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Archive for September, 2010
Allen: Blown-out Gulf Well To Be Sealed By Sunday
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2010
AP: The U.S. government's point person on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill says the well that blew out is expected to be permanently sealed and declared dead by Sunday, nearly five months after a rig explosion set off the disaster. National Incident Commander Thad Allen told reporters gathered at a seafood distributor in Kenner, La., on Wednesday that a relief well is expected to intersect with the blown out well within 24 hours. He said mud and cement will then be pumped in, which is ...
Origin Energy resurrects plan for PNG hydro
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2010
Age: Origin Energy says it will sign an agreement with the governments of Papua New Guinea and Queensland to potentially support development of a large hydro-electricity project. The 50:50 joint venture between Origin and PNG Sustainable Development Program Ltd could ultimately see the hydro plant built at PNG's Purari River, the nation's third largest waterway. Under the plan, electricity from the project would be used to power villages in PNG and would be transmitted to Australia ...
Water security and climate change: how science can help
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2010
SciDev.Net: Policymakers need better information about the regional impact of climate change on water supplies, and on ways of adapting to it. For centuries, food production -- and thus social development -- has depended heavily on access to the water needed to grow crops or rear livestock. Having enough water is only part of the issue, however: it must also be available when and where it is most needed. In the past few decades, the balance between water supplies and human need has come ...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Water security and climate change: how science can helpKiribati: As a tiny island nation makes a big sacrifice, will the rest of the world follow suit?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2010
Mongabay: Kiribati, a small nation consisting of 33 Pacific island atolls, is forecast to be among the first countries swamped by rising sea levels. Nevertheless, the country recently made an astounding commitment: it closed over 150,000 square miles of its territory to fishing, an activity that accounts for nearly half the government's tax revenue. What moved the tiny country to take this monumental action? President Anote Tong, says Kiribati ("Kir-ee-bas") is sending a message to the world: "We need ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Kiribati: As a tiny island nation makes a big sacrifice, will the rest of the world follow suit?After blast, DOT seeks tougher pipeline oversight
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2010
AP: Federal oversight of the nation's pipelines would be tightened and penalties for some violations more than doubled under an Obama administration plan sent to Congress Wednesday in response to a deadly explosion in California and a major oil spill in Michigan. The legislation would increase from $1 million to $2.5 million the maximum fine for the most serious violations involving deaths, injuries or major environmental harm, the Department of Transportation said. It also would pay for ...
United States: New Lawsuit Filed in Fracking Country
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2010
NYT: More than a dozen families in Susquehanna County, Pa., filed a lawsuit late Tuesday against the Southwestern Energy Production Company asserting that a succession of "releases, spills, and discharges of combustible gases, hazardous chemicals, and industrial wastes" from the company`s nearby drilling sites have contaminated their drinking water and made them sick. In simpler terms, it`s the latest salvo against hydraulic fracturing -- a long-used and highly contentious drilling ...
Highway plan would destroy Serengeti: biologists
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2010
AFP: Plans to drive a 50-kilometre (31-mile) two-lane highway into Tanzania's Serengeti would destroy one of the world's last great wildlife sanctuaries, top biologists warned on Wednesday. "The road will cause an environmental disaster," 27 biodiversity experts said in a commentary published by the science journal Nature. They urged the Tanzanian government to look at an alternative route that runs far south of the UN-listed haven. The planned road slashes right across the ...
Why the Gulf Oil Spill Isn’t Going Away
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2010
National Geographic: Nearly five months after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico (map), causing the worst oil spill in U.S. waters, BP is set to permanently cap the damaged well as soon as this week. But the discovery of widespread oil on the seafloor and studies of remnant undersea oil plumes suggests that the debate over the ecological impact and ultimate fate of the Gulf oil spill--which released an estimated 4.9 million barrels of crude--is just warming up. (One barrel equals ...
South Africa: All Systems Go for Global Biodiversity Meeting
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 14th, 2010
BuaNews: Preparations are in full swing for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), with Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Rejoice Mabudafhasi jetting off to Gabon on Wednesday to consolidate the African position. African countries had decided to adopt a common position and to speak in one voice during the CBD scheduled for October in Japan. "It is important that we gain a political momentum in order to get common position in most of the issues to be discussed at ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on South Africa: All Systems Go for Global Biodiversity MeetingNew rules slow Gulf drilling pace in shallow water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 14th, 2010
AP: The drilling moratorium enacted after the BP oil spill applies only to the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. Yet energy exploration in the Gulf's shallow waters has come to a virtual standstill as drillers grapple with tougher federal rules since the spill. The pace at which regulators grant drilling permits in water less than 500 feet deep has slowed sharply this summer, an Associated Press analysis of government data shows. Just four out of 10 shallow-water drilling applications have been ...