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Archive for September 17th, 2010
Professor says climate change could make interior Alaska more like midwest Canada
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 17th, 2010
Associated Press: The projected warming of the planet could give Fairbanks the same weather as midwest Canada, according to a University of Alaska Fairbanks professor. Rich Boone, an ecosystem ecologist at the College of Natural Science and Mathematics, used the climate around Saskatoon, Canada, as an example of what might be in store for Alaska's interior, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported. Fairbanks faces a roughly 11-degree Fahrenheit temperature increase by 2100 if moderate ...
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Critics Fault Oil and Gas Pipeline Regulator’s Industry Ties
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 17th, 2010
Greenwire: The top federal regulator of oil and gas pipelines is facing withering criticism for her ties to industry and her agency's floundering response to recent oil-pipeline spills in the Midwest and last week's deadly gas pipeline explosion in California. Cynthia Quarterman, chief of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, is having her work and that of her agency compared with the infamous Minerals Management Service, whose lax oversight of offshore drilling was ...
World’s Rainforests Act as Rain-Collecting Umbrellas
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 17th, 2010
LiveScience: With billions of overlapping leaves, stretching sometimes for hundreds of feet above the ground, the canopies of the world's rainforests act like giant umbrellas - catching rain before it has a chance to reach the forest floor. It turns out that these arboreal umbrellas intercept almost 2 trillion gallons of rain each year, a new study that could improve our understanding of the impacts of climate change finds. That's about 20 percent of the rain that falls from the sky over the ...
BP says Gulf of Mexico well will be sealed Saturday
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 17th, 2010
Reuters: BP said on Friday that its ruptured Gulf of Mexico well that caused the world's worst marine oil spill will be permanently sealed on Saturday. The oil company's relief well intersected the blown-out Macondo well on Thursday, paving the way for workers to pump in the cement that will result in the so-called "bottom kill" of the well. Once the cementing operations are complete, the relief well will be plugged and abandoned, BP said. BP sealed off all flow with a cap on the ...
Enbridge restarts Chicago-area pipeline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 17th, 2010
AP: Enbridge Inc. says it has restarted a pipeline that spilled oil in the Chicago area last week. The U.S. affiliate of the Calgary-based pipeline giant said Friday the pipeline is now back in service. A leak was discovered last Thursday on the line that carries crude from Wisconsin to Indiana. It is part of the same network as another Enbridge pipeline in Michigan that ruptured in July. The two pipeline closures have made it difficult for Canadian oil-sands producers to ...
Calif. Sea Otter Deaths Pinned to Freshwater Toxin
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 17th, 2010
GreenWire: A study out from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in coordination with the state Department of Fish and Game blames a freshwater toxin for leaking into the Pacific Ocean and contributing to sea otter mortality in bays and estuaries. Until now, researchers have been puzzled as to why the California sea otter population has been hit hard for the second year in a row. Some have speculated that great white shark attacks, infectious diseases or simple malnutrition could be the ...
Hurricanes and the River Flowing
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 17th, 2010
Inter Press Service: In the evening the lowering clouds burst. Through the night they loosed their torrents on the southeastern coast of Haiti. The next morning, the water of the Felse River is at the bumper of an SUV fording it. Another metre and the engine would be submerged. Just two years ago, the riverbed was only 10 metres wide. Then four hurricanes hit the area in 2008. Now the flood plain spans 300 metres of stone and gravel. Countless tonnes of rocky debris from the mountains rising ...
BP relief well intercepts ruptured Gulf well
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 17th, 2010
Reuters: Efforts to permanently plug the world's largest offshore oil spill reached a milestone when BP Plc's crucial relief well reached its target -- the blown-out Macondo well that began spewing oil almost five months ago, a U.S. official said. Now that the relief well has intersected with BP's well, workers have an opening through which they can pump in mud and cement to kill the Macondo well for good. "The aggregate data available supports the conclusion that the two wells are ...
UK retailers cut waste by half
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 17th, 2010
Guardian: UKs retailers have voluntarily halved the amount of waste they send to landfill compared with five years ago, a new report reveals today. Less than a quarter of the discarded food, packaging, bags and building materials produced by retailers is now sent to landfill compared with almost 50% in 2005, the study from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) found. It says retailers are increasingly reducing landfill waste by reusing materials or finding partners who could reuse them, ...
United States: Northeast Regulator Lightens Shale Drillers’ Load
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 17th, 2010
Greenwire: A little-known but important regulator is scaling back some of its aggressive restrictions on natural gas drilling as the four governors who oversee the agency weigh in how to balance gas drilling and water quality in the Marcellus Shale. Most notably, the Delaware River Basin Commission, or DRBC, is reducing the amount of money it will require drillers to set aside for environmental cleanup and regulation. Previous drafts, according to a source, had recommended requiring a $5 ...