Archive for February 4th, 2012

United Kingdom: Anti-fracking demo in Enniskillen

BBC: About 100 people have gathered in Enniskillen to demonstrate against the use of fracking to extract gas from shale rock in County Fermanagh. Earlier this week an exploration company said there could be enough gas to guarantee natural gas supply for Northern Ireland over 50 years. However, the process has proved controversial elsewhere. In Lancashire, it has caused small earthquakes and in America, water has been polluted. The process used in capturing the gas from the shale rock is hydraulic...

20 Million Years Later, Russians Work To Drill Into Lake

National Public Radio: DAVID GREENE, HOST: Imagine a place on earth where there's been no light, no wind for millions of years. Lake Vostok is one such place. The world's third largest lake, in terms of amount of water, has long been hidden, buried beneath two miles of ice until, perhaps, this coming week. Russian researchers are about to break through that ice. And to tell us what they might find and what dangers they may encounter, we've brought in John Priscu. He's a researcher at Montana State University who's...

Democrats counter energy security claims about Keystone pipeline project

The Hill: Democrats this week opened an aggressive front to counter the Republican push to green-light the Keystone XL pipeline, alleging the project will do little to improve U.S. energy security. The move is meant to undercut Republicans’ rationale for speedy approval of the Alberta-to-Texas pipeline – that the project will make the United States less reliant on oil from unstable nations. Democrats in the House and Senate revived long-standing concerns this week that oil from the project will be exported...

Texas drought forces a town to sip from a truck

New York Times: The water that once nourished this central Texas community never traveled far: it came from a fenced-in well at the edge of Lake Travis, down a winding street next to the golf course. These days, the water that flows from kitchen and bathroom faucets takes an extraordinary journey that can be measured not in feet but in miles. This drought-stricken place in the scenic hills outside Austin has been forced to bring in water by truck from more than 10 miles away because its sole well came close to...

Sturgeon Scarcity Affects More Than Caviar

National Public Radio: Sturgeon have been swimming around for more than 200 million years, but their eggs are sought after for caviar. This week, the National Marine Fisheries Service placed the Atlantic sturgeon on its endangered species list. Guest host David Greene speaks with Dr. Ellen Pikitch, executive director of the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University.

Oil spurs Canadian PM China visit

BBC: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will visit China next week to discuss the future of Canada's oil products. The visit comes after the US rejected a pipeline route from Alberta to Texas. Five Cabinet ministers, including the ministers of natural resources, trade and foreign affairs will join Mr Harper on his second official visit to China. A spokesman for the prime minister told the Associated Press it was "absolutely in Canada's interests" to build a new pipeline to deliver oil to...