Energy, Mining & Utilities

We interrupt our regularly scheduled sense of decency for the following heart-breaking news bulletin: A huge tobacco company is spreading disease across our state with help from Williams Alaska Petroleum and Tesoro Alaska. Read More

A jury's $5 billion punitive damage award for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill was too high compared to the damage caused and the sums the company already has spent for cleanup and compensation, a federal appeals court ruled today. Read More

At stake in upcoming WTO negotiations is the question of who will control and benefit from the world's forests. Read More

WASHINGTON, DC -- The World Bank has invested over $20 billion in more than 200 projects that extract, transport, or burn fossil fuels since 1992, according to a first-of-its-kind global database launched today by the Institute for Policy Studies. Read More

In the sixth article in our series on Global Compact companies, Indian journalist Nityanand Jayaraman looks at the Oslo-based corporation Norsk Hydro, a partner in the Utkal bauxite mine and alumina smelter in Orissa State. He provides evidence that the corporation has violated human rights Principles 1 and 2 of the UN Compact. Nor has the company withdrawn plans for a project that would violate Principle 9 which promotes eco-friendly practices. While the company has put the project on hold for the moment, officials indicate that violations of these principles could resume at any time. Read More

Perhaps it's a sign of politics inching back toward business as usual: Congressional Republicans are exploiting the Sept. 11 terror attacks to push the Bush administration's plan for an all-out increase in energy production. Read More

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Police have moved in to disband protesters opposing construction of a gas fired power generator and pipeline in Somerton, a Melbourne neighborhood. The demonstrators, from Friends of the Earth Melbourne, say the generator will destroy the fragile ecosystem of the Merri Creek today and over the weekend. Read More

In the orgy of examination of who and what is to blame for the events of September 11, we must have heard every conceivable explanation. The American right, as exemplified by President Bush, Fox News and the opinion page of the The Wall Street Journal, blames envy of American values and success. The extreme right blames secular humanism, gay rights and the other bogeymen they love to flog. The center faults lax airport security and a general lack of preparedness, while the left, all but ignored by the corporate media, blames American imperialism and in some cases our unconditional support for Israel. Read More

California Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney has rejected an attempt by Unocal Corp. and two of its former officials, Roger Beach and John Imle, to dismiss claims that they facilitated and abetted human rights abuses on Unocal's Yadana Pipeline project in Burma. Read More

Corporate interests and their proxies are looking to exploit the September 11 tragedy to advance a self-serving agenda that has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with corporate profits and dangerous ideologies. Read More