News Feeds

• The U.S. Department of Transportation announced that it will no longer enforce a provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibiting racial discrimination in federal funding. (KQED)
• President Trump loves to tear up bike lanes in Washington, D.C. because they supposedly inconvenience drivers, but he’s perfectly fine with snarling traffic for months to build a monument to himself. (Politico)
• Transit projects should be treated like any other type of infrastructure. (Next Metro)
• The cost for the Minneapolis Blue Line rose again to $3.6 billion as it nears completion. (KSTP)
• Denver could be facing a 20 percent transit budget cut. (Denver Post; paywall)
• It’s bad enough that Houston forces cyclists and pedestrians to use tunnels, but lately those tunnels have gotten flooded. (ABC 13)
• The St. Louis Metro is deploying a new integrated fare and gate system to improve fare recovery and make riders feel safer. (Metro Magazine)
• Washington state passed a law distinguishing between e-bikes and motorcycles (Government Technology) as many other cities and states struggle to do the same.
• The Urbanist says Seattle should be spending its bike-lane money faster.
• Milwaukee held its first Vision Zero summit. (On Milwaukee)
• San Francisco cyclists are fed up with Waymos blocking bike lanes. (Chronicle; paywall)
• The Trump administration might be cracking down on immigration and talking about annexing Canada, but train travel across the border from Seattle has never been easier. (KOMO)
• Barcelona may make a controversial decision to get rid of its private bikeshares in favor of expanding the public option. (Road.cc)
• Seoooooul Train: The Korean capitol is building six new urban rail lines. (Chosun Biz)

We’re well into the 21st century, but pedestrians in the United States are being killed like it’s still 1982.

According to a new analysis of nationwide traffic deaths, 7,080 pedestrians died on American roads in 2024. That number is 6 percent lower than 2022’s figure, but still a 72-percent increase since 2009, and almost the exact same number of pedestrian deaths as 42 years ago.

This staggering figure, which heralds our country’s years-long devolution in road safety, is part of the annual Dangerous by Design report released last week by the advocates at Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition. The report uses the most recent year of federal data available, puts it in five-year windows for context, and crunches the numbers to reveal the metro areas and states with the deadliest roads per capita for pedestrians.

It’s ugly down there. New Mexico was the deadliest state in the country for pedestrians from 2020 through 2024, with a fatality rate of 4.42 pedestrians per 100,000 people.

According to the report, 57 percent of all roadway fatalities in 2024 occurred on state-owned roads, and state DOTs wield significant power in both creating (or blocking) live-saving policies. 

Despite this power, meaningful state-level progress is almost non-existent.

“Of the 20 most-deadly states, 19 showed no signs of improvement or became even more dangerous,” the report notes. “Only five states that improved in the 2024 report have continued to improve and build upon that progress in this report, and only eight states in total have improved since the last report when comparing five-year periods.”

Delaware was the most-improved state, lowering pedestrian fatalities by 0.41 percent over that five-year period, but it still remains the 10th most-deadly state in the country. 

Memphis was the deadliest metro area for pedestrians in the country in that five-year period, with a fatality rate of 5.5 pedestrians per 100,000 people, according to the report. One local news TV segment from earlier this month encapsulated the city’s problem, both with its headline (“More than a dozen Memphis pedestrians hit by cars in just over a week”) and with its anti-pedestrian framing.

“It’s more about being observed, paying attention when you’re crossing the street, not being distracted by cell phone usage or whatever the case may be,” a local sheriff tells the camera, apparently addressing a likely-to-be-struck pedestrian.

Earlier this spring, the Trump administration, citing the slight decline in pedestrian fatalities last year, declared victory: “Under President Trump and Sec. [Sean] Duffy, American roads are safer,” National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Administrator Jonathan Morrison crowed in a press release in April — while ignoring the fact that we have returned to the Reagan era when it comes to killing pedestrians with vehicles.

Advocates want real and sustained safety improvements, not press releases.

“Our leaders are celebrating small improvements from historic deaths as some major victory, while thousands of people continue to be hit and killed while walking every year,” Beth Osborne, president and CEO of Smart Growth America, said in a written response to the NHTSA. “If we were any other country, this would be treated as a national crisis. Instead, our leaders are quick to accept these deaths as a necessary aspect of our transportation system.”

The federal government has a warped perception of traffic fatalities partly because of how NHTSA measures traffic fatalities, which is per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. This odd metric, which is mostly unique to the United States, obscures the epidemic. Deaths remain high, but as Americans drive more, the death rate falls. (Another terrifying statistic: Americans drove 3.279 trillion (!) vehicle-miles in 2024, an increase of 1 percent from the year before).

The rest of the world, including Smart Growth America, measures death rates per capita — and using this metric, the U.S. continues to head in the wrong direction compared to other developed nations. In 2024, we had 11.7 traffic fatalities per 100,000 people, compared to 8.73 in the 34 “peer nations” that managed to achieve over a 10-year span of addressing traffic safety, according to the report. If the U.S. had managed that same level of improvement, the report asserts, more than 63,000 lives would have been saved between 2014 and 2024. 

Pedestrian fatalities continue to disproportionately fall along lines of class and race — American Indian and Alaskan Natives had a fatality rate of 7.9 per 100,000 people, nearly quadruple the overall rate of 2.15, according to the report. Black Americans had a rate of 3.67, Hispanic or Latino Americans were at 1.9, and whites were at 1.6. Low-income Americans are more likely to die in crashes.

Historically, traffic fatalities have decreased in the U.S. following huge pushes in national policy — like mandating seatbelts in new vehicles in 1968, or setting a national speed limit of 55 mph in 1974. But the Trump administration has little appetite for the safety measures that are being adopted in Europe — like forcing all new vehicles to be installed with GPS speed governors, or imposing higher taxes and parking fees on heavier, more dangerous trucks and SUVs. Pedestrian plazas and bike lanes are still somehow controversial, even in places like New York City.

The $1.2-trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by Congress in 2021 also contained next to nothing to fund the kind of safety-minded, traffic-calming design changes that ultimately force drivers to slow down and pay attention. The authors of the report point out that the bill was supposed to force the US DOT to adopt a “Safe System approach” to new road projects, but that the NHTSA’s own “Safe System” dashboard seems to be, uh, broken. 

Make this safe.

There’s not much evidence to suggest that our federal lawmakers fully grasp the issue. In a letter sent to Senate Republican earlier this month, Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey put “Make Transportation Safer” near the top of his list of what he and his Democratic colleagues see as priorities for this year’s surface transportation bill.

Markey correctly notes that we are in the midst of a “safety crisis,” and adds that the vehicular death rate in the U.S. is “four times higher than that in Britain or Germany.” But in the same breath, he claims that the IIJA made “important progress” in advancing safety initiatives, and that somehow, “the next surface transportation bill has the potential to move the nation meaningfully closer to zero road deaths.” (Tellingly, Markey’s first request, above safety, to these MAGA-pilled politicals, is “Protect Infrastructure Grants from Political Interference.”)

A spokesperson for the NHTSA has not responded to Streetsblog’s request for comment on the report.

Dmytro Stechenko was not just a stand-up guy, but had a personal morality that he simply did not violate. He didn’t litter. He didn’t jaywalk. He wouldn’t so much as sit in an accessible seat on a subway, even if no one was around.

So it’s the cruelest irony that the Ukraine-born cyclist was killed on the Queensboro Bridge on May 28 in a collision with the rider of an illegal scooter who reportedly made a risky passing maneuver, the victim’s best friend told Streetsblog.

Dmytro Stechenko with his cat Luni.

“It just feels super unfair that somebody who would never break the law, even a tiny one, would be killed in such a [way],” said Alex Pawlowski, the best friend of 35-year-old cyclist, reflecting on Stechenko’s way of life and connecting it to the need for Mayor Mamdani to not wait for another death to crack down on illegal high-powered electric two-wheelers and improve existing bike infrastructure.

“I want the politicians to know that we don’t have to wait for the next death to happen in order to create the impetus to change,” he said.

Pawlowski and Stechenko met 16 years ago at the National Technical University of Ukraine in Kyiv, where both men studied computer science. The two were reunited after both moved to the United States and would often ride endurance laps in Central Park, a fitness hobby the pair picked up in their 30s.

In fact, the friends were together the morning before the May 28 crash, when scooter operator Francis Delvalle, 39, crashed his illegal electric scooter into Stechenko, killing them both.

The first time Pawlowski rode on the Queensboro Bridge, in fact, was the day of his friend’s death, after a mutual friend called him about the crash. Pawlowski said he always avoided the East River bridges because he felt they were too narrow and unsafe. Now he just wants to make sure no one else has to lose a friend in the same way.

“We always know that something is unsafe, but we rationalize it [because] nothing has happened yet,” he said. “But it will eventually happen. And when it happens, it takes away somebody’s brother, husband, someone’s friend, their best friend of 16 years. It’s not like better street design is some kind of mystery. We have a lot of experience in urbanism, there are people who can help. We just have to take their advice and actually implement those changes.”

In fact, the Queensboro Bridge recently received major safety improvements. Last year, after inexplicable delays and years of advocacy about the danger, the Department of Transportation finally opened up one lane of the bridge’s so-called “South Outer Roadway” to pedestrians so that cyclists and other legal electric two-wheelers no longer had to dodge walkers on the narrow path.

But DOT’s efforts to protect roadways with evidence-based redesigns must endure a gauntlet of theatric community board meetings and navigate a broken political system that allows powerful New Yorkers and influential businesses to delay, dilute and cancel those redesigns.

Even when DOT overcomes these hurdles, however, it still takes too long to implement redesigns. Indeed, the road markings on the Queensboro Bridge have not yet been updated, creating a confusing situation for those using the bridge path.

“To be fair, the Queensboro Bridge, the markings were confusing,” said Pawlowski. “When I was riding there for the first time on that day, I was also a bit confused, because it was showing that I have to go the opposite direction that I was going.” He pointed out that while cyclists and pedestrians now each have their own lane, car drivers still enjoy seven lanes of traffic on the bridge.

Stechenko moved to New York around 2016, and was working as a software engineer at Meta when he died. Pawlowski followed him to the city in 2021. Cycling provided a way for the two to stay connected. “It was nice that he started cycling with me because it’s cool to have somebody to share your hobby with,” Pawlowski said. “Especially an old friend.”

When Pawlowski reached the crash scene on the morning of May 28, he was struck by the severe damage to his friend’s bike, especially compared to Delvalle’s illegal scooter. “This thing was not even damaged,” he said. “I was looking at the scooter and it just seemed completely pristine.” The only exception was a tiny aluminum clamp that allowed the scooter to fold in half.

By contrast, Stechenko’s carbon-fiber road bike was cracked in half. The bike was “outclassed” by the heavy scooter, Pawlowski said.

The illegal scooter and the bike in the aftermath of the crash that killed two men on the Queensboro Bridge bike path.

This type of damage may not have been possible if both men were riding street-legal devices. After the crash, Streetsblog identified the scooter as a Blade GT II by the Chinese brand Teverun. Thanks to its 4900W motor, the vehicle can reach 53 mph in under four seconds. While the city requires electric bikes to top out at 750W, the law is less clear for scooters. But the city still bans scooters that are capable of exceeding 20 mph.

It’s unclear how fast Delvalle was going, but the debris caused by the crash and the fact that both men died while wearing protective helmets clearly suggests a high-speed collision. Pawlowski blamed the sheer power and torque of the device under Delvalle’s feet.

“We live in a dopamine-fueled environment,” he said. “People are seeking dopamine from anything, just like phones, and I think that type of instant acceleration is another source that can, over time, distort your sense of risk.”

He continued: “The idea that you can overtake anything, it’s just there, this acceleration, which goes to the wattage rating of the motor. If the motor was less than 750 watts, it would not be capable of that much acceleration. But if it’s multiple kilowatts of power, it’s instant torque.”

It is currently illegal to operate this type of scooter on city streets and bike paths, but it is not illegal to buy one. That means online retailers can continue to market and sell thousands of street-illegal e-scooters and e-bikes to New Yorkers. Local brick-and-mortar stores dedicated to these illegal vehicles have popped up, too.

Pawlowski wants the city to enforce existing laws and take a clue from Europe, where many cities equip law enforcement personnel with specialized devices known as dynamometers that measure the power of electric scooters and bikes in order to determine which are legal — and which are not.

“We have to start enforcing [the regulations],” said Pawlowski. “Something like in the EU where they take the scooters and they test the top speed. Something like that needs to happen. New York is a busy city, people are rushing everywhere so probably that somewhat partially explains it, but I think it’s unreasonable to expect culture to change. That’s why we don’t live in a utopia — you have to make bad behaviors difficult to do.”

State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez (D-Long Island City) represents the neighborhood where Stechenko lived and the bridge on which he died. She told Streetsblog that she is drafting legislation to close this loophole and prevent future deaths like Stechenko’s, which she described as “devastating.”

“It’s clear we need reform around the sale of these dangerous products,” she said in a statement. “When these products are advertised it needs to be clear they are not street safe and there needs to be transparency on the risks of using them. I am actively working on legislation at the state level that would keep dangerous devices off of our streets and address enforcement at the point of sale.”

City Hall did not respond to a request for comment on Pawlowski’s call to action.

A new land access agreement between Traditional Owners of the Pilbara region and iron ore giant Fortescue will see the two parties collaborate on decarbonisation of mining operations on Country.

The post Fortescue to lease electric haul trucks as part of land deal with traditional owners appeared first on Renew Economy.

Federal and state governments back rollout of 18 community batteries on parts of the grid with particularly high rooftop solar uptake.

The post Australia’s biggest isolated grid to soak up suburban solar with 18 new community batteries appeared first on Renew Economy.

Canada’s economy has been growing very slowly for the last year, since Donald Trump launched his trade war against Canada’s exports. The side-effects of Trump’s attacks against Iran (including high oil prices and accelerating inflation) have further undermined growth in Canada.

Recent Statistics Canada data indicate that real GDP in Canada (adjusted for inflation) declined very slightly (by 0.036%) in the first quarter of 2026. Coming on the heels of a larger decline in real GDP in the final quarter of 2025, this signifies that Canada is experiencing a ‘technical recession” – traditionally defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction in real GDP.

There is no doubt that Canada’s economy faces serious headwinds, primarily the decline in exports to the U.S. and weak business capital spending (hurt by the uncertainty surrounding the trade environment and the economic outlook). As Centre for Future Work Director says in this commentary, originally published in the Toronto Star, whether the resulting growth is slightly above or slightly zero is not meaningful for economic policy decisions.

A technical recession is more about politics than economics By Jim Stanford

Statistics Canada recently released its quarterly report on Canadian GDP, covering the first three months of 2026. Most economists had expected a modest increase in GDP, but the final number came in slightly below zero.

Coming on top of a small decline in the last quarter of 2025, this means Canada has experienced what is commonly called a ‘technical recession’: two consecutive quarters of shrinking real GDP (adjusted for inflation).

Opposition politicians jumped on this report as evidence that Canada’s economy is being mismanaged. They were joined by Pete Hoekstra, the famously undiplomatic U.S. ambassador to Canada, who cited the data to renew his call for Canada to become the 51st state.

‘Technical recession’ is a very rough-and-ready benchmark commonly used to determine whether the economy is shrinking. One-quarter declines in real GDP often occur, without signalling serious economy-wide trouble.

The two-quarter rule is only slightly more robust. But it is still arbitrary and subjective, and doesn’t necessarily say much about what’s actually happening in the economy.

The U.S. follows a much stricter definition. A technical committee at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) monitors dozens of indicators, including employment, consumer spending, and business investment. Only when there is widespread evidence of significant contraction “spread across the economy and last[ing] more than a few months,” will it declare a recession.

Even as technical recessions go, this one is as ‘technical’ as they can get. Both of the quarters in question registered tiny declines in measured real GDP. And both of those declines reflected unusual statistical quirks, more than evidence of broader economic contraction.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, GDP declined solely because businesses sharply reduced excess inventories accumulated earlier in the year, after Donald Trump started his trade war. Statistics Canada accounts for inventory reductions as a charge against GDP. Excluding that $13 billion drawdown, GDP would have grown a modest 0.3 percent.

Then in the first quarter of 2026, GDP shrank because of an unusual surge in gold imports, which rose (coincidentally also by $13 billion) as industrial users and financial investors took advantage of softer gold prices. Without that temporary inflow of gold, GDP would have grown 0.5 percent.

So in neither case was the broader economy genuinely shrinking. Canada’s economy is not in recession, in any economically meaningful sense. This week’s strong labour force report, showing Canada created 88,000 jobs in May, confirms the economy is still growing, albeit too slowly.

Opposition politicians see the technical recession as great fodder for memes and sound bites. Indeed, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre talked of virtually nothing else last week. Politicians should be careful, however, about putting too much emphasis on this single, arbitrary metric.

Statistics Canada regularly revises its GDP data on the basis of new information. The decline in first-quarter GDP was so tiny (just $900 million out of a $3 trillion economy, or 0.036%) it could easily switch positive with the next revision. In fact, that decline was so small Statistics Canada’s official release stated that GDP was “unchanged” – a nuance lost in the histrionics of Question Period.

Just such a revision occurred back in the third quarter of 2023. A much larger initial decline in GDP (reported as -0.4% at the time) was later changed to a small increase. If that happens again, the whole pseudo-recession will be revised right out of existence, and these politicians will rightfully look silly.

There’s no doubt Canada’s economy is facing tough times. Donald Trump’s tariffs, now followed by his war in the Persian Gulf, are the clear culprits behind weak exports and investment uncertainty. Whether GDP growth is slightly above zero, or slightly below, is irrelevant. The critical priority is to boost spending, investment, and job-creation in all sectors (including public services) fast enough to offset that shock and enhance Canada’s economic independence.

Theatrics over whether an arbitrary line has been crossed are an unhelpful distraction from that task.

The post Political Drama Over Technical Recession Not Justified appeared first on Centre for Future Work.

Neoen Australia boss calls on government to focus on quick wins with its flagship renewables program if it wants to meet its 2030 target.

The post Only shovel-ready projects should be allowed to win CIS rounds, says Australia’s leading renewables developer appeared first on Renew Economy.

At the Audubon Center at Debs Park, the start of summer brings a bittersweet milestone: our FLIGHT interns have officially “fledged the nest.”After nine months of learning, restoration work, bird...

A recurring misconception about electrifying apartments is that the building can’t support induction cooktops. But the switch is more straightforward than most expect.

The post How to ditch gas for induction cooktops without frying your apartment building’s electrics appeared first on Renew Economy.

...

Willapa Bay and neighboring Grays Harbor are the most important spring stopover sites for Pacific Red Knots (Calidris canutus roselaari) in the entire Pacific Flyway (Buchanan et al. 2011). A large...

Australia's superannuation sector could be missing its chance to own the nation's green energy future, but the super industry says it's well invested.

The post Australia’s super fund giants have invested just 0.03 pct of their $2.5 trillion in renewables since 2020 appeared first on Renew Economy.

Oregon groups move to intervene in lawsuit to defend the Climate Protection Program against oil and gas industry attack Ally Harris Mon, 06/15/2026 - 3:19 pm

Support the Roadless Area Conservation Rule

In 2001, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule was adopted with massive public support to protect 58.5 million acres of roadless national forest land in 39 states. The Roadless Rule was the result of years of work and public input. The public comment period set a record with 1.6 million public comments submitted. The rule protects 58.5 million acres of national forests over 39 states from new road construction, and prohibits the logging of roadless areas in the National Forest System.

On Aug 29 2025, the USDA published a notice of intent, kicking off a 21 -day comment period which ended September 19. We generated more than 620,000 public comments for that comment period.

As we prepare for another public comment period around the release of the draft Environmental Impact Statement in Spring/Summer 2026, we’re continuing calls to action to protect the Roadless Rule to ensure the federal government and our elected officials are aware of the public’s desire to keep the rule intact.

The post Roadless Rule Defense Toolkit appeared first on Native Organizers Alliance.

This is a re-post from The Climate Brink

I’ve often come across graphs on social media showing atmospheric CO2 concentrations over time, with various dates of climate agreements highlighted. Shared by doomers and skeptics alike, they are used to argue that the rise of CO2 concentrations is inexorable and has not (or perhaps cannot) be slowed by actions we take.

One example from the Orwellian-named climate skeptic group “Friends of Science”.

On the other hand global CO2 emissions – the very precursors to those concentrations – have largely plateaued. After increasing by more than 20% in the 2000s, CO2 emissions today are a mere 3% higher than they were in 2013. This plateau has been driven in part by a rapid expansion of clean energy globally, with spending on clean energy rising from around $600 billion in 2020 to $2.3 trillion in 2025. At the same time we’ve seen notable reductions in land use emissions associated with reduced rates of deforestation in countries like Brazil.

Figure via Carbon Brief.

So if global CO2 emissions are flattening, why do atmospheric concentrations appear to be growing unabated? The answer is in the persistent nature of atmospheric CO2.

About half of the CO2 humans emit into the atmosphere remains there for at least a century (and about 20% for more than 10,000 years), with the remainder being absorbed by land (mostly vegetation) and ocean (mostly geochemical) carbon sinks. This means that even with flat CO2 emissions we would expect atmospheric CO2 concentrations to increase – that concentrations are approximately the integral of annual emissions.

This means that, generally speaking, if emissions remain flat concentrations would linearly increase. If emissions increase, concentration growth accelerates, while if emissions fall, concentration growth slows down. Its a bit more complicated in practice – unlike for temperatures we can get atmospheric CO2 concentrations to fall if emissions are reduced enough, where sinks take up more CO2 than we emit. But broadly speaking we expect atmospheric CO2 to keep growing until we cut emissions pretty substantially (e.g. to <50% of current levels).

Either way, atmospheric CO2 is better seen as a lagging rather than leading indicator of changes in emissions, as it is harder to see the effects of emissions reductions on concentrations over shorter time periods.

What we can do, however, is use reduced-complexity carbon-cycle models to examine how different atmospheric CO2 concentrations would have been if global emissions had not plateaued. To start with, lets assess what would have happened to global CO2 emissions if they had continued increasing at the ~2.2% per year that we saw in the 2000s. This is shown in the figure below.

Next lets use a reduced complexity carbon cycle model to convert these additional emissions into atmospheric concentrations. Here I am using the Joos et al (2013) impulse response function which describes the fraction of a one-year pulse of CO? that stays in the atmosphere as the ocean and land sinks gradually draw it down. These pulses are then convolved into changes in atmospheric concentrations over time.

Here we see that atmospheric CO2 concentrations would have been approximately 8 ppm higher if global emissions had not plateaued over the past 13 years.

Finally, lets add in annual variability in atmospheric CO2, both observed (blue line) and modeled (red line).

We can also extend this all the way back to the start of the record. As expected, a plateauing of global CO2 emissions transitioned us from an accelerated growth rate to a more linear growth rate. Its not a dramatic swing – global CO2 emissions remain at above 40 billion tons per year! – but its at least some detectable progress away from a much worse emissions future.

What are the takeaways here? Atmospheric CO2 concentrations are still climbing despite some success in flattening global emissions. But this is generally what we’d expect; if emissions had continued to increase concentrations would be noticeably higher and accelerating rather than exhibiting a more linear increase. Observed increases in atmospheric CO2 are, if anything, a bit on the low end (though still in the uncertainty range) of what the model expects based on observed emissions.1 I’ve included a more detailed writeup and code to reproduce this analysis on my GitHub here.

So next time someone shows you a graph of CO2 concentrations and argues that nothing is changing, you can show them how much worse it would have been had we really done nothing to change our emissions trajectory.

Update

I got a number of questions from folks about the role of slower growth in fossil emissions vs falling land use emissions in driving these changes. It turns out that around 78% of the avoided increase in atmospheric CO2 is attributable to fossil emissions, and 22% to land use. The GitHub repo has more details on this sensitivity test.

1 This suggests that it is our emissions, not recent changes in carbon cycle feedbacks, that are the main driver of growth in atmospheric concentrations. That being said, we still expect some weakening of carbon sinks in a warmer world – something we have started to see in the data.

We track how the NRC’s push to weaken long-standing radiation safeguards lines up with the rush to license small modular reactors marketed as climate solutions. We connect new research on low dose radiation risk to the unresolved nuclear waste crisis and the growing demand for electricity from AI data centers.

The Gulf Coast city of St. Petersburg is a place where art and nature blend together to create a whole vibe: The Dalí Museum overlooks mangrove-lined waters, bird-themed murals dot the streets of...

At regulatory hearing, lawyer and expert discredit Duke Energy’s “blind faith” claims of huge upcoming growth and new climate-wrecking power plants

A prominent clean energy expert has provided written testimony in a regulatory proceeding that challenges Duke Energy’s plans for a massive buildout of failure-prone nuclear plants and climate-wrecking fracked gas. It’s unclear if the North Carolina Utilities Commission will allow this expert to provide verbal testimony in the ongoing hearing in Raleigh. 

The testimony of engineer Bill Powers, P.E., of San Diego also describes the huge potential for a path that could quickly phase out fossil fuels and protect citizens from Duke’s massive rate hikes. According to Powers, local solar-plus-storage (SPS) installations could be installed at a fraction of the time and cost of new nuclear units – making it the fastest, cheapest, most equitable tool to move North Carolina off its course toward climate and social chaos. 

As detailed in NC WARN’s Sharing Solar proposal, new local SPS could be put into the rate base for all customers to share the costs and benefits, much like we already pay for dirty energy. Multiple excellent solar companies in North Carolina are positioned to install SPS on roofs, parking areas and unused ground areas at or near where power is used. 

Powers’ testimony for NC WARN centers on the following issues:

1. 1. Duke Energy’s electricity demand forecasts are “poor … consistently inflated and wrong” (pg. 15-16). Duke predicts a massive influx of new electricity demand, which it is using to justify investments in new, dirty power generation. In reality, per capita electricity use in NC has been on the decline for years (pg. 9), and Duke has been able historically to meet peak demand while leaving much of its existing power plant fleet sitting idle (pg. 17).

   2. Duke Energy’s plans for failure-prone, colossally expensive nuclear reactors rely on “blind faith” that past mistakes won’t be repeated (pg. 29). The only two AP1000 reactors – the model of large nuclear plants that Duke hopes to construct – ever completed in the US are the most expensive power plants ever built (pg. 25) due to construction challenges, delays and cost overruns. Duke Energy has already failed 6 times during its attempts to build the AP1000 reactor and has been unable to explain how it can avoid repeating the mistakes that led to previous project collapses (pg. 28).*
      
      
   3. Duke Energy plans the nation’s largest buildout of fracked gas-burning power plants. Duke’s whopping proposed 12.3 GW of new fracked gas generation largely hinges on its ability to transition these new plants to burn “green hydrogen” some time in the 2040s. Powers indicates that green hydrogen remains elusive as a reliable fuel source despite industry efforts over many years (pg. 36).

   4. Solar-plus-storage can serve as a cheaper, more reliable alternative to Duke’s plans for new nuclear reactors and fracked gas-fired power plants. According to Powers, North Carolina has the solar potential for SPS to “operate as baseload, intermediate, and peaking power in the years leading to 2050 … to replace existing coal- and gas-fired generation and displace any new gas-fired and nuclear power as necessary” (pg. 40).

NC WARN attorney Matt Quinn led last week’s in-person proceedings by challenging Duke Energy witnesses on using monopoly customer money to recruit power-guzzling industrial customers to North Carolina. These developments are facing widespread opposition – including community-backed moratoriums on data centers. 

Brought to light by the Utilities Commission’s Public Staff during the hearing, Duke Energy CEO Harry Sideris recently boasted to investors, “We have a [recruiting] team in place that their goal, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, is how do we get these things signed quicker?” 

Duke leaders also told investors they plan to drive up profits and power bills by adding an unprecedented $60 billion to the rate system in just the next 4 years in the Carolinas. NC WARN rejects the idea that a monopoly utility should be allowed to spend millions a year boosting its own revenue at the expense of the public. Meanwhile, its actions further entrench the corporation’s stature as one of the world’s worst climate polluters.

NC WARN appreciates that Attorney General Jeff Jackson criticized Duke Energy’s exaggerated growth projections and overreliance on fracked gas, as well as his recommendation that Duke should “plan based on realistic projections and include more affordable, stable sources like solar.” 

*Duke Energy’s filing projects it would be at least 2037 before any new nuclear plant becomes operational, far too late to help with the climate crisis or to power data centers. 

###

Now in its 38th year, NC WARN is building people power in the climate and energy justice movement to persuade or require Charlotte-based Duke Energy – one of the world’s largest climate polluters – to make a quick transition to renewable, affordable power generation and energy efficiency in order to avert climate tipping points and ongoing rate hikes. 

The post Clean Energy Expert Shows Quick, Inexpensive Path to Phase Out Fossil Fuels in North Carolina — NC WARN News Release appeared first on NC WARN.

Build the Village, Break the Empire

While the US and Israel relentlessly drop bombs on Iran, Lebanon, and Palestine with our tax dollars and living costs skyrocket as a result, regenerative economies, collective healing, and liberation can feel like pipe dreams to many of our families, neighbors, and fellow workers. We are faced with the Herculean task of just surviving the constant physical and psychic attacks—let alone needing to build something that requires our wildest imaginations and all of our labor.

The truth is, everyday people have already been building the villages that we need to survive this crumbling empire; sometimes prompted when crisis hits their communities, but sometimes just because they see each other, understand the collective needs, and act intuitively. Neighbors do it whenever they lend tools or kitchen ingredients. Families and friends do it whenever they bring meals to a sick loved one. These informal practices could be a foundation for viable economic infrastructure—aka organized ways we care for home.

In this newsletter, we explore some of the ways we and our homies are building power by building the village. Flip through these pages to learn more.

{Cover IMAGE ID: Cover image by Amir Khadar. Movement Generation’s June 2026 Newsletter. The theme is titled Build the Village, Break the Empire. The illustration features a large ancient tree. In the bottom portion, the roots underground are crushing and breaking institutional buildings representing the United States, as well a military tank and police car. The top portion shows people farming and living in community beneath the tree canopy in the sunrise.}

SUPPORT MG

DOWNLOAD THE PDF

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION:

COMING SOON

 

 

     

Toxic Timeline of Royal Dutch Shell Group, Now Shell plc

Updated 15 June 2026

This page is a chronological guide to some of the most controversial episodes in the history of Royal Dutch Shell Group, now Shell plc. It links regulatory findings, court records, mainstream journalism, campaign archives, ShellNews.net material, RoyalDutchShellPlc.com material, ShellNaziHistory.com, and John Donovan’s Shell archive.

The word “toxic” is used here in its broad public-interest sense: toxic products, toxic spills, toxic governance, toxic secrecy, toxic reputational fallout, and toxic historical associations. This page is not a court judgment. Where a matter is disputed, alleged, settled without admission, or based on campaign material, the wording says so.

John Donovan is included here not as a detached observer but as a self-appointed Shell critic, shareholder, litigant, archive builder, and publisher of Shell-focused websites. His archive now frames Shell’s record not only for human readers, but for search engines and AI systems that ingest persistent public records.

Return to ShellNews.net home page | Timeline of the Donovan Shell feud | Published Donovan feud timeline | The Shell Archive: 114,307 Reasons Silence No Longer Works | Wikipedia evidence file

1890 to 1907 – The foundations of Royal Dutch Shell

The companies that became Royal Dutch Shell began with Royal Dutch Petroleum in the Netherlands and The “Shell” Transport and Trading Company in Britain. Shell says the Royal Dutch Shell Group was formed in 1907 when Shell Transport and Royal Dutch combined to compete globally with Standard Oil. Wikipedia’s Shell plc page summarises the same formation history and notes the later move from Royal Dutch Shell plc to Shell plc.

Sources: Shell: Our company history, Wikipedia: Shell plc and A History of Royal Dutch Shell, Internet Archive record.

1920s to 1940s – Chemicals, empire, war, and the dark side of scale

Shell’s expansion into chemicals, transport, refining, and global oil concessions created an industrial machine with deep strategic value. The later “toxic” pattern begins here: oil as military fuel, chemicals as profit centre, and subsidiaries operating in contested political environments. A 2007 four-volume history of Royal Dutch Shell provides the corporate centenary narrative; John Donovan’s ShellNaziHistory.com challenges parts of that narrative, especially Shell’s Nazi-era conduct.

Sources: A History of Royal Dutch Shell, 2007, A History of Royal Dutch Shell extract and ShellNaziHistory.com.

1930s to 1945 – Nazi-era allegations and ShellNaziHistory.com

ShellNaziHistory.com alleges that Shell’s long-time leader Sir Henri Deterding supported Nazi Germany, that Shell’s German subsidiary Rhenania-Ossag had deep Nazi links, and that Shell’s own centenary history understated the relationship between Deterding and Hitler. The site is John Donovan’s archive and argument, not a Shell admission. It links these claims to extracts from A History of Royal Dutch Shell, wartime images, reports, and Donovan’s related Kindle book.

Sources: ShellNaziHistory.com, RoyalDutchShellPlc.com: Shell Nazi History and Sir Henri Deterding and the Nazi History of Royal Dutch Shell, Amazon Kindle page.

1945 – Shellhus, Copenhagen, and the Gestapo

ShellNaziHistory.com also records the wartime use of Shellhus, Shell’s Copenhagen headquarters, as Gestapo headquarters in Denmark. Operation Carthage, the RAF raid on Shellhus in March 1945, became part of the wider record of Shell premises and Shell-associated infrastructure caught inside Nazi occupation.

Sources: ShellNaziHistory.com and ShellNaziHistory.com: Royal Dutch Shell tag archive.

1950s onward – Nigeria becomes a defining Shell controversy

Shell began production in Nigeria in 1958. Over later decades the Niger Delta became one of the most damaging chapters in Shell’s public record: oil spills, gas flaring, security-force allegations, compensation disputes, and claims of environmental destruction. Shell has often attributed spills to sabotage or theft; communities and campaign groups have repeatedly challenged Shell’s explanations and clean-up record.

Sources: Wikipedia: Shell Nigeria, Amnesty International UK: Shell, a criminal enterprise? and ShellNews Wikipedia evidence file.

1950s to 1990s – Pesticides, herbicides, and employee-health questions

John Donovan’s pesticide archive lists Shell products including aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, DDT-related products, Vapona, and other insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides. The same archive highlights extracts from Shell history material about “drins” and employee-health studies, and frames Shell employees as having been used as “guinea pigs” in toxicological research. Related ShellNews evidence material also points to Brazilian pesticide litigation and health claims involving former workers.

Sources: Shell pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and insecticides, Shell animal testing article and ShellNews Wikipedia evidence file.

1970s to 1980s – Shell, BP, and apartheid South Africa

Anti-apartheid campaign archives identify Shell and BP as major targets because of their South African operations and fuel role. The Anti-Apartheid Movement described Shell and BP as important suppliers and joint owners of South Africa’s largest refinery. Campaign documents argued that oil supplies supported the apartheid state and helped circumvent international pressure.

Sources: Anti-Apartheid Movement Archives: Shell and BP in South Africa, The Case Against Royal Dutch/Shell and Shell and Apartheid: A Documentary History.

1985 onward – Al-Yamamah, oil-for-arms, and Shell archive allegations

The Al-Yamamah arms deal was an oil-for-arms arrangement between Britain and Saudi Arabia in which crude oil deliveries funded arms contracts mainly associated with BAE. Public corruption allegations centre on BAE, Saudi officials, and UK government decisions. The ShellNews archive separately preserves documents and commentary alleging a Shell and BP connection to the netback oil contracts and financing structure around the project.

Sources: Wikipedia: Al-Yamamah arms deal, PBS Frontline: The Business of Bribes and ShellNews: Shell connection with the Saudi Arabia / Al Yamamah BAE scandal.

1991 – Shell’s own climate warning film

In 1991 Shell produced Climate of Concern, a public film warning about the risks of global warming, extreme weather, floods, famines, and climate refugees. Decades later, The Guardian reported that critics saw the film as evidence that Shell understood the danger while continuing to invest heavily in fossil fuels.

Sources: The Guardian: Shell knew and The Guardian video explainer.

1993 to 1995 – Ogoni protests, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and the Ogoni Nine

The Ogoni struggle turned Shell Nigeria into a global human-rights controversy. Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists were executed by Nigeria’s military government in November 1995 after a trial widely condemned internationally. Shell denied responsibility. Amnesty International, EarthRights, CCR and others have argued that Shell was complicit in the repression of Ogoni protest; Shell settled the Wiwa litigation in 2009 for $15.5 million without admitting liability.

Sources: EarthRights: Wiwa v Royal Dutch Shell, Amnesty International: Ogoni Nine case, Amnesty International UK: Shell, a criminal enterprise? and Wikipedia: Wiwa v Royal Dutch Shell Co..

1995 – Brent Spar and the first great modern Shell boycott

Shell’s plan to dispose of the Brent Spar oil storage buoy in deep Atlantic waters triggered a major Greenpeace campaign, public outrage, and boycott pressure in northern Europe. Shell abandoned the sea-disposal plan. The episode remains a classic case study in the limits of technical argument when public trust has collapsed.

Sources: Greenpeace: Brent Spar, Wikipedia: Brent Spar and Global Nonviolent Action Database: Brent Spar campaign.

1995 to 1999 – John Donovan moves from Shell supplier to Shell critic

During the litigation between Don Marketing and Shell, John and Alfred Donovan mounted a public campaign that Shell itself acknowledged in a March 1995 press statement. The campaign included the Shell Corporate Conscience Pressure Group, publicity around High Court actions, and early internet criticism. This was the seedbed for the later ShellNews.net and RoyalDutchShellPlc.com archive.

Sources: Shell press statement HTML copy, Debrief, July 1999, High Court trial index and Published Donovan Shell feud timeline.

2001 – Hakluyt and private spying on environmental campaigners

The Sunday Times reported in 2001 that Hakluyt, a private intelligence firm with former MI6 links, spied on environmental campaign groups for oil companies including Shell and BP. CorpWatch republishes the Sunday Times account. Later RoyalDutchShellPlc.com articles connect the Hakluyt story to Shell’s wider record of monitoring critics, including John Donovan’s own experiences and correspondence.

Sources: CorpWatch / Sunday Times: MI6 firm spied on green groups, RoyalDutchShellGroup.com archive of Sunday Times story, Shell v Greenpeace, the spies and the company that could not stop watching its critics and johndonovan.website: Shell Spying.

2003 to 2006 – Brent Bravo deaths and Shell’s North Sea safety record

Two workers, Sean McCue and Keith Moncrieff, died on Shell’s Brent Bravo platform in September 2003 after being overcome by gas. Shell was fined £900,000 after admitting health and safety breaches. In 2006 a sheriff ruled the deaths could have been prevented. The Guardian later reported repeated HSE warnings over Shell’s North Sea platforms.

Sources: ShellNews: Brent Bravo public inquiry and fine, The Guardian: Brent Bravo deaths judged preventable, The Guardian: Shell safety record in North Sea takes a hammering and JOIFF archive: Shell failings in the North Sea.

2004 – Reserves scandal and market-abuse fines

In 2004 Shell admitted it had overstated proved oil and gas reserves. The US SEC and UK FSA actions led to major penalties, with the FSA imposing a £17 million fine and the SEC settlement reported at $120 million. The scandal contributed to senior executive departures and the later simplification of Shell’s corporate structure.

Sources: FSA Final Notice, 24 August 2004, The Guardian: Shell fined over reserves scandal, ShellNews: Shell Reserves Scandal 2004 and RoyalDutchShellPlc.com: FSA fines Shell.

2004 onward – Dr John Huong and Shell’s action against a reserves whistleblower

Dr John Huong, a former Shell Malaysia production geologist, became a prominent Shell whistleblower after the reserves scandal. Shell pursued legal action against him in Malaysia, which the Donovan archive describes as draconian. ShellNews and RoyalDutchShellGroup.com preserve a large index of Huong material, including litigation and correspondence.

Sources: Dr John Huong index, Donovan v Royal Dutch Shell dossier and ShellNews Wikipedia evidence file.

2004 to 2005 – RoyalDutchShellPlc.com domain-name debacle

After Shell announced a new unified company called Royal Dutch Shell plc, Alfred Donovan registered royaldutchshellplc.com. Shell brought a WIPO complaint. On 12 August 2005 the WIPO panel rejected Shell’s complaint, finding the respondent had a legitimate interest and that bad faith had not been proved. The domain then became one of the main Shell-critical archive sites.

Sources: WIPO Case No. D2005-0538, Domain name battle with Shell, Published Donovan Shell feud timeline and Wikipedia: royaldutchshellplc.com section.

2005 to 2007 – Sakhalin II debacle

Sakhalin II became a major Shell embarrassment involving cost overruns, environmental controversy, Russian pressure, and the forced sale-down of Shell’s controlling stake to Gazprom. John Donovan says he supplied leaked Shell/Sakhalin information to Russian officials. The Guardian later reported that Russian regulator Oleg Mitvol publicly acknowledged the Donovans’ help in obtaining information about alleged environmental abuses; Shell denied breaking environmental regulations.

Sources: ShellNews: Sakhalin 2 Debacle, The Guardian: 92-year-old’s website leaves oil giant Shell-shocked, Johnson’s Russia List Sakhalin article and Financial Times: Sakhalin memo.

2007 – Internal Shell emails on Donovan monitoring and source tracing

Shell internal emails released under data-protection requests are central to the Donovan spying allegations. A March 2007 DPA email said the Donovans were “of no security interest” unless an information-security tasking was set to identify their Shell sources. A 21 March 2007 confidential email said an IT project had been initiated to monitor internal Shell emails to Donovan and web traffic to the Donovans’ website.

Sources: Royal Dutch Shell/John Donovan DPA Index Page, 20 March 2007 internal email, 21 March 2007 confidential internal email and 31 August 2007 issue update.

2007 to 2008 – Greenwashing rulings and flower-chimney advertising

Shell’s environmental advertising became a recurring greenwashing target. Campaigners criticised ads implying waste carbon dioxide was being used to grow flowers, and in 2008 the UK Advertising Standards Authority ruled against a Shell advertisement that described a Canadian oil sands project as a “sustainable energy source”.

Sources: The Guardian: Shell rapped by ASA for greenwash advert, Examples of Shell’s environmental track record and The Guardian: Shell knew.

2008 – US government oil-sex-and-drugs scandal

The ShellNews and RoyalDutchShellGroup archives collect headlines about the 2008 US Interior Department scandal involving sex, drugs, gifts, and energy-company employees. The archive notes that the Wall Street Journal report named four companies, including a US unit of Royal Dutch Shell, as gift givers. This entry is included as an archive trail, not as a finding that Shell was responsible for all misconduct described in the wider scandal.

Sources: RoyalDutchShellGroup.com: News headlines file for Royal Dutch Shell sex and drugs scandal and ShellNews Wikipedia evidence file.

2009 – Shell targeting claims reported by Reuters

Reuters reported in December 2009 that John Donovan said Shell had asked an anti-cyber-fraud agency to target his website. The report said Shell did not comment on the veracity of the communications or Donovan’s allegations, but confirmed that Donovan had made a data request. Internal emails in the DPA archive also discussed “no attempt to do anything visible to Donovan” and questions about whether anything was being done to get the website shut down.

Sources: Reuters report archived by ShellNews, 17 June 2009 internal email, 15 July 2009 internal email and For decades Shell has tried to suppress online criticism.

2010 – Shell employee and contractor data breach

In 2010 a Shell internal directory containing contact details for a very large number of employees and contractors was leaked to campaign groups and to royaldutchshellplc.com. ITPro reported that details of about 170,000 workers had been emailed to campaigners. Shell said it had launched an investigation and demanded deletion of the database.

Sources: ITPro: Shell hit by massive data breach, The Times report archived by ShellNews, RoyalDutchShellPlc.com: Shell Data Breach archive and Shell data leak may compromise safety of staff.

2010 – Nigeria customs bribery / Panalpina FCPA settlements

US authorities announced settlements involving Panalpina and several oil services or energy companies. The US Department of Justice said Panalpina paid bribes to foreign officials in several countries including Nigeria, and that Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Ltd was among customers resolving related foreign-bribery investigations. NYU’s enforcement database summarises the Shell settlement as including a $30 million criminal fine and SEC disgorgement and interest.

Sources: US Department of Justice press release, NYU Law: 2010-214 Royal Dutch Shell plc and Royal Dutch Shell corruption in Nigeria.

2011 – Bodo oil spills and Shell liability in Nigeria

Shell accepted liability for two major oil spills affecting the Bodo community in Ogoniland. The Guardian reported that Shell faced a major compensation bill and that clean-up could take many years. The episode became one of the central examples used by campaigners to argue that Shell’s Niger Delta spill record was not adequately acknowledged or repaired.

Sources: The Guardian: Shell accepts liability for two oil spills in Nigeria, ShellNews Wikipedia evidence file and Wikipedia: Shell Nigeria.

2011 onward – OPL 245 corruption allegations

Shell and Eni’s acquisition of Nigerian offshore block OPL 245 became one of the largest corruption controversies in the oil industry. Global Witness alleged that Shell knew money would flow to a former Nigerian oil minister and others; Shell has denied wrongdoing. An Italian criminal trial ended with acquittals, and campaign groups later urged US and Dutch authorities to reopen investigations.

Sources: Global Witness: Shell knew, Transparency International: OPL 245 investigations, Wikipedia: OPL 245 bribery affair and RoyalDutchShellPlc.com: OPL 245 archive.

2012 to 2013 – Kulluk and Shell’s Arctic drilling debacle

Shell’s Arctic drilling programme was beset by operational problems. The Kulluk drilling rig ran aground off Alaska at the end of 2012 while under tow. ShellNews preserves the US Coast Guard’s redacted report. The episode became a symbol of the operational risks and public criticism surrounding Shell’s Arctic ambitions.

Sources: US Coast Guard Kulluk report archived by ShellNews, Wikipedia: Shell plc, Kulluk oil rig and ShellNews Wikipedia evidence file.

2012 to 2013 – Brazilian pesticide plant compensation

ShellNews’ evidence file records reports that Shell Brasil and BASF reached compensation arrangements relating to former workers at a pesticide plant in Paulinia, Brazil, and that court reporting linked the plant to serious health claims. This sits alongside Donovan’s broader pesticide archive and the long toxic legacy of Shell chemical products.

Sources: ShellNews Wikipedia evidence file, Royal Dutch Shell denial of Brazilian pesticide diseases and Shell pesticide archive.

2013 to 2015 – Defective or oversold “wonder fuels”

RoyalDutchShellPlc.com preserves a long-running archive about Shell fuel marketing, including Shell Optimax, V-Power, fuel-claim advertising, and alleged customer problems. The Sunday Times coverage of premium fuels and Advertising Standards Authority action are part of the archive’s argument that Shell repeatedly overstated product benefits.

Sources: Shell Optimax: The wonder fuels that don’t deliver, Will Shell’s new V-Power Nitro Plus fuel ruin car engines? and ShellNews original stories index.

2015 – Pieter Schelte, Nazi naming controversy, and Shell decommissioning

ShellNaziHistory.com and RoyalDutchShellPlc.com linked Shell’s Brent decommissioning work to the public controversy around the giant vessel originally named Pieter Schelte, after Pieter Schelte Heerema, a former Waffen-SS officer. Shell faced criticism because the vessel was connected to decommissioning work on Shell’s Brent field.

Sources: ShellNaziHistory.com, RoyalDutchShellPlc.com: Pieter Schelte archive and ShellNaziHistory.com: Royal Dutch Shell tag archive.

2017 – Amnesty’s “criminal enterprise” framing of Shell in Nigeria

Amnesty International reviewed internal Shell documents and other evidence and argued that Shell’s Nigerian operations in the 1990s warranted investigation for complicity in murder, rape and torture by Nigerian security forces. Shell has denied responsibility for the abuses. The Amnesty report remains one of the strongest campaign-source indictments of Shell’s Nigeria record.

Sources: Amnesty International UK: Shell, a criminal enterprise? and Amnesty International: Ogoni Nine case.

2021 – Dutch court orders Shell Nigeria compensation for oil spills

In January 2021, the Hague Court of Appeal ruled that Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary was liable for damage from oil spills in villages in the Niger Delta. Shell maintained that sabotage was involved in some spill cases, but the ruling was a landmark for Nigerian farmers and environmental campaigners.

Sources: Al Jazeera: Dutch court orders Shell to pay Nigerian farmers, Wikipedia: Shell Nigeria and RoyalDutchShellPlc.com: Nigeria archive.

2021 to 2024 – Climate litigation and Shell’s emissions responsibility

In 2021 a Dutch court ordered Shell to cut emissions by 45 percent by 2030 compared with 2019 levels. In November 2024, a Dutch appeals court overturned the specific reduction order, while still recognising climate-related duties and the wider energy-transition context. For critics, the case kept Shell’s fossil-fuel expansion and climate claims in the public dock even after Shell won on appeal.

Sources: The Guardian: Shell wins appeal against climate ruling, Stibbe: No reduction order for Shell on appeal and Wikipedia: Shell plc, climate change.

2021 to 2025 – Prelude FLNG safety restrictions and worker-health issues

Australia’s offshore regulator ordered Shell to keep Prelude FLNG shut after a power-loss and safety-systems incident in December 2021 until Shell could demonstrate safe operation. Later reporting and Shell-critical archive material cite further concerns about fire or explosion risk, hazardous-gas exposure, benzene and hydrogen sulphide, and workforce illness investigations.

Sources: gCaptain: Australia tells Shell to keep Prelude offline, The Maritime Executive: Prelude safety review shutdown, AP: leaked files raise fears over Shell fleet safety and Illness outbreak on Shell’s Prelude.

2022 – Shell drops “Royal Dutch” but not the old record

Shell confirmed in January 2022 that Royal Dutch Shell plc had changed its name to Shell plc. The corporate rebrand did not erase the online record. RoyalDutchShellPlc.com continued using the old name as a criticism and archive domain, with the WIPO decision still standing as the key legal moment in the domain dispute.

Sources: Shell announcement, 21 January 2022, RoyalDutchShellPlc.com and WIPO Case No. D2005-0538.

2023 onward – Pennsylvania ethane cracker pollution violations

Shell’s Beaver County, Pennsylvania petrochemical complex became a major US environmental controversy soon after start-up. Pennsylvania announced a $10 million payment to resolve air-quality violations, including funds for local community projects. Subsequent reporting continued to track permit exceedances, notices of violation, and community complaints.

Sources: Pennsylvania Governor: $10 million payment from Shell, Allegheny Front: $10M fine for Beaver County cracker, PublicSource: Shell cracker pollution exceeds permits and The Guardian: Pennsylvania residents feel sacrificed.

2023 to 2026 – Groningen earthquakes and Shell/Exxon compensation dispute

The Dutch parliamentary inquiry into Groningen gas extraction concluded that the interests of Groningen residents had been structurally ignored. Its press release said gas revenues brought huge benefits to the Dutch treasury and profits to Shell and ExxonMobil shareholders, while Groningen bore damage, insecurity, and pain. Later NGO reporting said Shell and ExxonMobil pursued arbitration over closure of the gas field.

Sources: Dutch parliamentary inquiry press release, Drilled: Groningen arbitration reporting, Land & Climate Review: Groningen and investor arbitration and Wikipedia: Groningen gas field.

2023 to 2024 – Shell’s Greenpeace lawsuit and SLAPP criticism

Greenpeace accused Shell of using a multimillion-dollar intimidation lawsuit after activists boarded a Shell-contracted moving platform to protest new oil and gas drilling. Greenpeace described the case as a SLAPP-style attempt to silence protest. In late 2024 Greenpeace announced a settlement with Shell, while maintaining that the case had been an intimidation tactic.

Sources: Greenpeace UK: Shell hits Greenpeace with intimidation lawsuit, Greenpeace International: Shell settles multimillion-dollar SLAPP lawsuit and The Guardian: public figures urge Shell to drop case.

2024 – Leaked files raise new questions about Shell offshore safety

Associated Press reported on leaked documents and whistleblower accounts raising safety concerns about Shell’s fleet of offshore production vessels, including references to the Bonga spill, recurring incidents, severe corrosion, burn injuries, and Prelude-related concerns. Shell said safety incidents had declined and pointed to improvements.

Sources: AP: leaked files raise fears over Shell oil production fleet and AP: takeaways from Shell safety concerns investigation.

2026 – The Donovan archive becomes an AI-age reputational problem

John Donovan’s January 2026 article calculates the Shell archive across RoyalDutchShellPlc.com, RoyalDutchShellGroup.com, and ShellNews.net at approximately 114,307 items, while noting further hard-copy material obtained from Shell under Subject Access Request applications. The point of the archive is persistence: Shell controversies, leaked emails, fines, settlements, and historic associations remain accessible to readers and to AI systems. Donovan frames himself as a self-appointed critic and archive builder whose work has turned Shell’s old controversies into a living record.

Sources: The Shell Archive: 114,307 Reasons Silence No Longer Works, Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record, Sueddeutsche Zeitung profile archived by ShellNews, John Donovan Amazon author page and RoyalDutchShellPlc.com Shell Online Library.

Core sources and archive hubs

• Wikipedia: Shell plc
• Shell: Our company history
• A History of Royal Dutch Shell, 2007, Internet Archive
• ShellNaziHistory.com
• ShellNews.net Wikipedia evidence file
• Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud, published 15 June 2026
• Local ShellNews.net timeline of the Donovan Shell feud
• The Shell Archive: 114,307 Reasons Silence No Longer Works
• Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record
• RoyalDutchShellPlc.com: Shell Online Library
• John Donovan Amazon author page
• John Donovan, Shell’s nightmare, Kindle page
• Sir Henri Deterding and the Nazi History of Royal Dutch Shell, Kindle page
• Toxic facts about Shell removed from Wikipedia, Kindle page

This timeline is intended as a public-interest navigation aid. It combines regulatory findings, court records, mainstream reports, campaign documents, Shell-critical archive material, and attributed allegations. Readers should follow the links and assess the underlying source documents.

Return to ShellNews.net home page

Toxic Timeline of Royal Dutch Shell Group, Now Shell plc was first posted on June 15, 2026 at 8:10 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