Yesterday morning, staff at Greenpeace Germany received an important-looking letter from Shell - well, Shell’s Legal Services department. Over the next 24 hours or so, identical letters arrived at other Greenpeace offices, including Mexico, UK, France, Hungary, Nordic, Japan, Mediterranean, Poland, Greece, Czech Republic, Belgium, Canada and even Greenpeace’s Science Unit. I think it’s fair to say Shell had something they wanted to say to us.

The oil giant’s message was: I know where you live and I’ve seen where you sleep. I swear to everything holy that your mothers will cry when they see what I’ve done to you.

I’m paraphrasing, obviously. But it is true to say that Shell clearly wants to make certain that every Greenpeace office in the world a) knows about  the injunction Shell has taken out against Greenpeace USA and b) understands that if any office was to even think of going to Alaska and peacefully protesting near one of their drill ships, Shell will break out the big legal guns and point them straight at us.

As it happens, they didn’t need to go to the effort. All Greenpeace offices are well aware of the injunction Shell has taken out against Greenpeace US - mostly because, in our long history of being not very popular with corporate polluters, Shell’s injunction stands out as one of the most draconian and sweeping legal measures ever taken against a Greenpeace office. It’s up there with Cairn’s social media gagging order against Greenpeace UK and Greenpeace International (which is still in force today).

The injunction stops Greenpeace USA from holding peaceful protests (legal or otherwise) anywhere near Shell’s drill ships in the US. Why? Well, according to Shell’s letter (pdf), Shell doesn’t want any protests to threaten “Shell’s right, interest and investments in exploring for oil and gas on United States leases”.

Interestingly, Shell also claims to be concerned about “the threat posed by such activities [protests]... to the surrounding environment” - but apparently not about the threat posed by drilling for oil with outdated equipment in one of the most ecologically sensitive environments on the planet.  

While Shell’s lawyers battle on to prevent free speech and the right to protest, Shell’s drill ships are steadily approaching the Arctic. If Shell has its way, its drills will grind into action in just a couple of months’ time, beginning the transformation of Alaska’s pristine icescapes and waters into an industrial wasteland.

The good news though, is that Shell is clearly feeling the heat. The injunction - along with Shell’s extraordinary pre-emptive legal actions against a range of organisations - suggests to us that the massive groundswell of public opinion against them and a series of peaceful protests against their ship have taken the company by surprise and are making it nervous.

While Shell plans to irreversibly damage the Arctic, we plan to keep standing up to Shell. Greenpeace USA is appealing the injunction and continues to mobilize the public opposed to Shell’s plans. And we too will keep fighting to stop Shell and Save the Arctic. Please stand with us - and with the 450,000 people who are campaigning to stop Shell and Save The Arctic.

With fuel prices at record levels and predicted to keep rising, you’d think that new European proposals to stem drivers’ costs and reduce emissions would be welcomed by all. But major car companies like VW are opposing these laws – so today we released a new report detailing how increasing efficiency will benefit both the public and the climate.

The best defence against soaring petrol prices is to use less petrol. And the best way to do that - besides driving less - is to improve the fuel efficiency of new cars.

Right now, the EU is discussing how much more fuel efficient our cars need to become. They’ll be making a decision this summer. In the run up to that decision, major car companies including Volkswagen are opposing the efficiency proposals and, if they win, they’ll leave Britain reliant on fuel-hungry cars - with all the high fuel costs, high emissions, and reliance on foreign oil imports and dangerous drilling that inefficient vehicles entail.

With EU politicians caught between protecting the interests of industry lobbyists and the interests of their own people, we decided to make sure they have the full facts at their disposal. We asked an independent expert to calculate the savings that British - and other European - drivers can expect to make under a couple of fuel efficiency scenarios. The findings are compelling:

If the existing EU efficiency law is confirmed (ie car-makers are forced to reduce their average C02 emissions to 95g/km by 2020), British drivers’ average annual fuel costs will drop from £1,731 to £1,335 (in today’s money) by 2020.

If EU governments decide to go a step further and tighten the target to 60g CO2/km by 2025, fuel costs will drop to just £685 by 2030. That’s an average saving of over £1000 per year.

Setting ambitious, long-term efficiency targets of 60g CO2/km is a no-brainer: it’s better for individuals, better for the climate and better for Britain's energy independence. Yet Volkswagen is still opposing the targets - and there's a very real danger that politicians might listen to them.

Over 500,000 people have already asked VW to turn away from the Dark Side and embrace an energy efficient future. Join the rebellion here.

9 May 2012

Greenpeace Response to Green Investment Bank in Queen’s Speech

Responding to the inclusion of the Green Investment Bank in today’s Queen’s Speech, Louise Hutchins, senior energy campaigner for Greenpeace, said:

“The Green Investment Bank could well be a key vehicle to help us out of these tough economic times, and also a clever way to tackle climate change while giving a much needed boost to cutting edge, clean home-grown technologies.

“But it will struggle to do these important things if the Bank is little more than a poorly funded quango. It’s got to have the borrowing powers that will see it succeed, and that will bring success to the British renewable energy industry.”

ENDS

Greenpeace press office: 020 7865 8255

Greenpeace Response to Electricity Market Reform Bill in Queen’s Speech

Responding to the inclusion of the Energy Bill in today’s Queen’s Speech, Jim Footner, head of Greenpeace’s climate and energy campaign, said:

“People normally dread energy bills, which have been soaring due to rocketing gas prices. But the Energy Bill announced today by the Queen could actually save people money.

“It can do this by taking the side of the bill-payer, and not the side of energy companies like Centrica, who want us to fork out for expensive gas imports and nuclear energy. Our household budgets just can’t afford a new dash for imported gas nor for nuclear reactors which are going to cost at least £7billion each.

“But this Bill isn’t only a chance for the Coalition government to tackle both household bills and climate change. It’s also a chance for them to rescue any claim they have to be a green government. And they can only do that if the Bill backs clean, cutting-edge renewable energy and energy efficiency.”

ENDS

Greenpeace press office: 020 7865 8255

Since we shut down their head office on Monday, British Gas owner Centrica have replied to the thousands of people who emailed them about their overreliance on gas, their lack of investment in renewables and their failure to bring energy bills under control. But whilst they talk a good game, their spin fails to address the real issues.

Firstly, they claimed evidence from a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance that they have installed less renewable energy than any of the other big six energy companies was misleading. This is simply wrong. The report looked at every major renewable energy project the big utilities built since 2006 and British Gas had built the least. No excuses.

The report was written by one of the foremost energy consultancies in the world, it would be interesting to know what they had to say about Centrica’s attacks on their research.

Centrica claimed that going back to 2008 the rate of increase in energy bills has only been 2-3% per year. Again, this is misleading. In the last year, expensive, imported gas has pushed up the cost far more sharply. Figures from energy regulator Ofgem show the cost of heat and electricity has risen by 12.8% from March 2011 to March 2012. The mild winter cushioned some British Gas customer’s from the impact this winter, but boss Sam Laidlaw admits gas prices are set to keep rising.

They claimed to have "re-invested £1.50 for every £1 in profit". This is a fudge of the numbers. What they mean is that they managed to raise and invest £1.50 for every £1 in profit. Their shareholders would be rather annoyed if they were re-investing more profit than they were making. As it stands, they pay out 74% of their profits to shareholders, more than any of the other “big six” energy companies.

Centrica are dodging and weaving their way out of accepting the simple truth; that their reliance on expensive and imported gas is keeping households tied to volatile prices.

The upcoming Energy Bill will decide the future of energy generation for the UK. That future must be clean, affordable energy to stabilise bills and tackle climate change. As the UK’s largest domestic supplier of energy, Centrica must publicly declare support for prioritising renewable energy in the Bill and reduce our reliance on expensive, imported gas.

Far from taking part in an honest discussion, Centrica have dodged our central ask to champion a clean energy future that puts renewables and efficiency at its heart and brings bills under control.

Read the full correspondence between us and Centrica here and here.

Greenpeace Nordic activists have intercepted and boarded a Shell-contracted icebreaker, the Nordica, at open sea to continue the protest against Shell's destructive plans to start drilling in the Arctic. Just two days ago, dozens of activists occupied that same ship in Helsinki, before it left harbour.

The Nordica is heading to Alaska to join its sister ship, the Fennica, to support the Kulluk and Noble Discoverer, the two drillships that are en route to the north coast of Alaska to drill five exploratory wells for Shell in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.

Follow the live action - and help stop Shell »