BP and Shell have been raided by agents of the European Commission on suspicion of rigging oil prices for over a decade. Rigging petroleum prices could prove to be even more lucrative than rigging LIBOR.

This is Exxon’s second spill in a week, highlighting the utter stupidity and horrendous environmental danger of the Keystone XL pipeline project currently under consideration by U.S. State Department. This leakage occurred under a housing subdivision, it has not yet reached the nearby Lake Conway. The earlier spilled happened Wednesday, a train carrying Canadian crude derailed in Minnesota, spilling 15,000 gallons of oil.

All of the new energy generation in the US last month came from clean and renewable energy — wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, et cetera — and none of it came from coal, oil, or nuclear power.

Who cares about the temper tantrums being thrown by the pampered media because they didn’t get to meet Tiger Woods? The real story is that while 50,000 people were at the White House asking the president to address climate change by cracking down on the fossil fuel industry, he was spending the weekend with a guy who is the epitome of Big Oil and much much more.

No wonder he was keeping the destination secret before this trip. Intended or not, it was a big F U to the people who had planned for months to travel to Washington to protest the critical cause of climate change. Worse, there has been no response whatsoever to the tens of thousands of protesters who came to his house on Sunday, nor to the many many more who were at coordinating marches in cities across the country and untold numbers of people who were there with them in spirit.

Well maybe there was another reason why the identity of Obama’s host was kept secret in the weeks leading up to the trip.

Somewhere around thirty-five to forty thousand people came to the National Mall in Washington, DC, for one of the largest climate rallies in history. Those demonstrating demanded that President Barack Obama honor his inaugural pledge and take action on climate change. They also called on Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline being built by TransCanada.

It was a relief to hear more than a passing reference to climate change in President Obama’s State of the Union Speech, including promises of more support for wind and solar power. But the oil industry heard nothing to even cause even a smidgen of concern.

It’s always entertaining to read Robert Samuelson’s columns on Monday mornings. They are so deliciously orthogonal to reality. Today’s column, asking whether America is in decline, is another gem.

Oil. Oil to the world. And that’s what America is hoping for by 2020. That flow of generosity, that holiday spirit has seeped into Versus, where creator Marcy Schaffer has penned a new set of lyrics to celebrate that we’re fracked.

A day after a record $4.5 billion criminal settlement in the BP oil disaster, another Gulf Coast oil rig exploded.

Who would have ever picked the Oil Companies?