RSS Feed
Archive for February, 2013
Interior Department to Investigate Coal Exports
Posted by The Hill: Zack Colman on February 8th, 2013
The Hill: The Interior Department will investigate whether mining companies are gaming the federal government by skirting royalty payments, a pair of senior senators announced Friday.
The agency is looking into whether mining firms lowball the value of coal excavated from federal lands to minimize the fees they pay the government.
“The Department shares your concern that this matter should be taken seriously and be thoroughly investigated to determine if there is any merit to the allegations contained...
Landowners Threaten to Sue if New York Misses Fracking Deadline
Posted by Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Jon Campbell on February 8th, 2013
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: A statewide group of pro-drilling landowners says it will sue New York state if the Department of Environmental Conservation misses a fast-approaching deadline for its proposed hydraulic fracturing rules.
In a newsletter distributed to its members Friday, the head of the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York said the group is “laying the ground work for a lawsuit against New York State” if the state doesn’t finalize its fracking regulations by Feb. 27. If not finished by then, the regulations...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Landowners Threaten to Sue if New York Misses Fracking DeadlinePotable-Water-Reuse Ideas Go Forward in Texas, Despite Concerns
Posted by New York Times: Audrey White on February 8th, 2013
New York Times: The idea of turning treated sewage into drinking water may give some people pause. But with lake levels having officially dropped below 40 percent of capacity on Tuesday, this onetime oil boomtown plans to move ahead with the technology. The city hopes to produce five million gallons of water a day next year with potable-reuse technology, which officials say is safe. “There was probably a lot of reservations about reuse water projects when we first discussed it in the late ’90s,” Mayor Glenn Barham...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Potable-Water-Reuse Ideas Go Forward in Texas, Despite ConcernsIn California, the Snow Tells the Future for the Water Supply
Posted by New York Times: Norimitsu Onishi on February 8th, 2013
New York Times: Along Highway 50 in the Sierra Nevada, elevation 6,820 feet, a California winter ritual unfolded here on a recent morning. In the snow-blanketed meadow of a local homeowner’s backyard, reporters representing news organizations from across the state followed a man on skis who kept plunging an aluminum tube into the snow. Leading the pack was Frank Gehrke, California’s chief snow surveyor, the man responsible for measuring the Sierra Nevada’s snowpack, the source of a third of this state’s water supply....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on In California, the Snow Tells the Future for the Water SupplyBoulder NCAR scientist says climate change worsens Northeast storm
Posted by Daily Camera: Charlie Brennan on February 8th, 2013
Daily Camera: Climate change will likely add to the final snowfall totals from the monster winter storm lashing the Northeast by 5 to 10 percent, according to a leading expert on climate change at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Kevin Trenberth, a distinguished senior scientist in the Climate Analysis Section at NCAR, said Friday that snowfall totals from the storm are being influenced by both warmer air temperatures, leading to the atmosphere retaining more moisture, and a 1-degree increase in...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Boulder NCAR scientist says climate change worsens Northeast stormNew England to bear brunt of powerful blizzard
Posted by Reuters: Scott Malone on February 8th, 2013
Reuters: New England braced on Thursday for a possibly record-setting winter storm, with forecasts of up to 2 feet of snow already causing airlines to cancel thousands of flights and utilities to prepare for power outages.
The storm was blowing in from the Midwest where it began dropping snow on the Chicago area on Thursday afternoon. It was due to bring light snow to the Northeastern United States on Friday morning before ramping up to blizzard conditions by afternoon.
In Boston, which was expected...
Climate change is ‘threat multiplier’
Posted by Politico: Sherri Goodman and Gordon Sullivan on February 8th, 2013
Politico: Severe drought. Record heat. Extreme storms. In the past year, the United States has experienced conditions that have already become commonplace in many of the most volatile parts of the world. But not until the day of his second Inauguration did President Barack Obama put climate change squarely back on the table, after a long presidential campaign from which the issue had been largely absent.
While the fact of climate change might be fodder for political debate, it is widely accepted across...
Obama Needs to Be Brutally Honest About Climate Change in His State of the Union
Posted by National Journal: Coral Davenport on February 8th, 2013
National Journal: President Obama surprised even his most ardent environmental backers with his impassioned inaugural pledge to fight climate change in his second term. In the State of the Union address Tuesday, he’ll need to tell Congress and the American people how--specifically--he plans to take on the challenge. If he’s honest, it won’t be pretty. In his first term, Obama rarely spoke about the urgent and fearful nature of the climate crisis, or how long and difficult--politically, economically, and diplomatically--it...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Obama Needs to Be Brutally Honest About Climate Change in His State of the UnionThe Scary Truth About How Much Climate Change is Costing You
Posted by National Journal: None Given on February 7th, 2013
National Journal: Jimmy Strickland can tell you exactly how much money rising sea levels have cost his business. In 1989, he opened his accounting firm in a one-story brick building near Norfolk’s historic cobblestoned Hague district, which surrounds one of this low-lying city’s many tidal rivers.
Dressed in pinstripes and a large, gold class ring, the white-haired Strickland is a consummate Southern gentleman--and also a consummate small-business owner. In his soft coastal accent, he tells the story of how the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on The Scary Truth About How Much Climate Change is Costing YouFlorida’s big python hunt going out with a whimper
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 7th, 2013
Reuters: A nearly month-long hunt for Burmese pythons in Florida's Everglades was wrapping up this week with little to show for the efforts of more than 1,500 would-be snake slayers armed with everything from clubs and machetes to firearms and spears.
A spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which organized the hunt, known as the Python Challenge, said on Thursday that only 50 Burmese pythons had been reported captured or killed as part of the event.
That means the hunt,...