Energy Sector

Workers at ExxonMobil's Massive Baytown Plant (Almost) Went On Strike over safety

The folks over at Exxon Mobil's Baytown refinery were facing a possible Norma Rae situation last week when local United Steelworkers representatives threatened a strike if the Exxon people didn't put in the health and safety provisions they'd asked for in their contracts. Local USW rep Rich "Hoot" ... More >>

The Battle Against the Keystone Pipeline

Environmentalists and landowners battle to stop the Keystone XL pipeline and its load of crude from flowing across Texas rivers and aquifers.

RIP, Larry Joe Miggins

Houston's fabled Irishman dies.

Deepwater Horizon: Asian Hotel Owners Decry Proposed BP Settlement

Around 800 hotel owners have plans to descend on BP's headquarters along I-10 West today, condemning a recent proposed settlement between the embattled monolith and thousands of business owners because, apparently, they weren't invited to the get-lots-of-money-from-papa-BP party. A U.S. district j ... More >>

Judge Samuel Kent WikiLeaked: Had Halliburton Conspiracy Theory About His Sex-Abuse Scandal

Today, WikiLeaks released the first few hundred of what promise to be 5 million e-mails belonging to Austin-based global security think tank Stratfor. One concerns not one but two Houston-area shit magnets, one formerly high-powered and one still very much high-powered: Halliburton and disgraced f ... More >>

Giant Duck Threatens To Bring ExxonMobil To Its Knees (w/Video)

Photos and video by Monica FuentesDon't get this duck angry​If ExxonMobil collapses by the end of the day into bankruptcy, with company executives begging for forgiveness for their polluting ways, all the credit should go to a giant inflatable duck. The duck is being displayed across the stre ... More >>

Eight Businesses We Expect Will Be Getting Custom Texas License Plates Soon

​We recently wrote about a new crop of Texas license plates with a variety of themes, most of them sports related. One of the designs, however, was for the Texas Roadhouse restaurant chain that isn't even based in the Lone Star State. We certainly understand the passion of a sports fan, but ... More >>

Exxon's New Giant Oil Find Could Meet World Needs For....A Couple of Months

Fighting with the feds over who gets that sweet, sweet oil​The energy world is marveling today at news that ExxonMobil's recent discovery in the Gulf of Mexico could contain up to a billion barrels of oil. "The only thing that surprised the energy industry more than Exxon Mobil Corp.'s mammot ... More >>

BP? Maybe Not - Five Other Possible Summer Fest Sponsors

Jermaine Rogers​Today is not only 4/20 and whatever the name for the Wednesday of Holy Week is - sorry, it's been a while since Rocks Off has been to church - it's the one-year anniversary of the BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. It's also the latest April Fool's Day in history, because earlie ... More >>

East Coast Oysters for $1 at The Oceanaire

theibug.comGrab the Crystal hot sauce! ​Displayed prominently on the web header for The Oceanaire is a quote from Leonard Beck (who?), "To eat an oyster is to kiss the ocean on the lips," another sensual metaphor for a mollusk long believed to be a powerful aphrodisiac. The connection betwee ... More >>

Halliburton Sued For Firing Pregnant Employee

Houston's Todd Kelly sues Halliburton again​We've written a lot about lawsuits against Halliburton/KBR, mistly involving horrow stories coming from employees in Iraq. But the latest is from a Dallas woman, Lynda Darden, who is suing because, she says, the company fired her for getting pregnant ... More >>

Sergio Corona: Owner Of Sea Shell Store Put In Fake $28K Claim Over Gulf Spill, Feds Say

That's gotta be a coupla thousand bucks' worth right there​Sergio Corona sells sea shells down by the sea shore -- or so he'd have the federal government believe. Corona is the first person indicted in the Southern District of Texas for fraud in connection with the Deepwater Horizon spill. Pr ... More >>

Gulf Oil Spill: Too Early To Be Optimistic?

Maybe some good news percolating?​It is too early to be overly optimistic, to answer the headline's question, but reports are starting to bubble up that the Gulf and its wetlands might just have gotten lucky with the BP spill.Lucky in that the results don't seem to be coming close to the worst-cas ... More >>

'Funeral for the Gulf' Endures Weak Turnout, But Message Is Still Made

Photos by Chasen MarshallStrength in any numbers​A wise Hairballian philosopher once posed the question: If a demonstration happens in Downtown Houston and few come out to participate, does it still happen?In the instance on Thursday afternoon, the answer was yes. Though well intentioned, the "Fun ... More >>

Local Oil Spill 'Action Group' To Host Mock Funeral At City Hall

orcoo.orgCome equipped​It took nearly three months to stop oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. By the time the well was "capped," it is estimated that over 4.9 million barrels of crude oil flowed into the ocean, killing marine life and destroying ... More >>

Tourists, Tar Balls and Tort: Galveston and Deepwater Horizon

www.galveston.com​Before his visit to Texas President Obama hosted a cookout for family and friends on the South Lawn. On the menu: andouille sausage, crawfish and shrimp, all fresh from the Gulf Coast. He told press in a statement, "Americans can confidently and safely enjoy Gulf seafood once ... More >>

BP Defending Itself On Yet Another Pollution Front

Still playing defense​During this economic recovery, we bet one place is hiring: the BP legal department.Not only is the company struggling to defend a crush of lawsuits connected to the oil spill in the Gulf, but now it has to deal with a $10 billion lawsuit for allegedly making thousands of peop ... More >>

BP Oil Spill: Tunes For Turtles This Weekend

Onward through the oil​Since the BP oil spill began 8,427 days ago, we've heard about how the catastrophe has endangered the welfare of birds, fishermen, tourist shops, and at least one British dickhead CEO, but there hasn't been much said about our society's most vulnerable -- Gulf Coas ... More >>

BP: 11 Songs We Found On The Executive iPod

annamatic3000 via Flickr​British Petroleum (BP) officials announced Thursday that they had successfully capped the largest and most devastating oil spill in U.S. history. You know, a mere 85 days, 11 casualties, 184 million gallons and thousands of dead or oil-covered animals later. A tense 4 ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

Pictured: Lindsay Lohan's jail cell.​Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where your potato cannon is no match for our pumpkin bazooka. We started the week out by trying some delicious menudo, which is made from tripe. If you're wondering which part of the cow tripe com ... More >>

No Lady Gaga: Celebrities We Wish Had Sex Dolls Made Of Them

He's no Johnny Depp​Yesterday on the Rocks Off blog we unveiled the Lady Gaga sex doll, Lady Gag Gag. Comments were mixed on the doll, ranging from utter confusion and strange attraction from both sexes. One commenter claimed that the model on the box was even more attractive than the real G ... More >>

Joe Barton: Houston Is Getting Blamed For Him?

Not one of ours​Look, Houston has enough troubles with this oil-spill thing: BP has its American office here, everyone automatically defaults to thinking of us as pollution-happy, regulation-ignoring money-grubbers, and, you know, we are home to a whole lot of energy companies who probably just as ... More >>

Brent Burns: The Gulf Oil Spill Has Found Its Truth-Telling Troubador

The BP oil spill produces its Dylan​The BP oil spill has found its Dylan. Its Phil Ochs. Its Weird Al Yankovic.Brent Burns has bequeathed upon a grateful nation is epic howl of protest, a trenchant, touching song called "If You Drill, Drill, Drill, Don't Spill, Spill, Spill." Lyrics not by Stephen ... More >>

BP Spill: Good News For Texas, Bad News For East Coast?

If there's anywhere that the majority of Americans are wishing the Deepwater Horizon oil would go to, it's probably Texas, the U.S. home of BP.BP's in Houston? Send that oil to Galveston beaches and see how they like it!!It looks, though, like that won't happen. Here's one simulation from the Univer ... More >>

Corporate Takeover

The Yes Men take on companies using their own tools.

Pop Rocks: Maybe The Gulf Oil Spill Isn't All Bad

​What a difference a three-day weekend makes. Okay, not really. The Gulf oil spill is still out of control, with BP attempting another half-assed Hail Mary this week and the relief wells that promise the best chance at diminishing the catastrophe still two months off. Depending on who you ask, ... More >>

Gulf Oil Spill: Stop Worrying, Industry Says In Galveston

These things happen...​Boy, you've really gotta hand it to the oil & gas industry folks. I mean, after all, we're just shy of 40 days since the start of BP's crude ooze in the Gulf, and already a consortium of energy elites has launched a propaganda blitz via America's WETLAND Foundation.And ... More >>

Chevron Protests Result In Arrests Downtown

Photo by Liana Lopez Carted away in comfort​ At least four protesters were arrested this morning at a demonstration outside a Chevron shareholders' meeting downtown. The protesters moved past temporary police barricades and sat on the ground after they were refused entrance into the buildin ... More >>

The 5 Best Satirical Twitter Accounts

​Probably the only good thing to come out of the Gulf oil disaster (other than the Uncle John's Bathroom Reader-style discovery that dog hair is super absorbent) is @BPGlobalPR.Satirical Twitter accounts -- created by anonymous users to mock and skewer public figures or celebrities -- have been ar ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

Apologies if today's column seems a bit... cheesy. GET THEE TO A PUNNERY!​Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we're using our leftover pizza grease to lube up our Slip 'N' Slide. We started this busy week off with some tips on topping your ice cream with various ... More >>

Pappas Files Lawsuit Against BP and Halliburton

The Deepwater Horizon drilling platform, engulfed in flames.Photo courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard​It was only a matter of time before the Gulf fishing industry -- whose entire livelihood has been threatened by the Gulf oil leak -- struck back at the organizations responsible for causing the m ... More >>

Sierra Club Takes Its Oil-Spill Act To The Offshore Technology Conference

Photograph courtesy US NavyA hunka, hunka burnin' Gulf​Dressed in a black business suit with a fake BP badge on the lapel, Sierra Club spokeswoman Donna Hoffman pretended to be a BP company exec giving a press conference after an oil spill."I want to reassure everyone that the oil spill, outside o ... More >>

Oil Spill Central: Right Here In Houston!!

Gushing oil is not always a good thing, Houston companies find​Louisiana, not Texas, will be feeling the effects of the massive oil spill in the Gulf -- unless you count the indirect fallout, and in that case we are Oil Spill Central.Lawsuits are already being filed in regards to the explosion and ... More >>

Exxon Leads The Environmental Fight By Suing The U.S. Over Winning World War II

​If there's one company out there that won't put up with illegal oil dumping, it's Exxon. These guys are hawks about pollution, and they will sue whoever the hell they need to in order to bring evildoers to justice.So they're suing the United States, which blithely went ignored all sorts of Enviro ... More >>

Welcome to Arizona

Judge who helped BP went on junket party on their tab.

Chevron Kicks Out Activists From Its Marathon Expo

​A group of marathon runners were kicked out and banned from the Chevron Marathon Expo for displaying material that was critical of the oil company, but one of the runners tells Hair Balls that the group is continuing as planned. "We are still going to, at least try to, run the race on Sunday. We ... More >>

Gas Station Sushi

Photos by Katharine Shilcutt​Only a few short days after Eating Our Words' body revolted violently against some inadvisedly consumed cheese enchiladas that had been on a steam table for far too long, as it turns out, we decided to show our stomach who's boss. Take back the night! And what bett ... More >>

Sunoco -- Doing Whatever It Takes In La Porte

​We have little understanding of how a local chemical manufacturing plant can flaunt state environmental regulations for an entire year and not get called on the carpet for it until nearly two years later, but that describes the goings-on at the Sunoco, Inc., plant in La Porte.At its facility jus ... More >>

ExxonMobil Fined $600,000; We Think They Can Come Up With It

​Let's be honest.There aren't a lot of "bad days" for a global petrochemical company that made a record $45.2 billion profit last year, so we'll just say ExxonMobil had a less than stellar day on Wednesday when state regulators penalized it more than $600,000 for environmental crimes.ExxonMobil's ... More >>

Halliburton Corruption: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

​Earlier this year, Halliburton agreed to pay nearly $560 million in fines to the federal government to end an investigation into its former subsidiary, KBR, and its involvement in bribing Nigerian officials to get construction contracts. It was reportedly the largest fine ever paid by a U.S. comp ... More >>

How Can Exxon Make A Giant Profit And Conoco A Giant Loss? Gas Is Gas, Right?

After reading about ExxonMobil's record $45.2 billion annual profit, Hair Balls was scratching our head over why Exxon had a profitable fourth quarter, when Conoco lost $31.8 billion. Does Exxon jack up the cost of Little Debbies at its stores or something?Fortunately, we caught Hoover's Oil & G ... More >>

ConocoPhillips Keeps A Ball Or Two

Houston petroleum giant ConocoPhillips never realized just how much people loved their balls.Not "their balls" in the sense of the guts it takes to charge four bucks a gallon for gas (Am I right or am I right, people?!), but their balls as in the red, round "76" signs that dot their gas stations.Con ... More >>

At Least Some Houston Companies Might Not Fail, Magazine Says

BREAKING NEWS (MUST CREDIT HAIR BALLS!!!) -- The stock market is in trouble. We'd put up some links if anyone was bothering to cover what we, at least, think is an important story.One media outlet that is covering it is Forbes magazine. They've come out with a list of five companies that it might be ... More >>

ExxonMobil To Worker, Allegedly: Ignoring Racial Harassment Won't Make You An "Uncle Tom"

The Hits Keep Coming From The BP Refinery

What a Dump: British Petroleum Fined for Unauthorized Disposal of Hazardous Waste

Texaco Gets A Little Closer To Oblivion

Another Day, Another 1,300 Pounds Of Benzene Accidentally Released

ExxonMobil Isn't Making Enough Money

"Disgruntled" BP Workers Sue