A Life in Books: Junot Díaz | Newsweek A Life In Books, Movies

Brazil’s Oil Rush
Mac Margolis 10/2/2009 12:00:00 AM
Ever since the Brazilian state energy company Petrobras struck oil in giant fields deep below the floor of the Atlantic, the mood in the normally sedate Brasília has been practically euphoric. In 2007, this chronically energy-deficient nation confirmed it had hit the energy jackpot. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva donned overalls and a hard hat and helicoptered out to an offshore drilling platform to dip his hand in oil, like a Hollywood idol leaving a footprint in the sidewalk. A seminar last week in the capital kicked off with the national anthem. "We still do not know exactly how much oil is in the pre-salt layers," intoned keynote speaker Dilma Rousseff, Lula's chief of staff. "We have strong evidence that God is Brazilian."
The Greenest Big Companies in America
Daniel McGinn 9/21/2009 12:00:00 AM
When David Roberts was growing up near the oilfields of West Texas in the early 1960s, it never got dark. Back then, oilfields were lit 24/7 by the gas flares used to burn off natural gas, a byproduct of oil drilling. The flares released massive amounts of CO2, and over time, oil companies halted that harmful practice in the U.S. But gas flares remain the norm in the developing world—and today Roberts oversees a team at Marathon Oil that's trying to end the practice. In 2007, Marathon opened a $1.5 billion liquid-natural-gas plant in Equatorial Guinea to capture the natural gas that once went up in smoke. The plant is one factor that helped Marathon, No. 100 in NEWSWEEK's Green Rankings, cut its CO2 emissions by 40 percent between 2004 and 2008—and the plant earns a profit.
It Ain't Easy Being Green
Weston Kosova 9/21/2009 12:00:00 AM
Over the summer, I stayed at four hotels in the United States: big resort, rustic refuge, boutique city inn, cheap college motel. They were all owned by different companies, but they had one thing in common: A little card on the bathroom counter telling me that the establishment was very concerned about the environment, and pleading with me to do my part to help them save the earth by hanging up my wet towels and using them again the next day. Two of the hotels also placed a card next to the bed informing me that housekeeping would not change the sheets unless I (selfishly, it was strongly implied) left the card on the pillow.
Big Oil Goes Green for Real
Rana Foroohar 9/19/2009 12:00:00 AM
Remember back in 2001 when BP went "Beyond Petroleum"? It was a brilliant marketing campaign, but it had less to do with changing the company's business model than positioning Lord John Browne as the Teflon oil executive. All but a tiny fraction of BP's revenue came, and still comes, from oil. So how should we take the spate of new green announcements from the world's major oil firms? In July, ExxonMobil announced big plans to grow green algae to fuel cars; last week, Chevron unveiled the world's largest carbon-sequestration project in Australia; and in recent months, Valero, Marathon, and Sunoco carried out a series of acquisitions that resulted in Big Oil controlling 7 percent of the U.S. ethanol business.
What’s in a Name?
Michael Isikoff 7/7/2009 12:00:00 AM
It's no secret that big energy companies find lots of ways to influence the debate in Washington: they make campaign contributions, they hire high-powered lobbyists and they invest heavily in advertising campaigns to persuade the public (and capital decision makers) that they are good "corporate citizens."
Fool’s Gold on Wall Street
Daniel Gross 6/16/2009 12:00:00 AM
A podcast of their conversation can be heard here.