Shell Oil appears to throw in the towel and pledges to spend a billion dollars a year on renewable energy while asking for a fossil fuel tax.

Courtesy of The Independent: 

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell is to increase its spending on renewable energy to $1bn (£800m) a year, its chief executive announced as he warned the public’s faith in the industry was “just disappearing”. 

Ben van Beurden suggested the public backlash against fossil fuel firms could threaten the industry’s future. 

He also said it was essential that countries imposed a price on carbon emissions to help phase out the use of coal and oil, sources of large amounts of greenhouse gases that are driving climate change. 

This perhaps surprising message – a request from a business for governments to make their costs higher – was delivered at an energy conference in Texas, Reuters reported.

Well we knew this had to be coming around at some point. After all just about the whole world is now focusing on renewable energy now. 

I just can't help but wish Shell and all of their other big oil buddies would have done this twenty five years ago when it would have actually made a big difference.

Before they started spending millions to refute the science Shell Oil company made a little film about the catastrophic dangers of global warming.

Courtesy of The Guardian:

The oil giant Shell issued a stark warning of the catastrophic risks of climate change more than a quarter of century ago in a prescient 1991 film that has been rediscovered. 

However, since then the company has invested heavily in highly polluting oil reserves and helped lobby against climate action, leading to accusations that Shell knew the grave risks of global warming but did not act accordingly. 

Shell’s 28-minute film, called Climate of Concern, was made for public viewing, particularly in schools and universities. It warned of extreme weather, floods, famines and climate refugees as fossil fuel burning warmed the world. The serious warning was “endorsed by a uniquely broad consensus of scientists in their report to the United Nations at the end of 1990”, the film noted. 

“If the weather machine were to be wound up to such new levels of energy, no country would remain unaffected,” it says. “Global warming is not yet certain, but many think that to wait for final proof would be irresponsible. Action now is seen as the only safe insurance.” 

A separate 1986 report, marked “confidential” and also seen by the Guardian, notes the large uncertainties in climate science at the time but nonetheless states: “The changes may be the greatest in recorded history.” 

The predictions in the 1991 film for temperature and sea level rises and their impacts were remarkably accurate, according to scientists, and Shell was one of the first major oil companies to accept the reality and dangers of climate change.

Of course after this very accurate film was produced for public consumption Shell then apparently had a change of heart and spent millions essentially fighting back against the facts shared in the video, undermining renewable energy policies, and spending billions to conduct tar sand drilling.

It should also be noted that uncovered emails, going back as far as 1981, demonstrated that oil giant Exxon was also well aware that Climate Change was a real danger and that it was man made.

Essentially this just demonstrates that these oil companies have known for decades that Climate Change is caused by their own activities as fossil fuel companies and that they have aggressively worked to keep that knowledge out of the hands of the public while continuing to negatively impact our environment.

More trouble for Shell Oil's drilling operations in Alaska. Update!

Courtesy of CBS News:  

CBS News has learned that the U.S. Coast Guard has called in their criminal investigators to probe potential violations of federal law involving the activities of a 572-foot oil drilling and exploration ship owned by the Noble corporation, and contracted by Royal Dutch Shell to search for oil in the arctic. Royal Dutch Shell owned the drilling rig, the Kulluk, that ran aground in rough Alaskan seas Monday. 

The revelation that another Noble ship working for Shell may have been operating with serious safety and pollution control problems bolstered allegations from environmental activists that the oil industry is unable to conduct safe oil drilling operations in the Arctic Ocean. 

The Coast Guard conducted a routine marine safety inspection when Noble's Discoverer arrived at a Seward, Alaska port in late November. The inspection team found serious issues with the ship's safety management system and pollution control systems. The inspectors also listed more than a dozen "discrepancies" which, sources tell CBS News, led them to call in the Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS) to determine if there were violations of federal law. 

Sources told CBS News that when criminal investigators arrived, the Noble Discoverer's crew had been provided with lawyers and declined to be interviewed.

The whole crewed lawyered up?  Oh no, NOTHING to hide there!

And of course THIS news is on the heels of the serious problems going on with the Kulluk, the oil ship currently stranded off of Kodiak island.

I see some serious fines coming Shell Oil's way.

You know if I were in charge of Shell Oil's arctic oil research department, I might be advising the powers that be to cut their losses and get the hell out of Alaskan waters while they still can.

Update: Rachel Maddow did a deep dive on this situation last night on her show.

Rachel Maddow's report on the stranded oil rig in Alaska.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Damn she always does SUCH a good job!

By the way apparently the weather has cleared today and a salvage team was able to board her and do an assessment.  So far they have been tight lipped as to what they found.

That does not seem like a good sign.

The Kulluk, Shell Oil's antiquated old drilling ship, was ripped from its tow lines by high winds and has become grounded near Kodiak Island. Chances of a diesel fuel leak very high.

Courtesy of the Guardian:  

A large drill ship belonging to the oil company Shell has run aground off Alaska after drifting in stormy weather, company and government officials said.

The ship, the Kulluk, broke away from one of its tow lines on Monday afternoon and was driven, within hours, on to rocks just off Kodiak Island, where it grounded at about 9pm Alaska time, officials said. 

The 18-member crew had been evacuated by the coastguard late on Saturday because of risks from the ongoing storm. 

There was no known spill and no reports of damage, but the Kulluk had about 155,000 gallons of fuel on board, said coastguard commander Shane Montoya, the leader of the incident command team. 

With winds reported as reaching 60 miles an hour and Gulf of Alaska seas of up to 12 metres, responders were unable to keep the ship from grounding, he told a news conference late on Monday night in Anchorage. 

"We are now entering into the salvage and possible spill-response phase of this event."

I received a phone call on this from one of my sources a few hours ago, and from what I understand Shell was essentially warned NOT to go through with putting his drill ship out into these waters. they were told the ship was not prepared for the type of seas it would encounter and that it was literally an accident waiting for  place to happen.

Well now it has happened, and my sources tell me that the expectations are very high that there already substantial leaks, though nothing has officially been confirmed as of yet.

Stay tuned, this is still unfolding.