Flint and America's Corroded Trust

From:  Mother Jones 

— By Charlie LeDuff; 

     Photographs by Zackary Canepari | May/June 2016 issue

It's been the subject of protests and debates, but if anything is improving in Flint, Michigan, it's hard for any of us on the ground to see.

One of the city's lead pipes has been replaced for the benefit of the press, but more than 8,000 additional service lines are likely corroded and still leaching toxic lead. It took a mom, a pediatrician, and a professor in Virginia to discover Flint's children were being poisoned. It took cable television to get the nation to give a damn.

Sabrina Hernandez bathes her granddaughter, Hazel, with bottled water.

 

And that's not all. An outbreak of Legionnaires' disease has killed at least 9 people and infected 87 others over the last two years. The state knew. The city knew. The county knew. The federal government knew. But the public was never told. Legionella bacteria may still be in pipes and hot-water heaters, waiting for warm weather to spawn. People are frightened in this hardscrabble town of 99,000 about an hour's drive north of Detroit. And still, the government tells them nothing.

The city's pipe inspector at the water plant won't return calls. MORE

State Investigations Into What Exxon Knew Double, and Exxon Gets Defensive

From:  DeSmogBlog

By Ben Jervey • Friday, April 1, 2016 - 10:57 

 

On Tuesday, the number of state attorneys general investigating ExxonMobil for potential climate denial fraud doubled. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker announced that they have opened up their own probes of what Exxon knew about climate change while it was denying the realities of climate science publicly and to shareholders.

They follow the lead of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman — who in November first issued a subpoena to ExxonMobil for hundreds of thousands of pages of documents about the company's climate science research and internal communications spanning over four decades — and of California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who announced that state's investigation in January.

News of these investigations in Massachusetts and the Virgin Islands came as attorneys general and their representatives gathered in Manhattan for a daylong conference on climate change. During the proceedings, the top legal authorities from 15 states, the Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia announced a coalition to collaborate on legal efforts to “deal with climate change,” as Schneiderman put it.  MORE

Lightning Ignites Oil Tanks Near New Town

From:  KX News 

 

Two families were evacuated from their homes near Van Hook this afternoon after a group of oil storage tanks exploded and caught fire.

It appears the oil tanks ignited due to a lightning strike during a vigorous thunderstorm around Noon Sunday a few miles east of New Town.

The tanks burned for nearly three hours - under the watch of firefighters from New Town who allowed the fire to burn itself out - and accepted help from the torrential rain that was falling at the time. MORE

Exxon and Its Allies Invoke First Amendment to Fight Climate Fraud Probes

From:  Inside Climate Change

By Neela Banerjee

 

 

Lawyers hired by Exxon and CEI have experience waging long battles with government attorneys on controversial issues, including tobacco.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, center, joined a coalition of her colleagues seeking climate action and considering investigations of Exxon. Credit: Reuters

Exxon, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and their allies are invoking free speech protections in a pugnacious pushback against subpoenas from attorneys general seeking decades of documents on climate change. Their argument is that the state-level investigations violate the First Amendment rights of those who question climate science.

Exxon has sued to block a subpoena issued by the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands, and in an unusual step, named as a defendant the Washington, D.C. law firm and attorney representing the territory in the inquiry. In its complaint against the Virgin Islands subpoena, Exxon wrote, "The chilling effect of this inquiry...strikes at protected speech at the core of the First Amendment."

In a pointed letter to Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker on April 20, CEI's attorney called the subpoena "offensive" and "un-American," and warned to "expect a fight." Andrew Grossman, outside counsel for CEI, wrote, "You have no right to wield your power as a prosecutor to advance a policy agenda by persecuting those who disagree with you."  MORE

Forget About Climate Change, America's Refineries Make Keystone XL A Bad Idea

From:  Forbes 

James Conca, Contributor

 March 2, 2015 

When I filled up my hybrid’s gasoline tank last week, the pump price had jumped 30 cents from my last fill-up. I said to myself, “Hmmm…something’s going on.” Gasoline prices don’t just move up and down on a whim. So when I found out about the refinery woes going on across the country, I wasn’t surprised.

A devastating explosion destroyed much of Exxon Mobil XOM +0.85%’s Torrance refinery in California two weeks ago and severely cut into America’s ability to make gasoline. Residents for miles around had to cope with ash, gaseous fumes and really unhealthy air quality.

Add striking workers at nine other U.S. refineries to this explosive shutdown, and almost a fifth of America’s refinery output is in jeopardy because of continuing safety issues.  MORE

Is Exxon Trying To Buy Its Way Out Of Accountability Through Refinery Sale?

From:  Consumer Watchdog

Posted by Liza Tucker 

As government scrutiny intensifies on ExxonMobil, the company is apparently getting out of the state. Exxon  is reportedly selling its hobbled Torrance refinery in the wake of an investigation into management's responsiblity for an explosion Feb.18 that endangered workers and the community.

Consumer Watchdog wrote a letter last week to the governor, California Attorney General and US Attorneys, alleging a coverup by Exxon of evidence and concealing of witnesses that could prove the refinery made a decision to keep operating a fluid catalytic cracker while repairing a compressor. That decision touched off the build up of fumes that exploded, destroying a key piece of air pollution equipment 12 stories high called an electrostatic precipitator. Industry sources told Consumer Watchdog that workers emptying waste at the bottom of the electrostatic preciptator barely escaped when sensors on their belts alerted them to the presences of fumes. 

Is Exxon trying to wash its hands of responsibility for ignoring subpoenas, allegedly hiding witnesses and endangering the public? We knew investigators were intensifying their scrutiny of Exxon's actions during the past week and sources say it's got under the company's skin. MORE

CW SLIDE PRESENTATION: How CA Oil Refiners Cheat Rather Than Compete

From:  Consumer Watchdog

1/4/2016 Posted by Cody Rosenfield

Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court delivered this testimony and slide presentation on December 16th, 2015, to the California Energy Commission's Petroleum Market Advisory Committee in Sacramento.  The panel is charged with determining the causes of gasoline price volatility.

Court lays out information compiled by Consumer Watchdog showing how oil refiners share wholesale pricing data and used dark trades to dump cheap gasoline to artificially raise gas prices across California. The presentation shows how refiners have made record profits in 2015 due to higher pump prices paid in the state.

Following the presentation, committee members Severin Borenstein, James Sweeney, Amy Jaffe, Kathleen Foote & Dave Hackett ask questions.  MORE