bigoil419's Journal

PAGE 2 - SHELL's OIL CRIMES - BUTCHER OF THE EARTH
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PART 6. NORCO, LOUISIANA: POISING YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD

One community’s history with Royal Dutch Shell.

My question is: Are you going to be true to what you say on paper about cleaner air and about being fair and being a good neighbor. . .?

Margie Richard, President, Concerned Citizens of Norco, The Hague, November 2000.

In Louisiana, about 25 miles up the Mississippi River from New Orleans, a man named Pierre Trepagnier was awarded a huge gift of land for his services in the Louisiana militia. It was some time around 1790. The land grant was made to Trepagnier by the Spanish governor of Louisiana, which wasn’t yet part of the United States. Two hundred years later, on this same land, a modern day battle would unfold between the Shell Oil Company and a small community named Diamond. That struggle, which continues to this day, pits the Shell Oil Company against the African American descendants of former Trepagnier Plantation slaves, some of whom, along with others, came to live in Diamond. At issue by the 1950s would be matters of land, public health, and community rights.

In 1973, gas shot from a pipeline servicing the Shell Chemical plant. One resident, Helen Washington, was killed instantly. Another, Leroy Jones, cutting the lawn at Mrs. Washington’s at the time, was set on fire. He died two days later at the hospital. Several years later, in February 1977, Shell bought the lot and home where Mrs. Washington was killed. The price was $3,000. Other incidents occurred too, like the 1985 and 1988 refinery explosions, terrifying not only the residents of Diamond, but all of Norco and nearby communities. But Shell’s two operations were also affecting the quality of life throughout the Norco region on a subtler scale, through continued, chronic releases of chemical pollutants to the air and water. The two Shell operations by the 1980s were producing substantial quantities of material. They were also producing substantial quantities of waste, water and air pollutants, and accidental chemical releases. Residential communities near the Shell facilities, whether Diamond or other Norco communities, as well as outlying communities close enough to get a whiff of Shell’s operations when the wind came their way, were being subjected to Shell pollutants, some directly by air on a daily basis, and others at a more inconspicuous level, through surface waters receiving the wastewater from the plants’ operations.

GOOD NEIGHBOR SHELL?

After the tragic May 1988 explosion at the Norco refinery that killed eight workers, injured 20 others, and caused the evacuation of 4,500 people (see Chapter 4), more of Norco’s residents became wary of their petrochemical neighbors. In fact, in the immediate aftermath of the 1988 explosion, Shell faced a huge number of claims for property damage and personal injury. And while the company paid out sizeable sums, it also moved in ways that some found suspect. A 1993 court settlement gave thousands of dollars to a large group of some 17,000 claimants named in a class action lawsuit. However, others were excluded from those payments because of documents they had signed with Shell in 1988 agreeing to take instant payments of $1,000 each from the company in return for a promise not to sue. Shell had made such arrangements with about 1,100 people. Margie Richard, a resident of Norco’s Diamond community, was one of them. "It was a fast routine," recalled Richard in September 1993 of what Shell had done following the 1988 explosion. "Why would they do that at a time when they knew people were shaken up?" Deonne DuBarry, an attorney representing some of Norco’s plaintiffs in 1993 thought the Shell deals were unfair. "Basically, these people did not know what they were doing. I think Shell . . . took advantage of people in shock." Diamond, in fact, was a community at high risk, a community in the cross hairs should there be a major accident at either of the Shell plants.

Shell had periodically bought up the homes of residents living near its facilities in Norco since the 1970s, maintaining that this was part of an ongoing program to establish buffers on the boarders of its facilities. In fact, by the late 1990s, Shell had bought up nearly 125 homes in the Norco area. Many of Diamond’s residents, learning more about what they were living with, just wanted to get out, and felt Shell bore the responsibility for buying them out at reasonable prices. In the mid 1990s, about 250 members of the Diamond community brought a lawsuit against Shell seeking to be relocated. However, after two weeks of testimony the residents lost their case and decided not to appeal. By 1998, however, the push for Shell to buy out the community was renewed by changing circumstances. Further incidents at the chemical plant had touched off the "bucket brigade" air sampling.

EPA and DEQ by then had also started paying more attention to Shell. But one incident in particular served as a lightning rod, and both reenergized the community and drew attention again to the plant’s dangers. On December 8th , 1998, early in the morning, Shell workers began knocking on doors in Diamond warning them to stay in doors as a tank at the plant had over pressurized and might explode. By mid day, however, Shell officials said they had turned the problem around and regained control of the tank. But then, in another part of the complex, a cloud of emissions was released that came through the Diamond community causing burning eyes and some respiratory problems.

By 1998, however, the push for Shell to buy out the community was renewed by changing circumstances. Further incidents at the chemical plant had touched off the Bucket Brigade air sampling. EPA and DEQ by then had also started paying more attention to Shell. But one incident in particular served as a lightning rod, and both reenergized the community and drew attention again to the plant’s dangers. On December 8th , 1998, early in the morning, Shell workers began knocking on doors in Diamond warning them to stay in doors as a tank at the plant had over pressurized and might explode. By midday, however, Shell officials said they had turned the problem around and regained control of the tank. But then, in another part of the complex, a cloud of emissions was released that came through the Diamond community causing burning eyes and some respiratory problems.

In August 2001, Shell inflamed the debate in the Diamond community when it purchased a wooded section on the Diamond community boarder called the Gaspard Line that separated the black and white sections of Norco. Shell paid $158,000 for the parcel. The purchase not only raised fears of Shell further expansion, but also raised questions about Shell’s priorities. "You mean to tell me that grass and trees come before human beings?," asked Diamond resident Gaynell Johnson, who felt Shell should be focusing on the residential buy out.

Shell said it was not intending to develop the parcel, thought it was time to take down an old racial barrier, and said it might turn the parcel into a park. But Shell also reiterated it was not changing its plans to buy out more residents. Our intention has never been to buy out the town of Norco, said Lilly Galland, Shell’s public information officer.

Through early 2002, Concerned Citizens of Norco and the Louisiana Bucket Brigade kept the pressure on. In February, Dr. Peter Orris, a Harvard, and Yale educated occupational and environmental medical expert from the University of Illinois’ Chicago Hospital and Medical Center, came to Norco to speak about Shell’s emissions and public health. By May it was revealed that a Public Broadcasting System film had been made about the Norco/Diamond fight, titled Norco, A Company Town Divided, slated to air in July 2002. That same month, a contingent of Norco and Diamond activists traveled to protest at Shell’s Houston, Texas headquarters.

Behind the scenes at the negotiating table, meanwhile, there appeared to be some give in Shell’s position. A new deal might be in the offing. After subsequent negotiations in June 2002, Shell agreed to extend the buy out program to the entire four block Diamond community. Shell gave the residents two choices in the program: to stay in Diamond and receive a no interest home improvement loan of $25,000, forgivable if residents continue to own their house for five years, or, sell their home to Shell at an appraised value, with a minimum of $80,000 for houses and $50,000 for mobile homes. In addition, some residents could also be eligible for a $5,000 moving allowance, $500 professional service allowance for consultation with financial and other experts, and miscellaneous expense allowance of $15,000. The residents had to decide which option they would take by August 30, 2002. Residents selling their property would be required to relocate outside of the buy out area. In all, 170 properties and some 350 to 400 people in the Diamond community could be involved, at a cost to Shell estimated around $12 million.

"We have come to recognize that the Diamond community is truly unique," wrote Shell Chemical’s site manager Wayne Pearce in a letter sent to Diamond residents. "The community is like an extended family, and we realize now that our previous efforts to create a greenbelt around our facilities may have created difficulties for some families and caregivers in the Diamond neighborhood." In addition to Shell’s letter, a joint statement was issued by Shell and Concerned Citizens of Norco reflecting the learning that occurred on each side of the table. "Shell has participated in a series of frank and open discussions with CCN and Diamond residents and believes the Diamond Options Program . . . is a fair offer that provides choices to residents, said Shell’s Wayne Pearce. "CCN believes that the Diamond Options Program demonstrates Shell commitment to listen and respond to its neighbor’s concerns," said Delwyn Smith, CCN president. "We will continue discussions with Shell to ensure the successful implementation of the program. . . ."

Smith also underscored the difficulty of the negotiations for the Diamond community, but extended frank appreciation to Shell for staying the course. "I want to tell you that these sessions have not been easy to participate in because of the history and our experiences of living with the impact of the [Shell] facility and the impacts of Shell’s decision to relocate just one half of our tight knit community. . . ," he said. "I am grateful that Wayne Pearce. . . . committed both himself and his staff to participating in the dialogue sessions with us and hearing our urgent demands for change."

Shell’s turnaround met with praise from the activist community working on the Diamond fight. "The key was that Shell was ready to listen after decades of complaints," said Anne Rolfes, of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. Rolfes even suggested the Norco process might become a model for other communities faced with similar problems. As the Norco example has shown , said Rolfes in mid July 2002, the people will not stop fighting for what is right. The blueprint is here. Shell has set the example.

PART 7. CANADA: SOUR GAS, SICK CATTLE, and UNHAPPY NEIGHBORS

"They have industrialized a landscape as beautiful and ecologically precious as Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front."

Canadian Judy Huntley, describing Shell’s Waterton gas complex in Alberta.

It was in December 1998 that Shell Canada first made the proposal. The company wanted to drill for natural gas in an area of central Alberta known as Rocky Mountain House. Alberta is one of the western Canadian provinces located along the US boarder, north of Idaho right between British Columbia and Saskatchewan. Alberta is a big province, bigger, in fact, than Texas and Montana combined. With the Canadian Rockies running through it, and a good share of northern temperate zone biological diversity to its claim, Alberta is a stunningly beautiful place, with much worth preserving that isn’t preserved. This is the province of Banff National Park and Lake Louise. It is also the province of hard working ranchers and farmers. But, most of all, Alberta is an energy province, rich in natural gas and other resources; a place that has had the attention of Shell Oil and other big companies for decades. But some of the natural gas in Alberta is a special kind of gas, called "sour gas," which means it contains a high proportion of hydrogen sulfide, or H 2 S, as the chemists call it. Sour gas, known for its strong rotten egg odor, can also be quite lethal, killing a person in an instant after inhalation. The folks in Rocky Mountain House weren’t very happy to learn that Shell might be arriving in their community to drill for sour gas at a site known as "Ferrier Well 7-7." In fact, as soon as the Shell public information package began arriving in the mail of Rocky Mountain House residents, the community began its fight. "There was a public meeting held within 36 days of receipt of this information," explains Eric Tait, a school teacher and chair of the Clearwater Coalition, the group of landowners that came together to oppose the well. "Approximately 50 people attended . . . and they were absolutely adamant that they would do everything they could to oppose the well."*

The people at Shell, however, saw it differently. "Shell has had over 50 years of safe drilling and operating of sour gas wells," explained Georg Gerlach, Shell’s project manager, "and we feel that there won’t be any issue at all with any kind of exposure." Shell already had secured permission from the subsurface owner to drill the well, and also had permission from the surface owner to begin drilling. However, it didn’t have final regulatory approval, and it also wanted to have community support. So Shell began a process of negotiation with local landowners and the community for their support. "We respect Shell for coming to the table and talking about these issues," said Colin and Felicity Manuel, landowners who had moved to Canada from Kenya in 1975, wanting the protection that Canadian laws presumably provided landowners that were not available in Kenya. "[W]hat is happening in the wider community [in Rocky Mountain House] is people like ourselves getting very angry with these smaller companies that come in and just go in and do these things, and there’s no discussion, and we’re left high and dry regardless of what happens."

Shell also had continuing pipeline problems, as the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board ruled in October 1999 that a highly corroded section of Shell’s Carbondale pipeline had to be replaced, two other lines decommissioned, and a part of the operation then located in Screwdriver Creek Valley had to be moved. The Carbondale line supplied gas to the Shell Waterton Gas Plant, but the EUB found a "significant risk of future failure" in the part of the line located in the bottom of Screwdriver Creek Valley. An EUB inquiry into this Shell operation had been held in March 1999, when farmers Dave and Jean Sheppard, who lived a few kilometers away, reported relentless flaring over the past three years, as well as a 1997 pipeline leak that killed several animals, the second such leak there within months of the lines opening. "It suggested the pipeline was maybe not safe, in spite of their assurances they had everything under control," said Dave Sheppard. Although the EUB ruled in the Sheppards’ favor, Dave Sheppard reported difficulty in finding experts that would testify on his behalf in the fight. "Most of them work for the big companies," he said, "and don’t want to be critical of them."

So it was not surprising, given this history, that Shell had a fight on its hands during 1999 and 2000 as it sought to drill a new well at Rocky Mountain House.

Back at Rocky Mountain House
But Shell thought it was making progress in its talks with the local residents in that community, seeking to talk through the concerns and get to a negotiated agreement. But the talks broke down. Still, Shell insisted it could do the job right and without incident. "We have engaged in almost two years of community consultation and six months of mediation in an effort to understand the community’s concerns," explained Ian Kilgour, a Shell Canada manager. "Our ongoing commitment is to continue to develop natural gas resources in an environmentally, socially and economically responsible manner consistent with our corporate policy on sustainable development." But now it was up to the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB). For two weeks beginning in early November 2000, the EUB held forth at the Dovercourt Community Hall, listening to all sides during an extensive public hearing. But in the end, the EUB rejected Shell’s application for the $12 million (C$) deep well, saying that public safety could not reasonably be assured by Shell’s emergency response plan. The ruling, coming in April 2001, stunned Shell and all of Alberta’s natural gas industry.

In its decision, the EUB paid special attention to the unique topographic and demographic conditions in the vicinity of the proposed well and the potential release rate of gas from the well "under reasonable worst case conditions." In its decision, the EUB explained: "Having carefully considered all of the evidence, the Board is of the view that the emergency response plan proposed by Shell Canada has not adequately addressed these unique conditions. Since public safety cannot be acceptably assured, the Board does not believe the drilling of the well, as currently proposed, to be in the public interest. Therefore, the Board denies Application No. 1042932 without prejudice to any future application."

The EUB found some unique geographic and demographic problems that could confront the community in the event of a gas release emergency. The Clearwater River, for example, created a significant barrier to effective evacuation. The area is also frequented by large numbers of recreational users, some pursuing activities in steep river valleys. In the winter, snowbound roads could be a special problem. Communicating with dispersed and rural populations could also be a problem in an emergency situation. In examining the potential impacts on land use and land values from the development, the EUB found a somewhat uneven playing field, noting that when it came to evaluating economic benefits of energy development, there were well established and simple tools available. But this same level of analysis was lacking, and not easily available for assessing the costs of such development to nearby landowners. (This was not necessarily a fault of Shell’s, but a kind of analysis that Shell, as a leader, could help advance and bring to a higher level of standing on behalf of communities.) But the EUB held particularly strong objection to some of Shell’s failings in dealing with the community:

It is clear that in designing its initial public consultation program, Shell significantly underestimated the concerns of the area residents. It is equally clear that Shell made a number of additional errors in the early stages of its consultation program. Shell acknowledged that these included assuming that the presence of regional oil and gas development meant that public concern about new development would be reduced. Other concerns included concluding negotiations for the well site prior to initiating community discussions, initially relying on a mail out of information packages as the primary communication tool, and providing a narrow time period, over a holiday season, for the public to read and respond to that information package. In the Board’s view, the result was a serious erosion in public trust in Shell from the outset. The Board accepts the interveners’ views that these initial errors very likely made future effective consultation almost impossible, despite Shell’s subsequent efforts.

For Shell, the Rocky Mountain House rejection was perhaps just a little skirmish, a rare loss in the broader global stream of dozens of Shell projects that are typically approved in any given year. Even in Canada, where Shell is one of the largest companies and biggest employers, the company has numerous and major ongoing projects. In northern Alberta, Shell holds a controlling 60 percent share of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, which includes the Muskeg River Mine, 75 kilometers north of Fort McMurray, and the Scotford Upgrader, a processing facility adjacent to Shell’s Scotford refinery north of Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. The Muskeg River Mine site and lease area contains more than five billion barrels of oil sands targeted for strip mining. Shell is expecting to extract about 1.65 billion barrels over 30 years. With large trucks and shovels, a mixture of sand and oil is mined, then mixed with warm water to separate out the oil, which is then sent to an upgrader for further refining. Shell says that oil sands have the potential to supply up to 50 percent of Canada’s crude oil needs by 2007. Currently, the oil sands share is about 18 percent. Oil sands conversion, however, is not the most energy efficient or environmentally, clean of hydrocarbon processes. By late 2002, however, Shell expects that an estimated 155,000 barrels of bitumen will be produced every day at the Muskeg River mine. Shell also holds offshore and onshore interests in the Sable gas fields off Nova Scotia, produces heavy oil through thermal recovery at the Peace River project, and is part of a consortium involved with the Norwest Territory Aboriginal Pipeline Group in Arctic Canada, with plans to build a $1.9 billion pipeline to transport natural gas from the MacKenzie River Delta to markets in lower Canada and the US. Shell also operates refineries and chemical plants in Montreal, Sarnia, and Scotford.

You’d Fight Too! . . .
Imagine you live in a country where the government owns almost everything under your feet: the rocks, the gas, the oil, you name it. This state in turn makes billions by selling these mineral rights to a 1,000 different companies. Over time, these companies industrialize the landscape with a million kilometers of seismic lines, 300,000 kilometers of pipelines, hundreds of gas plants and tens of thousands of wells, and all in a pretty ad hoc fashion. Even parks must sport wells and pipelines. . . . Now imagine you are a landowner in this Soviet style state. A company comes along and proposes to put a sour gas well in front of your dining room. Someone might explain that the good people of California need to stay cool in the summer and the good people of Ontario need to stay warm in the winter. You’re offered $25,000 for the inconvenience and annual rent of $5,000 as "hush money."

Generally speaking, no one will tell you that sour gas is a cyanide like poison. Or that it’s so toxic that the Canadian government even used it in its secret chemical warfare program during the Second World War. Or that one gas well might to lead to another four; or a pipeline. Or ceaseless traffic, access roads and a fax machine in your kitchen so the gas company can contact you night and day in case there is an emergency. Now imagine you have an objection to this intrusion. You are given a public hearing before a state board that receives most of its funding from the oil and gas industry. The board has a funny technocratic name: the Energy and Utility Board. It claims to operate in the public interest, which means its job is to generate more revenue for the state. It will often patiently listen to objections and then declare that "there is a need" for the well. The landowner is damned. Imagine four decades of damning decisions. Now something goes wrong with the nice well in your backyard and the pipeline fragmenting your crop land and the shiny sour gas plant upwind of your property. There is a leak; an upset; a 30 foot high burning flame that sounds like a jet airplane and rattles your house. Your family and your livestock then breathe hydrocarbons that the medical literature has identified as brain melters, lung wasters and sex changers. Your cattle die and your children pass out cold. Someone develops facial paralysis, multiple sclerosis, or other neurological symptoms. Well, that’s just too bad because industry does most of the monitoring and the self policing in Alberta. You might wait months for redress, even years.

According to the state, these emissions are harmless; it’s just an odor problem; it’s in the public interest for rural Albertans to smell these odors. (For years the EUB had only one mobile air monitor.) . . . Not much has changed in Alberta since [Wiebo Ludwig’s sabotage incidents] made international headlines. Tensions remain so high in the countryside that many pipelines and wells now have 24 hour guards. Industry even reports people to the RCMP for merely taking pictures of flaring wells. In fact, Alberta has the highest rate of Eco Terrorism of any jurisdiction on the continent and some of the nation’s highest rates of respiratory and neurological diseases. Every week a family is exposed to toxic poisons or displaced by energy development. . . . And each week, industry and government mostly refuse to compensate those people harmed, or even recognize the legitimacy of their claims. As a result, groups of landowners routinely contest sour gas developments and have launched more than 30 toxic torts against industry. . . . Rural Albertans deserve a separate agency that upholds their rights and that has the power to duly compensate them for damages. The state needs to impose density controls on sour gas development in areas of high population. That means the government must learn to say no to industry. Tough regulations on air pollution and flaring need to be introduced and enforced. Oil executives should be fined for bad practices that affect the property rights of down winders. Last but not least the EUB needs a dozen environmental forensic teams to investigate air pollution and water contamination in a timely fashion . . .

Excerpted from Andrew Nikiforuk, "Maybe You’d Fight Too," Globe & Mail, November 14, 2001, p. 25. Nikiforuk is author of Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig’s War Against Big Oil, which tells the story of Dutch born cleric and Alberta landowner Wiebo Ludwig who rose up against Alberta’s oil and gas industry committing acts of oilfield violence and sabotage, served 18 months in Canadian prison for his actions.

PART 8. SENSITIVE PLACES - SHELL’S FOOTPRINT IN DELICATE HABITAT

PIGEON RIVER COUNTRY, MICHIGAN
In the summer of 1968, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) decided to open for oil and gas development a 550,000 acre region of forests and streams in northern Michigan known as Pigeon River Country. Covering parts of Ostego, Montmorency and Cheboygan counties in the upper part of the lower peninsula, the area encompassed a huge region of wildness with few roads and clear streams, covered by maturing, second growth forest. Ernest Hemingway had hunted and fished in the area and wrote about it. Aldo Leopold, the famed ecologist and writer, called it "The Big Wild." The oil and gas industry, however, called it opportunity. For beneath the region being leased, which also included 57,000 acres of the Pigeon River State Forest, lay the Niagaran-Salina formation, a vast deposit of oil and gas running for about 150 miles in a 20 mile wide swath between Manistee and Rogers City. State officials at the time had no idea of how rich the play was, which in the 1970s would touch off the most drilling activity in the US outside of Alaska’s North Slope. By the time the leasing sale ended, the state had something over $1 million in revenue, while Shell Oil, Amoco, and Nomeco snapped up most of the acreage in Pigeon River Country.*

In February 1979, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the environmentalists, blocking Shell from drilling its ten wells. But that wasn’t the end of it by any means. Shell decided to play hard ball. It drafted a bill with 28 of Michigan’s 38 Senators as cosponsors that threatened to gut the Michigan Environmental Protection Act, using the backdrop of the national energy crisis as the political wedge. Governor Milliken suggested he would veto any such bill if it did not, at a minimum, contain protections for the contested Pigeon River region.

SHELL AND THE EVERGLADES
Elsewhere in the US, Shell has not always worried about entering sensitive habitat. In the early 1990s in southern Florida, Shell sought permission to explore and drill in the Everglades Water Conservation Areas in western Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade counties. Shell, Exxon, and Sunniland Pipeline Company were among companies at the time that had sought or obtained leases in or near the area. Shell, in fact, leased 70,000 acres of land from the Miccosukee Indians, whose Broward County reservation sits on the northern edge of the Everglades National Park. In January 1991, Shell requested a permit from the US Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to drill an exploratory well. The Miccosukee’s land, where Shell wanted to drill, was just outside Water Conservation District 3, a recharge area for the Biscayne Aquifer, which supplies drinking water to South Florida. The Water Conservation Area is also a vital source of recharge water for the Everglades National Park.

SHELL IN THE FOREST
From its earliest days in Borneo in the late 19 th century, through more current times in South America, African, and elsewhere, Shell’s oil and gas projects have run into conflict with forests tropical and otherwise. But apart from its direct oil and gas drilling conflicts within forests, Shell has also been involved in the forest as a business. Throughout its history, dating from the 1920s, Shell has been involved periodically in various kinds of forest ventures in at least 11 countries. It has planted eucalyptus plantations in Chile, the Congo, Uruguay, and Paraguay. It has also planted pine plantations in New Zealand, and has run or attempted to develop other forest operations in Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, Thailand, and Tanzania. In 1989, Shell invested $420 million in a venture with Scott Paper and Citibank to cultivate six million trees in Chile. The trees were to be used in part to fuel Shell’s $285 million short fiber pulp plant.

Places Not To Go Shell today sees itself very much on the leading edge of companies that are now mindful of the importance of protecting wildlife, sensitive places, and biodiversity.

But rather than designate a list of significant or important places, or fragile ecological zones where it will not go, Shell appears to take an ad hoc, site by site, Never Say Never approach, deciding, as the times may warrant, whether it will drill or build in a particular location, sensitive or not. Shell typically states that it can produce in such sensitive areas without creating harm to the environment or wildlife, or that it will attenuate the harm as it goes or clean up later. Yet history shows all too frequently that harm is more typically the result.

PART 9. THE SILENCING of IRISH FARMERS

Riding The Dragon; Royal Dutch Shell and The Fossil Fire, is a befitting title of a publication by the American group, Environmental Health Fund (EHF), written in 2002 by Jack Doyle, a Washington based writer and researcher. The author had argued in the 351 page book "Royal Dutch Shell is a giant oil company with annual gross sales exceeding $175 billion. It is typically ranked as the world's No. 1 or No. 2 oil company. It is also the world's seventh largest chemical company. Shell has been developing Fossil energy coal, oil and gas for more than 100 years ".

"Whether chemical or indigenous people, refinery community or tropical forest, a price has been paid, and continues to be paid-in the hydrocarbon quest. Well blowouts, oil spills, refinery explosions, polluted rivers and oceans, and now global warming, all come with the territory. Still, the hydrocarbon dragon is a fire breathing beast that neither shell, nor any other oil company, has tamed ". Pains and grief under the weighty thumb of the oil and gas Transnational Corporations (TNCs), while enforcing the flow of oil and gas have actually marked the world; they have unleashed on us anguish unheard of, in human history.

Those who question them or their practices anywhere in the world, go down the drain unsung. The world is their chessboard with which, they brandish it gleefully. They have an unquestionable power to our lives and our death. They run governments and ruin governments. They enthrone governments and dethrone governments. This is their world. The epoch of corporate empire and tyranny. Those who ride the shelling dragon must be prepared to tell a sad tale either in wreckage or in the grave. The fossil fire is very hazardous.

Recently, Michael .O. Seighin, Willie Corduff, Brendan Philbin, Vincent McGrath and Philip McGrath, these poor farmers from a tiny village community of Rossport of the Eris peninsular in the northwest of Mayor in Ireland, now famously referred to, as Rossport 5 defied the smoke darkened dragon. Today, they have an unsweetened long story to tell. Small scale farmers are they, who eke out miserable living from their badly off quality land. Their journey to dungeon started in December 2004.

Shell sent letters to the Rossport villagers, informing them that, the company would enter their properties (lands) to lay a 5 miles long pipeline. The shell shocked villagers staged peaceful protests to reject such proposal. The pipeline shall be the highest in the world, a consortium of Royal Dutch, Statoil, which the Norwegian government owns 70% of it and Marathon Oil Corporation, an American energy player, owned the pipeline. The pipeline when completed is expected to pump unsafe and untreated products along it, which is said to be substandard, from the Corib Gas field to a proposed inland refinery in Ballinaboy.

"Gas was found off the coast nine years ago and shell's plan is to land the gas on the beach at Broadhaven and pipe it 5 miles inland for processing throughout the peat of the Bog of Erris " wrote Angelique Chrisafis, Ireland correspondent for the London based The Guardian newspaper. On January 10, 2005, Shell sent her workers again, to commence work on the pipeline, which will run through living homes, conservation areas and estuaries of rare plants and animal species in the area. Still, oppositions against the project swelled from Rossport and other green campaigners around the globe. The work was halted and Shell and her partners including the Irish government were unhappy.

Like a shady "Black Market ", order which corrupt Nigerian judges grant to cement injustice against defenseless people of the country. A Shell's injunction, sorry, a ruling from Justice Finnegan, the President of the High Court of Ireland, was issued, it mandates the company to have unhindered access to Rossport private lands. The order, also restrained them from blocking the construction of the pipeline. Subsequently, they were sent to Cloverhill Prison, an Irish prison built since 1854. They are to remain in the prison for an indefinite time until they "Purge their contempt " by accepting the pipeline to pass through their lands.

Today is Rossport 5. Shell in Ireland, United Kingdom (UK), If Shell can do this to their people and homeland, one can really pictures the magnitude of atrocities they commit abroad, while prospecting or drilling hydrocarbon. In 1987, at Iko, a small rural community like Rossport in the Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria, appalled by the ecological devastations of their richly endowed land, they organized a peaceful protest against Shell. Shell played skillfully politico military stuff with the bloody junta of dictator, Ibrahim Babangida, and sent in soldiers armed with weapons of mass destruction, to teach the local folks not to oppose them any longer. Shell's soldiers killed poor people, raped women and looted properties of the villagers of Iko.

I visited the community again recently, with a delegation of respected British parliamentarians, a 64 year old woman who spoke to me briefly about the Iko incident of 1987 broke down in mournful tears as she narrated the tragedy. I could not help it, but to stop the "interview " halfway to save the poor woman the agony of a bad corporation in Iko. On October 30, 1990, the unlucky dwellers of Umuechem, another pint sized oil producing community which hosts Shell, and which belongs to the Etche group in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria has their tale to tell too. Armed with branches of leaves, which locally symbolizes peace amongst the rural residents, to protest the plundering of their environment and desecration of their lives.

A detachment of Mobile Policemen, a special task force which grief stricken communities in the Niger Delta, that have encountered them called them, "Kill and Go ". The force has a terrible record of extra judicial executions, rape and looting. Shell sent them to Umuechem to carry out among the poor locals what they know. The rest of the story belongs to the dark pages of the history of Shell in Nigeria. Hordes of protesters and non protesters alike in the community were sent to their early graves. Properties were stolen, while the Shell's task force raped women (both married and unmarried). All over the Nigeria's delta, the company is well known not only for emitting deadly gasses from their pipes or dumping of harmful wastes in rivers, streams and rivulets, but for their propensity for to do raw violence.

The, Ogonis of the northeast of the Niger Delta, in the early 90s, led by the late Ken Saro Wawa, a committed Nigerian writer, columnist and activist, waged a non violent struggle against Shell's for good environment and respect for his Ogoni people. All over their history book is the agony of the Ogoni. Shell gave moral and financial support to a wasting operation of a task force called Rivers State Internal Security Task Force (RSISTF). A twosome of yellow belly and demented majors, Paul Okinstimo and Obi Umahi, leaders of the RSISTF at different times, had field days trafficking in the blood of poor Ogoni women, children and men, suspected to have supported Wiwa's struggle. Ken Saro Wiwa and other 2,000 Ogonis are now in their various identified and unidentified graves, that is the high price of oil and gas.

Riding the dragon can be dangerous; Jack Doyle and his Environmental Health Fund (FHF) had warned us. The silence of the Irish farmers in our new burden. The Town Crier must stand at the barricade with Denny Larson, an avid environmental activist from San Francisco, USA and director of Global community Monitor, Monique Harden of the Shell Corporate Accountability Coalition, USA, and Anne Rolfes of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, USA, over to you all, in this season of barricade and a taste for a new desire.

We must not allow Rossport 5 die like the Ogoni 9, my solidarity to Judith Robinson of the Environmental Health Fund (EHF), USA and Sister Majella Mc Carron, a selfless Irish activist who spent several years working to save the dying Ogoni environment. Thanks our novelist Jennifer Johnston, a distinguished Irish writer whose book, The Old Jest (1979) and The Shadow on Our Skin (1977) shot her into our literary consciousness, and many others at the barricades. My solidarity for the protests, blockades and boycotts to free the suffering Rossport natives, we must dance this rock of freedom against the red men and women, who plunder our lives for oil and gas and save the poor old men from Rossport.

~

Per the Sustainable Industries Journal,
the Pentagon has blocked the construction of 16 Wind Energy sites in the USA.
The military claims the Wind Farms are a threat to national security.
Maybe the Wind Farms are a threat to Big Oil and Big Coal?

HOW STUPID ARE AMERICANS?
~

WINE INDUSTRY ANNIHILATED by GLOBAL WARMING
http://www.ukfreepages.co.uk/publish/page4628.php

Global Warming Destroy Maple Sugar Industry

http://bigoil426.insanejournal.com

Does Big OIL or Big COAL have a Body BAG with your CHILD'S Name on it?
http://air301.livejournal.com
book: Pioneer Doctor, the Story of a Woman's Work; by Mari Grana
book: Big Coal, The Dirty Secret; by Jeff Goodell
book: Moving Mountains; by Penny Loeb
book: Coal River; by Michael Shnayerson
book: Bringing Down the Mountains; by Shirley Stewart Burns
book: Lost Mountain; by Erik Reece
http://adhd102.livejournal.com/4176.html

OIL - GAS REFINERIES = DIRTY AIR & DEATH
http://www.refineryreform.org
G.Bush@Bankruptcy~Enron.com
http://ovl.indymedia.org/news/2008/06/23267.php
http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2008/06/606157.php
http://chiapas.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=156821
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/344250/index.php

book: Tyranny of Oil; by Antonia Juhasz
http://www.thebushagenda.net

DICK CHENEY Made Millions with SADDAM HUSSEIN

http://bigoil404.insanejournal.com

How much political campaign contributions (bribes) is your congressman receiving
www.campaignfinance.org/states
www.publicintegrity.org

How much money (bribes) are the Republicans and their friends receiving from big companies?
www.campaignfinance.org/states
www.publicintegrity.org

DVD: Capitol Crimes
by Bill Moyers
The fall of super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff has exposed what may be one of the biggest political scandals in America's history. What does the dizzying scope of corruption say about how laws are made and who really owns the U.S. government? Bill Moyers and his team of investigative journalists untangle the web of relationships, secret deals, and political manipulation to open a disturbing window on the dark side of American politics.

stop ELECTION FRAUD, support Honest elections.
www.verifiedvoting.org
www.votevets.org
mediamatters.org
www.blackboxvoting.org
www.investigatethevote.org
www.votersunite.org
www.citizensact.org
www.solarbus.org/election/cd/test/videos.html
www.sourcewatch.org/index.php
state info:
http://victorygard379b.insanejournal.com

CRIMES AGAINST NATURE

http://bigoil405.insanejournal.com

DVD: Who Killed the Electric Car?
http://www.amazon.com/Who-Killed-Electric-Martin-Sheen/dp/B000I5Y8FU

VEGETABLE OIL Cars
http://plantdrive.com
http://vegcar.livejournal.com/24209.html
http://vegcar.livejournal.com/24451.html
http://vegcar.livejournal.com/25641.html
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/hemp.html

SolFocus Aims to Beat Coal with Solar Concentrators
http://air302.livejournal.com

~

`
book: Miracle of Tithing; by Mark Victor Hansen
http://tithing101.livejournal.com

Proverb:

A good person leaves an inheritance to their children’s children.

What kind of inheritance are you leaving?

book: You Can If You Think You Can; by Norman Vincent Peale

You never really lose until you quit trying.
Mike Ditka
NFL Football Coach

Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves.

Choose to BE A WINNER.

Be a bringer of the LIGHT.
`

`
Earth
~