A memo sent to union leaders by Shell before an appearance by Donald Trump — displayed by a recipient via Twitter — warns against protests and threatens pay reduction.
August, 2019:
Shell memo sent to union leaders before an appearance by Trump warned against protests and threatened pay reduction
QUARTZ: Virgin plastic pellets are the biggest pollution disaster you’ve never heard of
Before plastic is made into anything else, it is made into pellets. And those pellets are leaking everywhere. When completed, the new facility will pump out 1.8 million tons (1.6 million metric tons) of plastic each year. The vast majority of that plastic, like the vast majority of all plastic made up to now, will likely not be recycled. And it will exist virtually forever, crumbling into microplastics that show up most everywhere scientists look for them. Those small spheres, sometimes known as “nurdles,” are a massive source of plastic pollution, escaping into the environment before they have a chance to be molded into a useful shape. With roughly 22,000 nurdles per pound of plastic, the Shell plant intends to produce the rough equivalent of 80 trillion nurdles per year. As the Royal Dutch Shell plant rises in Pennsylvania, environmental groups and scientists are worried about the lack of regulation to specifically address plastic pellet pollution. (Shell did not return a request for comment.)
By Zoë Schlanger: 19 Aug 2019
Some 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a township adjacent to a state forest, oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell is building a sprawling new plant to support what it sees as the future of its business: making millions of tons of new, virgin plastic.
US president Trump visited the facility last week, highlighting the 5,000 construction jobs it has created. The plant is just one of more than 300 new plastic facilities proposed or permitted for the US in the near future. Shell, along with other major oil and gas companies like Exxon, sees plastic as one avenue for growth as natural gas prices plummet—and, longer-term, as a way to weather the world’s slow rejection of fossil fuels as an energy source.
Safety Guidance for Operating Construction Crane
GUEST ARTICLE
Shell Petrochemical Plant under construction in Beaver County Pa., Crowded with Cranes. Aug 2019
Operating Heavy machine is no joke. If anything goes wrong, it can claim lives.
So, as a crane operator, you should make sure the whole operations go smoothly. Following, we are giving you a few safety tips to help you out!
What You Need to Know
Tower and mobile cranes are useful for different construction scenarios. But they do present a few hazards like:
Collapse: Crane collapse are unfortunate events that may lead to severe (even fatal) injuries to both workers and bystanders.
Load Falling or Line Snapping: As tower cranes are high, there is a possibility that high winds or tight spaces can make the load fall. This is a great danger for everyone on the ground level.
Jeering, protesting or shouting not tolerated during Trump campaign speech at Shell microplastics plant
“Jeering, protesting or shouting was not tolerated, a leaked memo said. Staying away was allowed, but then the overtime allowance would be reduced.”
Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch FT, Financieele Dagblad.
With the call, the contractors wanted to improve the fragile relationship between the unions and President Donald Trump. Photo: Justin Merriman / Bloomberg
Construction workers at Shell factory were asked to treat Trump kindly
Van onze redacteur: 19 August 2019
To the great satisfaction of the contractors, the thousands of construction workers from a Shell plant under construction northwest of Pittsburgh received President Donald Trump on Tuesday with loud applause.
The construction companies had asked their employees to treat the president in a friendly manner in an attempt to improve the fragile relationship between the White House and the trade unions. Jeering, protesting or shouting was not tolerated, a leaked memo said. Staying away was allowed, but then the overtime allowance would be reduced.
Trump Shell factory speech crowd members were paid to listen to him and banned from ‘anything viewed as resistance’
Workers ordered not to criticise the president
Workers at a Royal Dutch Shell plant in Pennsylvania were forced to choose between attending a speech by Donald Trump or earning less than their coworkers who did.
Attendance was optional, but contract workers who chose not to stand in the crowd would not qualify for time-and-a-half pay when they arrived at work on Friday, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
Workers at the unfinished Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex had to arrive at 7am, scan their ID cards and stand for hours until the US president’s speech began.
The Washington Post: Trump’s speech at a Shell plant drew thousands of workers. They were paid overtime to be there.
Workers at a Royal Dutch Shell plant in Monaca, Pa., were forced to choose Tuesday between attending a speech by President Trump or forgoing overtime pay that their co-workers would earn.
Attendance was optional, but contract workers who chose not to stand in the crowd would not qualify for time-and-a-half pay when they arrived at work Friday, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. Several companies with thousands of unionized workers have contracts with Shell, one the world’s largest oil and gas companies.
Workers had 3 options: Attend Trump’s speech, use paid time off or receive no pay
“This is just what Shell wanted to do, and we went along with it”
Washington (CNN)Workers at the Pennsylvania petrochemical plant where President Donald Trump spoke Tuesday were told that if they didn’t attend the event, they either had to use paid time off or receive no pay for the day.
At least some of the workers who attended the speech were instructed not to protest the President, who told the crowd of workers at the Royal Dutch Shell plant he would be imploring their union leaders to support his reelection.
HOW TO GRAB MAXIMUM ATTENTION AT MINIMUM COST TO VENTILATE YOUR GRIPE OR CAMPAIGN AGAINST SHELL
The people who some would say have sold their souls to a toxic oil company with an evil history. Back Row: Catherine J. Hughes, Sir Nigel Sheinwald GCMG, Euleen Goh, Gerrit Zalm, Linda G. Stuntz, Roberto Setubal, Ann Godbehere. Front Row: Jessica Uhl (CFO), Ben van Beurden (CEO), Charles O. Holliday (Chair), Tjalling Wiersma, and Gerard Kleisterlee
HOW TO GRAB MAXIMUM ATTENTION AT MINIMUM COST TO VENTILATE YOUR GRIPE OR CAMPAIGN AGAINST SHELL, WHETHER ON THE GROUNDS OF OPL 245 CORRUPTION, PLUNDER, POLLUTION, ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS, PERSONAL INJURY, OR ALLEGED COMPLICITY IN THE MURDER OF THE OGONI 9.
BECOME A SHELL INVESTOR AND GENERATE AWARENESS AT AN INVESTMENT COST OF JUST OVER £30. THAT MODEST INVESTMENT WILL ALLOW YOU TO RAISE A RUCKUS AGAINST ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC AT ITS AGM IN FRONT OF THE ASSEMBLED SHELL BOARD, SHELL SHAREHOLDERS AND THE NEWS MEDIA.
The information in italics comes from a Daily Mail article published on 12 August 2019.
You can buy shares through an AJ Bell Youinvest account online for £9.95, for example, with ongoing fees of up to £7.50 a quarter.
You need to purchase only one share in the company you want to target. A share in Shell currently costs £23.98…
Once you are a shareholder, you should be sent the firm’s annual report and other information for investors, which can also be found on its website.
You will also have the right to attend annual general meetings (AGMs) and vote on company policies.
Fool.co.uk: How far will the Shell share price fall in 2020?
So just how low could the share price go next year? Well, Shell shed almost 50% of its value in the 18 months from June 2014, a period in which Brent values slipped from $115 per barrel to below $30. It’s time to fear the worst, I think.
Royston Wild: Fool.co.uk: 16 August 2019
Prices in freefall
It’s quite possible that the diplomatic and military conflict between Iran and the US could really blow up in the months ahead, providing oil prices — and with them the share values of producers like Shell — with the kind of boost that we saw in the spring.
All things considered, though, the odds are stacked firmly against the oil drillers. The probability of frosty US-Chinese trade talks seeping into 2020 spell disaster for a global economy already in the throes of a slowdown, and with it the profits outlook for the likes of Shell in the medium term, at least as energy demand slumps.
BLOOMBERG: Flying Wind Turbines Make Their First Trip Offshore in Norway
Shell’s kite wind project deployed in the North Sea. Source: Makani Power Inc.
By Will Mathis: 15 August 2019, 13:00 BST
Alphabet-subsidiary Makani completes test in the North Sea
Airborne machine could work in some of the deepest waters
A carbon-fiber kite tethered to a buoy floating in waters 220 meters (761 feet) deep took flight in a test to prove that the future of offshore wind power might fly through the air.
The kite, owned by the Alphabet Inc.-subsidiary Makani and backed by Royal Dutch Shell Plc, completed its first demonstration about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) off the coast of Norway in the North Sea.
RELATED
An ‘energy kite’ wind power venture start-up backed by Google’s parent company and Shell has made its debut offshore flights.
The Makani team made two test flights off Norway last week – the second ending with the loss off the kite when it failed to successfully land on a floating platform.
Makani is a spin-off from Google parent company Alphabet and was backed by Shell in an investment by the oil and gas giant earlier this year.
SHELL TO BE A BIG PLAYER IN CONTROVERSIAL MICROPLASTICS
SHELL TO BE A BIG PLAYER IN MICROPLASTICS
By John Donovan
The timing of President Trump’s delayed visit to Shell’s new Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex, which will produce more than a million tons of plastic in the form of tiny pellets, turned out to be unfortunate.
It happened to coincide with the release of scientific research and evidence about the unknown consequences of airborne microplastics on the heath of “birds, fish, whales and people”.
Please read the extracts below from various news organisations covering the Trump visit, which inevitably was surrounded by controversy and scandal.
Forbes: How Shell India maintains a human touch
Shell India’s inclusive culture sustains a diverse and engaged workforce
BY RAJIV SINGH: PUBLISHED: Aug 13, 2019
In managing human resources, what may sometimes get overlooked is the human element. But Nitin Prasad, chairman of Shell in India, is not one to miss the larger picture.
Sample this. When asked what makes Shell one of the best employers in India, he says it’s the company’s 8,700 employees. Shell believes in collectively shaping a work environment that prioritises diversity and inclusion; promotes a culture of open innovation; observes equality for all genders and prioritises focus on ethical behaviour.
Shell ethane cracker plant: a massively subsidised health hazard
Guest Opinion: Jobs and health hazards: Don’t let Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ come to Pennsylvania
By Julieta Biegner, Global Witness: 13 August 2019
Today, President Trump is set to visit a Shell petrochemical plant where state subsidies cost $2.75 million per permanent job created.
The White House has made clear that it expects Pennsylvania to play a key role in its U.S. energy dominance agenda, citing the cusp of an “Appalachian Petrochemical Renaissance.” So it comes as no shock that Trump will visit a Beaver County petrochemical plant today.
The apparent purpose of the trip is to tout domestic manufacturing and energy production.
Shell’s new plant will produce more than a million tons of plastic
Royal Dutch Shell’s plant will produce more than a million tons of plastic, in the form of tiny pellets
Michael Corkery: 2 August 2019
The 386-acre property looks like a giant Lego set rising from the banks of the Ohio River. It is one of the largest active construction projects in the United States, employing more than 5,000 people.
When completed, the facility will be fed by pipelines stretching hundreds of miles across Appalachia. It will have its own rail system with 3,300 freight cars. And it will produce annually more than 1 million tons of something that many people argue the world needs less of: plastic.
As concern grows about plastic debris in the oceans and recycling continues to falter in the US, the production of new plastic is booming. The plant that Royal Dutch Shell is building about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh will create tiny pellets that can be turned into items like phone cases, auto parts and food packaging, all of which will be around long after they have served their purpose.
Mega corruption allegations from an authenticated Shell whistleblower
As you know I claim that the Coastal-CEPSA deal involved many people in a massive bribery scheme to facilitate the transfer of the Shell oil concessions in the United Arab Emirates, into the hands of Chinese National Oil company CNOOC.
Mega corruption allegations from an authenticated Shell whistleblower
Hi JohnThere are important developments taking place in the 1MDB case that hopefully, little by little will bring the heat closer to Shell management.
Bloomberg: Big Money Starts to Dump Stocks That Pose Climate Risks
Climate-Action 100+, a group of money managers overseeing more than $33 trillion, works to influence the largest corporate emitters of greenhouse gases. So far the organization has persuaded Royal Dutch Shell Plc to set short-term climate targets and publish a report on its lobbying of governments.
Bloomberg: Big Money Starts to Dump 
Stocks That Pose Climate Risks
After years of meetings and shareholder resolutions, some funds are starting to simply divest from coal and oil stocks.
By Kelly Gilblom: 7 August 2019, 05:01 BST
Earlier this year, one of Meryam Omi’s deputies at Legal & General Investment Management sat down with board members and managers from Exxon Mobil Corp. to discuss how the oil giant could address climate change. LGIM, which manages about $1.3 trillion, is one of Exxon’s top 20 shareholders.
The Exxon delegation listened, but it didn’t accept the suggestions, says Omi, LGIM’s head of sustainability and responsible investment strategy. Around the same time, Exxon persuaded the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to block a shareholder resolution that pushed the oil giant to do more to address climate risks.
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