Royal Dutch Shell

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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Shell filed appeal against landmark Dutch climate ruling</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Reuters</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div>LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) - Energy major Shell (SHEL.L) has filed its appeal against a Dutch court ruling that ordered the oil, gas and fuel producer to cut its emissions faster in a landmark win for activists turning to courts to force climate action.</div><div>
</div><div>While Shell had set itself a target to reach net zero carbon neutrality by 2050, its intermediate targets were based on emissions intensity, which could in theory allow the group to increase fossil fuel output. read more</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In last May's ruling on the case brought by seven groups including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth Netherlands, the court said that Shell must cut emissions faster and reduce its absolute emissions by 45% by 2030. read more</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Shell said at the time of the ruling that it would appeal. In a post on LinkedIn, Marjan van Loon, Shell's Netherlands President, said the appeal was filed on March 22.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The vast majority of Shell's emissions are so-called Scope 3 emissions from the use of its products by customers, such as when gasoline is combusted in a car or jet fuel on a plane.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden has argued that Shell can reach net zero only if society as a whole moves to net zero.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div>"The judgment holds Shell responsible for reducing the emissions of its customers from the use of its products," he said. "We question how Shell can have a legal obligation to reduce carbon emissions we do not control from customers who are not under a similar legal obligation to reduce their emissions.</div><div>
</div><div>"If we decided to stop selling petrol, it would not mean that people would buy less petrol. Customers would buy it elsewhere."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Reporting by Shadia Nasralla and Kirstin Ridley Editing by David Goodman</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">=</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> no lnx</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><a href="https://www.dutchnews.nl/features/2021/05/meet-the-dutchman-twisting-the-arm-of-the-worlds-most-powerful-polluters/">https://www.dutchnews.nl/features/2021/05/meet-the-dutchman-twisting-the-arm-of-the-worlds-most-powerful-polluters/</a></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On Tuesday, at Royal Dutch Shell’s AGM in The Hague, one man − supported by a growing army of shareholders − will tackle Europe’s highest grossing company from within when he seeks approval for a resolution, opposed by directors, for a speedier and more ambitious transition to green energy. If the planet survives to tell the tale, Dutch national Mark van Baal might one day be remembered as the man who had the greatest impact on reversing climate change. The former energy journalist’s draft novel about a CEO of an oil firm changing the course of history by steering the company towards renewables struck a duff note, but sparked the idea for Follow This, a movement he founded in 2015 based on shareholder activism within some of the world’s most polluting companies, including Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell and BP. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Striking at the top </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">‘The oil industry can make or break the Paris Agreement,’ says Van Baal (52), who believes striking at the heart of pollution powerhouses is the most effective way to reverse climate change. Follow This’s counter-intuitive approach invites changemakers to buy a share in Big Oil (from €9) via their website and then send an email to the CEO, introducing themselves as their newest shareholder and pledging their support to help them make the switch to green energy. Inspired by TCI − who in 2007, with a mere 1% stake in ABN Amro, got the backing of shareholders to split the bank into three parts − Van Baal saw an opportunity to significantly reduce global emissions by building shareholder support for green resolutions in our most polluting corporations, while garnering media interest. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">His strategy to take on multinationals from the grassroots raised a few eyebrows and was widely dismissed as ‘a sympathetic initiative’. But when his wife showed him a viral video of a lone dancer in a park evolving into a huge dance party, he recognised such doubt and derision as part of the journey to success, and the name ‘Follow This’ was born. ‘One of the lessons [I learnt],’ he says, ‘is that to get something like this off the ground, you just have to do it and run the risk of being ridiculed in the beginning.’ Follow This founder Mark van Baal addresses the board of directors at the Shell AGM in The Hague in 2018. Photo: Follow This</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Transforming from within </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Big in ambition, but small in stature, he cut a lonely figure when he rose nervously from a seat at the back of Shell’s packed AGM in 2015 and introduced himself to CEO Ben van Beurden, telling him: ‘I believe you can change the world.’ A David squaring up to Goliath, he urged the panel of directors not to devalue shareholders’ investments by making Shell ‘the next Kodak’, and ‘to put their brains and their billions behind renewable energy’ instead. ‘We are not asking you to stop paying dividends. I would be lynched in this place,’ Van Baal tells the room with a smile, stressing the strong business case for the transition (fossil fuels are becoming scarcer and more expensive to extract, while renewables are falling in price). </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And when told the transition is harder than he thinks, he quips: ‘We have more confidence in you than you have in yourself, apparently.’ </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Investment </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As for confidence in Follow This, support was snowballing, bolstered by deep-pocketed investors with a green agenda and the backing of key players such as environment minister Stientje van Veldhoven, and Jan Rotmans, the founder of Urgenda, who in 2015 won a landmark case ruling that the Dutch government had a legal responsibility to act immediately to reverse climate change. Today, over 6000 individuals have donated a total of around €20m in shares to the cause. ‘It’s amazing how many people want to contribute to this,’ says Van Baal, who believes solar panels, vegetarianism and not flying are all very well, but are not enough to stop global warming. ‘People feel pretty powerless against climate change. They thought: this can make a difference.’ The world’s biggest oil and gas companies. Source: Statista Biggest polluters </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It takes guts, but engaging with Big Oil may be our best hope of keeping temperature rises to below 2 degrees as the burning of fossil fuels accounts for 87% of the world’s CO2 emissions. Research undertaken by the Climate Accountability Institute ranked Shell the 7th highest polluting company in 2019. A ruling is due later this month for a case brought against them by Milieudefensie for violating Dutch liability law by producing double the Netherlands’ legal limit of carbon emissions. In the Netherlands, greenhouse gas emissions per capita are still 34% above the EU average due to our reliance on fossil fuel. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 2019, just 8.8% of the energy used in the Netherlands was sustainably sourced, one of the lowest in the EU. Iceland, by contrast, was powered by 78% renewables. ‘The fossil fuel interests are very big in the Netherlands,’ says Van Baal. ‘The story was always that we have so much natural gas in the north of the Netherlands that the government is dependent on it so we can’t change it so fast. Now, because of the earthquakes in Groningen, now suddenly it’s possible to do without the income.’ Carbon dioxide emissions in the Netherlands are gradually declining but our dependence on fossil fuels, say environmentalists, limits our progress. Source: CBS Shortcomings Dutch lawmakers have also tightened their grip on shareholder activists like Follow This, who now require a 5% stake to table motions in the Netherlands. Of course, Big Oil does not always appreciate being told home truths about an industry which has − until recently − served investors so well. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The atmosphere at some AGMs has been hostile at times, with Van Beurden accusing Van Baal of trying to take leadership at Shell’s 2018 AGM. Follow This, he reminds him with headmasterly authority, must ‘Follow us’. And sometimes the pressure group itself can inadvertently hinder progress. Campaigns without ambitious, concrete targets can end up functioning as fig leaves for CEOs, says Van Baal, citing Climate Action 100+’s softly-softly approach as an example. Concrete results Despite the challenges, Follow This’s impressive results suggest that the method is working. The inclusion of Scope 3 emissions in Shell’s 2017 climate targets, for example, was an unanticipated success which Van Baal says still gives him goosebumps. Creating traction in the US has been harder, but just last week, a record 58% of shareholder voters in Alaskan oil giant ConocoPhillips supported a motion brought by Follow This to reduce all of the company’s direct and indirect emissions – a huge endorsement for the resolution, whose equivalent at Shell has taken five years to creep from 2.7% to 14.4% of voters. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">Citing the risk of litigation that polluters now run, as well as the prospect that fossil fuel projects become ‘stranded assets’ in a fast-changing energy landscape, the motion marked a turning point in North American big oil, which, since Biden, has seen the Securities and Exchange Commission grant greater freedom to shareholders to make climate proposals. Shareholder support for Follow This’s climate resolutions has grown steadily since the NGO’s inception. Source: Follow This Optimism</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Whether the scales will also tip at Shell on Tuesday, remains to be seen. Shell has written to all shareholders advising them to support the directors’ climate resolution over Follow This’s more ambitious alternative. Though Shell asserts that its carbon production peaked in 2018, the company’s 2030 targets, say Follow This, still fall short of the Paris Agreement, and the rising demand for energy is being met by further oil exploration in the Arctic with no more than 1% of revenue invested in renewables. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Whatever happens, Big Oil − believes Van Baal − will in time burn itself out. ‘If we leave them alone, they will eventually go bankrupt, but it will take too long. It will put too much CO2 in the air,’ he says. And, despite some harsh criticism from his wife, he still thinks his novel is a good read and that the plot is realistic. ‘I’m quite optimistic, but I have to be,’ he says. ‘This is the only thing that’s going to work.’</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Read more at DutchNews.nl:</div></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">=</div>=in baken the corp gave EF tea and lunch1966 Joined Shell<ul style="list-style-image: url(" w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" skins.vector.styles="skins.vector.styles" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" d4515="d4515" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-size="font-size"><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Geologist in Spain, Oman and Brunei</li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;">1972 Chief Geologist in Australia</li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;">1976 Leader of North Sea exploration teams, Shell UK Expro</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">1976 Manager, Western Division Shell Petroleum Development Company, Nigeria.</li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;">1979 General Manager, Turkey</li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;">1982 Chairman and Chief Executive, Malaysia</li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;">1990 Exploration and Production Co-ordinator</li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;">1991 Group Managing Director  Kenule "Ken" Beeson Saro Wiwa (10 October 1941 – 10 November 1995)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;">1998 Chairman of the Committee of Managing Directors of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Moody-Stuart#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;">2001 Gave up Chair of Shell but remained on the Board<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Moody-Stuart#cite_note-ww-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;">2005 Retired from Shell<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Moody-Stuart#cite_note-ww-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a></li></ul><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Moody-Stuart">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Moody-Stuart</a>born in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigua" title="Antigua" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Antigua</a> the son of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_plantation" class="mw-redirect" title="Sugar plantation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">sugar plantation</a> owner,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Moody-Stuart#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[6]</a> and educated at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrewsbury_School" title="Shrewsbury School" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Shrewsbury School</a> and at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St.John%27s_College,Cambridge" class="mw-redirect" title="St. John's College, Cambridge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">St. John's College, Cambridge</a>, where he obtained a PhD on a thesis on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devonian" title="Devonian" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Devonian</a> sediments of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitsbergen" title="Spitsbergen" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Spitsbergen</a>. He became a Fellow of this College in 2001Responsible Leadership: Lessons From the Front Line of Sustainability and Ethics, Greenleaf Publishing, 2014.=guk
<p class="css-38z03z" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Elizabeth II, it was 1992. For Juan Carlos I, 2007. In the case of Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, former chair of oil giant Shell, his annus horribilis came in 1995.<p class="css-38z03z" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Crisis number one arrived in the shape of Brent Spar, a decommissioned oil rig that Shell wanted to dump in the North Sea. Greenpeace thought it unwise; press and public agreed. Second came the Nigerian military junta's execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a popular writer, campaigner and vocal critic of Shell. Many felt the Anglo-Dutch oil giant should have done more to intervene.<p id="sign-in-gate" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p class="css-38z03z" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Nearly 20 years on, Moody-Stuart has taken to the page to describe the results of that "very bad year". But don't expect a tell-it-all confession. Responsible Leadership is a sober book written by a sober executive. But it makes for intriguing reading all the same – mostly because its author has been instrumental in framing how corporate responsibility is understood.<p class="css-38z03z" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">If one word defines Moody-Stuart's business philosophy, it's "engagement". It might not sound radical, but look back two decades and chief executives would have laughed at the prospect of actually talking to outsiders about business decisions. Brent Spar and Nigeria debunked that mindset: the world was changing and yet companies like Shell, locked away in their gilded boardrooms, weren't aware....=320 desmog ukTwo years after internal documents surfaced showing that Royal Dutch Shell, like ExxonMobil, knew about climate dangers decades ago, the oil giant released its latest annual report outlining its business strategy and approach to addressing climate change.Despite clear warnings from scientists, global health experts and even central banks of impending climate-driven crises, Shell’s report largely sends a message that everything is fine and the company’s “business strategy is sound.” <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://desmogblog.cmail20.com/t/t-l-nhkkjjt-jdldtjdit-tk/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Read more...</a><div></div><div><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05042018/shell-knew-scientists-climate-change-risks-fossil-fuels-global-warming-company-documents-netherlands-lawsuits">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05042018/shell-knew-scientists-climate-change-risks-fossil-fuels-global-warming-company-documents-netherlands-lawsuits</a></div><div>
</div><div>Internal company documents uncovered by a Dutch news organization show that the oil giant Shell had a deep understanding, dating at least to the 1980s, of the science and risks of global warming caused by fossil fuel emissions.</div><div>
</div>They show that as the company pondered its responsibility to act, Shell's scientists urged it to heed the early warnings, even if, as they said, it might take until the 2000s for the mounting evidence to prove greenhouse gases in the atmosphere were causing unnatural climate change."With the very long time scales involved, it would be tempting for society to wait until then before doing anything," company researchers wrote in a 1988 report based on studies completed in 1986. "The potential implications for the world are, however, so large that policy options need to be considered much earlier. And the energy industry needs to consider how it should play its part."Otherwise, a team of Shell experts said, "it could be too late to take effective countermeasures to reduce the effects or even to stabilize the situation."For the next decade—as the emerging science was becoming increasingly robust, and as international efforts to curb heat-trapping emissions gained steam and calls for action grew more urgent—the company persisted in emphasizing the lingering uncertainties of climate science and the costs of ambitious policies, the documents show.Shell's own "review of the scientific uncertainty and the evolution of energy systems indicates that policies to curb greenhouse gases beyond 'no regrets' measures could be premature, divert economic resources from more pressing needs and further distort markets," a February 1995 management brief advised.The documents were unearthed by the journalist <a href="https://decorrespondent.nl/jelmermommers" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Jelmer Mommers</a> of <a href="https://decorrespondent.nl/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">De Correspondent</a>, whose investigative article was published on Thursday in Dutch. Many of the documents, along with explanatory notes, were released on the <a href="http://www.climatefiles.com/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Climate Files website</a>, where researcher and climate advocate Kert Davies maintains extensive archives. To get their work before a broader audience, they shared embargoed copies of the documents.<h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.333; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What Shell Knew & What It Means for Lawsuits</h3>Just like researchers at other oil and gas companies, <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/content/Exxon-The-Road-Not-Taken" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">notably Exxon</a>, Shell's scientists and managers understood, before the general public, that uncontrolled greenhouse gas emissions could eventually put its core businesses at risk—and alter ecosystems and put much of the world's population in peril.The accretion of evidence complicates the industry's position as Big Oil defends itself in a <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04042018/climate-change-fossil-fuel-company-lawsuits-timeline-exxon-children-california-cities-attorney-general" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">broadening array of climate-related litigation</a>.On Wednesday, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/04/friends-of-the-earth-threatens-to-sue-shell-over-climate-change-contributions" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Dutch environmentalists said they plan to sue</a> Royal Dutch Shell to force it to cut its oil and gas investments and production. Donald Pols, director of Friends of the Earth Netherlands/Milieudefensie, said the company "should take its responsibility to stop wrecking the climate."Responding to the litigation, Shell said that it has long embraced climate change science and strongly supports the <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/paris-climate-agreement" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Paris climate agreement</a> aimed at limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius or less. But it said that meeting that target is a complex social challenge, that energy is important to the global quality of life, and that the issues should not be tackled in court. Rather, it called for sound government policy and a cultural shift toward green energy.Shell is already a defendant in other court cases.... <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/big-oil-divestment-2553608299.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/big-oil-divestment-2553608299.html</a>By Andy Rowell<div class="widgetbody clearfix sm-mt-1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 12px;"><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url expanded" data-elid="2553608299" data-authors="Oil Change International" data-headline="A New Golden Age for Big Oil or a Golden Goodbye?" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px;"><div class="body-description"><div class="widgetbrief"> New Golden Age for Big Oil or a Golden Goodbye?Goldman Sachs, the investment bank at the heart of the global economy still doesn't get it.</div><div class="js-appear-on-expand" style="transition: all 350ms; height: auto; overflow: hidden; opacity: 1;">The bank, once famously described as "a great <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">vampire squid</a> wrapped around the face of humanity," has a blinkered and fundamentally flawed vision when it comes to the future of the oil industry.Monday, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-26/oil-s-seven-sisters-enter-a-golden-age-goldman-sachs-says" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Bloomberg</a> reported that the hugely influential investment bank had issued a report on the "Seven Sisters," the world's largest oil companies and the bank argues that having "survived a life-changing crisis," the companies are "now poised to reap the rewards."Having shed costs as prices plummeted, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/big-oil" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Big Oil</a> is now "in a sweet spot with rising oil prices and low operating costs, leaving them with the biggest cash-flow growth in two decades and boosting earnings," according to Goldman's report.Goldman's Michele Della Vigna told Bloomberg: "We see this as the start of a new golden age for Big Oil's reborn Seven Sisters," with a "favorable environment for returns in the commodity."This analysis is dangerously defective in that it seems to envisage a world where Big Oil can carry on drilling unimpeded for decades. But the bank has forgotten about climate change, stranded assets, shareholder actions and the growing number of lawsuits against Big Oil for their role in climate change, widely seen as the #Exxonknew scandal. Indeed, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/schwarzenegger-oil-companies-murder-2546891443.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">recently Arnold Schwarzenegger said</a> he was planning on suing the companies for "murder."Furthermore, the website Business Green reported last week about another report, produced jointly by the environmental think tank E3G and the Oxford Sustainable Finance Programme. The top line says it all: "New research released today suggests the only commercially viable future for oil majors in a carbon constrained world is a gradual winding down of their operations or a quick sell off of assets."The report had simulated a scenario under which the Seven Sisters had to shift their business models in line with what was agreed in Paris—a 2 C warming—which could put a whopping $2.3 trillion of oil and gas industry projects at risk as they are "incompatible" with a 2 C world.As <a href="https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news-analysis/3028951/bail-out-or-fade-out-oil-majors-face-tough-choice-on-climate-researchers-warn" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Business Green</a> reported "It found that oil firms' best chance of commercial survival is to rapidly diversify from fossil fuels into alternative technologies such as renewable energy, and gradually retire upstream fossil fuel assets."This is far from a new dawn as you can get. "Out of five possible strategies, only 'managed decline' and 'first one out' are commercially viable options for International Oil Corporations," said Business Green.Indeed, Monday one of the Seven Sisters, Royal Dutch Shell, produced its annual "<a href="https://www.shell.com/promos/meeting-the-goals-of-the-paris-agreement/jcr_content.stream/1521983847468/5f624b9260ef2625f319558cbb652f8b23d331933439435d7a0fc7003f346f94/shell-scenarios-sky.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Sky scenario</a>" report which outlined how we might collectively achieve the Paris agreement emission targets."Introducing Sky—an ambitious scenario to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 C. This requires a complex combination of mutually reinforcing drivers being rapidly accelerated by society, markets and governments," said Shell.Shell outlines, amongst others, "a change in consumer mindset means that people preferentially choose low-carbon, high-efficiency options to meet their energy service needs," a "step-change in the efficiency of energy use," plus carbon pricing, a massive increase in renewables, and unprecedented expansion of Carbon, Capture and Storage and vast reforestation.No doubt others will pick apart Shell's plans for being unrealistic and flawed, especially around its own continuing investment in fossil fuels and issues such as carbon pricing and Carbon, Capture and Storage, but the main point is that the company's own analysts believe that the days of Big Oil are numbered.And pressure is building day by day for the companies to divest: Monday, the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/fae8e478-2eba-11e8-9b4b-bc4b9f08f381" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Financial Times</a> reported that shareholders are "preparing a renewed push" for Shell to "adopt more ambitious goals for tackling climate change." The company is expected to face a shareholder resolution at its AGM calling for a "radical shift" away from fossil fuels.Mark Van Baal of <a href="https://follow-this.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Follow This</a>, who is leading the shareholder action, told the Financial Times: "More and more institutional investors want companies they invest in to commit to Paris. Because they foresee that they cannot make a decent return on their capital in a world economy disrupted by devastated climate change."Maybe someone should tell the Goldman Sachs vampire squid that too, before they advise too many investors about this wonderful new golden era for Big Oil. Because that era is now history.Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="http://priceofoil.org/2018/03/27/a-new-golden-age-for-big-oil-or-a-golden-goodbye/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Oil Change International</a>.<div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-28/chevron-director-moyo-questions-future-of-oil-industry-in-tweet" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px; word-wrap: break-word;">Chevron Director Questions Future of Oil Industry in Tweet ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/us-bank-divest-pipelines-2408440397.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px; word-wrap: break-word;">U.S. Bank Becomes First Major Bank to Stop Financing Pipeline ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-york-fossil-fuel-divestment-2524494059.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px; word-wrap: break-word;">Empire State Building Shines Green After NYC's Decision to Take ... ›</a></li></ul></div></div></div></div></div><div>=</div><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/shell-nigeria-amnesty-2513278575.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/shell-nigeria-amnesty-2513278575.html</a>ogonibernhardt trump doi:<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Interior Secretary Gale Norton, when David Bernhardt was Solicitor, may have “illegally used her position to benefit Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the company that hired her” soon after leaving the Interior Department. A criminal investigation centered “on the Interior Department’s 2006 decision to award [to a Shell subsidiary] three lucrative oil shale leases on federal land” that “could net the company hundreds of billions of dollars.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">It appears Royal Dutch Shell PLC had inside information and assistance to help it obtain these leases and that Gale Norton was less than forthcoming with Interior Department ethics officials about her role in the lease program. “The investigation’s main focus…[was] whether Norton violated a law that prohibits federal employees from discussing employment with a company if they are involved in dealings with the government that could benefit the firm, law enforcement and Interior officials said. They said investigators also were trying to determine if Norton broke a broader federal ‘denial of honest services’ law, which says a government official can be prosecuted for violating the public trust by, for example, steering government business to favored firms or friends.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">The Justice Department investigated “whether former Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton illegally used her position to benefit Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the company that later hired her.” The criminal investigation centered “on the Interior Department’s 2006 decision to award three lucrative oil shale leases on federal land in Colorado to a Shell subsidiary. Over the years it would take to extract the oil, according to calculations from Shell and a Rand Corp. expert, the deal could net the company hundreds of billions of dollars.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">The investigation’s main focus…[was] whether Norton violated a law that prohibits federal employees from discussing employment with a company if they are involved in dealings with the government that could benefit the firm, law enforcement and Interior officials said. They said investigators also were trying to determine if Norton broke a broader federal ‘denial of honest services’ law, which says a government official can be prosecuted for violating the public trust by, for example, steering government business to favored firms or friends.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">“In early 2006…the department announced that it planned to award Shell three oil shale leases. Norton resigned two months later, saying that she had no job lined up. In December of that year, Shell announced it had hired Norton as in-house counsel to its unconventional fuels division, which includes oil shale.” The Justice Department was “looking into whether Shell received a competitive advantage or other preferential treatment from the Interior Department in the awarding of the leases. ‘If [Norton] had feelers out, or was in discussions with Shell in any way, she is absolutely forbidden from participating in any way from doing anything with Shell,’ a law enforcement official said.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">[Jim Tankersley and Josh Meyer, “<a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2009/sep/17/nation/na-norton17" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Former Interior Secretary Gale Norton is focus of corruption probe</a>,” Los Angeles Times, 09/17/09]<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">“The IG found that after leaving Interior but before joining Shell, Norton ‘failed to fully describe her role in the leasing program’ to department ethics officials. After she was hired, Norton contacted the Pentagon and Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, ‘indirectly,’ regarding oil shale issues.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">In addition, “the IG…found that BLM ‘appeared to give preferential treatment’ to Shell in two instances. In one case, two Shell bids were larger than the acreage allowed by BLM. In another, someone within the agency changed Shell’s numbers to comply with the requirements. Shell also submitted – and won – three bids – while other prospective bidders were allowed only one bid.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">[Dan Berman, “<a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2010/12/gale-norton-wont-face-charges-046257" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Gale Norton won’t face charges</a>” Politico, 12/10/10]<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">“Critics accused the Interior Department of undermining a central goal of the leases by awarding three of them to Shell. The leases were meant to allow companies to test distinct methods for extracting shale from rock. But each of Shell’s tracts was granted for a variation of the same process. Critics also raised questions about the fairness of the process, given that Shell filed its first lease application just a day after the department issued its call for proposals in June 2005.” Department of the Interior “officials said they did not notify potential bidders” at that point in time.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">“The Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General began the investigation during the waning months of the George W. Bush administration and…made a formal criminal referral to the Justice Department…after concluding that there was sufficient evidence of potential illegal conduct.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">[Jim Tankersley and Josh Meyer, “<a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2009/sep/17/nation/na-norton17" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Former Interior Secretary Gale Norton is focus of corruption probe</a>,” Los Angeles Times, 09/17/09]<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">In the end, “the Justice Department…declined to file charges against former Interior Secretary Gale Norton in connection with oil shale bids by Royal Dutch Shell.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">[Dan Berman, “<a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2010/12/gale-norton-wont-face-charges-046257" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Gale Norton won’t face charges</a>” Politico, 12/10/10]<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">David Bernhardt was investigated as part of a Department of the Interior Office of Inspector General investigation into whether Royal Dutch Shell received preferential treatment in BLM’s awarding of oil leases in 2005 and 2006.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">David Bernhardt was investigated as part of a Department of the Interior Office of Inspector General investigation that was launched “based on a complaint that Royal Dutch Shell…received preferential treatment during the awarding of oil shale Research, Development, and Demonstration (RDD) leases in 2005 and 2006 by the Bureau of Land Management.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">The investigation found that while Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who subsequently secured employment with Shell, was “very interested in the RDD program during her tenure as Secretary” there was no evidence “to conclusively determine that Norton violated conflict-of-interest laws.” However, BLM “appeared to give preferential treatment to Shell in two specific issues regarding these leases,” and “someone in BLM provided Shell with information” that allowed Shell to submit applications for leases multiple days before any other company.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">According to interviews the Office of the Inspector General conducted, “[Gale] Norton and her staff viewed oil shale as a ‘game changer,’ meaning if it could be developed and produced, it would have a significant, positive impact on the Nation’s energy position.” Additionally, David Bernhardt and Gale Norton both “wanted to be involved in oil shale matters because they understood the sensitivity of oil shale development in Colorado.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">The investigation also found that “Bernhardt and Norton had toured a Shell oil shale facility on private land in Colorado.” In fact, Bernhardt, who closely advised Norton, traveled with her on multiple occasions to meet Shell executives in Colorado.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">As part of the investigation, the Department of the Interior Office of Inspector General interviewed Melissa Loftin, who later became the designated Interior Ethics Official. Loftin said that she asked Bernhardt his “‘thoughts’ on whether Norton’s involvement in oil shale matters reached the level to where [Norton] was involved ‘personally and substantially on a particular matter involving specific parties.'” Bernhardt responded, “Norton’s involvement did not reach this level” and “BLM managed the RDD process.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: 29.45px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">[“<a href="https://www.doioig.gov/sites/doioig.gov/files/RoyalDutchShell_Public.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; font-style: italic;">Report of Investigation – Royal Dutch Shell</a>,” Department of the Interior Office of the Inspector General, 12/09/10]--The Union of Concerned Scientists recently compiled a <a data-beacon="//www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/fight-misinformation/climate-accountability-scorecard-ranking-major-fossil-fuel-companies#.V_faxPkrI5c" href="http://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/fight-misinformation/climate-accountability-scorecard-ranking-major-fossil-fuel-companies#.V_faxPkrI5c" target="_hplink" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">scorecard</a> to help answer these questions. In its new analysis, UCS rated the business practices of the top eight U.S. investor-owned fossil fuel companies on Heede’s list that are U.S.-based or have a North American affiliate. In order of emissions magnitude, they are:<ol style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li>Chevron</li><li>ExxonMobil</li><li>BP</li><li>Royal Dutch Shell</li><li>ConocoPhillips</li><li>Peabody Energy</li><li>Consol Energy</li><li>Arch Coal</li></ol>A trio of House Democrats is asking the Department of Justice to investigate Royal Dutch Shell’s “deception” on climate change science.Reps. Ted Lieu (Calif.), <a class="rollover-people-link" data-nid="188028" href="http://thehill.com/people/peter-welch" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: bold;">Peter Welch</a> (Vt.) and Matt Cartwright (Pa.) cited reports in the Los Angeles Times and InsideClimate News to accuse Shell of working with Exxon Mobil Corp. to lie to the public about climate change and the impact from fossil fuels.<div id="dfp-ad-mosad_1-wrapper" class="dfp-tag-wrapper wrapper" style="position: relative; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The alleged behavior by multiple actors suggests there was a conspiracy between Shell, ExxonMobil and potentially other companies in the fossil fuel industry,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch.“We request the DOJ investigate whether Shell violated, or conspired to violate, Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), consumer protection, truth in advertising, public health, or other laws,” they said.The letter represents an escalation of the Democrats’ fight against Exxon, which started last year with previous reports by the Times and InsideClimate.The publications reported that Exxon had a good grasp of climate science as early as the 1970s and was at the cutting edge of research. But it later downplayed the dangers and sowed doubt about climate change as part of its efforts to fight numerous policies to cut carbon emissions.

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<a href="http://www.prwatch.org/node/12904">http://www.prwatch.org/node/12904</a>

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-shell-nigeria-pollution-idUSKBN0U11C520151218Dutch appeals court ruled on Friday that Royal Dutch Shell may be held liable for oil spills at its subsidiary in Nigeria, potentially opening the way for other compensation claims against multinationals in the Niger Delta and elsewhere.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.6em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">The ruling was hailed by rights groups as a victory for victims of environmental pollution worldwide, while Shell said it was disappointed.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.6em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Judges in The Hague ordered Shell to make available to the court documents that might cast light on the cause of the spills and whether leading managers were aware of them.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.6em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">A lower Dutch court in 2013 had found that Shell's Dutch-based parent company could not be held liable for leakages of oil at its Nigerian subsidiary.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.6em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">The legal dispute dates back to 2008 when four Nigerian farmers and campaign group Friends of the Earth filed suit against the oil company in the Netherlands, where its global headquarters is based.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.6em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">"Shell can be taken to court in the Netherlands for the effects of the oil spills," the court stated on Friday. "Shell is also ordered to provide access to documents that could shed more light on the cause of the leaks."<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.6em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">The court still has to decide if Royal Dutch Shell is in fact responsible for the Nigerian spills. The court will continue to hear the case in March 2016.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.6em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Judge Hans van der Klooster said the court had also found that it "has jurisdiction in the case against Shell and its subsidiary in Nigeria".<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.6em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Shell's Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC), said in a statement: "We are disappointed the Dutch court has determined it should assume international jurisdiction over SPDC."<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.6em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">"We believe allegations concerning Nigerian plaintiffs in dispute with a Nigerian company, over issues which took place within Nigeria, should be heard in Nigeria," it said.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.6em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" /><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.6em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">UNIQUE RULING<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.6em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Shell has always blamed the leakages on sabotage which under Nigerian law would mean it is not liable to pay compensation. But the Dutch court said on Friday: "It is too early to assume that the leaks were caused by sabotage."<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.6em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">"The ruling is unique and can pave the way for victims of environmental pollution and human rights abuses worldwide to turn to the Netherlands for legal redress when a Dutch company is involved," Friends of the Earth Netherlands said in a statement.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.6em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">In January 2013, the district court in The Hague ruled that one of the farmers in the original suit was eligible for compensation from Shell's Nigerian division for spills on his land in the Niger Delta, the heart of Nigeria's oil industry.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.6em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">The farmer appealed over whether the parent company should also be liable.In a separate case, Shell agreed in January to pay out 55 million pounds ($82 million) in out-of-court compensation for two oil spills in Nigeria in 2008 after agreeing a settlement with the affected community in the Delta.

<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Family lawsuits against Royal Dutch Shell[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ken_Saro-Wiwa&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Family lawsuits against Royal Dutch Shell" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h2>

<div class="hatnote relarticle mainarticle" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); line-height: 22.4px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Main article: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiwa_family_lawsuits_against_Royal_Dutch_Shell" title="Wiwa family lawsuits against Royal Dutch Shell" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background: none;">Wiwa family lawsuits against Royal Dutch Shell</a></div>

Beginning in 1996, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Constitutional_Rights" title="Center for Constitutional Rights" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Center for Constitutional Rights</a> (CCR), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=EarthRights_International&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="EarthRights International (page does not exist)" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(165, 88, 88); outline: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">EarthRights International</a> (ERI), Paul Hoffman of Schonbrun, DeSimone, Seplow, Harris & Hoffman and other human rights attorneys have brought a series of cases to hold Shell accountable for alleged human rights violations in Nigeria, including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summary_execution" title="Summary execution" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">summary execution</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimes_against_humanity" title="Crimes against humanity" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">crimes against humanity</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torture" title="Torture" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">torture</a>, inhumane treatment and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitrary_arrest" title="Arbitrary arrest" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">arbitrary arrest</a> and detention. The lawsuits are brought against Royal Dutch Shell and Brian Anderson, the head of its Nigerian operation.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Saro-Wiwa#cite_note-16" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[16]</a>

The cases were brought under the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_Tort_Statute" title="Alien Tort Statute" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Alien Tort Statute</a>, a 1978 statute giving non-US citizens the right to file suits in US courts for international human rights violations, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torture_Victim_Protection_Act" title="Torture Victim Protection Act" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Torture Victim Protection Act</a>, which allows individuals to seek damages in the US for torture or extrajudicial killing, regardless of where the violations take place.

The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_District_Court_for_the_Southern_District_of_New_York" title="United States District Court for the Southern District of New York" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">United States District Court for the Southern District of New York</a> set a trial date of June 2009. On 9 June 2009 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell" title="Royal Dutch Shell" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Shell</a> agreed to an out-of-court settlement of US$15.5 million to victims' families. However, the company denied any liability for the deaths, stating that the payment was part of a reconciliation process.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Saro-Wiwa#cite_note-17" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[17]</a> In a statement given after the settlement, Shell suggested that the money was being provided to the relatives of Saro-Wiwa and the eight other victims, to cover the legal costs of the case and also in recognition of the events that took place in the region.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Saro-Wiwa#cite_note-NYT-18" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[18]</a> Some of the funding is also expected to be used to set up a development trust for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogoni_people" title="Ogoni people" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Ogoni people</a>, who inhabit the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger_Delta" title="Niger Delta" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Niger Delta</a> region of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria" title="Nigeria" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Nigeria</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Saro-Wiwa#cite_note-19" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[19]</a> The settlement was made just days before the trial, which had been brought by Ken Saro-Wiwa's son, was due to begin in New York.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Saro-Wiwa#cite_note-NYT-18" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[18]</a>

==

Last week a megamerger was announced between Shell and BG Group. So, we took a look at <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://desmogblog.cmail2.com/t/t-l-thhyhjt-jdldtjdit-e/" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(47, 130, 222); outline: none; font-weight: bold; background: transparent;">what happen when oil giants Exxon and Mobil got together</a> in our DeSmog UK epic history series.

The week ended with a bang as it was revealed that Conservative Energy and Climate Change minister <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://desmogblog.cmail2.com/t/t-l-thhyhjt-jdldtjdit-s/" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(47, 130, 222); outline: none; font-weight: bold; background: transparent;">Matthew Hancock has received £18,000 in donations from a climate denier</a>. (You might remember that last September, <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://desmogblog.cmail2.com/t/t-l-thhyhjt-jdldtjdit-g/" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(47, 130, 222); outline: none; font-weight: bold; background: transparent;">we exposed said climate denier as a funder of Lord Lawson's climate sceptic charity</a>, the GWPF)

</div>

</td></tr><tr id="yui_3_16_0_1_1429110159195_49473" style=" border-collapse: collapse;"><td class="yiv3287188102w580" width="580" height="10" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1429110159195_49472" style=" border-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"> </td></tr></tbody></table>

<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://desmogblog.cmail2.com/t/t-l-thhyhjt-jdldtjdit-w/" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1429110159195_49620" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(18, 18, 17); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Revealed: Climate Denier Neil Record Backs Tory Energy and Climate Change Minister Matthew Hancock</a>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

---

<a href="http://www.globalpossibilities.org/handouts-for-frackers-the-pennsylvania-plan-to-give-drillers-1-billion/">http://www.globalpossibilities.org/handouts-for-frackers-the-pennsylvania-plan-to-give-drillers-1-billion/</a>

==

kent at conf w/ shell  <a href="http://kent at conf w/ shell http://www.no-tar-sands.org/2012/10/activists-disrupt-speeches-by-canadian-minister-and-shell-chairman/">http://www.no-tar-sands.org/2012/10/activists-disrupt-speeches-by-canadian-minister-and-shell-chairman/</a>

Royal Dutch Shell:

– Shell received a <a href="http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/green/report/2012/07/26/11880/romney-tax-plan-many-happy-returns-for-big-oil/#.UIf368y0-SA.email">$200 million annual tax break</a> in 2011.

– Shell has <a href="http://www-static.shell.com/static/investor/downloads/financial_information/quarterly_results/2012/q3/q3_2012_qra.pdf">$18.8 billion</a> in cash-on-hand.

– In the third quarter, Shell used $149 million of its profits to buy back its own stock.

– Shell’s oil production <a href="http://www-static.shell.com/static/investor/downloads/financial_information/quarterly_results/2012/q3/q3_2012_qra.pdf">decreased by 5 percent</a> compared to this time last year (1.59 million of barrels per day in 2012 vs. 1.67 million in 2011).

– Shell spent more on lobbying than the other Big Oil companies – $12.9 million so far in the 2012 election cycle – according to the latest Federal Election Commission figures.

–Shell just finished drilling top holes in <a href="http://www.seattlepi.com/news/us/article/Shell-ends-2012-Arctic-Ocean-drilling-off-Alaska-3997858.php">Arctic waters</a> for the year, after issues with its containment barge and ice flows created delays.

</blockquote>

===

sw:

Shell (Royal Dutch Shell) is part of the world's largest Public-Private Partnership (P3) N.V.Nederlandse Gasunie,<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Shell_Oil#cite_note-0">[1]</a> together with <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Exxon" title="Exxon" class="mw-redirect">Exxon</a> (Esso) and the Dutch government. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.complexxon.org">[3]</a> Shell describes itself as "a global group of oil, gas and petrochemical companies with a broad portfolio of hydrogen, biofuels, wind and solar power interests" <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.shell.com/home/Framework?siteId=home">[4]</a> Shell operates in "more than 140 countries and territories" and has over 100,000 employees, according to its website (accessed February 2007). <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.shell.com/home/Framework?siteId=aboutshell-en&FC2=&FC3=/aboutshell-en/html/iwgen/at_a_glance/at_a_glance_09112006.html">[5]</a>

The company recorded $9.8 billion in profits in 2009.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Shell_Oil#cite_note-1">[2]</a> Like other oil companies and the industry group <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Petroleum_Institute" title="American Petroleum Institute">American Petroleum Institute</a>, Shell has launched PR campaigns to counter "windfall profit" tax proposals and public anger at high oil prices. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.prweek.com/us/news/article/563530/Shell+tour+US/">[6]</a>

<h2>Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council</h2>

Shell is a corporate member of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Legislative_Exchange_Council" title="American Legislative Exchange Council">American Legislative Exchange Council</a> (ALEC) as of 2011. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/G.Edward_Pickle" title="G. Edward Pickle">G. Edward Pickle</a>, Senior Government Affairs Counsel of Shell Oil Company, is Shell's representative to ALEC's <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Civil_Justice_Task_Force" title="Civil Justice Task Force">Civil Justice Task Force</a>.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Shell_Oil#cite_note-2">[3]</a> It was a "Chairman" level sponsor of the 2011 <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Legislative_Exchange_Council" title="American Legislative Exchange Council">American Legislative Exchange Council</a> Annual Conference, which in 2010, equated to $50,000.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Shell_Oil#cite_note-3">[4]</a> Shell also sponsored the Plenary Session speeches on August 4th, 2011, by <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Board_of_Scholars" title="ALEC Board of Scholars">ALEC "scholars"</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Arthur_B.Laffer" title="Arthur B. Laffer">Arthur B. Laffer</a> and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Stephen_Moore" title="Stephen Moore">Stephen Moore</a>.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Shell_Oil#cite_note-4">[5]</a>

About ALEC

</th></tr><tr><td style=" color: #000000;">

<div style=" padding: 2px 5px;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC" title="ALEC" class="mw-redirect">ALEC</a> is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://alecexposed.org/">ALECexposed.org</a>, and check out breaking news on our <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.PRWatch.org">PRWatch.org site</a>.</div>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

<h2>Political contributions and lobbying</h2>

Shell gave $71,500 to federal candidates in the 05/06 election cycle through its <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Political_action_committee" title="Political action committee">political action committee</a> (PAC) - 14% to <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Democrats" title="Democrats" class="mw-redirect">Democrats</a> and 86% to <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Republican_Party_%28USA%29" title="Republican Party (USA)">Republicans</a>. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Shell_Oil#cite_note-5">[6]</a>

Shell is one of the largest energy company contributors to both Republican and Democratic candidates for Congress. These contributions total $120,400 to the 110th US Congress (as of the third quarter), the largest of which has been to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK). Senator Stevens, for his part, has consistently voted with the oil industry on energy, war and climate bills.<a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.followtheoilmoney.org">[7]</a>

More information on oil industry contributions to Congress can be found at <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.followtheoilmoney.org">FollowtheOilMoney.org</a>, created by the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.priceofoil.org">Oil Change International</a>.

In the first quarter of 2010, Shell spent $2,320,000 lobbying the U.S. Federal Government.<a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2010/04/hoards-of-hired-guns-earned-about-1.html">[8]</a>

<h2>Controversies</h2>

(Shell's environmental and human rights record, including its activities in Africa and information about activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, as well as in other countries will be discussed in this section soon.)

<h3>Fudging on oil reserves</h3>

In March 2004, the controversy over the exaggeration of the oil and gas reserves of Shell resulted in the resignation of the then chairman, Philip Watts, and Walter van de Vijver, who was responsible for exploration and production. In an attempt to manage the crisis Shell hired the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Brunswick_Group" title="Brunswick Group">Brunswick Group</a> to help it manage the crisis. "Brunswick has recently come on board, but we don't really say much more about what they do," Corrigan told PR Week.

PR Week also reported that for several years Shell had - and continued to - use the London-based <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Finsbury" title="Finsbury">Finsbury</a> to handle financial PR for the company and was also advising on managing the crisis on the overstated reserves. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.prweek.com/news/news_worldwire.cfm?site=1&ID=208949&site=3&/news/news_worldwire.cfm&setcookie=1">[9]</a>

<h3>Shell Public Relations</h3>

(More information on Shell's PR campaigns in response to citizen protests in Africa, Ireland, and the U.S. will be added to this article.)

<h4>Shell PR Campaigns</h4>

Here is some information about one of Shell's PR campaigns:

Along with other global corporations in the oil industry, like the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Petroleum_Institute" title="American Petroleum Institute">American Petroleum Institute</a>, Shell has launched PR campaigns to counter "windfall profit" tax proposals and public anger at high oil prices . <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.prweek.com/us/news/article/563530/Shell+tour+US/">[10]</a>

In 2006, Shell president <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/John_Hofmeister" title="John Hofmeister" class="mw-redirect">John Hofmeister</a> and other executives held "one-on-one and group meetings, receptions, speeches, and other events with local chambers of commerce, rotary clubs, educational institutions, media members, environmental groups, government officials, Shell employees themselves, and others." The goal is to reach 10,000 people in total, in cities including Dallas, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Seattle, Charlotte and Honolulu.

"As an industry, we have not done a good job about educating people and talking about how gas prices are set," explained Shell's senior media relations specialist, Darci Sinclair. So, over the next two years, Shell "will send its senior leaders on a 50-city 'tour'," reported PR Week in June 2006.

In May 2007, USA Today described one of Shell's "tour" stops, in Richmond, Virginia. The small, invite-only audience ranged "from supportive state politicians to deeply skeptical environmentalists," and was "selected by Shell's public relations agency, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Burson-Marsteller" title="Burson-Marsteller">Burson-Marsteller</a>." At the event, Shell president John Hofmeister "deftly field[ed] even the most pointed questions," commending but then passing on one environmentalist's challenge to support higher automobile fuel economy standards. Hofmeister frequently alluded to "the need to tap into offshore oil reservoirs." Shell wants to drill off Virginia's southern coast, but the idea "remains controversial and requires congressional approval." <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/2007-05-11-shell-usat_N.htm">[11]</a>

As part of the PR tour, Shell's Hofmeister has spoken at various universities, like the University of Delaware on "achieving energy security through sound public policy," part of university campaigns titled, "Boiling Point: International Politics of Climate Change." <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Shell_Oil#cite_note-6">[7]</a>

<h4>Shell Ads Declared Greenwashing</h4>

In August 2008, Shell was found guilty of misleading the public over its tar sands operations. The British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that the company should not have used the word "sustainable" when describing its <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Alberta%27s_tar_sands" title="Alberta's tar sands">Canadian tar sands</a> operations. The ASA ruled that the Shell ad had breached rules on substantiation, truthfulness and environmental claims.

The Shell was was from a February 2008 issue of Financial Times and accompanied Shell's financial results. The oil giant claimed that: “We invest today’s profits in tomorrow’s solutions.” Shell explained it was harnessing its technical expertise “to unlock the potential of the vast Canadian oil sands deposits”, but then added: “Continued investment in technology is one of the key ways we are able to address this challenge, and continue to secure a profitable and sustainable future.”

Shell was challenged by environmental organisation <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/WWF" title="WWF">WWF</a>. David Norman, the WWF’s director of campaigns, said: “The ASA’s decision to uphold WWF’s complaint sends a strong signal to business and industry that greenwash is unacceptable.” To celebrate its victory, WWF launched an ad campaign outside London’s Waterloo station stating “Shell can’t hide the environmental impact of their oil sand projects.” <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Shell_Oil#cite_note-7">[8]</a>

<h3>Selling off solar</h3>

Shell "has quietly sold off most of its solar business," reported Terry Macalister in December 2007. In 2006, "Shell hived off its solar module production business. The division, with 600 staff and manufacturing plants in the US, Canada and Germany, went to Munich-based SolarWorld." In late 2007, Singapore's Environ Energy Global bought "Shell's photovoltaic operations in India and Sri Lanka, with more than 260 staff and 28 offices, for an undisclosed sum." Shell plans to also sell its solar operations in the Philippines and Indonesia. "Shell has however formed a manufacturing link, with Saint-Gobain, and promised to build one plant in Germany," according to Macalister.

A Shell spokesperson said that solar "was not bringing in any profit for us there so we transferred it to another operator. The buyer will be able to take it to the next level." <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Shell_Oil#cite_note-8">[9]</a>

<h2>Executive committee</h2>

From Shell's website (accessed February 16, 2007): <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.shell.com/home/Framework?siteId=aboutshell-en&FC2=&FC3=/aboutshell-en/html/iwgen/at_a_glance/at_a_glance_09112006.html">[12]</a>

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Peter_Voser" title="Peter Voser">Peter Voser</a>, Chief Executive of Royal Dutch Shell,</li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Marvin_Odum" title="Marvin Odum">Marvin Odum</a>, President/Upstream Americas Director</li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Linda_Cook" title="Linda Cook">Linda Cook</a>, Executive Director Gas & Power</li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Malcolm_Brinded" title="Malcolm Brinded">Malcolm Brinded</a>, Executive Director Exploration & Production,</li>

<li>Simon Henry, Chief Financial Officer</li>

<li>Rob Routs, Executive Director Downstream Oil Products & Chemicals</li>

</ul>

<h2>Contact information</h2>

Physical Address:

Carel van Bylandtlaan 16

2596 HR The Hague, The Netherlands

Tel. +31 70 377 9111

Postal Address:

PO box 162

2501 AN The Hague, The Netherlands

Shell Oil Company U.S. Address:

P.O. Box 2463

Houston, TX 77252

Tel. 713-241-6161 (all Shell U.S. companies)

Shell U.S. Media Relations: 713-241-4544

Website: <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.shell.com">http://www.shell.com</a>

<h2>Articles and resources</h2>

<h3>Related SourceWatch articles</h3>

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Legislative_Exchange_Council" title="American Legislative Exchange Council">American Legislative Exchange Council</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Civil_Justice_Task_Force" title="Civil Justice Task Force">Civil Justice Task Force</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Coalition_for_Southern_Africa" title="Coalition for Southern Africa">Coalition for Southern Africa</a> (describes Shell's "Neptune" strategy for engagement with apartheid in South Africa)</li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Edelman" title="Edelman" class="mw-redirect">Edelman</a>, PR firm that helped Shell <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.prweek.com/us/news/article/633511/Shell-mobile-marketing-effort-drives-home-its-fuel-message/">[13]</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Oil_industry" title="Oil industry">Oil industry</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Pax_Americana,_Africa" title="Pax Americana, Africa">Pax Americana, Africa</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Peter_Sandman" title="Peter Sandman">Peter Sandman</a> who advised Shell at the time of the Ken Saro-Wiwa controversy</li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Race-baiting_Strategy_Helps_Keep_Shell_Pumping_in_Nigeria" title="Race-baiting Strategy Helps Keep Shell Pumping in Nigeria">Race-baiting Strategy Helps Keep Shell Pumping in Nigeria</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Shell_and_renewable_energy" title="Shell and renewable energy">Shell and renewable energy</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Shell_and_Carbon_Capture_and_Storage" title="Shell and Carbon Capture and Storage">Shell and Carbon Capture and Storage</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Terrorism" title="Terrorism">Terrorism</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Venezuela%27s_oil_industry" title="Venezuela's oil industry">Venezuela's oil industry</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Robert_Reid" title="Robert Reid">Robert Reid</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Fundaci%C3%B3n_para_la_Conservaci%C3%B3n_del_Bosque_Chiquitano" title="Fundación para la Conservación del Bosque Chiquitano">Fundación para la Conservación del Bosque Chiquitano</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Jennifer_Jones" title="Jennifer Jones">Jennifer Jones</a> - former environmental advisor to chair</li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Josef_Ackermann" title="Josef Ackermann">Josef Ackermann</a></li>

</ul>

<h3>References</h3>

<li id="cite_note-0"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Shell_Oil#cite_ref-0">↑</a> Arabian Oil and Gas, Shell to sell six refineries and cut 1000 jobs.<a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.arabianoilandgas.com/article-6894-shell-to-sell-six-refineries-and-cut-1000-jobs/">[1]</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Shell_Oil#cite_ref-1">↑</a> Arabian Oil and Gas, Shell to sell six refineries and cut 1000 jobs.<a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.arabianoilandgas.com/article-6894-shell-to-sell-six-refineries-and-cut-1000-jobs/">[2]</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Shell_Oil#cite_ref-2">↑</a> The Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=12&ved=0CB8QFjABOAo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thefederation.org%2Fdocuments%2FPickle%2520Bio.pdf&rct=j&q=%22American%20Legislative%20Exchange%20Council%22%20%22Civil%20Justice%20Task%20Force%22&ei=mL3zTZ3HDevSiAL9p4X7Bg&usg=AFQjCNEobeamsxn7sQZWNDTBP3zhOc69Sg&cad=rja">G. Edward Pickle</a>, organization biography, accessed June 11, 2011</li>

<li id="cite_note-3"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Shell_Oil#cite_ref-3">↑</a> [American Legislative Exchange Council, 2011 Conference Sponsors, conference brochure on file with CMD, August 11, 2011]</li>

<li id="cite_note-4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Shell_Oil#cite_ref-4">↑</a> American Legislative Exchange Council, "Solutions for the States," 38th Annual Meeting agenda, on file with CMD, August 3-6, 2011</li>

<li id="cite_note-5"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Shell_Oil#cite_ref-5">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.asp?strID=C00039503&cycle=2006">2006 PAC Summary Data</a>, Open Secrets, accessed July 2007.</li>

<li id="cite_note-6"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Shell_Oil#cite_ref-6">↑</a> Press release, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2008/jan/global011108.html">Politics of climate change focus of spring lecture series</a>," University of Delaware, January 11, 2008.</li>

<li id="cite_note-7"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Shell_Oil#cite_ref-7">↑</a> Martin Hickman <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/shell-rebuked-for-greenwash-over-ad-for-polluting-oil-project-892863.html">Shell rebuked for 'greenwash' over ad for polluting oil project</a>, The Independent, August 13, 2008.</li>

<li id="cite_note-8"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Shell_Oil#cite_ref-8">↑</a> Terry Macallister, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/dec/11/oil.bp">Big Oil lets sun set on renewables: Shell has quietly shed most of its solar power, while BP is buying into dirty tar sands</a>," The Guardian (UK), December 11, 2007.</li>

</ol>

<h3>External resources</h3>

<h3>External articles</h3>

<ul>

<li>Michael Renner, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=5529">The New Oil Order. Washington's War on Iraq is the Lynchpin to Controling Persian Gulf Oil</a>, Foreign Policy in Focus at CorpWatch, February 14, 2003.</li>

<li>Katherine Griffiths and Danielle Rossingh, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=511524">Shell non-execs hire advisers as van de Vijver speaks out</a>," Independent (UK), April 15, 2004.</li>

<li>Katherine Griffiths, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=513226">Lies, cover-ups, fat cats and an oil giant in crisis. Shell admits deceiving shareholders; Sacked chairman savaged in report</a>", Independent (UK), April 20, 2004.</li>

<li>Tom Acitelli, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.prweek.com/news/news_worldwire.cfm?site=1&ID=208949&site=3&/news/news_worldwire.cfm&setcookie=1">Royal Dutch/Shell enlists Brunswick amid audit, exits</a>", PR Week, April 26, 2004.</li>

<li>World Business Council for Sustainable Development, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.sustain-online.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?MenuId=1&ClickMenu=&doOpen=1&type=DocDet&ObjectId=MTExNDQ">IUCN & Shell collaboration for biodiversity</a>", December 6, 2004.</li>

<li>Julie Macken, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?page=1&sy=afr&kw=Julie+Macken&pb=afr&dt=selectRange&dr=today&so=relevance&sf=author&rc=10&rm=200&sp=0&clsPage=1&docID=AFR0507062F30F7GJ5B6">Step lightly in fields of dreams</a>", Australian Financial Review, July 6, 2005. (Sub req'd.)</li>

<li>Angelique Chrisafis, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1530695,00.html">Jailing of Irish villagers sparks anger as farmers defy Shell in Battle of the Bog:</a> Support swells for opponents of gas pipeline imprisoned for contempt of court", Guardian (UK), July 18, 2005.</li>

<li>Ian Hall, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.prweek.com/uk/home/article/520000/edelman-burson-land-global-deals-unified-shell/">Edelman, Burson land global deals with unified Shell</a>", PR Week, Oct 3, 2005.</li>

<li>Andy Rowell, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.alternet.org/story/27997/">Is Nigeria The Next Persian Gulf?</a>", AlterNet, November 10, 2005. ("In the 10 years since Ken Saro-Wiwa's execution, oil remains the curse of the Niger Delta. And as the U.S. relies more heavily on the region's oil, tensions continue to rise.")</li>

<li>Guy Adams"<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://news.independent.co.uk/people/pandora/article344467.ece">'Fogg' rewritten as Shell steers clear of Africa</a>", The Independent, February 10, 2006.</li>

<li>Rory Carroll, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,,1717598,00.html">Shell told to pay Nigerians $1.5bn pollution damages: Oil giant will appeal against court decision; Kidnap and sabotage cripple production</a>", Guardian, February 25, 2006.</li>

<li>Ted McKenna, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.prweek.com/us/news/article/563530/Shell+tour+US/">Shell to tour US</a>," PR Week (sub req'd), June 8, 2006.</li>

<li>George Monbiot, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1796114,00.html">Shell and BP: Still Drilling</a>", The Guardian, June 13, 2006.</li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Complexxon" title="Complexxon">Complexxon</a> Stephan Tychon, heir european energy agenda '66 on the cheap oil disorder due to abusive industrial dominance following the world's first energy transition from coal to gas: Gasgate 1963, now renamed 'Gasroot' <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.complexxon.org">[14]</a></li>

<li>Hamilton Nolan, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.prweek.com/us/news/article/633511/Shell-mobile-marketing-effort-drives-home-its-fuel-message/">Shell mobile marketing effort drives home its fuel message</a>," PR Week (sub req'd), February 15, 2007.</li>

<li>David J. Lynch, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/2007-05-11-shell-usat_N.htm">Shell Oil tries different path to engage public opinion</a>," USA Today, May 11, 2007.</li>

<li>Terry Macalister, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://environment.guardian.co.uk/energy/story/0,,2080466,00.html">Shell under fire over efforts to paint itself green</a>, The Guardian, Wednesday May 16, 2007.</li>

<li>Lianne Gutcher, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.sundayherald.com/business/businessnews/display.var.1758255.0.former_shell_executive_accuses_oil_firms_of_hypocrisy_over_human_rights.php">Former Shell executive accuses oil firms of ‘hypocrisy’ over human rights: Firms condemned for failing to back up ethical policies</a>," Sunday Herald (Scotland, UK), October 14, 2007.</li>

<li>Terry Macallister, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/dec/11/oil.bp">Big Oil lets sun set on renewables: Shell has quietly shed most of its solar power, while BP is buying into dirty tar sands</a>," The Guardian (UK), December 11, 2007.</li>

<li>Josh Hart, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://bristol.indymedia.org/newswire.php?story_id=27169">Shell Oil and the Institutions Greenwashing Them Feel the 'Heat' on Climate Change</a>," Indymedia.org Bristol (UK), December 15, 2007.</li>

<li>Alecia Warren, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.pinedaleroundup.com/V2_news_articles.php?heading=0&page=&story_id=659">Shell makes $500,000 donation</a>," Pinedale Roundup (Pindedale, Wyoming), May 21, 2008.</li>

<li>Christian, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/shell-v-wiwa-20090522">Shell v. Wiwa</a>," Greenpeace UK, May 22, 2009.</li>

<li>Terry Macalister, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/may/26/shell-human-rights-pollution">Shell faces legal fight over alleged human rights abuse and pollution: Jeroen van der Veer's tenure as chief executive ends amid outcry over bonuses, environmental record and human rights abuses</a>," The Guardian (UK), May 26, 2009.</li>

<li>Rebekah Kebede, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8565680">Shell Nigeria case may temper Big Oil policies</a>," Reuters, June 18, 2009.</li>

<li>Bureau of Investigative Journalism "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/12/09/analysis-big-business-hides-behind-a-corporate-veil-when-hit-with-human-rights-abuse-claims/">Business hides behind corporate veil on human rights abuse claims</a>," December 9th 2011</li>

</ul>

<div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories">Categories</a>:

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:ALEC_Exposed" title="Category:ALEC Exposed">ALEC Exposed</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Corporations" title="Category:Corporations">Corporations</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Oil_industry" title="Category:Oil industry">Oil industry</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Corporations_Targeted_by_BEN_Campaigns" title="Category:Corporations Targeted by BEN Campaigns">Corporations Targeted by BEN Campaigns</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Greenwashing" title="Category:Greenwashing">Greenwashing</a></li>

</ul>

</div>

==

The Canadian government’s efforts to undermine clean

energy policy extend beyond its own borders. The

current government has established an ‘Oil Sands

Advocacy Strategy’, developed in coordination with

companies such as Shell and other members of

CAPP.36

The Department of Foreign Affairs and federal

officials are systematically working to weaken and

undermine clean energy and climate change policies

in other countries in order to promote the interests of

oil companies, including California’s low-carbon fuel

standard, a US federal clean fuels policy known as

Section 526, and the EU’s Fuel Quality Directive.

• Working with the Canadian government is Royal

Dutch Shell, the world leader in greenhouse gas

emissions.37 While Shell claims to be concerned about

climate change, it is investing almost exclusively in the

continuous discovery of new oil reserves, including the

huge expansion of the tar sands.

Shell is a signatory

to several climate leadership statements, including the

Prince of Wales’ recent 2 Degree Communiqué, yet our

report details how Shell has directly made statements

opposing the EU 30% emission reduction goal. As a

prominent member of the Petroleum Association of

Japan, it has also opposed Japan making a second

commitment to Kyoto, and as a member of the

American Petroleum Association it has opposed US

climate legislation.

Working with the Canadian government is Royal

Dutch Shell, the world leader in greenhouse gas

emissions.37 While Shell claims to be concerned about

climate change, it is investing almost exclusively in the

continuous discovery of new oil reserves, including the

huge expansion of the tar sands. Shell is a signatory

to several climate leadership statements, including the

Prince of Wales’ recent 2 Degree Communiqué, yet our

report details how Shell has directly made statements

opposing the EU 30% emission reduction goal. As a

prominent member of the Petroleum Association of

Japan, it has also opposed Japan making a second

commitment to Kyoto, and as a member of the

American Petroleum Association it has opposed US

climate legislation.

greenpeace

<a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publications/climate/2011/WhosHoldingUsBack-ExecSummary.pdf">http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publications/climate/2011/WhosHoldingUsBack-ExecSummary.pdf</a>

Member of ICC, WBCSD, CAPP,

BusinessEurope, US Chamber of Commerce,

American Petroleum Institute1, Cefic,

Petroleum Association of Japan

Anti-climate activities:

Actions against: Increase of the 2020

target in the EU to 30%; Canadian climate

legislation; EU regulation on cleaner fuels

through Canadian government; campaigning

in favour of privileged access in international

negotiations; supports

<h1 class="articleheadline">www.greenpeace.org/dirtydozen</h1>

<h1 class="articleheadline">Shell faces shareholder revolt over Canadian tar sands project</h1>

Terry Macalister

18th January, 2010

<h2 class="intro">Royal Dutch Shell group's dissident shareholders will press for a review of its tar sands project in Canada, at the oil firm's annual meeting in May</h2>

Shell chief executive Peter Voser will be forced to defend <a href="http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/332112/emissions_from_tar_sands_seriously_underestimated.html" target="_self">the company's controversial investment in Canada's tar sands</a> at his first annual general meeting, after calls from shareholders that the project be put under further scrutiny.

A coalition of institutional investors has forced a resolution onto the agenda calling for the Anglo-Dutch group's audit committee to undertake a special review of the risks attached to the carbon-heavy oil production at Athabasca in Alberta.

Co-operative Asset Management and 141 other institutional and individual shareholders raise 'concerns for the long-term success of the company arising from the risks associated with oil sands.'

AGM in May

Shell, which will hold its AGM in May, has been one of the lead companies in moves to develop oil reserves that are either mined or sucked out of the ground using expensive and energy-intensive techniques. BP and Total of France are also engaged in the sector.

Shell has insisted that "unconventional" hydrocarbon sources such as tar sands are all justified to ensure that the world does not run out of oil too soon.

But environmentalists have condemned their exploitation as 'the biggest environmental crime in history' and said it must be stopped before it tips the planet over into runaway climate change.

Al Gore, former US vice-president and Naomi Klein, the author and campaigner, urged the Canadian government to abandon its support for tar sands at the climate change talks in Copenhagen.

Carbon Capture and Storage

Shell disputes the scale of the pollution but also says it will use carbon, capture and storage techniques to mitigate any negative impact. This argument has not stopped environmentalists – or shareholders – from opposing the plans....

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/398809/shell_faces_shareholder_revolt_over_canadian_tar_sands_project.html

</div>

Royal Dutch Shell

Attachments