Californian legislation branded ‘unconstitutional’
Lobby group includes UK energy companies
Terry Macalister
Sunday 14 February 2010 18.58 GMT
Californian low-carbon legislation ‘unconstitutional’ says NPRA oil lobby group. Above, Syncrude oil sands project in Alberta, Canada. Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images
A lobby group that includes BP and Shell in its membership has launched a legal challenge against low-carbon legislation in California that in effect rules out the use of oil from Canadian tar sands. The action by the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA) comes amid growing political, investor and consumer pressure on US oil companies not to participate in the carbon-intensive tar sands of Alberta.
A NPRA statement said the legislation was unlawful for a number of reasons, including the imposition of “undue and unconstitutional burdens on interstate commerce”.
It claimed the legislation would also have “little or no impact” on greenhouse gas emissions nationwide and would harm US energy security “by discouraging the use of Canadian crude oil and ethanol produced in the American midwest”.
The refiners are joined by the American Trucking Associations and the Centre for North American Energy Security in their attempt to overturn legislation from California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who wants to cut C02 emissions from transport by 10% by 2020.
Shell’s chief executive, Peter Voser, recently announced plans to slow investment in Alberta, though he denied this was anything to do with environmental issues, saying it was a reaction to lower oil prices and a reduction in Shell’s profitability.
The company distanced itself from the NPRA legal action but did not express its opposition to it. “Shell is not represented on the committees of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association that made the decision to legally challenge the rules,” said a spokesman in The Hague. “We continue to work with the California Air Resources Board as they refine rules and address outstanding issues.”
BP also claimed it was not associated with the court challenge. A spokesman for the oil company in London said: “BP’s membership in NPRA is limited to specific issues related to the chemical industry.”
BP has started to spend tens of millions of dollars restructuring two US refineries so that they can process tar sands crude imported from its operations in Canada. There were reports over the weekend that BP is in $1.2bn talks to buy a Canadian company called Value Creation, which has substantial tar sands reserves.
Tony Hayward, chief executive of BP, told the Guardian in an interview this month that he was confident tar sands would play a major role in future US energy security. He played down suggestions that the US army, one of the biggest single users of oil products in the world, might be prevented by politicians from using fuel derived from tar sands.
Tar sands have risen fast up the political agenda since the Copenhagen climate change conference last December.
The issue will also be discussed at the forthcoming annual general meetings of Shell and BP. On the agenda are resolutions from the Co-op and other investors questioning the wisdom of continuing their controversial tar sands operations in Canada.
John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said he was pleased that investors were putting the oil company on the spot, adding that exploitation of the tar sands would become “a campaign battleground for years to come”.
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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