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Archive for August 6th, 2010
BP risks Obama row by hinting it may return to stricken oil well
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 6th, 2010
Guardian: A struggle between BP and the Obama administration over the future of the cemented well in the Gulf of Mexico erupted in public today when the oil company suggested it may drill in the same reservoir again. In a briefing with reporters meant to symbolise BP's return to business-as-usual in the Gulf, the chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, said the company may not give up all claims on the Macondo well, which leaked five million barrels of oil into the Gulf. "There's lots of ...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on BP risks Obama row by hinting it may return to stricken oil wellRussian Drought, Fires Push Up Wheat Prices
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 6th, 2010
National Public Radio: Melissa Block speaks with Chris Hurt, a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University, about the global rise in wheat prices. Wheat prices held just below a two-year high Friday.
As Tax Expires, EPA Struggles To Clean Up Superfund Sites
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 6th, 2010
National Public Radio: Fifteen years after Congress allowed the "polluter tax" on oil and chemical industries to expire, nearly 1,300 contaminated sites remain on the EPA's Superfund list, awaiting funding to be cleaned up. Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey has introduced a bill to reinstate the tax, and with the support of the Obama administration, it has a good chance of becoming law. Environmentalists say people living near sites are being held hostage because the Superfund has run dry, but ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on As Tax Expires, EPA Struggles To Clean Up Superfund SitesScientists reject aerosol geoengineering
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 6th, 2010
SciDev.Net: Geoengineering schemes that could help some countries deal with global warming could have the opposite effect in others, according to a study. Geoengineering refers to large-scale interventions, such as capturing greenhouse gases, aimed at tackling global warming. Some climate scientists have suggested adding aerosols to the atmosphere to deflect the sun's rays in what they call 'solar radiation management' (SRM). Previous studies only examined a small number of scenarios for ...
Pakistan floods: Storms ground US supply helicopters
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 6th, 2010
Guardian: Storms grounded helicopters carrying supplies to Pakistan's flood-ravaged north-west today as authorities said 12 million people had been affected in the country's worst-ever floods. US military personnel waiting to fly to stranded communities in the upper reaches of the Swat valley were frustrated by the storms, which dumped more rain on a region where thousands are living in tents or crammed into public buildings. Over the last week floods triggered by monsoon rains have ...
Ice age permafrost unearthed in Poland to help clock warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 6th, 2010
AFP: Permafrost dating from the end of the last Ice Age around 13,000 years ago recently discovered in Poland could prove an invaluable tool in gauging global warming, Polish geologists said on Friday. The unique discovery of pre-historic permafrost was made on Monday in a corner of north-eastern Poland bordering Lithuania, near the village of Szypliszki. Geologists drilling at the site were astounded to find the temperature of the drill cores decreasing rather than increasing -- as ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Ice age permafrost unearthed in Poland to help clock warmingBP Says It Might Drill Again In Gulf Reservoir
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 6th, 2010
Associated Press: BP said Friday that it might someday drill again in the same undersea pocket of oil that gushed millions of gallons of its crude into the sea, crushing livelihoods and fouling beaches and wildlife habitat along hundreds of miles of Gulf of Mexico shoreline. "There's lots of oil and gas here," Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said at a news briefing. "We're going to have to think about what to do with that at some point." The vast oil reservoir beneath the blown well is ...
Japan sponsors rice research hub in East Africa
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 6th, 2010
SciDev.Net: Uganda hopes to become the region's leader in rice research with the opening later this year of a US$6 million centre at its crop research institute. The National Crop Resources Research Institute (NACRRI) received the money from Japan in September last year for the construction of a training and research centre for rice farmers and scientists, which is now nearing completion. The centre will promote North-South collaboration in research and technology transfer, said Geoffrey ...
United States: Can huge Mojave wind farm boost faltering wind power industry?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 6th, 2010
Christian Science Monitor: What some tout as the nation's biggest wind power plant broke ground last week in the Mojave Desert, where its developers hope to one day spin enough giant wind turbines to equal the generating capacity of three nuclear power plants. The Alta Wind Energy Center being built by Terra-Gen Power of New York is a major gust of renewable energy. It has 290 wind turbines spread across 9,000 acres 75 miles north of Los Angeles and is expected to serve 275,000 homes – for starters. If ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United States: Can huge Mojave wind farm boost faltering wind power industry?BP oil spill imperils Cajun culture
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 6th, 2010
Christian Science Monitor: Darren Martin is a third-generation shrimp boat operator – and as far as he knows fishing may be in his blood even beyond that. His family has been rooted in the small winding bayous of southwest Louisiana since the 1700s, when the Cajuns of French descent were exiled by the British from their native Acadia, now eastern Canada. With such a rich connection to the land and water here, it would only be natural for Mr. Martin to want his teenage son to continue the family trade – pulling ...