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Archive for July 29th, 2010
Gulf oil spill reaches 100-day mark
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 29th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: The Gulf of Mexico oil disaster reached the 100-day mark Wednesday with hopes high that BP is finally on the verge of permanently sealing its ruptured Macondo well. But years of legal wrangles and probes lie ahead and myriad questions remain about the long-term effects of the massive oil spill on wildlife, the environment and the livelihoods of Gulf residents. If BP needs a reminder of the long legal road ahead as it tries to rebuild its reputation, one will be provided on ...
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BP Disaster Regnites California’s Anti-Drilling Fervor
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 29th, 2010
New York Times: What a difference an oil spill makes. Californians, whose dislike of offshore drilling dates back to the Santa Barbara spill of 1969, had begun to see virtue in new sources of oil as gasoline prices soared in 2008, polls showed. That year, for the first time since 2000, when the first poll of the state`s environmental attitudes was taken by the Public Policy Institute of California, a majority -- albeit a bare one, 51 percent -- was willing to allow more drilling off the California ...
Wildlife conservation projects do more harm than good, says expert
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 29th, 2010
Guardian: Ecotourism and western-style conservation projects are harming wildlife, damaging the environment, and displacing and criminalising local people, according to a controversial new book. The pristine beaches and wildlife tours demanded by overseas tourists has led to developments that do not benefit wildlife, such as beaches being built, mangroves stripped out, waterholes drilled and forests cleared, says Rosaleen Duffy, a world expert on the ethical dimensions of wildlife conservation ...
United States: US hit by new oil spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 29th, 2010
Agence France Presse: A new oil spill is sullying US waters in the northern state of Michigan after a pipeline leak sent more than a million gallons of crude into a river tributary, officials said Wednesday. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said the spill began Monday when a 30-inch (76-centimeter) pipe in Marshall, Michigan burst, spewing the crude into Talmadge Creek, a waterway which feeds into the Kalamazoo River. Officials said the pipeline belongs to the Canadian company Enbridge ...
Gulf Residents Face Quandary: Sue Or Settle?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 29th, 2010
National Public Radio: The administrator of BP's compensation fund is trying to persuade Gulf Coast residents not to sue the company, but to take a settlement instead. But many in the region say it's too early to pinpoint their damages. Ask Darren Frickey how much this oil spill has already cost him, and the answer is as simple as it is sad. He has gone from catching $5,000 worth of shrimp a week in Louisiana's bayous to catching none at all. Peering down at the containers on his boat that have been ...
Russia: Moscow chokes in smog amid record heat wave
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 29th, 2010
LA Times: As peat fires raged on the outskirts of town, shrouding Moscow in a thick cloud of smog, residents Wednesday sought to cope with a record-breaking heat wave that is expected to intensify further. Public health officials urged workers in non-essential jobs to stay home and people not to drive their cars as weather forecasters predicted temperatures exceeding 102 degrees Thursday, in a city more used to icy spells than such heat. With more than 1,480 fires in two weeks, the smog ...
First US court session pits BP against oil spill victims
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 29th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: BP was to come face-to-face Thursday with the victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill during a first court hearing into the case, which is likely to become the trial of the century. The hearings in Boise, Idaho, will examine whether complaints submitted by some 200 plaintiffs can be consolidated in the wake of the three-month crisis, which has been called the worst environmental disaster in US history. A decision is expected around two weeks after the hearing, but the session ...