard Lugar, R-IN., and Ben Cardin, D-MD., aims to end the so-called resource curse, in which underdeveloped countries are paid handsomely for their natural resources, but monies aren’t passed down to the poverty-laden population. The amendment not-so-coincidentally pulls directly from Lugar’s now-idled Energy Security Through Transparency Act.

The law now heads to the SEC, where the agency has about nine months to craft the wording of the regulation. Oil, gas and mining companies will lobby the commission to keep the annual reporting requirements as vague as possible. Their ideal scenario? To get the SEC to only require companies to provide aggregated information, McGowen said. For instance, instead of Exxon (XOM) having to disclose detailed payment information of each project in the foreign country where it’s operating, the company would only have to provide the lump sum paid out that year.

Companies, including Exxon, argue the law will put U.S. businesses at a distinct competitive disadvantage because their international rivals would be able to see how much they’re paying for rights to develop oil and gas fields or extract minerals.

That’s not entirely accurate. The disclosure rule forces any company registered with the SEC to follow the rules. That means companies like UK-based BP, Australia’s mining giants BHP Billiton (BHP) and Rio Tinto (RTP), Brazil’s Petrobras (PBR) and even a few Chinese energy companies, like CNOOC, have to make the same disclosure as U.S.-based Chevron (CVX). That being said, there are some national oil companies — or NOCs — that aren’t registered with the SEC and in those cases, it would be a competitive disadvantage for all the SEC-listed ones.

Exxon and the like are more supportive of what they call a more inclusive international requirement, specifically, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. It’s not that EITI isn’t a worthy organization. It is. But the new disclosure law is powerful because it’s widespread and not voluntary, which makes it far more attractive to activists seeking change right now.

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Photo credit: Sahara Reporters

The latest on July 18th follows spills previously reported on December 4, 2009 and March 24, May 1, June 20 and June 21, 2010.  Read more here from Nigerian media news site 123Next :

“We got reports of crude floating on the waters in the high seas at the weekend and verified the report before contacting the Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) and Mobil officials,”  [the Secretary of the Artisan Fishermen Association of Nigeria] said. “By Monday, the oil spill had landed on the coastline. Officials of the company and the agency, had come to see the site, our fishermen that came back from the sea had their nets and fishing gear contaminated by crude oil.”

Mr Irvin Obot, the Zonal Director of NOSDRA, confirmed that the agency had received reports of the oil spill incident at the Qua Iboe oil fields. “We got a report from the community and visited the site; there were traces of crude oil on the shoreline but we are yet to get a report from the operator of the oil fields,” he said.

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Newly-signed Transparency Law requires companies to disclose payments on a country-by-country, and project-by-project basis

President Barak Obama signed into law today the financial reform bill passed by Congress last week-–with a landmark provision on transparency, which requires all extractive industries companies that file with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the U.S. to disclose the payments they make to governments wherever they operate.

Notably, these companies must disclose the payments on a country-by-country, and project-by-project basis–a level of specificity that will improve the ability to monitor the level of resource wealth that returns back to communities where oil, gas, and minerals are extracted.

This law breaks new ground by providing a means for people in resource-rich communities to hold their governments to account for their payments to governments around the world.

Read more about the importance of transparency in extractive industries here.

Photo: Carolyn Kaster – AP

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The provision, based on the Energy Security Through Transparency Act (S. 1700), covers all oil, gas, and mining companies registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This applies to companies from around the world like the major oil companies operating in Nigeria: Chevron, Shell, and ExxonMobil.

For the people of the Niger Delta, this legislation will provide access to information that can be used to combat corruption, seek a fair share of revenues from oil extraction, and bring communities a step closer to holding companies accountable for paying the brutal Nigerian military to suppress dissent.

On June 30, the House of Representatives passed the same legislation that the Senate passed today. President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law next week.

JINN and its members pioneered a U.S. grassroots strategy in support of the work of the U.S. and global Publish What You Pay Coalition, by mobilizing support from the cities of Berkeley, Oakland and Richmond, California. Each of these municipalities adopted a resolution in support of the Energy Security Through Transparency Act (which was the basis for the language that was passed today). These resolutions were used by the lobbying team on Capitol Hill.

More information below:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 15, 2010

CONTACT:
Abby Rubinson, abby@justiceinnigerianow.org, (415) 990-0792
Isabel Munilla, imunilla@pwypusa.org, (202) 525-2754 / (202) 680-4606

U.S. legislation shines light on billions in oil and mineral payments

Measure sets new global standard for corporate transparency

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 15, 2010 — The Senate gave final approval today to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act with a landmark provision requiring energy and mining companies registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to disclose how much they pay to foreign countries and the U.S. government for oil, gas, and minerals.

This historic measure gives citizens in resource-rich countries information they need to combat corruption in the oil and mineral sector and to demand government accountability for responsible resource use. The House passed the same legislation on June 30, and it is expected to be signed into law by President Obama next week.

The provision was based on the Energy Security through Transparency Act (S. 1700), which was championed in the U.S. Senate by a bipartisan group of legislators led by Senators Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) and Richard Lugar (R-IN). Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced the provision as an amendment during the conference negotiations for the financial services reform bill. Critical support came from Senators Tim Johnson (D-ND), Russell Feingold (D-WI), Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Richard Durbin (D-IL). Both the Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and the House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) supported the Senate amendment during conference negotiations.

“This provision is a critical part of the increased transparency and corporate responsibility that we are striving to achieve in the financial industry,” said Senator Cardin. “Given the catastrophic events in the Gulf of Mexico, oil companies, in particular, should well understand that secrecy fosters instability, corruption and greater risk. We now have the tools to help people in resource-rich countries hold their leaders accountable for the money made from their oil, gas and minerals.”

“Transparency empowers citizens, investors, regulators, and other  watchdogs and is a necessary ingredient of good governance for countries and companies alike. The Cardin-Lugar amendment brings a major step in favor of increased transparency at home and abroad. It empowers investors to have a more complete view of the value of their holdings. It brings more information to global commodity markets, which would benefit price  stability. Most importantly, it helps empower citizens to hold their governments to account for the decisions made by their governments in the management of valuable oil, gas, and mineral resources and revenues,” said Senator Dick Lugar, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member in a Senate Floor Statement.

The measure is a major victory for the global Publish What You Pay coalition, which includes over 600 faith, human rights and development groups working in over 55 countries.

“This is a game changer,” said Isabel Munilla, Director of Publish What You Pay United States. “This legislation sheds light on billions in payments from oil and mineral companies and to governments. Citizens now have a powerful tool they can use to scrutinize the levels of public spending on economic development, environmental protection and health and human services.”

The measure covers hundreds of companies, including 90% of the world’s largest internationally operating oil and gas companies, and eight of the world’s ten largest mining companies. It will provide citizens in nearly every country around the globe with much needed information.

Publish What You Pay is calling on other governments to follow suit. “Citizens on the Gulf coast of the U.S., in the Niger Delta, and all around the world deserve to know how much their governments receive for the  development of natural resources,” Munilla said. “That’s why we are calling on other governments, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, to adopt similar requirements, so that we can build on the leadership of the U.S. Congress.”

For more information: www.OpentheBooks.org

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PWYP US Member Organizations: ActionAid International USA · Amnesty International USA · Bank Information Center · CARE · Catholic Relief Services · Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach · CorpWatch · Crude Accountability · EARTHWORKS · Earthrights International · EG Justice · Environmental Defense Fund · Friends of the Earth · Gender Action · Global Financial Integrity · Global Rights · Global Witness · Globalization Challenge Initiative · Government Accountability Project · Human Rights Watch · International Budget Project · International Labor Rights Forum · Justice in Nigeria Now · ONE Campaign · Open Society Policy Center · Oxfam America · Pacific Environment · Presbyterian Church USA · Project On Government Oversight · Revenue Watch Institute · Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights · Sierra Club · Sustainable Energy & Economy Network

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