Few years ago a CSR report released by an oil company sounded like an oxymoron. Even later on when these reports have become more common, it still looked to many people as a greenwashing attempt. After all, can a company really show it cares about the environment and stakeholders when its core business is oil production? I was hoping Chevron’s 2011 CSR report would prove this assumption to be wrong and that the “bad guys try to be better.” Is it too much to ask in 2012? Apparently yes, although to be honest, there is no simple answer of Yes or No to this question. While it does look that Chevron is making some progress, these are mostly baby steps, and when you’re one of the largest oil companies in the world baby steps might not be enough.

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One of the main stories the New York Times ran on its front page on Friday was on how the United States is getting closer to becoming independent from foreign energy sources. Another story the newspaper ran was on Obama’s support for the southern leg of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Both articles show how energy independence became extremely connected and depended on the rise of domestic gas and oil production.

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What do oil and gas say about Environmental NGOs when they think no one is watching?

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One year after the February 14 uprising, Bahrain’s government is still harassing its citizens and denying them basic human rights. Can businesses operating here do anything to exert pressure on the Al Khalifa family, who rules Bahrain with an iron fist?

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Since the discovery of oil just over a century ago, the Middle East has experienced major economic growth from this bountiful resource under the ground. The world was a different place then to what it is now. Oil, it seemed, was the answer to all our prayers and for the most part it has been, and for that we are extremely grateful.

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The price of oil is still one of the most important factors shaping the economy. It can determine not just how much you’ll pay for a gallon of gasoline but also how fast the American and the eurozone economies will recover. It even has a say in who will be the next American president. This [...]

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The legal battles surrounding the Deepwater Horizon 2010 drilling disaster promise to be just as messy—and more lengthy—than the spill incident itself. The latest shots in this seemingly neverending exercise in passing the buck were fired last month when oil giant BP went to court in New Orleans claiming that US contractor Halliburton (yes, that Halliburton) [...]

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How can the US government possibly consider taxing carbon when they’re still subsidizing oil? Isn’t this an obvious contradiction?

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By Kwei Quartey, M.D. The world has an ambivalent relationship with sustainable energy. We just love our fossil fuels and seem unwilling or unable to change. For some like the nation of Ghana, the longer the United States and other heavily consuming countries maintain their energy status quo, the better. Lying along the West African [...]

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It seems that the approval of the permit by the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to expand the Keystone XL Pipeline, a 1,700 mile-long pipeline that would transport oil from Alberta’s tar sands to Texas oil refineries, is a done deal. However, opponents to the Keystone XL Pipeline gained a powerful ally in Senate [...]

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When you think of solar energy, it’s likely that you imagine a clean and renewable power source; something that goes towards getting us off our global dependence on fossil fuels. And while it probably won’t be a technology that gets us away from CO2 emissions altogether, every watt of solar energy produced is watt of [...]

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Eric Zencey explains why it would be wise to pay proper attention to energy return on investment.

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The Detroit News reported last week that General Motors CEO, Dan Akerson, would like to see the federal gasoline tax boosted by as much as $1 per gallon in order to encourage drivers to choose more fuel efficient vehicles. If you are a politician in office today, it’s of course anathema to talk about raising [...]

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Among the developments this week at Chevron’s raucous annual shareholder meeting—some surprising, some not so—was the oil company’s continuing refusal to settle an $18 billion lawsuit over oil pollution in Ecuador. A letter from New York state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and several investor groups urged Chevron to settle case, which has dragged on in various [...]

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Occidental Petroleum Corporation released its 2010 CSR report, “Growth with Responsibility.” The CSR report states, “We are committed to safeguarding the environment, protecting the safety and health of employees and neighboring communities and upholding high standards of social responsibility in all of the company’s worldwide operations.” That sounds so good. There is a problem with [...]

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Poor Jimmy MacMillan. The well meaning eccentric hilariously rose to fame during the New York Governor’s Debate last year by declaring that “the rent is too damn high.” Now, it seems gas prices are the target of his scorn – and surely millions of Americans agree – but Jimmy’s either just cashing in on his [...]

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This post is part of a blogging series by economics students at the Presidio Graduate School’s MBA program. You can follow along here. By John Heylin If there’s one thing that will get environmentalists fired up, it’s the discussion over federal subsidies for the oil, nuclear and coal industries.  Renewable energy is forced to stand [...]

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By Elizabeth Dolge    No doubt Obama made many fans during his visit to Brazil last weekend, charming government officials and citizens alike.  But as the dust settles from his two day action-packed visit, US-Brazil relations remain at a most critical point.  Many have called Brazil the most important leg of Obama’s Latin-American trip – [...]

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By Daniel Volkosh Much of American political and economic conversation is dominated by China.  It seems all but inevitable that China will overtake the United States economically in the not-too-distant future.  Yet this epoch in world politics may include another nation:  Canada.  Canada’s future role should not be underestimated, and the United States would be [...]

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I’ll be covering the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi next week – an honor and a privilege for TriplePundit and something I hope will produce a lot of interesting stories. The event will be an extraordinary gathering of thousands of people from dozens of countries in the heart of the oil world to [...]

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Earth 2017 projects that 20% of the world’s economy will be in sustainable goods and services by 2017 based upon the assumption that “unsustainable” goods and services will increasingly cost a lot more at the cash register and pump while sustainable goods and services will become increasingly price competitive as they gain production economies of [...]

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Word on the street is that, come 2012, $5 may be a commonplace price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States. Specifically, John Hofmeister, the former president of Shell Oil, made the claim in a widely circulated interview yesterday. The primary reason, he argues, is simply the enormous growth in demand (from China [...]

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A Harris Poll posted this question with a list of various industries: “Which of these industries do you think are generally honest and trustworthy – so that you normally believe a statement by a company in that industry?”

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It was a short drive to my in-laws’ house for Thanksgiving this year. Roundtrip, we logged about 68 miles— not bad, considering the distances some travel every year to break bread with family and friends. And at 50 miles per gallon in our Prius, we burned through about $3 worth of gas… Much better than [...]

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By Amy Hsuan In the aftermath of Deepwater Horizon, BP’s stocks have rallied, Halliburton has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and many people are wondering if the world has slipped into a self-induced amnesia. But not Mark Mills, founding partner of Digital Power Capital, a private equity firm that invests in energy-oriented [...]

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Somehow it seems appropriate that an outfit named J.D. Power and Assoc. is weighing-in with some optimism on the future of electric-powered vehicles as a power behind the drive to “go green.” A report this week from the customer satisfaction, buyer behavior and product quality rating firm says global alternative vehicle sales are rising and [...]

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Given the current horrifying disaster in the Gulf, it is quickly becoming fashionable to highlight alternative means of extracting oil. As we all know and as President Obama once pointed out “you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.” The same holds true in the oil extraction business as various methods [...]

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by Amy Galland of As You Sow As regulators debate emission caps and utilities install filters and scrubbers to reduce toxic particles from going into the atmosphere – we have to take a minute and remember that the coal problem isn’t solved.  These toxins go somewhere. They go into the 130 million tons of Coal [...]

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When President Obama said he would expand offshore drilling on March 31st, he qualified his announcement by saying domestic supplies could never provide all the oil the country needs. A little remarked study (PDF) released in February begs to differ. The study, commissioned by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), concludes that if all drilling restrictions [...]

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Here’s a news flash of sorts: ExxonMobil (XOM), the world’s largest publicly traded oil and gas company, has barrels of money and plans $28 billion in capital spending this year and about $25-$30 billion each year thereafter through 2014. The company made more than $19 billion last year and generated cash flow of $28.4 billion. [...]

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