RSS Feed
Archive for January, 2012
Salazar Signs Grand Canyon Mining Ban
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 9th, 2012
New York Times: Ken Salazar, the interior secretary, discussed the mining moratorium on Monday with a map of the Grand Canyon in the background at the National Geographic Society in Washington.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar formally signed a 20-year moratorium on new uranium and other hard rock mining claims on a million acres of federal land around the Grand Canyon on Monday, saying it was a “serious and necessary step” to preserve the mile-deep canyon and the river that runs through it.
The move, which...
Revisiting the Deepwater Horizon Plumes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 9th, 2012
New York Times: Maybe the plumes were really clouds.
I am talking about the famous plumes from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the event that roiled the Gulf Coast and scrambled energy politics in mid-2010. Many readers will remember reports, first carried in this newspaper, that a considerable volume of hydrocarbons released in the spill did not reach the surface of the gulf. Instead they dissolved into deep water, forming what appeared at the time to be enormous plumes of dissolved oil and gas.
That first...
GOP Argues Against Grand Canyon Moratorium
Posted by National Public Radio: Laurel Morales on January 9th, 2012
National Public Radio: The U.S. Department of the Interior is placing a 20-year moratorium on new mining claims in and around the Grand Canyon. Environmentalists say the ban is crucial to protecting the region. However, the mining industry and some Republicans say the moratorium will be harmful to Arizona's economy and the nation's energy independence.
Whooping crane migration grounded in regulatory flap
Posted by Reuters: Ian Simpson on January 9th, 2012
Reuters: A flock of rare whooping cranes on its inaugural winter migration to Florida are grounded in Alabama while a government agency decides whether a plane guiding them will be allowed to proceed.
The whooping cranes, part of North America's tallest flying bird species, have been in pens in Alabama since last month as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) looks into whether the 1,285-mile flight violates regulations.
The pilots of the ultralight plane guiding the flock from Wisconsin to two...
United Kingdom: ‘Impressive’ find of rare beetles
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 9th, 2012
BBC: The discovery of a number of rare beetles at a Gloucestershire nature reserve is being celebrated by experts.
Eleven rugged oil beetles, which are believed to be in serious decline, were counted at the Elliott nature reserve on Swift's Hill near Stroud.
The Stroud valleys have been a stronghold for the beetle, as have reserves in Somerset and Wiltshire.
A Buglife spokesman said the beetles were usually found in low numbers, so to find 11 in one go was "impressive".
'Good sign'
The...
United States: Iceless lake concerns scientists
Posted by Sandusky Register: Tom Jackson on January 9th, 2012
Sandusky Register: Lake Erie's ice is missing.
It's January, and the area went through a cold snap last week. But people who look out across the lake are still waiting for the usual winter coat of ice to show up.
It's an odd sight, said George Leshkevich, a research scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Mich.
"I would say at this point in the season, certainly the Western Basin should have a fairly substantial ice cover,"...
Canada pipeline hearings near
Posted by Wall Street Journal: Edward Welsch on January 9th, 2012
Wall Street Journal: The first of more than a year's worth of public hearings over a proposed pipeline designed to ship crude from Canada's landlocked oil-sands to the Pacific begins Tuesday, threatening to fan a debate in Canada over the country's growing status as a global energy powerhouse.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently ratcheted up support for the idea of transporting some of Canada's growing oil production westward to the coast, where it can be loaded onto tankers and sent to thirsty Asian markets. The...
Supreme Court to hear case of dream home quashed by EPA
Posted by Christian Science Monitor: Warren Richey on January 9th, 2012
Christian Science Monitor: The US Supreme Court on Monday is set to hear a case involving the Environmental Protection Agency that some property-rights advocates and business groups say is an example of how onerous federal regulations are spreading throughout the country.
The case examines whether an Idaho couple may seek the help of a federal judge to decide a dispute with the EPA over whether the lot they purchased for a planned dream home is a federally-regulated wetland.
Environmental groups say the couple...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Supreme Court to hear case of dream home quashed by EPANigeria’s oil disasters are met by silence
Posted by Guardian: Michael Keating on January 9th, 2012
Guardian: In 2010 the world watched in horror as the Gulf of Mexico filled with 5m gallons of oil from an undersea leak caused by the careless handling of equipment on the part of BP and its partner Halliburton. Shocking images of uncontrolled spillage erupting from the ocean floor travelled around the world for weeks, sparking a media frenzy, a range of stern governmental responses and a huge amount of public outrage. BP has spent millions on the clean-up and millions more on a public relations campaign,...
Climate change can cause alpine meadows disappear in coming decades: Study
Posted by Daily News and Analysis: None Given on January 9th, 2012
Daily News and Analysis: A new study of changing mountain vegetation has suggested that some alpine meadows could disappear within the next few decades as a result of climate change.
The first ever pan-European study carried out by an international group of researchers revealed that climate change is having a more profound effect on alpine vegetation than expected.
Led by researchers from the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Vienna, biologists from 13 different countries in Europe analysed 867 vegetation...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate change can cause alpine meadows disappear in coming decades: Study