Message From the Editor

ExxonMobil announced a $19.3 billion write-down this week – reducing the value of the assets on its books – a big hit to a company reeling from depressed oil and gas prices and a rapidly changing global energy market. The fossil fuel giant, however, may be understating the financial damage to its assets, according to a former ExxonMobil employee turned whistleblower, Franklin Bennett. Bennett and his team of advisors argue that instead, the company has been overvaluing its U.S. oil and gas assets by as much as $56 billion, as of year-end 2019. Nick Cunningham has the scoop.

Meanwhile over in Europe, France has been found guilty of climate inaction in what campaigners have dubbed “the case of the century”. This week the Paris administrative court concluded France has failed to do enough to meet its own commitments on the climate crisis and is legally responsible for the ensuing ecological damage. Read more here.

Finally, looking back at the impact of lifting the 40-year-old oil export ban in 2015, it appears the move has helped hasten the financial demise of the U.S. oil industry — while also increasing the industry’s huge contribution to climate change. And in many ways, the U.S. oil and gas industry’s demise is self-inflicted. Justin Mikulka has the analysis.

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: editor@desmogblog.com. 

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

P.S. Readers like you make it possible for DeSmog to hold accountable powerful people in industry and government. Even a $10 or $20 donation helps support DeSmog’s investigative journalism.

Exclusive: Whistleblower Accuses Exxon of 'Fraudulent' Behavior for Overvaluing Fracking Assets For Years

— By Nick Cunningham (7 min. read) —

ExxonMobil announced a $19.3 billion write-down on Tuesday, a big hit to a company reeling from depressed oil and gas prices and a rapidly changing global energy market.

The write-down reduces the value of the assets on Exxon’s books. The announcement comes as part of the company’s fourth quarter earnings for 2020.

Campaigners Claim 'Historic Win' as France Found Guilty of Climate Inaction

— By Isabella Kaminski (4 min. read) —

The French state has been found guilty of climate inaction in what campaigners have dubbed “the case of the century”. 

Today the Paris administrative court concluded France has failed to do enough to meet its own commitments on the climate crisis and is legally responsible for the ensuing ecological damage.

How U.S. Crude Oil Exports Are Hastening the Demise of the Oil Industry

— By Justin Mikulka (12 min. read) —

When Congress lifted the export ban on U.S. crude oil in December of 2015 to allow for exports beginning in 2016, the oil industry celebrated. However, looking back at the impact of lifting the 40-year-old ban, it appears the move has helped hasten the financial demise of the U.S. oil industry — while also increasing the industry’s huge contribution to climate change.

In many ways, the U.S. oil and gas industry’s demise is self-inflicted. When historians look back upon its declines, lifting the export ban will likely mark a turning point where the industry made a huge bet on the profitability of fracking for oil in the U.S. — and subsequently began to dig its own grave.

Opinion: Bakken Oil Trains Unsafe at any Speed due to Volatile Oil

— By Justin Mikulka (12 min. read) —

On December 22, 2020, a train carrying over 100 tank cars of Bakken oil derailed and caught fire in the small Washington town of Custer. This accident highlights how the regulatory system has failed to protect the public and — in the case of the last four years of the Trump administration — actively worked to remove regulations which then put the public at greater risk.

The accident — which happened despite the train traveling at the slow speed of 7 miles per hour — highlights, once again, that Bakken oil-by-rail is unsafe under any circumstance. Until regulators address the issue of the volatile oil being moved by rail — from both the Bakken and Canada — the public will remain at risk. This is because, while other safety measures can help stop a crude oil spill from becoming an environmental mess, not all oil is equal and some types are much, much more likely to ignite than others — a fact the industry is aware of but ignores. 

Evidence Shows Oil Industry Flaring in Texas Being Done Without Permits

—By Nick Cunningham (7 min. read) —

In 2019 and 2020, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) conducted three helicopter surveys over the oil fields of West Texas. Flying over flare stacks at more than three hundred oil and gas drilling sites, EDF staff used infrared cameras to document unlit flares whose methane pollution is invisible to the naked eye. Their survey found that roughly 1 in 10 flares in the Permian basin were either unlit or malfunctioning. And a new report adds another layer onto this problem—whether the flares are even permitted in the first place.

The incidence of flaring natural gas, which is primarily methane, at drilling sites in the Permian basin skyrocketed in recent years as fracking proliferated and the industry drilled tens of thousands of wells. Burning natural gas at the wellhead would be wasteful enough, but some drillers simply release the gas into the atmosphere, a practice known as “venting.”

New Mexico Families in Oil and Gas ‘Waste Zone’ Seek Help

— By Jerry Redfern, Capital & Main (7 min. read) —

“Something just blew up!”

Cora Gonzales was in her room on January 4 when she heard her father yell. In the evenings he watches TV while sitting by the living room window, and that’s where she found him, looking outside and not at the tube. The rest of the family quickly joined them and they stared through the picture window as flames shot into the night sky from a nearby well pad.

From the Climate Disinformation Database: James Delingpole

James Delingpole is an English columnist and anti-windfarm activist who formerly blogged for The Daily Telegraph and now writes for The Spectator and the far-right news site, Breitbart. Delingpole has described himself as a “libertarian conservative” and climate change skeptic. Delingpole was particularly vocal during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. In an article for The Spectator Australia, he described how he had contracted COVID-19 and that he felt “bloody great” for subsequently getting “a degree of immunity”. In the same article, Delingpole explained how he did not cancel any engagements even when he believed he had the virus and wrote that he attended “various parties” after a debate at Durham University, saying: “it’s possible I infected lots of undergraduates”. Delingpole is also among a handful of climate science deniers referenced in a recent inquiry by the Alberta government in Canada into “foreign-funded anti-energy campaigns.”

Read the full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database and Koch Network Database.