The top energy official at the United States Chamber of Commerce, the powerful lobbying group, urges lawmakers to focus on expanding fossil fuel energy production, not “high-cost energy sources” like wind and solar. “Having people really understand our energy reality, rather than energy as we would like it to be, is incredibly important, particularly at this juncture in terms of our economy,” the official, Karen Harbert, a former high-level official at the Department of Energy under President George W. Bush, says in an interview. “It may be lovely to think about a world without fossil fuels, but that simply is not America’s energy reality.” [The Hill]
A group of Colombian farmers sue BP in British court, alleging that the company caused extensive environmental harm and acted negligently in the construction of an oil pipeline in the 1990s. The 450-mile pipeline, built in coordination with Colombia’s national oil company, caused erosion that led to crop failure, contaminated water supplies and livestock deaths, the farmers say. [Guardian]
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