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Archive for February 25th, 2012
Poll shows support for Keystone pipeline, environmental regulations
Posted by The Hill: Ben Geman on February 25th, 2012
The Hill: New polling data shows strong support for approving the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline that the Obama administration rejected in January, a decision that unleashed a torrent of GOP attacks against President Obama. The Pew Research Center poll released Thursday finds 66 percent who have heard about the issue say the proposed pipeline to bring oil sands from Alberta, Canada, to Gulf Coast refineries should be approved, while 23 percent say it shouldn’t. The data reveals a partisan split but substantial...
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Canada: There is a way to clean up ‘dirty’ oil’s problems
Posted by Globe and Mail: Jeffrey Simpson on February 25th, 2012
Globe and Mail: Canada's bitumen resources have a problem, and neither the companies that wish to exploit bitumen or the governments trying to help them seem to understand it.
Bitumen, from which oil is produced, takes more energy per barrel to get at than conventional oil pumped from the ground. Because it needs more energy, bitumen-derived oil produces more greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming than conventional oil.
That gap -- between bitumen-derived and conventional oil -- is the problem...
Court Says Landowners Own Groundwater
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 25th, 2012
New York Times: The State Supreme Court on Friday ruled that landowners can consider the groundwater underneath their holdings as personal property. “We held long ago that oil and gas are owned in place, and we find no reason to treat groundwater differently,” Justice Nathan L. Hecht wrote for the court. The case involved a landowner who had been unable to get permission from local groundwater managers to use as much groundwater as he sought. Thomas Mason, a lawyer who specializes in water rights with the Austin...
A Second N.Y. Ruling Upholds Local Authority Over Gas Drilling
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 25th, 2012
New York Times: After two state judges upheld drilling bans established by two upstate towns in New York, the question becomes: how many more towns will go ahead and pass their own prohibitions on hydrofracking?
A New York state judge ruled Friday that the town of Middlefield in Otsego County can ban natural gas drilling within its borders, the second time in a week that a state court has affirmed local authority over the drilling process known as hydrofracking.
Earlier this week, another state judge upheld...