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Archive for January 16th, 2013
Could Some Midwest Land Support New Biofuel Refineries?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2013
National Public Radio: Millions of acres of marginal farmland in the Midwest - land that isn't in good enough condition to grow crops - could be used to produce liquid fuels made from plant material, according to a study in Nature. And those biofuels could, in theory, provide about 25 percent of the advanced biofuels required by a 2007 federal law.
But there are many ifs and buts about this study - and, in fact, about the future of advanced biofuels.
The gas you put in your car is already 10 percent ethanol, and...
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Interior Chief Had ‘Common Ground’ With Oil Industry
Posted by Bloomberg: Mark Drajem on January 16th, 2013
Bloomberg: As oil spewed from the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar pledged to keep a “boot on the neck” of BP Plc (BP/) to get it to plug the leak and clean the mess. Then he halted new deepwater drilling.
Environmental advocates cheered those actions. Over the next two years, Salazar took a more conciliatory approach with the energy industry, lifting the ban in the Gulf a few months later, agreeing to allow exploration in the Arctic and setting a plan for offshore production...
Yoko Ono on Anti-Fracking Bus Ahead of Cuomo Decision
Posted by Bloomberg: Jim Efstathiou Jr. and Freeman Klopott on January 16th, 2013
Bloomberg: Yoko Ono, who opposes hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, looks to Pennsylvania and sees her worst fears realized. New York landowners, eager for the cash energy development can bring, see a promised land.
In a last-ditch lobbying blitz, both sides are pitching their opposing visions to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has until next month to decide whether the drilling process also known as fracking can be used in his state. New York holds the largest untapped reserves in the Marcellus Shale,...
Ken Salazar leaves contested legacy as Obama’s interior secretary
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2013
Guardian: Barack Obama's top adviser on oil drilling and the management of America's last wide open spaces announced on Wednesday that he would leave the cabinet by March.
The departure of Ken Salazar as interior secretary leaves Obama with virtually a clean slate to remake his energy and environmental team. The only other original member of Obama's original green "dream team", the Nobel prize-winning energy secretary Steven Chu, is also expected to step down at the start of Obama's second term.
As interior...
‘Nuclear waste? No thanks,’ say Lake District national park tourism chiefs
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2013
Guardian: Cumbria's tourism board has joined the growing clamour against any further research into the burying of nuclear power station waste within the borders of the Lake District national park.
The board – which oversees the park, the county's largest earner and one of the most-visited group of attractions in the UK – has also stated its strong opposition to investigations in the Solway Coast area of outstanding natural beauty on the West Cumbrian side of the famous lakes and fells.
Eric Robson, chair...
Freedom Foods ‘failing to crack down’ on poor salmon farming standards
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2013
Guardian: The RSPCA's Freedom Food labelling schemehas been accused by anglers of failing to crack down on poor environmental standards at Scottish salmon farms.
The Salmon and Trout Association, an influential charity which promotes angling and wild fisheries, said a number of farms accredited under the animal welfare scheme had proven records of high levels of seabed pollution and sea lice infestation, a parasite which has affected scores of Scottish fish farms, yet no action had been taken against them....
Canada: Idle No More—Think Occupy, But With Deep Deep Roots
Posted by EcoWatch: Bill McKibben on January 16th, 2013
EcoWatch: I don`t claim to know exactly what`s going on with Idle No More, the surging movement of indigenous activists that started late last year in Canada and is now spreading across the continent--much of the action, from hunger strikes to road and rail blockades, is in scattered and remote places, and even as people around the world plan for solidarity actions on Friday, the press has done a poor job of bringing it into focus.
But I sense that it`s every bit as important as the Occupy movement that...
Interior chief Salazar stepping down in March
Posted by Associated Press: http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site333/2013/0116/20130116__USObamaI on January 16th, 2013
Associated Press: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who oversaw a moratorium on offshore drilling after the BP oil spill and promoted alternative energy sources throughout the nation, will step down in March.
A former U.S. senator from Colorado, Salazar ran the Interior Department throughout President Barack Obama's first term and pushed renewable power such as solar and wind and the settlement of a longstanding dispute with American Indians.
With Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson also leaving...
United Kingdom: Insecticide ‘unacceptable’ danger: report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2013
Guardian: The world's most widely used insecticide has for the first time been officially labelled an "unacceptable" danger to bees feeding on flowering crops. Environmental campaigners say the conclusion, by Europe's leading food safety authority, sounds the "death knell" for the insect nerve agent.
The chemical's manufacturer, Bayer, claimed the report, released on Wednesday, did not alter existing risk assessments and warned against "over-interpretation of the precautionary principle".
The report...
Five climate change protesters charged with trespassing after crashing Vancouver Enbridge hearing
Posted by Vancouver Sun: Mike Hager on January 16th, 2013
Vancouver Sun: Five protesters have been charged with trespassing after crashing Tuesday’s public hearings on Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project at its Vancouver venue.
The five were taking aim at what they say is a flawed review process that excludes the public and any mention of the proposed pipeline’s contribution to climate change, according to Sean Devlin -- one of those charged.
Vancouver police spokesman Sgt. Randy Fincham said three men and two women were taken to a city jail, charged and released...