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Archive for September, 2010
Canada: Scientists to review oil sands pollution of waterways
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 30th, 2010
AFP: Canada's environment minister on Thursday appointed a scientific panel to review waterways monitoring near the Alberta oil sands, in response to growing concerns over pollution from tailings. "We are determined to develop Canada's oil sands in a manner that it sustainable and environmentally sensitive," Environment Minister Jim Prentice said. "This independent review by some of Canada's most respected scientists is a critical step in ensuring that environmental issues are ...
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BP to pay record 15-million-dollar US air-pollution fine
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 30th, 2010
AFP: British energy giant BP has pledged to pay a record 15-million-dollar fine to the US government for releasing pollutants into the air at its Texas refinery, officials said Thursday. The Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in a joint statement that BP Products North America, a US subsidiary of the group, "has agreed to pay a 15-million-dollar penalty to resolve federal Clean Air Act violations at its Texas City, Texas, petroleum refinery." The ...
Canada forms panel to probe oil sands pollution
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 30th, 2010
Reuters: Canada's environment minister has formed a scientific panel to examine whether Alberta's oil sands projects are polluting the Athabasca River as charged by an influential water ecologist. Environment Minister Jim Prentice said on Thursday the panel, led by a former United Nations Environment Program director, will advise him on the state of environmental research and monitoring being done in the oil sands region. The move follows the Alberta government's announcement last week ...
1000 rare tortoises poached each week in Madagascar
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 30th, 2010
Mongabay: One thousand endangered tortoises are being illegally collected each week in southern Madagascar, reports WWF. The trade, driven by international demand for the endemic radiated tortoise (Astrochelys radiata) and the spider tortoise (Pyxis arachnoids) as well as local consumption, is driving the slow-to-reproduce species toward extinction in the wild. Additionally, tortoise trafficking poses a risk to local authorities, with poachers increasingly likely to be "armed and dangerous," ...
Natural Gas Drillers Protest Nomination of Fracking Critics for EPA Review Panel
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 30th, 2010
Greenwire: An oil and gas group is protesting the nomination of critics of hydraulic fracturing to serve on a panel that will peer review a U.S. EPA study of the drilling practice. The Independent Petroleum Association of America sent a letter (pdf) to EPA today highlighting two critics on the list of 82 potential panelists. "Unfortunately, a number of nominees' past comments betray a strong and unambiguous antipathy toward shale development in general, and hydraulic fracturing in ...
Lawmakers Split Over 330,000-Acre Idaho Wilderness Proposal
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 30th, 2010
Greenwire: A proposal to designate more than 300,000 acres of wilderness in central Idaho appears to be in a political tailspin, dashing hopes among wilderness advocates that the Gem State could soon resolve a decades-long debate over management of its public lands. Idaho Republican Rep. Mike Simpson's "Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act" (CIEDRA) was reintroduced this spring with sponsorship from the entire Idaho congressional delegation and garnered the support of Forest ...
U.S. oil spill waters contain carcinogens: report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 30th, 2010
Reuters: University researchers said on Thursday they recently found alarming levels of cancer-causing toxins in an area of the Gulf of Mexico affected by BP's oil spill, raising the specter of long-lasting health concerns. Oregon State University (OSU) researchers found sharply heightened levels of chemicals including carcinogens in the waters off the coast of Louisiana in August, the last sampling date, even after BP successfully capped its runaway Gulf well in mid-July. Near Grand ...
James Cameron gets close look at Canada’s oil sands
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2010
Reuters: Oil sands may not be the black eye on Canada that James Cameron asserted earlier this year, but the director of "Avatar" said after a high-profile visit that the energy resource could become one without more stringent controls on development. Cameron, wrapping up three days of touring oil sands plants and meetings with industry officials, native leaders, scientists and politicians, said Alberta's energy wealth stands to be a blessing or a curse, depending on how it is ...
Flood Of Support Rises to Save Inle Lake
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2010
Inter Press Service: Monsoon rains might have brought welcome relief to the inhabitants of Inle Lake, but concerned Burmese groups – both government and non-governmental organisations alike – are rallying to preserve Burma's second largest lake from drying up again, as it did from earlier this year due to prolonged drought. At 900 metres above sea level, Inle Lake is a national heritage site in the southern part of Shan State in Burma, also known as Myanmar, and home to more than 170,000 people in over ...
New Zealand: Recession offers chance to re-think coastal development
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2010
NZPA: Every cloud has a silver lining and environmental advocates say the recession-driven hiatus in sub-divisions and development offers a chance for a major overhaul of coastal management. The Environmental Defence Society (EDS) today called for re-writing of the Coastal Policy Statement (NZCPS) set down in 1994 to provide councils with national direction on coastal management. ``Those policies are now out of synch with public sentiment and need changing,'' said EDS policy analyst ...