Energy, Mining & Utilities

Rio Tinto could be a poster child for corporate malfeasance. The largest mining company in the world, Rio Tinto has headquarters both in Melbourne, Australia and London, England and operations on all continents except Antarctica. For years, Rio Tinto has had a reputation for being responsible for environmental and human rights violations at its mines and smelters. Read More

The world's largest private mining company, Rio Tinto, has long been criticized for gross human rights violations dating back to its support of apartheid in Southern Africa. Despite its abysmal record, Rio Tinto has recently been accepted, and even courted, by intergovernmental institutions such as the United Nations and the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (the Asia Pacific Forum). Read More

In retaliation for the investigative story about the finances of the George W. Bush campaign, Barrick Gold Mining of Canada has sued my paper, the Observer of London, for libel. The company, which hired the elder Bush after his leaving the White House, is charging the newspaper with libel for quoting an Amnesty International report. Read More

Today, the Union of Concerned Scientists released "Drilling in Detroit," an analysis conducted jointly with the Center for Auto Safety. The study finds that US automakers could produce a fleet of cars and trucks that get an average of 40 miles per gallon by 2012, and 55 mpg by 2020 (up from the current 24 mpg average), with no diminution of safety and performance. This increased fuel efficiency would save consumers billions of dollars each year, cut 273 million tons of annual GHG emissions by 2010 and 888 million tons by 2020, and create tens of thousands of new jobs in the auto industry. Read More

New evidence has surfaced in a Colombian government inquiry exposing active collaboration between security forces protecting oil operations of the Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum (OXY) and the notorious Colombian military in one of the country' deadliest attacks on civilians. Read More

A private intelligence firm with close links to MI6 spied on environmental campaign groups to collect information for oil companies, including Shell and BP. Read More

The Indigenous Environmental Network, the International Indian Treaty Council and Greenaction issue this call to action to stop George W. Bush's plan to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Read More

In a civil war that seems to be fueled by so much -- religion, for example, because one side is Muslim and the other side is not, and race, because one side is Arab and the other African -- nothing has supercharged the fighting in southern Sudan quite like Nile Blend crude. Read More

Oil companies are collecting record profits while consumers get drilled at the gas pumps, underscoring the iron grip the companies have over virtually every aspect of the oil market, a Public Citizen analysis shows. Read More

The chairman of Aceh's Student Movement for Reform, Radhi Darmansyah, on Wednesday, presented ExxonMobil shareholders with documentation challenging earlier claims by the corporation that it does not know about the widespread abuses by security forces in the Indonesian province of Aceh, including those providing security to its gas installations. Read More