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The last two years have been a rough going for farmers and ranchers in the U.S. Rollbacks to several Department of Agriculture programs have cut available funding and left producers in the dark. Last year, farm groups sued the federal agency after it deleted multiple webpages that mentioned climate change, including some with critical information for planning around extreme weather. (Early this year, the ag department agreed to restore the webpages in a settlement.) Just this month, the USDA cut solar from a popular renewable energy grant program and dealt another setback to farmers who wish to lower their utility bills and pad their incomes by installing solar panels on their land. 

Meanwhile, cattle ranchers in the U.S. have been frustrated by high beef prices. The average price of ground beef has been steadily climbing since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching new records in the last two years. Persistent droughts contributing to historically low herd sizes have also added to ranchers’ plight. And President Donald Trump’s various moves to supposedly help lower the price of beef — such as importing more beef from abroad — haven’t helped. Ranchers even say these trade deals undercut their business model. 

So heading into the midterm elections, many agricultural producers, once a critical part of Trump’s base, have been clear that they’re aggravated by and disagree with the president. In an apparent attempt to appease these constituents, the USDA has very recently unlocked billions of dollars in support for farmers, as well as additional money for ranchers.

Whether it’s enough to smooth over the tension that farmers and ranchers are feeling remains to be seen. The president of the Iowa Farmers Union, Aaron Lehman, said that U.S. farmers “have needed help for months” and “never should have been put in this position.” 

The new funding also underlines the administration’s commitment to supporting fossil fuels, even as the use of these energy sources emit greenhouse gases that further warm the planet. On October 19, the president announced $8 billion would be made available to help farmers make up money they lost due to high diesel prices. 

Read Next Hurricane Helene haunts the midterms in North Carolina Katie Myers

The process through which farmers apply for and receive said funding is still unclear. In a press release, the ag department stated it would provide “simple, proportional support to producers” for part of the losses they incurred during the 2026 crop year. Responding to a request for more details from Grist, a USDA representative said, “President Trump has been the most pro-farmer president in our nation’s history, and the Harvest Fuel Relief Program is the latest action to deliver for them. As USDA works to implement the program, we are actively reviewing all available data to determine payments which are expected to be finalized and processed soon.” 

Farmers and ranchers are both incredibly reliant on diesel as a fuel source. Much of the equipment that they use — like tractors, combines, and trucks for moving crops or livestock from one place to another — run on diesel. But diesel prices have been increasing due to the Iran war, which has led to significant supply chain disruptions. A Democrat-led congressional report found that U.S. farmers are on track to spend an additional $2.4 billion on diesel specifically due to Trump’s war in Iran. 

The timing of Trump’s $8 billion bailout program for farmers who lost money due to high diesel prices is also ironic, given that the ag department just made it harder for farmers to switch to more efficient energy sources like solar and wind. 

Mike Lavender, the policy director of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, called these farmer payments “a failing solution” in a statement. The reality is, he said, that “countless farms nationwide remain in crisis: Farm bankruptcies hit a six-year high this spring, and farmers are carrying heavier debt loads and are more pessimistic about their future.” 

On October 26, just over a week before Election Day, the USDA also announced $57 million in funding specifically for ranchers. The funding will help independent producers expand their meat-processing capacity, according to the department’s press release. 

Additional measures to help agricultural producers boost their bottom line include an announcement yesterday that the USDA will purchase nearly $500 million in agricultural commodities from U.S. producers. 

These bailout programs are also coming at a time when the nation’s foremost agricultural policy remains in limbo. The last farm bill, a legislative package that once upon a time was renewed every five years and controls everything from crop insurance to conservation programs, was passed in 2018. Currently, competing versions of a new farm bill sit in the House of Representatives and the Senate, but advocates say much of the future of the bill hinges on the upcoming midterm elections. For farmers, this period of time represents how the Trump administration is trying to appeal to their needs without a guiding vision for the future. 

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This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Trump cut funding for farmers — then unlocked billions for them before Election Day on Oct 31, 2026.

On a warm October morning, I joined biologist Kevin Manajerro and researcher Melanie Davis to load the truck with field gear before heading to a survey site overlooking the Salton Sea. The...

The grid is changing rapidly, battery storage durations are getting longer, and chemistries are changing too.

The post Big battery durations are headed to double figures, and their chemistries are changing – again appeared first on Renew Economy.

When we vote YES, together we can create clean energy, green jobs, and climate resilience for all Eugenians.

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Allowing balcony or plug in solar will make it easier to access cheaper, cleaner electricity without owning the roof.

The post Cheaper power from the balcony: Plug-in solar and batteries could open the energy transition to renters.  appeared first on Renew Economy.

Damn but we're tired of a racist, petty, what-about-me child in the White House. For solace: He's hopefully heading for the losingest fail of his long loser's life - and maybe a jail cell please? - and there are many, many people just as tired, with good shticks to match. This week saw some truly stellar trolling from, in turn, Obama, Norway and a heroic guy in South Carolina who managed to foist the Jonestown Massacre on the latest Nazi rally. Well done, all.

There's nothing like hearing Obama at his recent campaign appearances - in Georgia, Michigan, Ohio - to be starkly reminded there are no grown-ups left in the fake-gold-encrusted room of the current regime. Yes we know: he was seriously flawed, and failed to achieve much of what he promised. Still, it was bracing to see him smoothly obliterate the mad child-king, first with his crack about Saddam's Cheesecake Factory, then by skewering a president (sic) who spends his time "doing arts and crafts" in the Oval Office and who, after his just critiques of war, inflation, apocalyptic decline and "unprecedented corruption" chose to "mobilize a whole government response" not to those issues, but to a cheesecake joke: "This is what I mean. These are not serious people."

Next was Norway's gleeful response to Trump's petulant whining (still) about the Nobel prize won by "a woman nobody ever heard of" - Navanetham Pillay, a renowned South African jurist who's spent decades seeking accountability for war crimes, sexual violence and genocide from Rwanda to Gaza at the ICC and as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights - and not to him, who's "settled 8 (imaginary) wars and I've got 2 more coming." "'What about me?'" he bleated in Michigan of the "disgraceful" choice. "So I’m not in love with Norway. I don't want anybody from Norway. Frankly, Norway sucks. Norway has become a shithouse country, actually.” Thus did a sulky illiterate toddler toss (blond!) Norway in with Haiti, Libya, Somalia, mangling the "shithole" epithet en route.

Norwegian officials, evidently grown-ups, took the picayune insult and ran with it. First, they calmly noted Trump "knows very well" the prize isn't awarded by the government but by an independent Nobel committee. "We have reminded him of that, in case anyone is wondering," said Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide. Then he took pity on the wretched child. "The president is currently in the midst of an election campaign that perhaps isn't going very well for his party," he calmly added. "That leads him to say a lot of things." At home, Bernie Sanders slammed an "insane" babysitting task. "Norway is one of the most democratic and prosperous countries on earth. Free college, strong democracy, free press," he declared. "We have a mentally unbalanced president."

Norway, with just 5.6 million people, likewise boasts one of the world's highest gross national incomes and top ratings for education and life expectancy, its largest sovereign wealth fund, and for the 10th consecutive year first place in the World Press Freedom index. It also has some of the world's most dazzling landscapes - rugged fjords, thunderous waterfalls, sweeping vistas, colossal mountains along 18 designated Scenic Routes - along with, its tourism bureau happily brags, "some of the world's most spectacular toilets," many of them sleek, award-winning "architectural masterpieces" that combine minimalist designs with breathtaking views. "These toilets are worth a visit," they crow, "both when you really have to go - and when you don’t.”

"Yes, Donald, we are a 'shithouse country,'" proudly proclaims the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, taking Michelle Obama's famous "when they go low" approach under the news headline, "Straight Into the Toilet." Norway is, after all, "the home of the outhouse," they note, which many residents connect to the country's hardy traditions and longtime "cabin culture." Visit Norway, its official tourism board, went further, showcasing its striking "lovely lavatories." "We've heard some chatter about a 'shithouse country.' Well, what can we say? Norway makes shit houses great again!," they wrote, urging tourists to "take your time and enjoy. Yes, Norway has some spectacular scenery. It just happens to have some pretty spectacular toilets, too. With love, Visit Norway."

The site highlights the wave-shaped Ureddplassen toilet on the coast of Helgeland in the north, hailed by designers as the most scenic restroom in the world. Also the solar-powered bog at the Utsikten viewpoint, the elegant Tungeneset loo - “Looks pretty good under the Northern Lights” - and, for "the bully in kindergarten,” the triangular “Golden Toilet,” or “Gulldassen,” at Ersfjordstranda on Senja island, recently paired with a glamorous new silver service building: "If you are a mere mortal like us and can’t afford a gold-plated toilet seat, the Golden loo (on) Senja is the next best thing.” Coming soon: a forest-themed wooden loo made from over 60 trees "for the pit stop of your life." Visit Norway on the "immense" response: "The world needs a little laugh."

Finally, bravely facing off against the horrors of a vengeful, demented, badly-accordion-playing rapist implausibly in power comes "absolute legend" and hero without a cape Tom Hoyle, 57, a South Carolina graphics designer in a bushy beard, baseball cap and t-shirt for heavy metal band Death: "I look like you, but I'm not like you," he says of fortuitously blending into a MAGA mob. "I'm the vampire during the day." A longtime Republican until he wasn't, he runs MadPark Designs, which in recent dark days has done screen printing and embroidery for No Kings rallies, George Floyd protests, LGBTQ-led music org We Rock Charlotte etc. Now, MadPark is "being bombarded by 5-star reviews" thanks to Hoyle's unplanned "25 seconds of fame" at his local Nazi rally.

The backstory: Hoyle has hated Trump since his infamous 1980s attack on the Central Park Five, now Exonerated Five - "I decided, 'You're dead to me, and hopefully to everybody else'" - but what "pushed me over the edge" this week was the GOP calling his shop (wait, they do that?) to urge him to attend Friday's rally for clueless Darline Graham. "We despise that," he says, "so we thought we'd turn the tables on them, do something goofy and make some good trouble," maybe some friendly neighborhood heckling. He slipped in through security by "talking in circles" about heavy metal and his shirt: "Death is the most hardcore death metal. You see somebody in a Death shirt and you know they're interested in humanity." He didn't expect what came next: a Fox mike in his face.

His now-viral wisecrack (see below) was entirely off the cuff, though he recalled seeing memes comparing MAGA to 1978's gruesome Jonestown Massacre, a mass murder/suicide in Guyana wherein over 900 glassy-eyed disciples of Jim Jones drank cyanide-laced Kool-Aid to fulfill "a madman’s fever dream." The joke on the difference between Trump and Jones: Trump would charge you for the Kool-Aid before you died. When the Fox guy asked why Hoyle was here, he had his punchline. As he headed to the exit and Secret Service approached, he innocently asked if this was about the concession stand; alarmed, they asked what he'd done there. "Nothing," he said, "but it was closed super early and I was starving." Then he kept walking. He'd like to thank Billy Crystal for his epic timing. We'd like to thank him for his ray of light.

"The devil…the prowde spirite…cannot endure to be mocked.” ― Thomas More

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'The window of opportunity to avoid a potentially catastrophic future is rapidly closing'

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Greenpeace says four leading oil executives have enjoyed nearly £19 million in increased shareholding value during the Iran conflict. Shell chief executive Wael Sawan accounts for more than £4.7 million of that estimate. But the most revealing evidence comes from Shell’s own regulatory disclosures, which confirm a substantial share disposal in May 2026.

By John Donovan — 30 October 2026

As the Iran conflict continues to disrupt international energy markets, new research by Greenpeace UK has drawn attention to the personal financial benefits experienced by some of the world’s most senior oil executives.

According to the environmental organisation, the shareholdings of four major oil-company chief executives increased in value by nearly £19 million between late February and 28 October 2026.

Among them is Shell plc chief executive Wael Sawan.

Greenpeace estimates that the value of his Shell shareholding increased by more than £4.7 million over the period examined.

Separately, Shell’s own regulatory disclosures confirm that Sawan sold 40,000 ordinary shares on 22 May 2026, generating gross proceeds of €1,486,804.20 — approximately £1.3 million at the exchange rate used in Greenpeace’s reporting.

The timing has attracted attention because the transaction occurred during the Iran conflict and shortly before a reported suggestion by US President Donald Trump that a potential agreement with Iran had largely been negotiated.

There is, however, an important distinction between reporting the timing of a transaction and alleging improper conduct.

Neither Greenpeace’s analysis nor Shell’s regulatory notification establishes that Sawan possessed privileged information, anticipated a diplomatic announcement or breached securities regulations.

What the evidence does establish is a substantial increase in the reported value of executive shareholdings during an extraordinary period for international energy markets.

It also raises legitimate questions about the relationship between geopolitical disruption, shareholder returns and executive remuneration.

Greenpeace identifies nearly £19 million in executive shareholding gains

Greenpeace published its findings on 30 October 2026.

The organisation examined publicly available financial records relating to the chief executives of Shell, TotalEnergies, Harbour Energy and Equinor.

Its calculations cover the period between 27 February and 28 October 2026, using publicly disclosed shareholdings and closing market prices.

The resulting estimates are substantial.

Chief executive Company Estimated increase in shareholding value Patrick Pouyanné TotalEnergies £8.4 million Linda Cook Harbour Energy £4.8 million Wael Sawan Shell £4.7 million Anders Opedal Equinor £1.03 million

The figures are approximate and come from Greenpeace’s analysis, rather than a common accounting measure published by the four companies.

They represent increases in the estimated market value of shareholdings, not necessarily profits realised through sales.

The research does not include executives’ salaries or other benefits.

Greenpeace also reports that the four companies’ shares outperformed their respective domestic stock-market benchmarks during the period.

According to its calculations, Shell shares rose approximately 27%, while the FTSE 100 fell around 2%.

That contrast is central to the organisation’s argument.

While higher energy prices have created financial pressures for consumers and businesses, they have also contributed to stronger valuations for major energy producers.

Shell’s own records confirm Sawan’s €1.49 million share sale

The most important Shell-specific evidence is not Greenpeace’s interpretation.

It is Shell’s own official regulatory notification.

On 22 May 2026, Shell published a Director/PDMR Shareholding announcement identifying a transaction undertaken by its chief executive.

The details were precise:

• Executive: Wael Sawan
• Transaction date: 22 May 2026
• Transaction: Disposal of ordinary Shell shares
• Number sold: 40,000
• Price per share: €37.170105
• Total proceeds: €1,486,804.20
• Transaction location: Amsterdam

The disclosure was made under the applicable UK and European market-abuse disclosure regimes and was also furnished to the US Securities and Exchange Commission through Form 6-K.

These are independently verifiable facts.

The notification establishes the date, volume and value of the transaction.

It does not explain Sawan’s personal reason for selling.

It would therefore be inappropriate to speculate that the sale was motivated by geopolitical developments or expectations about future oil prices.

Sales by company directors are not inherently suspicious.

Executives may dispose of shares for numerous legitimate reasons, including taxation, diversification, personal financial planning or other circumstances.

The regulatory disclosure is nevertheless important because it enables shareholders and the public to examine significant transactions by individuals responsible for managing major listed companies.

The timing highlighted by Greenpeace

Greenpeace places particular emphasis on the fact that Sawan’s sale took place on 22 May 2026.

The organisation notes that this was the day before President Trump reportedly suggested that a potential US–Iran agreement had largely been negotiated.

That proximity is part of Greenpeace’s narrative.

But timing alone does not demonstrate foreknowledge, unusual trading behaviour or wrongdoing.

There is no evidence in the material reviewed that Sawan traded on inside information or acted improperly.

It is also worth remembering that share transactions by senior executives take place within a regulatory framework that includes disclosure obligations and restrictions on dealing.

The proper conclusion is that the transaction merits transparent reporting, not that its timing proves misconduct.

Another Shell disclosure: 82,987 conditional performance shares

An additional regulatory announcement provides important context.

On 21 May 2026, Shell announced that Sawan had received a conditional award of 82,987 performance shares under the Shell Share Plan 2023.

The award was made on 20 May and remained subject to performance conditions determined by the company’s Remuneration Committee and the committee’s discretion.

Shell’s chief financial officer, Sinead Gorman, received a conditional award of 10,964 shares under the same arrangement.

A conditional performance-share award should not be confused with an unconditional payment or an immediate cash benefit.

The shares may become deliverable only if the relevant conditions are satisfied.

Nevertheless, the award illustrates how executive remuneration can create substantial exposure to movements in the company’s share price.

It also provides context for the debate about whether executive reward should reflect improvements in shareholder value arising partly from factors beyond management’s control.

Those factors may include commodity-price changes, exchange-rate movements and geopolitical events.

Shell’s extraordinary third-quarter profits

The Greenpeace investigation arrives immediately after Shell’s announcement of exceptionally strong financial results.

On 29 October 2026, Shell reported:

• Adjusted earnings: $10.814 billion
• Income attributable to shareholders: $12.057 billion
• Operating cash flow: $21.043 billion
• Free cash flow: $16.322 billion
• New share-buyback programme: $5 billion

Adjusted earnings were almost double the $5.432 billion recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2025.

Shell attributed its strong performance to operational delivery in a volatile commodity-price environment, including exceptionally strong refining margins.

The company also acknowledged that the Middle East conflict had disrupted some operations.

Its financial reporting identifies the effects of reduced Qatari production, while LNG Canada contributed additional volumes.

These distinctions matter.

The conflict has not been an unqualified financial benefit to Shell.

It has created both commercial opportunities and operational difficulties.

Nevertheless, the company has demonstrated an ability to generate substantial earnings during a period of major international disruption.

The connection between geopolitical events, commodity prices and corporate profits therefore deserves serious examination.

A £4.7 million increase is not the same as £4.7 million received

The distinction between unrealised shareholding appreciation and money received from a sale is essential.

Greenpeace’s estimate that Sawan’s shares gained more than £4.7 million in value does not mean that he received that amount in cash.

The estimated gain reflects changes in the market valuation of his holdings over the research period, using Greenpeace’s methodology.

By contrast, the €1.486 million share disposal recorded by Shell represents a completed transaction.

Even that figure is gross proceeds, not necessarily Sawan’s net personal profit after acquisition costs, taxes or other relevant considerations.

The two figures should not simply be added together and described as a £6 million personal profit.

That would risk counting different financial concepts as though they were equivalent.

The distinction is particularly important when reporting on executive remuneration.

Clear evidence is more persuasive than exaggerated arithmetic.

Greenpeace demands additional fossil-fuel taxation

Greenpeace argues that the findings reinforce the case for additional taxation of fossil-fuel companies.

The organisation points to the financial pressures experienced by households and businesses when international oil and gas prices rise.

Its campaign position is that additional revenues from the fossil-fuel sector should help finance clean-energy investment and measures addressing climate-related damage.

Critics of additional windfall taxation, however, argue that poorly designed taxes can discourage investment, reduce future energy production and create uncertainty for projects involving significant long-term capital expenditure.

Those competing arguments are matters of public policy.

The Greenpeace research does not, by itself, establish which tax arrangements would achieve the best economic or environmental outcome.

It does provide evidence relevant to the wider debate about who benefits financially during periods of disruption to energy markets.

What should Shell shareholders ask?

The more immediate question for Shell shareholders concerns executive incentives and corporate governance.

Large listed companies commonly use shares and performance-based awards to align management interests with those of shareholders.

The principle is understandable.

If shareholders benefit from stronger performance, senior executives may also receive higher rewards.

But the design of such arrangements can produce complicated outcomes when share prices rise for reasons that management did not directly create.

An oil executive may benefit from higher commodity prices caused by geopolitical disruption even if the underlying improvement in shareholder returns does not result primarily from superior managerial decisions.

Equally, management may deserve recognition for protecting operations, maintaining cash generation and responding effectively to difficult market conditions.

The challenge for remuneration committees is to distinguish these influences.

For Shell, several questions arise.

First, how does the Remuneration Committee assess the contribution of management performance relative to movements in global oil and gas prices?

Second, how are exceptional geopolitical events considered when evaluating long-term incentive outcomes?

Third, what proportion of executive share awards is linked to operational, financial and energy-transition objectives?

Fourth, how does Shell ensure that incentives encourage decisions in the company’s long-term interests rather than simply rewarding short-term increases in market valuation?

Finally, what information is available to shareholders about the circumstances and applicable controls surrounding major executive share disposals?

These are questions of transparency and accountability, not allegations of misconduct.

Our archive reported Sawan’s share sale months ago

There is an important historical dimension to this story.

On 11 September 2026, royaldutchshellplc.com published:

Shell’s Upstream Boss Cashes In as the Oil-and-Gas Strategy Pays Off

That article examined share transactions involving Shell’s senior management and specifically identified Sawan’s 22 May disposal.

It recorded the same 40,000-share transaction and €1,486,804.20 proceeds now highlighted by Greenpeace.

The earlier article also made clear that the disclosure did not suggest improper conduct.

This is a useful example of the value of maintaining a searchable historical archive.

Today’s Greenpeace investigation introduces a broader calculation of executive shareholding gains during the Iran conflict.

But the underlying Shell share sale was already part of the public regulatory record and had already been examined by this website.

The distinction between an established historical fact and a new interpretation of that fact is important.

It helps prevent the public record from being distorted by the excitement surrounding a newly published campaign or news report.

The Shell Leaks Files perspective

The Independent Shell Archive and The Shell Leaks Files have repeatedly examined the relationship between corporate decision-making, financial rewards, public representations and shareholder accountability.

Historical internal communications and contemporaneous records demonstrate the importance of preserving original evidence.

That principle applies equally to modern regulatory disclosures.

Executive share transactions, remuneration awards, financial results and shareholder distributions form part of the permanent documentary record of how Shell is governed.

The objective is not to assume wrongdoing whenever a senior executive receives a substantial financial benefit.

It is to establish what happened, examine what the company disclosed and assess whether the available evidence supports the claims made about it.

The present case illustrates why that approach matters.

Greenpeace has published a campaigning interpretation of the financial benefits experienced by oil executives during a period of geopolitical instability.

Shell’s regulatory announcements provide independent evidence of Sawan’s share disposal and conditional performance-share award.

Shell’s quarterly results provide the financial context.

Together, those sources support a substantial story about executive remuneration and corporate accountability.

They do not establish improper trading.

A question of reward, responsibility and disclosure

The latest disclosures present a striking picture.

Shell has reported more than $10.8 billion in quarterly adjusted earnings.

Its chief executive has experienced an estimated £4.7 million increase in the value of his shareholding during the Iran conflict, according to Greenpeace.

The company’s own records establish that he sold shares worth almost €1.5 million in May.

And Shell has authorised another $5 billion in share repurchases.

None of these events is inherently improper.

They do, however, illustrate the scale of the financial interests involved when a major energy company operates in markets profoundly influenced by international conflict.

For shareholders, the central issue is whether executive incentives appropriately reward management performance and sustainable long-term value creation.

For the wider public, it is reasonable to ask how the benefits and costs of energy-market disruption are distributed.

The evidence does not justify accusing Shell’s chief executive of wrongdoing. It does justify asking whether executive reward arrangements sufficiently distinguish management achievement from the financial effects of global crises.

That is the question worth putting to Shell.

And it is one the company’s own regulatory disclosures help bring into focus.

Principal sources

1. Greenpeace UK — 30 October 2026

North Sea Oil Bosses Enjoy £19 Million Personal Windfall Since Outbreak of Iran War

Original Greenpeace investigation providing the estimated £19 million combined shareholding appreciation and the £4.7 million estimate relating to Wael Sawan.

Greenpeace — Oil Majors Share Gains Methodology, 28 October 2026

Supporting methodology supplied by Greenpeace. Its calculations and assumptions should be treated as the organisation’s estimates.

2. Shell plc — Official regulatory disclosure, 22 May 2026

Director/PDMR Shareholding — Wael Sawan

Primary corporate evidence confirming the sale of 40,000 ordinary shares for €1,486,804.20.

Shell plc — Form 6-K, 22 May 2026

The shareholding notification furnished to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

3. Shell plc — Official regulatory disclosure, 21 May 2026

Director/PDMR Shareholding — Conditional Performance Share Awards

Primary evidence recording the conditional award of 82,987 performance shares to Wael Sawan.

4. Shell plc — 29 October 2026

Third Quarter 2026 and Nine Months Unaudited Results

Primary source for Shell’s quarterly adjusted earnings, cash flow, shareholder distributions and business performance.

5. Previous Independent Shell Archive reporting

Shell’s Upstream Boss Cashes In as the Oil-and-Gas Strategy Pays Off — 11 September 2026

Previous coverage confirming that Sawan’s May share disposal was already documented by this website.

Shell’s $10.8 Billion Profit Bonanza: A $2.1 Billion Biogas Write-Down as LNG Canada Gains $1.8 Billion in Value — 29 October 2026

Our detailed examination of Shell’s latest quarterly financial disclosures.

Editorial note: This article distinguishes Greenpeace’s estimates and campaigning claims from the financial transactions and other information confirmed in Shell’s official disclosures. An increase in the market value of a shareholding is not equivalent to a realised cash gain. A share disposal is not evidence of insider dealing or other misconduct. No such allegation is made against Wael Sawan. Shell plc is invited to provide any factual correction or explanation it wishes to place on the record.

Shell CEO’s Shares Gain £4.7 Million During Iran War — Regulatory Filing Confirms €1.49 Million Share Sale as Oil Giant Reports $10.8 Billion Profits was first posted on October 30, 2026 at 8:22 pm.
©2018 "Royal Dutch Shell Plc .com". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at john@shellnews.net

The conditions were perfect: sunny with a few clouds, and warm, but not oppressively so. A group of familiar faces stood around me on the red brick patio of the Richardson Bay Audubon Center’s...

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Where the dreams of our ancestors meet the memories of our descendants: Reflections on commoning, abolition and reparations By Alison Chopel Introduction There are two currents in the US-based racial justice movement that I am committed to which seem, at surface, to stretch their attention in different temporal directions: reparations or reparative justice and abolitionism. Reparations activists and scholars observe that to move toward a less violent society that can truly break from the ho…

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Clothing swaps are a fun, free way to keep our clothing in use for longer, reduce waste and push back on the pressure we all feel to buy new stuff during the holiday season.

Who Tends the Fire? and The Arithmetic of Fire By Dr Lebohang Liepollo Pheko Cooling the Flames Without Extinguishing the Fire Who Tends the Fire? I. The economies that consume us They told us to cool the flames while they were still setting the world alight.

A 647-mile tars sands crude oil pipeline is proposed for eastern Montana and opportunities to stop the dangerous Bridger Pipeline Project are coming. In this webinar from October 29, MEIC and our partners covered what you need to know about the proposed pipeline and how we can push back. Earthjustice legal expert Lars Phillips, Dr. …

The post Webinar Recording: Bridger Pipeline Project appeared first on Montana Environmental Information Center - MEIC.

On a sunny afternoon in late October, a juvenile Bald Eagle soared back into Florida skies. State Senator Jennifer Bradley was on hand to release the eagle, and a crowd made up of homeschool...

OCT. 30, 2026

We’re excited to share that Clean Air Council was named Activist of the Year at the 2026 SustainPHL Awards!

This annual event, hosted Oct. 29 by Green Philly, celebrates the people and organizations who work to make the Philadelphia region healthier and more sustainable.

We’re grateful for this recognition, but environmental advocacy is a collective effort. So much of what we do depends on the communities, our members, funders, volunteers, grassroots groups, and partner organizations who work alongside us every day

We also want to give a special shout-out to Elaine Wells, a member of Clean Air Council’s Board of Directors, who won the Environmental Justice Award for her work in connecting young people with trails, nature, and literacy.

We are proud to be part of such a dedicated environmental community. Here’s to continuing this important work in 2027 and beyond!

Senators Ron Wyden, Jeff Merkley, and Alex Padilla are demanding that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum stop attempting to put data centers on public lands, citing a lack of transparency around his meetings with data center developers and investors. Burgum met with dozens of technology and energy executives last year, including Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, according to the Washington Sun, which reviewed his calendar. “The timing of these meetings taking place concurrently with the administration’s efforts to pursue data center development on public lands raises serious questions about your involvement in these deals,” the senators wrote in a letter to Burgum this week.

The senators also warned about data centers’ water use, which could worsen drought across the West. “Effectively privatizing public lands owned by American taxpayers sends a clear message that the Trump administration continues to prioritize the profits of tech CEOs and shareholders over the American people that rely on public lands for hunting, fishing, recreation, and livestock grazing,” the letter states. The only data center BLM has approved so far, near Boulder City, Nevada, is on hold pending more environmental review.

In a second letter, Senator Wyden asked about the deal Burgum helped broker in March for Venezuela’s state-owned mining company to sell gold to commodities trader Trafigura. “Recent reports indicate that you played a pivotal role in brokering the sale of this gold, which is reportedly tainted by human rights abuses and environmental degradation,” wrote Wyden. Much of that gold has sat in storage because U.S. refiners have refused to process it.

In September, members of the House Natural Resources Committee requested Burgum’s official calendar and any lists of public lands his department had flagged as priorities for data center development. The Interior department declined to comment on this week’s letters, saying it does not comment on congressional correspondence through the media.

Quick hits Analysis finds elevated arsenic at uranium mine near Havasupai Tribe’s only water source

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Permitting reform would de-fang bedrock environmental laws

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Who is responsible for Yellowstone’s water quality? After whiplash between Biden and Trump, EPA says Wyoming

WyoFile

Lawmakers target Burgum’s gold deals, data center push

Politico | Washington Sun

California lawmakers demand Interior department reverse pay cut for Yosemite park staff

Sierra Sun Times

A top Trump appointee was ordered to remove an unauthorized cabin from public land. Two years later, it’s still there

High Country News/Public Domain

Quote of the day

Havasupai Creek is not just a beautiful place on a map. It is the lifeblood of our homeland… If Havasu Creek is contaminated, there is no backup water system waiting for us. There is no second river we can turn to. We are asking that elevated arsenic be investigated, not normalized.”

—Melinda Yaiva, Chairwoman of the Havasupai Tribe, Native News Online

Picture This @carlsbadcavernsnps

Have you even flown through a cave in the dark to get your dinner?

The lowest known point of Carlsbad Cavern is called Lake of the Clouds at 1037 feet. This area is much warmer than the 56°F visitors encounter in the Big Room. These warm temperatures were chosen by the Cave Myotis (Myotis velifer) and sometimes the Fringed Myotis (Myotis thysanodes) as a maternity roost and bachelor pads. The bats take an arduous flight in order to get out in the evenings to eat insects. They travel past the lunchroom all the way up the main corridor and out into the evening.

Each year the Resources Department sets up an audio recorder that catches the different calls the bats make as they leave their roost sites. Echolocation call characteristics and identifying software are used to determine the bat species recorded. This information is helpful to researchers to determine what type of bats are currently roosting in this area of the cave and if there has been a change in residency. Cave myotis typically call in the 40 Kilohertz range and Fringed myotis make calls in the 20 Kilohertz range.

#carlsbadcavernsnationalpark#batweek#bats

Featured photo: Google Data Center in The Dalles, Oregon. Tony Webster/Wikimedia Commons

The post Lawmakers demand Burgum halt data center push on public lands appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

This story was co-published with Rolling Stone.

In Ohio’s rural southeastern corner, Marietta College geology professor David Jeffrey was among the residents worried that industry activity in America’s booming natural gas region could be polluting their drinking water. That’s “the biggest fear,” he said at an August meeting with top Ohio officials.

When Jeffrey and residents from advocacy groups Buckeye Environmental Network and Washington County for Safe Drinking Water met with Ohio officials, those state officials repeatedly assured residents that despite the up to 1.4 billion gallons of oil and gas wastewater injected in underground wells in their county and across Ohio each year, the state was unaware of any resulting drinking water contamination there.

“We would have heard about it,” Mary Mertz, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), which oversees both aspects of Ohio’s environment and its oil and gas industry, told residents in the August 17 virtual meeting.

“No one has called us that I’m aware of,” said Eric Vendel, ODNR’s oil and gas division chief. “We have a water investigation form that can be filled out and we would have my team down there and investigate the water.”

What officials did not tell the group that day is that five years earlier, the state did receive a call and, on Vendel’s orders, investigated a drinking water well for oil and gas wastewater contaminants in eastern Ohio, roughly 80 miles away from Washington County. Independent experts say the results are consistent with fracking wastewater contamination. Despite that and the water well’s location near two oil and gas wastewater injection wells, ODNR concluded fracking wastewater was not to blame, according to documents DeSmog and Rolling Stone obtained via public records request.

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ODNR spokesperson Andy Chow told DeSmog and Rolling Stone: “When administrators were meeting with representatives in Washington County, they were discussing matters related to injection wells located in Washington County. ODNR stands by the comments made by its administrators.”

Concerns over polluted drinking water cross political and social divides, perhaps nowhere more so than rural Washington County. As intensely salty wastewater pushed below ground resurfaces, residents and officials have injected the issue into the already bitterly divided Ohio governor’s race. Susan Vessels, a Republican official in Washington County, recently appeared alongside Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dr. Amy Acton because of Acton’s pledge to pause new wastewater wells in this densely drilled area. “We have a chance to prevent the worst from happening, and we need to act now,” Acton told DeSmog and Rolling Stone.

“Drinking water is not political and it is my hope Ohioans will come together across party lines on this issue.”

Susan Vessels, Marietta City Council President

Ohio ranks in the top 10 nationally for both oil and gas production. Fracking can occur within 100 feet of a school or rural home, and operators have been able to tap the gas-rich Marcellus and Utica formations by drilling directly beneath water reservoirs and state parks. But in order to maintain that production, the industry has to offload the tidal wave of toxic wastewater — rich in salts, carcinogens, heavy metals, and radioactive elements — that surfaces in the weeks and years that follow drilling an oil or gas well.

That wastewater gets pumped into injection wells deep below ground, where impermeable geological layers are supposed to keep it from leaking into oil and gas wells or drinking water supplies. Washington County, whose 19 injection wells outnumber all of Pennsylvania, has received complaints of this wastewater, or brine, flooding nearby oil and gas wells, according to the New York Times.

Now, an hour and a half drive north, in the town of Coshocton, Ohio, records show evidence of a family’s drinking water polluted by high levels of the same types of salts found in fracking wastewater.

“This is different”

In early November 2021, Bill Burgan, an eastern Ohio water well driller, called ODNR to complain about water from a 360-foot well he had drilled in 2017 for the Fisher family in Coshocton, according to ODNR documents. At the beginning of 2021, their water had become salty and corrosive. Not only did it leave a salty taste in the mouth, but it caused their hot water tanks to rust out prematurely. The couple had replaced two tanks in four years. Within weeks, the newest one became coated in an unidentifiable white precipitate.

“Sometimes we drill through pockets of salt,” said Burgan, president of American Drilling and Pump Service, in an interview with DeSmog and Rolling Stone this summer outside his Stone Creek, Ohio, shop. “But this is different, it’s fracking waste.”

Burgan told DeSmog and Rolling Stone, and, separately, ODNR according to public records, that he expressed concern that the Fishers’ drinking water well became impacted by an oil and gas wastewater injection well located less than two miles from the family’s home and operated by a Texas-based company called Buckeye Brine. The local community vigorously opposed Buckeye Brine’s installment of the injection well, where since 2014 the company has injected over 400 million gallons of waste.  

After receiving Burgan’s complaint, ODNR swiftly launched an investigation that agency geologist Tamara Richards said “will focus solely on contaminants associated with oil and natural gas exploration and production,” according to public records. 

The state’s results indicate signatures of possible drinking water pollution from oil and gas wastewater, according to independent experts who reviewed the findings. Ohio’s final report on the incident, completed in January 2022, found two separate indicators of potential fracking wastewater contamination — total dissolved solids, and chloride —  in the Fisher family’s water. Both tested at more than five times the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) limits. ODNR also tested for sodium, which lacks a formal EPA limit but has a threshold, as high levels can cause unpleasant taste and health problems for diabetics. In the Fishers’ water, sodium was 17 times the EPA threshold.

According to Jeffrey, the Marietta College geologist, high levels of total dissolved solids, chloride, and sodium also are found in the sea of fracking wastewater pumped into injection wells like the one operated by Buckeye Brine.

However, ODNR concluded there was “no evidence of an oilfield related impact” and pinned the cause of the contamination on a sandstone layer called the “Big Injun” that the agency, without providing any data, stated “appears to be” naturally salty and surrounded part of the family’s water well.

But Jeffrey said testing done by the state did not look at enough parameters to determine that the contamination was natural and not from fracking wastewater. “It seems ODNR is either stonewalling, misdirecting, or just doesn’t know what they are doing,” he told DeSmog and Rolling Stone.

In a separate case that would unfold over a year after ODNR tested the Fishers’ water, the agency was considering whether leaking injection wells or else the “Big Injun” sandstone formation might be contaminating conventional oil and gas wells in Athens County, just west of Washington County. This time, ODNR concluded the impacts “cannot be plausibly explained” by the sandstone formation due to its unique brine signature, citing a “June 2, 2020 technical analysis prepared by ALL Consulting.” The agency added that impacts from this natural layer would have been consistent from the start, and “it is unlikely” they would have appeared only after the injection well operator began working. ODNR ultimately suspended the permit for a set of three injection wells that were eventually shut in for leaking fracking wastewater. ODNR has not yet replied to questions regarding this case.

When asked about the state’s findings in Coshocton and their scientific evidence, Burgan was dismissive. “They are covering it up,” he said, “because they are making too much money off of this.”

Oil and gas companies pay Ohio five cents a barrel to dispose of in-state wastewater, and 20 cents for wastewater imported from other states. Much of the waste injected comes from neighboring West Virginia and Pennsylvania. With at least a billion gallons of waste injected every year, that income translates to an average of $2.4 million annually for state coffers, according to state documents.

“The ODNR Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management uses evidence and facts, testing, and the latest technologies to evaluate complaints of brine migration” and “stands by the results of its investigation,” said ODNR spokesperson Chow.

The entrance to Buckeye Brine’s injection well facility in Coshocton, Ohio. Credit: Justin Nobel/DeSmog

But ODNR did not investigate the Buckeye Brine injection well, subject of the original complaint, or any other injection wells. It did investigate “producing oil and gas wells within a one-half mile radius” of the family’s home.

After Burgan’s company reached out, we “contacted ODNR and ODNR was not interested in any further efforts on the matter,” said Susie Patterson, the manager at Buckeye Brine, by email. Patterson said groundwater monitoring wells installed in 2019 and sampled quarterly showed “no indication of contamination by oilfield substances,” or that “the water was not fit for consumption due to contaminants,” and pinned issues with the Fishers’ well on the water well driller. 

“The wells were drilled much deeper than surrounding wells producing good drinking water,” said Patterson. “It is Buckeye’s opinion that the driller was trying to justify to the well owner the bad wells.”

The Fishers declined to participate in the story. 

The Oil and Gas Industry’s Trillion-Gallon Problem

Across America, over one trillion gallons of oil and gas wastewater are generated every year — enough to fill a line of waste barrels to the moon and back 28 times. Nearly all of this waste — 96 percent — will be injected deep into the earth at disposal injection wells.

Given the oil and gas industry’s reliance on injection wells as a critical means of disposal for a dangerous waste stream, analysts have referred to injection wells as a linchpin to the sound operation of the entire oil and gas industry. Disposal of oil and gas wastewater is the industry’s “Achilles’ heel,” said Ted Auch, a researcher at the oil and gas industry watchdog Fieldnotes. A 2021 Rice University Center for Energy Studies report stated that if the industry did not have injection wells to rely on for waste disposal, the “resulting economic impacts would be profound — and likely, existential.” 

The United States has more than 181,400 oil and gas wastewater injection wells, but as industry leaders testified at the Texas state capitol in August, lack of space to store this toxic brine already is threatening to curtain oil and gas production in Texas’ productive Permian Basin. Even where it has been stored, increasing evidence shows the wastewater is not always staying put.

Injection has proven particularly problematic in Ohio, where state regulators have halted operations at over half a dozen injection wells, citing concerns that fracking wastewater has leaked and has traveled up to five miles underground to contaminate conventional oil and gas wells. ODNR noted in a 2023 letter to DeepRock Disposal Solutions, a southeast Ohio company formerly run by the chair of the state senate’s energy committee, that such incidents pose a risk to public health and drinking water too.   

In Texas, wastewater shot down injection wells has burst back to the surface at old oil and gas wells, at times generating 100-foot geysers of brine in the desert, and Inside Climate News reported that oilfield waste has contaminated drinking water sources in the heart of West Texas oil country. Reporting by ProPublica revealed the situation is similar in neighboring Oklahoma, where regulators have clashed over how far to rein in the injection industry, despite state evidence showing drinking water sources polluted with contaminants consistent with oilfield waste. 

Independent scientists raise the question of whether other oil and gas states may be facing similar problems.

“We have always been concerned as environmental scientists and geologists in this area that there is no underground containment in these [injection] wells,” said Jen Bowman, a water chemistry expert and the director of environmental programs at Ohio University, in Athens. “What so many folks in this area don’t understand, our underground layers are just rock layers so there is no magic underground lake where you are getting water from, and there is no magic underground storage container where the waste is going.” Injecting millions of gallons of waste at high pressure means contamination miles from the site of injection is inevitable, she said.

“This is not a good plan or disposal mechanism for potentially dangerous materials,” Bowman told DeSmog and Rolling Stone, “especially given that people rely on groundwater in so much of rural Ohio.”

The concern about drinking water in Washington County is exactly what motivates Susan Vessels, the Republican president of the Marietta City Council. She has led the council in writing a resolution, passed last October, urging Ohio state legislators to introduce legislation imposing a three-year moratorium on new wastewater injection wells in Washington County. More recently she has crossed the political aisle when Amy Acton, the former state health director, came to Marietta last month as part of her gubernatorial campaign. Acton supports Vessels’ proposed moratorium and is facing an ugly, expensive race against billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy. 

Acton told DeSmog and Rolling Stone that the fight over injection wells and drinking water contamination comes down to ensuring a better future for Marietta and all of Ohio. 

“That is why I am committing to a three-year moratorium on wastewater injection wells in Washington County,” said Acton. “I’m fighting against the corruption in our Statehouse and the cost of that corruption that we pay for. We must act to protect our resources and our drinking water.” Ramaswamy’s campaign has not replied to questions. 

“Drinking water is not political,” said Vessels, “and it is my hope Ohioans will come together across party lines on this issue.”

In an op-ed, she took to task the GOP contender Ramaswamy, who called people “whiners” for raising concerns about clean water, energy use, and other issues as proposals for AI data centers arrive in Ohio.

“I think they are full of shit, and that is point-blank my opinion.”

Phillip Johnson, Washington County water well driller

Washington County water well driller Phillip Johnson said he has drilled hundreds of private water wells in the region. He disagreed with the state’s conclusion that brine from the sandstone formation caused the Fisher family well’s contamination.

“I think they are full of shit, and that is point-blank my opinion,” he said.  

Johnson said that if the sandstone formation was the cause of the salt contamination in the Fishers’ drinking water, then the salty taste should have been there from the beginning, and not strengthened over time as the couple reported, according to ODNR documents.

“Just because you drill 1,000 wells and everything works fine, it just takes one well to not work right for there to be a problem,” said Johnson. “It is nature, if you pump something down under pressure, the path of least resistance is up.”

“I am all for drilling oil and gas,” he added, “but fresh natural water is the most essential natural resource there is, in this country, the state, anywhere in the world, and if you contaminate it, you essentially ruin everything.”

Dominic DiGiulio, a retired EPA scientist with a doctorate in geoscience and decades of experience investigating the movement of underground fluids, provided another assessment of the state’s conclusions in the Coshocton case.

“The ODNR’s logic for stating that the domestic well is partially screened in the Big Injun formation is flawed,” said DiGiulio, who also previously consulted for government agencies and NGOs. “ODNR does not provide compelling evidence.”

The post Ohio Denies Evidence of Fracking Waste in Drinking Water. Its Own Records Show Otherwise.  appeared first on DeSmog.

When most people find a small brown nugget in the woods, they assume it’s animal poop. That's a good guess, but it also might be an owl pellet: a mass of bone, fur, and feathers that the owl could...