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Archive for February 2nd, 2012
Canada, Alberta to announce new oil sands monitoring
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2012
Reuters: The governments of Canada and Alberta will announce details of a new environmental-monitoring regime in the province's oil sands on Friday, as they look shore up an industry whose growth plans are under attack from environmental groups.
Mark Cooper, a spokesman for Alberta Environment Minister Diana McQueen, said on Thursday that the two governments would make an announcement in Edmonton, Alberta, on the new monitoring plan. He did not offer details.
Separate panels commissioned by the two...
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Analysis: Canada plan to sell oil to China faces big hurdles
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2012
Reuters: Prime Minister Stephen Harper may still be smarting from Canada's failed bid to ramp up oil exports to the United States, but his plan B could prove to be even tougher.
Harper heads across the Pacific next week in a bid to convince China to satisfy its growing energy appetite with Canada's vast oil reserves.
Though it appears a classic supply-demand match on the surface, the plan faces hurdles that range from how long it will take to build the pipeline to environmental dangers and questions...
India’s panel price crash could spark solar revolution
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2012
New Scientist: SOLAR power has always had a reputation for being expensive, but not for much longer. In India, electricity from solar is now cheaper than that from diesel generators. The news - which will boost India's "Solar Mission" to install 20,000 megawatts of solar power by 2022 - could have implications for other developing nations too.
Recent figures from market analysts Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) show that the price of solar panels fell by almost 50 per cent in 2011. They are now just one-quarter...
Drought, warmer weather persist in much of U.S
Posted by Reuters: Carey Gillam on February 2nd, 2012
Reuters: Weird weather kept vexing large swathes of the United States over the last week, with unseasonably warm and dry conditions melting northern snows and spreading drought through the southwest, even as heavy rains soaked parched pastures in Texas and Oklahoma, according to climate experts.
Unseasonably warm temperatures were noted in Kansas and across many areas of the central Plains, with Kansas recording temperatures well above 60 degrees Fahrenheit this week.
For January, the state-wide average...
Harsh Roadside Environments Creating Hardy Salamanders, Study Suggests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2012
Yale Environment 360: The old adage -- “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” -- seems to apply to salamanders evolving to survive in contaminated environments near roads. Yale University researcher Steven Brady compared Steven Brady/Yale University A spotted salamander salamanders breeding in roadside ponds with those breeding in woodland ponds, and he found that the roadside salamanders have a tough life. Only 56 percent of salamander eggs in roadside ponds survive the first 10 weeks, compared with an 87 percent...
Why Barack Obama will have to talk about climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2012
Mother Jones: In his State of the Union address on January 24, President Obama largely avoided the topic of climate change. He talked about it once, in passing, as a topic on which "the differences in this chamber may be too deep" to enact new legislation. Its less-controversial cousin, "energy," on the other hand, got a whopping 23 mentions as an area where Republicans and Democrats should be able to find agreement.
It became clear well before that address that the president and his administration don't think...
Middle East trails again in green energy growth
Posted by Reuters: Maha El Dahan and Daniel Fineren on February 2nd, 2012
Reuters: Talk of a Middle Eastern green energy boom is likely to prove no more than a mirage with little hope of the region saving clean technology companies from the shrinking project pools of Europe.
Instead India, China and Latin America offer some hope for green energy companies struggling in a European market drowning in debt and a North American market awash with gas.
"We expect some growth will happen here in the Middle East but it will take time for this to become a robust industry," Juan Araluce...
Australia: Tropical cyclones to cause $109B in damages by 2100
Posted by CBC: None Given on February 2nd, 2012
CBC: Tropical cyclones will cause $109 billion in damages worldwide by 2100 with the United States and China being hardest hit, says a new study.
The figure includes population and economic growth costs ($56 billion) as well as the effects of climate change ($53 billion). All figures are in U.S. dollars.
The estimates are based on a future global population of nine billion and an annual increase of approximately three per cent in gross world product until 2100, according to the study published on...
For Republicans, Keystone pipeline is central to agenda
Posted by New York Times: Jennifer Steinhauer on February 2nd, 2012
New York Times: Just six months ago, Keystone for many Americans was the state nickname for Pennsylvania. But now Keystone, the Canadian pipeline, has become a centerpiece of the Republican economic and political agenda, and the party’s preferred truncheon against President Obama. On the airwaves, on the campaign trail and in both chambers of Congress, Republicans are relentlessly pushing for an expansion of the pipeline known as Keystone XL and criticizing Mr. Obama’s decision to reject the project for now, forgoing...
United Kingdom: Caroline Spelman refuses to deny plans to slash environmental regulations
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2012
Guardian: The environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, has refused to deny that the Cabinet Office is proposing to rip up of thousands of pages of environmental regulations and guidance as part of the government's "red tape challenge". The proposal, revealed by the Guardian, is understood to be led by Oliver Letwin and is causing deep concern among green MPs and campaigners.
It follows the cutting of planning regulation guidance from 1,000 pages to just 50 pages, which sparked a national outcry last year....