Post Tags: climate crisis

Ineos’ Court Injunction Won’t Stop UK Anti-Fracking Movement

Categories

Food

Washington/Brussels/London—Today, the High Court of the United Kingdom upheld an injunction sought by petrochemical giant Ineos intended to stifle protest against the company’s plans to frack sites in the UK.

In response, Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Europe Executive Director Wenonah Hauter issued the following statement:

“This decision undermines our basic democratic rights to protest and defend our communities.

“Ineos is facing sustained protests for a reason. The company has amassed an atrocious environmental record across Europe, from chemical leaks and substantial pollutant releases to fires and explosions. If this company is being allowed to frack the UK, more pollution and more accidents are likely to follow.”

“The public knows the dangers fracking poses to our clean air and water, and that’s why activists in England are taking bold action to protect their communities against these threats. Ineos would like to stifle this movement, and unfortunately this High Court injunction has given the company a potentially powerful tool to threaten those advocating for a healthy climate and a livable world. If Ineos thinks a court injunction will stop the movement to protect our water, climate and communities from fracking, they are in for a surprise.“

 

The Awful Environmental Record of Ineos Disqualifies Fracking Ambitions

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE: November 21, 2017 6:01 AM

New Report Takes Hard Look at Chemical Giant’s Trail of Pollution

WASHINGTON, DC/BRUSSELS—Facilities owned by the massive chemical corporation Ineos are responsible for scores of serious health and safety violations across the globe, a troubling record that should move United Kingdom leaders to slam the brakes on the company’s push to begin fracking in the United Kingdom. Ineos has never drilled a commercial gas or oil well, and its indifferent safety record in chemical plants justifies blocking its foray into fracking.

A new issue brief from Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Europe examines Ineos plants in the UK, and across Europe and the United States. The company’s 71 facilities in 18 countries are responsible for a vast array of accidents, chemical leaks, fires and explosions, and substantial air and climate pollution.

“From towering chemical fires in Germany to toxic air pollution in Scotland and plastic pellets littering our oceans, Ineos’s safety record is appalling,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. “The company is also a climate disaster waiting to happen—benefiting from fracking in the U.S. while planning to bring the dangerous practice to the United Kingdom. This company’s plans have been met with a passionate, committed grassroots movement, and political leaders are beginning to understand that the right response to fracking is to stop it before it starts.”

The company’s Grangemouth facility in Scotland is the largest industrial site in in the country, and the hub for Ineos’s global fracking ambitions. It can manufacture one million tons of chemicals per year, and has repeatedly received low environmental ratings by Scottish regulators. The plant is Scotland’s single largest emitter of carbon dioxide.

The story is similar at other Ineos facilities, which have amassed a record of fires, explosions, and chemical leaks. The Ineos facility in Cologe, Germany was the site of a massive fire in 2008, and there have been a series of high profile accidents elsewhere—a major oil leak in Norway, a number of chemical leaks in France, long-running controversies over chemical dumping in Italy, and the release of toxic gas that resulted in the hospitalization of workers in Belgium.

Over a quarter of Ineos’s facilities are located in the United States, where the company’s awful record continues. The report shows that between 2014 and 2017, 12 of the company’s 14 plants in one EPA database were failing to comply with a major environmental regulation for at least one three-month period.

Already a chemical industry giant, Ineos has been expanding into fossil fuel infrastructure and drilling, with a plan to bring hydraulic fracturing or fracking to the United Kingdom.

From beginning to end, Ineos’s business model represents grave threats to clean air and water. The company relies on fracked hydrocarbons from Pennsylvania and Ohio, which delivers immediate negative impacts in the communities near drilling sites. These dangerously explosive materials must be transported via major pipelines, like the Mariner East 2 under construction across Pennsylvania, drilling for which has already caused dozens of spills and several cases of water contamination. The materials are shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to the plastics and chemical manufacturing sites, which contribute further environmental threats to the air, water and public health.

“The Ineos vision for the future is a disaster for clean air and water, and a disaster for the climate as well,” said Hauter. “At a time when the entire world must be moving off fossil fuels, Ineos represents a series of dangerous gambles that will take us backwards.”

See the report.

Contact:

Andy Gheorghiu, Policy Advisor, Food & Water Europe, agheorghiu[at]fweurope.org

Ineos’ Chequered Environmental Track Record in Europe

Categories

Fossil Fuels

DOWNLOAD PDF VIEW ON SCRIBD

The petrochemical company Ineos is transforming into a dominant UK fossil fuel firm with oil and gas extraction, storage, processing and pipeline assets.

Since its 1998 inception, Ineos has rapidly assembled a sprawling corporate empire by snapping up chemical factories and companies.

But it also has garnered a chequered environmental record in its aggressive climb to become one of the world’s largest chemical conglomerates.

The petrochemical industry, plastics production and fracking are innately risky to the environment and public health. Methane leaks from oil and gas infra- structure are a leading contributor to global warming, and in the United States the fracking industry has been responsible for thousands of spills and accidents that have contaminated groundwater resources. Ineos is pushing to frack the UK, but its troubled environmental and safety record at its chemical manufacturing plants makes the company a risky bet for UK communities and the environment. The Ineos chemical plants have released millions of tonnes of the green- house gas carbon dioxide as well as other hazardous pollutants.

Find out the dangers and what should happen instead in our report.

Vast Polluter Subsidies in EU Emissions Trading Deal Irresponsible and Counterproductive, Say NGOs

NGOs Include Attac France, Corporate Europe Observatory, Ecologistas en Acción, Food & Water Europe, Friends of the Earth Europe, Global Justice Now, re:Common, the Transnational Institute

Brussels—The ‘trilogue’ negotiations concluded between the EU Commission, Parliament and Council in the early hours of the night has prolonged the future of the EU Emissions Trading System as a source of billions of euros in polluter subsidies, according to Attac France, Corporate Europe Observatory, Ecologistas en Acción, Food & Water Europe, Friends of the Earth Europe, Global Justice Now, re:Common and the Transnational Institute.

EU member states will potentially be able to use a sizable chunk of these funds to continue burning fossil fuels, with Poland, for instance, looking to prolong the lifespan of its aging coal infrastructure.

Commenting on the ‘trilogue’ deal, Corporate Europe Observatory’s climate campaigner Belén Balanyá said:

“Using emissions trading revenues to subsidy fossil fuels is extremely irresponsible and works directly against efforts to halt catastrophic climate change. Once again, it is obvious that the emissions trading system benefits big polluters far more than it does the climate. “

Maxime Combes of Attac France added:

“While an increasing number of member states are phasing out coal power, it is absurd that emissions trading revenues may end up supporting this type of fossil-energy generation in other parts of the EU.”

But coal financing is just the tip of the iceberg. Polluter subsidies linked to emissions trading revenues could reach close to €200 billion between 2021 and 2030. The largest share of this money is earmarked for free pollution permits to be handed to steel and cement producers, in order to help them delay the transition away from fossil fuels.

Food & Water Europe campaigner Frida Kieninger commented:

“While the EU touts its ‘climate leadership’ at the UN talks in Bonn, the emissions trading policy agreed in Brussels means the EU will continue to shirk its fair share of global climate action. Emissions trading is clearly a part of the problem rather than a climate solution.”

Notes to editors:

  • The ‘trilogue’ negotiations establish the rules for a new, fourth phase of the EU Emissions Trading System, which will run from 2021-2030. The ETS has consistently been used to undermine other climate policies, including energy efficiency and renewable energy. The example of coal-fired power generation shows how this could continue in the fourth phase. As well as offering direct subsidies to “modernise” coal generation, the extension of the ETS assumes that significant power generation from coal will continue until 2030. Yet an increasing number of EU countries are announcing plans to phase out coal-power generation in the next decade. Tougher standards on air pollutants, passed this summer as part of the implementation of the Industrial Emissions Directive, have put pressure on other countries to do the same.
  • Corporate Europe Observatory has highlighted the industry lobbying which skewed the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) in favour of polluting corporations, analysing how big polluters influenced the ETS reform to ensure it would serve their interests.

 

Food & Water Europe’s Hydrocarbon Toolkit

Categories

Common Resources

DOWNLOAD PDF VIEW ON SCRIBD

The goal of this toolkit is to provide legal arguments to activists in the European Union (EU) against the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons (e.g., shale gas/oil, tight gas/oil, coal-bed methane) by referring to relevant articles of existing and binding EU law. It explains in accessible language the most relevant Directives and Regulations that are applicable to the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons. More precisely, the toolkit discusses the individual pieces of legislation along the hydraulic fracturing process, starting from prior assessments to liability. For each Directive/Regulation it discusses the goal and scope, the most relevant provisions, limitations, and the general line of argumentation that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) can use to challenge the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons. Case law is discussed where relevant. Lastly, the toolkit establishes the procedural steps that citizens and/or organisations can take to contest a certain project on the EU level.

This toolkit focuses on regulation of the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons such as shale gas/oil, tight gas/oil and coal-bed methane; however, it is important to note that some negative impacts (water and soil con- tamination, methane emissions, earthquakes from wastewater disposal, as well as public health impacts) can occur even if hydraulic fracturing is not being used as a stimulation method.

Find out more in, ‘Food & Water Europe’s Hydrocarbon Toolkit.’

Meet the Secretive Chemical Billionaire Who Wants to Frack Europe

New Report Shows How Fossil Fuel Drilling Built the Ineos Empire

Brussels, 12 October 2017 —  Just days after the Scottish government extended its moratorium indefinitely on the dangerous drilling technique known as fracking, a new report sheds light on the links between one European billionaire’s chemical and fossil fuels empire and fracking in the United States.

The new issue brief, “Chemical Billionaire’s Bid for Fossil Fuel Empire,” was released by Food & Water Europe, an affiliate of the U.S.-based advocacy group Food & Water Watch. The research provides an in-depth look at the rise of Ineos Corporation, a massive and secretive chemical corporate colossus controlled by secretive billionaire James Ratcliffe.

The Ineos empire, once dubbed “near impenetrable business” by the Financial Times, was put together via debt-fueled takeovers of distressed corporate properties over the course of two decades. It now stands as one of the most powerful petrochemical companies in the world. The company manufactures an array of chemicals and products refined from oil and natural gas; imported U.S. gas derived from fracking is a key feedstock for one of its primary businesses, the manufacture of plastic pellets.

The company’s growth over the past decade relies heavily on fracking in Pennsylvania and Ohio, which has resulted in dramatically lower prices for gas. And the Ineos link to U.S. fracking is represented most dramatically by its fleet of so-called “dragon ships,” which carry gas and shale gas liquids across the Atlantic Ocean for processing at refineries such as the Ineos-owned facility at Grangemouth in Scotland.

And, as the new report shows, Ineos is not merely content with importing these fracking-derived feedstocks via this trans-Atlantic virtual pipeline. The company is the largest holder of shale drilling licenses in the United Kingdom, and is pushing hard to begin fracking. It has made substantial investments in fossil fuel infrastructure, and has lobbied politicians and local governments to approve drilling in order to kick start a European “shale revolution” that is likely to make the company even more profitable.

“Ineos is a dirty energy company that shuns the spotlight, and for good reason: The more you know about their vision for the future, the harder you will fight to stop them,” said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter. “This is a company that has amassed giant profits at the expense of the environment and the communities in western Pennsylvania that have been harmed by fracking. And they want to expand the damage done by fracking to Europe. Thankfully, the grassroots opposition to dirty drilling and plastic waste is only growing, and political leaders are starting to listen. The future belongs to clean, renewable energy, not corporate schemes that promote fracking, climate chaos, and that contribute to the massive pollution of the oceans through the production of plastics.”

The growing public opposition to fracking in Northern Ireland and England and the indefinite moratorium in Scotland represents a serious threat to Ineos’s plans to frack Europe. The company’s business model is built around dirty energy extraction and corporate profiteering at the expense of public health, safety and the environment. That backwards-looking vision has proved disastrous for the communities on the frontlines of the disastrous fracking experiment in the United States.

Contact: Andy Gheorghiu, Food & Water Europe, agheorghiu(at)fweurope.org

+49 (0) 5631 50 69 507 (land), +49 (0) 160 20 30 974 (mobile)