You probably won't be too shocked to hear that BP
and Shell are developing even dirtier ways to profit from oil extraction.

What you might not know is that our pension money is being invested in the companies that are developing 'tar sands' - the dirtiest oil available. But that's the surprising heads-up from top ethical investment campaigners FairPensions.

Before and after - from boreal forest to strip mining, that's tar sands. © Jiri Rezac / WWF-UK

Oil is rubbish. I mean, obviously it's been great - you know, they way that it underpins what we call 'advanced industrial civilisation' - that we can make it into petrol, plastic, pharmaceuticals, fertiliser. That's obviously brilliant, because in my opinion all that stuff has (by and large) been great. But now that we've got better, cleaner and smarter ways to power our cities, run our cars and heat our homes forgive me if I find the black stuff a bit... last century. Read more »

Canada before and after tar sands extraction. Producing tar sands oil is also at least three time more carbon intensive than making normal crude. © Jiri Rezac / WWF-UK

Some dirty oil news bubbled up over the weekend, as big oil companies including Shell and BP mobilise to try and stop tar sands oil being banned from the sixth largest economy in the world.

That would be California, personal fiefdom of 'surprisingly green governor' Arnie Schwarznegger. In an effort to cut vehicle emissions 10 per cent by 2020, he has brought in laws that require a cut in the carbon content of fuels sold in the state. "Our cars have been running on dirty fuel for too long," intoned Arnie, in his rich Austrian accent.

Sometime Greenpeace tar sands expert Lorne writes on priceofoil.org in reaction the announcement that Shell are scaling down their tar sands plans...

Remarks made by Shell CEO,Peter Voser to the Financial Times energy editor that his company has "clearly scaled down" its plans for a massive expansion of tar sands production should send waves of anxiety through the Canadian oil industry and a serious rethink among energy security hawks in Washington.

Since the middle of last year I have been writing about the vulnerability of the tar sands industry to a slow down in the growth rate of oil demand. With some of the most expensive cost structures in the oil industry, the future growth of tar sands production requires oil prices to stay high over the long term.

But high oil prices exert a deflating effect on the economy and in turn reduce demand and prices. Compounding this effect is the fact that high oil prices have made large economies that are increasingly dependent on oil imports, such as the USA and China, painfully aware of their economies' vulnerability to the rising cost of oil.

>> Read the rest of the article on priceofoil.org

There's a really interesting interview with the new CEO of Shell Peter Voser in the FT today, with an important development for tar-sands watchers. Shell, who are heavily involved in extracting oil from Canadian tar sands, are scaling back a planned expansion of their operations.

On the eve of the Harper-Obama meeting in Washington D.C., climate and energy campaigner Mike Hudema explains why Greenpeace is locking down and blockading a giant dump truck and shovel at Shell’s massive Albian Sands open-pit mine in northern Alberta to send the message that the tar sands are a global climate crime that must be stopped.

More from our Canadian site »

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The American Petroleum Institute is the kind of friendly industry body that lobbies for 'big oil', and has no trouble inspiring grassroots action. The trouble is, from their point of view, it's the wrong kind.

For the oil companies, it must be incredibly tedious to have masses of engaged citizens fired up about the way you're trashing the planet - camping out on your lawn, organising rallies, chaining themselves to your office, asking pointed questions to politicians. How irritating that there are people who think you're so wrong they'll actually get out onto the streets and protest about it! It sucks to be on the wrong side of history.

It's big energy money week! Get your annual financial thrills as the big international oil companies - Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and the rest - publish their quarterly financial reports results this week, all at once!

And if you like a gory financial thriller, they promise to be quite a good read, because profits are tanking. Take Shell, for example. When your quarterly profits fall by 70% in one year, you know something's gone a bit wrong. ExxonMobil's are down by 66%. BP's profits have more than halved. The global economic downturn is kicking in. Read more »

We know tar sands are destructive, bad for the climate, and expensive to exploit. But could they also be a colossal financial liability for BP and Shell?

If, in the runup to Copenhagen, you have a sneaking suspicion that world leaders might still be more attached to the realpolitik of energy than the green-tinged adoption of strong climate policy, a new report from Greenpeace, Platform and Oil Change International may provide a glimmer of hope.

The suspicion is that whatever grand statements are made by the Obamas, the Lulas or the Browns of the world as they thrash out their meta-climate policy at Copenhagen, for the moment they're going to remain much more motivated by ‘energy security' than greenhouse gas stabilization.

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