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Archive for June 11th, 2010
Scientist Warns Oil Fighters: Sand Berms Won’t Last
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 11th, 2010
National Public Radio: Dredging is about to begin in the Gulf of Mexico that will create 40 miles of offshore sand berms. The goal: keep oil from reaching the Louisiana coast. The state's governor, Bobby Jindal, and local officials have pleaded to get the construction started and blamed federal officials for dragging their feet. But some scientists who've spent decades studying the fragile Mississippi River delta aren't sold on the berm idea, and they worry those berms could make things even ...
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Massey denies Sierra Club lawsuit claims on water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 11th, 2010
Associated Press: Five Massey Energy subsidiaries contend a 2008 settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency bars a lawsuit by the Sierra Club and three other environmental groups. The federal lawsuit filed in April alleges more than 3,000 violations of the Clean Water Act and surface mining laws. Among other things, the plaintiffs claim the companies have dumped toxic aluminum into waterways with runoff from up to 16 West Virginia coal mines. The companies also argue in the response ...
First the Spill, Then the Lawsuits
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 11th, 2010
New York Times: "Oil spill damages? You May Be Entitled to Compensation," reads a billboard in LaFourche Parish, Louisiana. It is just one of the tactics lawyers are using to sign up clients to sue BP, along with running advertisements on Gulf Coast television stations, buying Internet addresses like GulfOilSpillLawFirm.com, and holding informational seminars – with free food and drinks – for those who feel the oil company owes them something. Lawyers across the nation have filed nearly 200 ...
BP oil spill: It would be kinder to kill these oil-drenched birds
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 11th, 2010
Telegraph: Cleaning oiled birds is pointless. No, that's not the latest pronouncement from BP's accident-prone boss Tony Hayward, but the sober opinion of scientists involved in previous spills, who say it would be kinder just to kill them. Whenever there's a spill, voluntary groups rush to set up cleaning centres for its blackened victims. It seems like a wonderful thing to do, bringing something positive out of the disaster. It makes great television, as oil-sodden feathers are restored. If ...
Don’t rush to blame BP for oil spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 11th, 2010
Associated Press: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg became a lonely defender of BP PLC on Friday, declaring the world should not rush to point fingers at the British oil giant for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The billionaire mayor, a former CEO, became the most prominent politician to embrace BP, whose offshore rig exploded in April, killing 11 workers and setting off what has become the nation's worst oil spill. Scientists say the spill could now involve 42 million to more than 100 million ...
Alliance to promote offshore wind power
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 11th, 2010
United Press International: Ten U.S. East Coast states have formed an alliance with the U.S. Department of the Interior to promote offshore wind power. Governors of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina have signed the memorandum of understanding related to wind power. The agreement will help to facilitate federal-state cooperation for commercial wind development on the Outer Continental Shelf off the Atlantic coast, the ...
Melting mountains put millions at risk in Asia: Study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 11th, 2010
Reuters: Increased melting of glaciers and snow in the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau threatens the food security of millions of people in Asia, a study shows, with Pakistan likely to be among the nations hardest hit. A team of scientists in Holland studied the impacts of climate change on five major Asian rivers on which about 1.4 billion people, roughly a fifth of humanity, depend for water to drink and to irrigate crops. The rivers are the Indus, which flows through Tibet and ...
Gulf oil spill and the political spillover in the Senate energy debate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 11th, 2010
Christian Science Monitor: At first, the Gulf oil spill was seen as a wake-up call for the United States to finally pass a climate-change law. The images of black goo washing up on beaches would be enough to persuade Americans to kick their fossil-fuel habit. Bu nearly two months after the BP spill began spewing petroleum, it hasn't turned out that way. Key senators from states that rely heavily on jobs related to both offshore oil and coal continue to block bills that would push the US – the largest ...
Asian rivers face mixed futures
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 11th, 2010
BBC: Melting glaciers in the Himalayas will have varying impacts on the region's five major river basins, a study says. Changes to the flow of meltwater as a result of global warming is likely to have a "severe" impact on food security in some areas, say scientists. Yet people living elsewhere are likely to see food productivity increase, they added in a paper published in Science. Overall, the food security of 4.5% of 1.4bn people in the region is threatened, the researchers ...
New Oil Estimates Show Spill Rate Much Higher
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 11th, 2010
National Public Radio: The federal government has come up with a new estimate of the size of the Gulf oil spill. The figures indicate the blown-out well may have spewed as much as 2.1 million gallons of oil per day. The estimate indicates the leak already has put 4 to 8 times more oil into the water than the Exxon Valdez spill.