The UK has had plenty of car manufacturers over the years. No wonder many refer to it as the most car obsessed country in the world. Just a shame that the government clearly want’s to change that with all their stupid environmental and health and safety laws. This doesn’t stop new companies from appearing though. Just recently, Lee Noble announced Fenix Automotive. And, of course, he was responsible for Noble not too long ago. Now, another company has appeared. This one though is a revival of an old brand, Chevron.

It was founded back in 1965. Over 60 great racing cars were made over the course of their history. In 1986 though, Chevron died off. The brand now belongs to Westfield Sportscars, and they plan to bring it back.

The first car will be the GR8. It will be a spiritual successor to the B8, a lightweight, mid-engined racing car built in the late 60s. The new car will follow a similar formula. It will have fiberglass body over a steel spaceframe with a 255bhp 2.0L Cosworth engine mounted in the middle. 255bhp doesn’t sound like a lot, but they’re planning an extremely low weight of 600kg (About 1322 pounds), which will result in a power to weight ratio of over 400bhp per tonne.

Only 20 will be made at first, each at a price of roughly 83,000 USD (About £49,500). They will all be used in the GR8 Challenge Series, a one-make racing series for the car, so a bit like the Ferrari FXX or the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 GT. The series opener is planned for April 2010. It will consist of 16 rounds, and you may choose to have a second driver to help split the costs and work. After that, the GR8 will be turned into a track-day special available to the public. Sadly, a road-going version isn’t planned.

Nonetheless, if you need a good track-day car, looks like this might be worth waiting for.

Source: Chevron via Autoblog

Last night I didn’t want to sleep in my apartment, even though I have it for a few more nights. I wanted to sleep in the van, so November 25 became my official First Night. Here’s what my bed looked like:

Now I can’t truly say that I’m a vandweller yet: I still came home to have a shower (and see? I’m still calling the apartment ‘home’). The metamorphosis is a gradual one… but it’s definitely begun!

Some lame news though… a chip that appeared in my window last week has now grown to a 2″ crack, which is too big to repair, so now I need a new windshield. The idea of taking my home to a repair shop is kind of unsettling.

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Chevron Refinery, El Segundo, California

Here they are, folks, the very Hot List of Global Warming’s Worst Merchants of Death. The for-profit companies who put the money they rake in from burning fossil fuels ahead of the safety, welfare and well being of your kids, of your parents, of your grandparents and of everyone you hold near and dear.

They know exactly what lethal damage their products and their manufacture are responsible for, but the money always comes first for these contract killers – unless of course you’re asking them to pay the bill for that damage.

So let’s take a look, straight from our friends at the California Air Resources Board*, at the Top Emitters of Greenhouse Gases in California, for 2008.  I’ve specially highlighted the three out of ten that are within just 10 miles of my home.

1. Chevron Refinery, Richmond: 4,792,052 metric tons
2. Shell Oil Refinery, Martinez: 4,570,475 metric tons

3. BP Refinery, Carson: 4,504,286 metric tons (9 miles from my house)

4. Chevron Refinery, El Segundo: 3,603,446 metric tons (8.4 miles from my house)

5. Dynegy Power Plant, Moss Landing: 2,962,149 metric tons

6. Exxon Refinery, Torrance: 2,852,374 metric tons (5.7 miles from my house)

7. Valero Refinery, Benicia: 2,796,057
8. Tesoro Refinery, Martinez: 2,703,145
9. Southern Calif. Edison-Mountainview Power Plant, Redlands: 2,697,142
10. La Paloma Power Plant, McKittrick: 2,544,398

* Actually, the CARB let the polluters tally up their own numbers, so you best double these public numbers if you want to get the honest total.

Big Congrats to California’s very own Chevron, who spewed more than double the greenhouse gas of their nearest carbon collaborator-  and who does more damage to our health than any other refiner in California.  No one does more harm to the health of children and pregnant women than the Chevron polluters who use toy cars to fool kids into thinking they’re the good guys.  Shameless would be a step up for Chevron.

When you hear these professional global warmers lie and spin and bribe and con, just remember – they do it for money and there is no line they will not cross in exchange for that buck.  They’ll give money to your schools, your libraries, your hospitals – whatever you need, just so long as you let them destroy our climate from your home town.

But don’t worry.  Even if you’re not getting any of that Chevron or Exxon cash, rest assured you’ll be getting the death and destruction that comes from using their products – and from having them made anywhere on the map.

View Larger Map

If you look at the satellite views of these fatal facilities you’ll see acres and acres of unobstructed land just perfect to use for solar power generation.  All of these locations are already heavily hooked up to the grid and would need no new transmission lines to be feeding renewable energy into our electric mix instead of feeding more global warming into the already overheated atmosphere.

If our kids are going to survive and thrive as our generation has – all 10 of the facilities on this list – along with their counterparts all across the USA – must be gone from this map 10 years from now.

BREAKING NEWS: CALIFORNIA AIR RESOURCES BOARD JUST RELEASED BLOCKBUSTER GREENHOUSE GAS REPORT OF STATE’S WORST POLLUTERS AND GLOBAL WARMERS
TORRANCE EXXON REFINERY RANKS #6 IN CALIFORNIA, EL SEGUNDO CHEVRON REFINERY IS #4

Click on the breaking news above and you’ll finally get to see the greenhouse gas numbers on our two local climate changing refineries that I’ve been demanding for a year now.  The CARB released them about an hour ago, too early for the morning papers, but not to early for your Creative Greenius.

I’ve been a little busy the past few months and I’ve fallen behind in covering some of the bigger environmental news stories locally here in my own backyard, but today we’re going to play catchup, big time -   

Councilman Furey pledging his allegiance to fossil fuels, global warming and more CO2

Let’s start with the $80,000 legal bribe Torrance City Councilman, Pat Furey, was so proud of getting from his friends at the world’s most unethical oil company, you know… the one currently melting the ice caps, glaciers and overheating our planet’s atmosphere while lying, scamming and covering up their deadly actions.  Yeah, that’s right -  good old #6 on the state list of greenhouse gas emitters the Torrance refinery owned by EXXON!

It happened on October 20 and I was there in-person, sitting in the front row with Torrance Democratic Club President, Rick Wagner, when Furey practically soiled himself in his seat, so enthusiastic and praise-filled was his shameless ballwashing of Exxon as our great neighbor who contributes to the health and well-being of our community. So shameless was Fossil Furey that he extolled the value of having Exxon around for our kids.

Yes, the same kids whose future Furey just sold down the river for a new library in his district.  Furey will tell you his whole career has been all about helping kids.  Too bad his actions enabling Exxon to destroy the futures of those very same children wipes out the value of that resume.

The Greenius says the children of the South Bay and all of California should hold this fluffer for Exxon personally responsible for the hell and high water that’s coming their way.  Just as they should hold every one of Furey’s fellow failed public servants libel since they all voted unanimously to have the citizens of Torrance bend over for this $80,000 payoff.  Their inexcusable ignorance harms us all.

And if you think that’s too tough and too harsh then you don’t know Exxon’s record of evil like I do.  But you should.  Just read this:

Records show ExxonMobil gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby groups that have published ‘misleading and inaccurate information’ about climate change

Even self-professed “Environmental Champion,” Cliff Numark, who looked so embarrassed and ashamed of himself I thought he was going to crawl under his chair, voted “YES” to praise Exxon and sell my city’s soul for cash.  But shamed though he might have been, Champion Cliff, couldn’t find the cajones to cast a “no” vote.  Not exactly a profile in courage, was it, Cliff?

$80,000 in exchange for pumping 2,852,374 tons of greenhouse gas into the air all our kids breathe while we’re already in the danger zone for global warming?  Damn, these politicians sell our kids out for peanuts, don’t they?

Here’s the brilliant job of reporting our Living Dead Zombie newspaper, the Daily Breeze, did on this news:

EXXON MOBIL DONATION:

ExxonMobil Torrance, CA

An unidentified refinery process unit was shut down Aug 25.
No restart estimate.

It’s obvious to this Creative Greenius that Exxon is not just one of the single biggest obstacles to stopping Global Warming and one of the biggest polluting companies on the face of this earth – it’s obvious that they flat out own the government here in ToxicTown Torrance.  They own them and they control their votes and they do it by paying them for it.  As Woodward and Bernstein taught me while I was still in high school – Follow the Money.

Maybe Exxon money is the reason there wasn’t a single elected official or city worker in Torrance who would tell the city’s citizens how much CO2 that Exxon refinery was pumping into our atmosphere for the past two years.  But now we know, because the Air Resources Board finally released the number we never would have gotten if it was up to the people who take checks from Exxon to pay the bills.

“Oh, Greenius, you’re just being mean and too harsh!” you might be saying.  “Maybe the Mayor and the City Council aren’t evil and sellouts, maybe they’re just too ignorant to understand what they’re voting on,” you might remind me. “They’re not criminals, they’re just clueless,” might be your rallying cry on their behalf.

You might be right.

Maybe that’s why this same group of representatives also voted unanimously on October 20 to endorse and support the 350 ppm target for CO2 at the very same Council meeting mere minutes after falling all over themselves to genuflect in front of their oil company masters.  Perhaps they don’t understand that we can’t reach 350 with that fossil fuel Exxon Mobil refinery doing what they do in our town.

It doesn’t matter whether they understand or not.  They’ve made commitments to reduce greenhouse gases and to get to 350 and they will be held to those commitments whether they grok it or they don’t.  They won’t have a choice from a responsibility standpoint and they don’t have a choice scientifically either.

Don’t forget – I too have made a commitment and I take my commitments a lot more seriously then people who will sell their votes for cash.  I’m committed to getting rid of that Exxon Mobil refinery by my 60th birthday on September 18, 2017. I’ve said so publicly and I understand exactly what I’m talking about.  Those 750 acres are now slated to become a large scale solar powered energy plant.

Maybe the incompetent representatives and staff here in Torrance whose salaries my tax dollars pay for don’t have a clue what’s coming next for Exxon and their future around these parts, but I do.

First time I’ve seen something quite this comprehensive (above).  They say “case studies,” but that’s liberal.  “Links to” is more fitting.  But even still, it’s a handy and quick compilation that includes examples from many of our clients, including:  Accenture, BAE Systems, Bayer, Chevron, Dell, Mattel, Rubbermaid, Virgin America and Xerox, and some large client competitors, including Crest, General Mills and Nokia.  Click on the pic above to get to the link, or click here.  Companies are listed alphabetically, with links to the social media efforts right there.

Ecuador’s Amazonians Sue Chevron Over Poison Waterways

November 15, 2009

Approximately 30,000 Amazonians have filed a lawsuit against the US oil company, Chevron. The company illegally dumped toxic waste from its oil production and may pay up to $27 billion as compensation of the damages that the region had to undergo. The locals have seen increasing rates of cancer, miscarriages and birth defects due to the contamination. According to Kent Robertson, a representative of Chevron, in the early 1990s when Texaco left Ecuador, 40 percent of the remaining grime was to be decontaminated and the rest, dealt with by Petroecuador.

Regardless, the company’s reputation has depreciated. Moreover, attention to this case has come from supporters such as the wife of musician Sting, Trudie Styler, and human rights campaigner Kerry Kennedy.

Click on the link to read more about this issue!

–Susan Lee

Chevron’s defense against charges of environmental destruction in Ecuador includes an “aggressive lobbying and public relations  campaign” that has spurred an equally forceful response from Plaintiffs’ counsel, Politico.com reminds us.  After successfully removing the action from the U.S. to Ecuador, Chevron spent $1.6 million enlisting top lobbyists to urge lawmakers to revoke Ecuador’s trade preferences.  But success is not at all assured for Chevron.  Plaintiffs have assembled a cast of lobbyists and public relations professionals that include Steven Donzinger (a New York lawyer and former classmate of President Obama at Harvard Law School),  Ben Barnes (a Democratic fundraiser and lobbyist), and Tom Downey (former congressman and husband of Obama’s climate czar Carol Browner). 

Chevron assumed the litigation in Ecuador as part of its 2001 acquisition of Texaco.  Texaco, now Chevron,  is charged with having “dumped billions of gallons of toxic waste into Ecuador’s Amazon rain forest, leaving behind an unprecedented environmental and public health disaster including a wave of cancers, birth defects and miscarriages,” according to Politico.  If Ecuadorian courts agree with these charges, Chevron stands to pay as much as $27 billion in damages.

The lawsuit has drawn the attention of the national press, academics and law enforcement agencies.  CBS’ 60 Minutes featured a piece on this lawsuit in May.  Chevron’s preemption of that piece, which included hiring former TV newsman Gene Randall to produce a news-style video that appeared on Chevron’s website explaining its side of the story, turned heads at the Columbia Journalism Review.  CJR criticized Randall’s actions for compromising reporting standards by masquerading public relations as journalism.  Separately, New York’s Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has contacted Chevron regarding its disclosures to shareholders of potential litigation risks and characterizations of its available legal defenses.

In what seems a measurable success for Plaintiffs, Representative Linda Sanchez has begun to circulate letters in Congress describing the “plight of working families that live in Ecuador’s oil producing Amazon Rainforest.”  The tug of her message is that Chevron has adopted a “misguided approach” in dealing with the holdover Texaco lawsuits.

Finally, in a show that no battle is too small, the AmLaw Daily reports that Chevron recently filed a malicious prosecution claim against Plaintiffs’ lawyer who brought the original suits against Texaco in the United States.  That lawyer is no longer associated with Plaintiffs fighting against the company in Ecuador and U.S. federal judges have already awarded Chevron’s attorneys $45,000 against said lawyer.

The heavy and sometimes innovative use of media and high level government contacts sometimes threaten to obscure the two major issues in this litigation: an environmental disaster of outsized proportions and a corporate defendant facing crippling liabilities.

Chevron Sued For Dumping Toxic Waste in Amazon

Celebrity support for the cause … actress Daryl Hannah in Ecuador’s oil region in the Amazon two years ago. Photo: AP

Sydney Morning Herald
November 17, 2009

”Texaco treated Ecuador’s Amazon like a garbage dump,” said Douglas Beltman, a former official at the US Environmental Protection Agency who is a scientific consultant to the indigenous groups.

El pasado mes de octubre, un grupo de voluntarios de Un Techo para mi País junto a trabajadores de Chevron se unieron para llevar un hogar más digno a las familias del barrio Rubén Darío, ubicado detrás de la antigua catedral y a orillas del Lago Xolotlán.

Desde el gerente hasta los bomberos se comprometieron con la labor que promueve Un Techo para mi País. Las construcciones se realizaron del 21 al 23 de octubre. La empresa Chevron se animó y apoyó a Un Techo para mi País en la construcción de 7 viviendas de emergencia para las familias que más lo necesitaban.

Según Luis Bonilla, Director Ejecutivo de la organización, el apoyo de las empresas es primordial en el trabajo que hace Un Techo para mi País. “Esto es parte del programa ‘Construye con tu empresa’, el cual busca acercar la parte empresarial del país a la realidad en la que vive la nación. Se busca que las empresas se comprometan con las familias más necesitadas”, aseguró Bonilla.

Trabajadores de Chevron compartieron, a la par de las familias, toda su energía para construir un sueño; no dudaron en ponerse los guantes y dar todo su esfuerzo en pro de una mejor

vivienda para la gente del barrio. “Es un honor poder participar en este tipo de actividades, nunca es suficiente lo que uno hace. Sería excelente que todos los trabajadores, de muchas otras empresas se unieran a la causa”, expreso Enrique Mendieta, trabajador de Chevron en Jinotepe.

Pero a Chevron no le bastó con construir una sola vez. Esta empresa siguió contribuyendo para lograr un país más justo a la par de Un Techo para mi País. Los dias 6, 7 y 8 de noviembre, se

realizaron nuevamente construcciones y se siguió apoyando a más familias que viven en condiciones de extrema pobreza, esta vez en el asentamiento 30 de mayo.

Muchas empresas se han apuntado para apoyar a Un Techo para mi País, en el programa

“Construye con tu empresa”. Chevron no se queda atrás y nos invitan a aportar a la construcción de un país mejor, ya que están donando 20 centavos por cada galón de combustible que se consuma en sus establecimientos. La meta final es que la empresa done a  Un Techo para mi País – Nicaragua, 40 viviendas en el mes de diciembre.

I’m currently a student at BCIT’s Marketing Entrepreneurship program. My goal is to be an entrepreneur in internet marketing. I chose to be an entrepreneur so that I can help solve lots of people’s problems.

I also love to give back to the community, by doing this I am involved with a non-profit organization called SIFE. The two projects I am involved with is Stock Challenge and Lions Lair. Please visit my SIFE BCIT page for more information.

On the weekends, I work at Chevron as an assistant manager. Though I am not looking into retail, the experience that I have gotten from working at Chevron has definitely changed me as a person.

After school, I take dance classes to keep in shape and have fun at the same time. Last year I took Jazz, this year I wanted to take Jazz again, unfortunately the class didn’t work with my school schedule, so I took the challenge of learning Hiphop.

Take a look around. Stuff that I’ve posted and will post is what I am currently doing or have done inside, outside, and around school. It’s how I balance out my life.

The rules of Heraldry prohibit placing a color on a color, a metal upon a metal or, a fur upon a fur. There is one well known exception to the rule about metals and this is on the well known arms for the kingdom of Jerusalem, where the gold cross and crosses are placed on a silver field. On the basis of these three materials, Color, Metal and fur all coats of arms are created. The items placed on the field are called charges. The original shields were very simple with few charges as there were very few knights and nobleman that had arms. However as Coats of Arms became more widespread the need to differentiate arms led to the addition of more and more charges to the shield.

The earliest charges were such things as bends ( diagonal lines), Chevrons (inverted v’s), chiefs (band across top of shield), piles ( v shape), fesses (horizontal lines) and crosses. These charges would naturally suggest themselves to the early users. For example, Azure a bend argent ( blue background with a silver diagonal line). This was a very easy design for a coat of arms. Generally speaking the simpler a coat of arms is the further back it can be dated. Many writers have asserted that every coat of arms must consist of at least the field and a charge, however there are a number of exceptions to this, The Brittany arms which are simply “Ermine”.

Brittany Arms

A plain shield of Ermine was borne by John of Brittany, Earl of Richmond who died in 1399. Additional examples of a single field shield include: A plain shield of Gold was borne by the Italian family of Bandinelli,, of Silver by the French families of Maigret and Bocquet, of Blue by the French family Fizeaux, of Red by the House of Dalbret borne by the kings of Navarre, Spain, and Black by the family of Gornay. A plain Green shield is borne by the French family Barbotte and Purple by the French family Aubert.

By Bb. Joyce Cabral and Sugar Hicap

Manila, Philippines-The militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Saturday dared President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to issue another executive order declaring the state takeover the three-leading of oil firms in the country–Shell, Chevron and Petron to counter the legal challenged opposed by Shell against the current price cap imposed by Executive Order No. 839.

“It confirms that EO 839 has only minimal impact and merely a paper tiger that can be challenged in all venues by the powerful the oil cartel and their apologists in big business. The best way to fortify the people’s position against oil monopoly and other forms of predatory pricing and corporate exploitation is to push the takeover and nationalization of oil industry,” said Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap in a press statement.

Pilipinas Shell has filed an urgent petition with the Makati Regional Trial Court to order Malacanang to lift EO 839 freezing prices of petroleum products in Luzon.

In a petition for prohibition, mandamus and injunction, Shell asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order against the continued implementation of the EO on grounds that it is unconstitutional.

It named as respondents Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes, representing the Department of Energy-Department of Justice (DOE-DOJ) joint task force implementing the order.

“The state takeover of oil companies and the nationalization of the oil industry is the best safeguard for public interest. If Malacanang really wants to serve public interest, it should rush Congress to repeal the Oil Deregulation Law that empowers the oil cartel to treat this country like their one of their oil republics,” added Hicap.

Palace economic spokesperson Gary Olivar in response to big business proposal to withdraw EO 839, said the order was justified but may be lifted on a time schedule, independent of state calamity. But the Pamalakaya leader said the Palace statement was an indication that it is giving in to the pressure of oil companies and big business groups.

“The statement of Olivar is clear. The EO will be lifted at the soonest possible time to please the Big Three which controls more than 80 percent of the oil distribution and marketing all over the country and their business partners in the corporate world. The state takeover and the eventual nationalization of the oil industry becomes a necessity rather than rely on EO No.839,” added Hicap.

The militant group asserted the takeover of Shell, Chevron and Petron will just take less than 24-hours by mere declaration and issuance of an executive order, and all it takes, according to Pamalakaya, is strong political will that should be exercised by President Arroyo and her economic and political officials and advisers.

Pamalakaya also supported the national boycott campaign being called by the militant umbrella alliance Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) to punish the oil cartel, which the fisherfolk group accused of exploiting the economic and humanitarian crisis to further advance their unbridled campaign for super profits.

“The boycott of the three oil firms becomes necessary at this stage to weaken their political position brought about by their control of the 80 percent of oil supply and distribution all over the country. The campaign for boycott of Shell, Chevron and Petron will make a difference in favor the exploited public,” the militant group said.

While the proposed takeover is still being discussed or debated, Pamalakaya also suggested an immediate and unconditional full-blown inventory of petroleum stocks of oil companies after Shell Philippines country chair Edgar Chua predicted an oil shortage and investment backlash if oil firms will follow Palace order to bring down fuel prices.

Last week, the Office of the President issued Executive Order No. 839, which directs oil companies to bring down prices of petroleum products to their Oct.15 levels. On Oct.20, prices of gasoline were raised by P 1.25 per liter, while prices of diesel were raised by an average of P 2 per liter.

The order to freeze prices of petroleum products will be in effect until President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo lifted the State of Calamity she declared in the entire Luzon. The Department of Energy (DoE) and the Department of Justice (DoJ) will strictly implement the executive order.

But Pamalakaya said an across-the-country inventory of the oil stocks of Shell, Chevron and Petron to determine if there’s truth to the warning of possible shortage in supply in case the these three oil firms which control more than 80 percent of oil market all over the country reduce their prices at prevailing levels less than 2 weeks ago.

“Aside from full-blown inventory of oil products, Malacanang should also open and scrutinize the books of accounts of Shell, Caltex and Petron and have their records broadcasted in the tri-media for public consumption and public discourse,” the group added.

Pamalakaya said the three oil firms will also resist inventory and auditing of their stocks and financial conditions and profitability, and therefore, it is only lawfully and morally just for the government to take over the ownership and operations of Shell, Chevron and Petron towards their nationalization for the interest and common good of the Filipino public. #