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Archive for March 5th, 2013
A Must Read Account of Fracking Colorado
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on March 5th, 2013
EcoWatch: I went to a meeting earlier this winter in the Colorado Governor`s Office. I’m not a regular.
The Governor, John Hickenlooper, Hick to his friends, had called the meeting with Boulder County Commissioners to discuss the county’s draft regulations governing the recovery of oil and gas found in the county’s deep underground shale formations. The fact is that most of the state is underlain by these ancient and organically rich seabeds. All are ripe for exploitation through the use of the industry’s...
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Forests under fire: Australia’s imperiled south west
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 5th, 2013
Mongabay: In the far southwestern corner of Western Australia, beyond the famed wineries in the shadow of the Margaret River, lies an ecosystem like no other, the South West ecoregion. This part of Australia has been identified as one of 34 global biodiversity hotspots, home to rare endemic flora and fauna like the Carnaby’s black cockatoo, numbat (banded anteaters), woylie (brush-tailed bettong), mainland quokka and over 1500 plant species, most found nowhere else. Unfortunately, this unique habitat is being...
U.S. Marine Battles TransCanada in Court over Eminent Domain for Keystone XL
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on March 5th, 2013
EcoWatch: [Editor's note: Thanks to Michael Bishop for providing EcoWatch this firsthand account of what happens when a company like TransCanada claims eminent domain on one's property and begins building a tar sands pipeline--the southern leg of the Keystone XL. Unfortunately, this is one of many examples of corporations putting profits before human health and the environment in pursuit of extreme fossil fuel extraction. The good news is that people like Michael Bishop are fighting back. This is the second...
Canada: Premier Wall says trade mission bigger than Keystone
Posted by Metro News: Morgan Modjeski on March 5th, 2013
Metro News: In an attempt to sway American lawmakers on the Keystone XL pipeline, Premier Brad Wall will be heading to Washington on Tuesday morning.
On the trip, the premier will be meeting with various senators, members of congress, the Canadian ambassador to the United States, Gary Doer and assistant secretary of state Kerri-Ann Jones. Wall said he feels the trip is an important one for Saskatchewan and the country.
"There`s something else at stake here,” he said.
“We`ve seen Canadian oil branded...
Keystone XL Ruling Delay May Set Back TransCanada Pipe Six Months
Posted by Bloomberg: Rebecca Penty and Bradley Olson on March 5th, 2013
Bloomberg: TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s timeline for the Keystone XL pipeline may be pushed back at least six months if the Obama administration doesn’t issue final approval by the end of June, extending lower Canadian crude prices that threaten oil-sands growth.
TransCanada expects a decision by mid-year to complete its pipeline by early 2015. If a decision is pushed past September, the company faces choosing between spending more or delaying startup until mid-2015, Alex Pourbaix, TransCanada’s president of...
Natural Gas Seen Gaining With Obama’s Fracking-Friendly Nominees
Posted by Bloomberg: Mark Drajem on March 5th, 2013
Bloomberg: President Barack Obama says his picks to guide energy and environmental policy in his second term will lead the charge against global warming, a fight that may have one immediate beneficiary: natural gas.
Obama picked Ernest Moniz, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientist, for U.S. Energy secretary and Gina McCarthy, a longtime environmental regulator, to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
“They’re going to be making sure that we’re investing in American energy, that we’re doing...
Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver Taking Keystone XL Battle to U.S
Posted by Globe and Mail: Bill Curry on March 5th, 2013
Globe and Mail: With a formal public debate on the pipeline still to come in the United States, the Canadian government has more lobbying ahead as it tries to win over a White House under pressure from the U.S. environmental movement to act more aggressively in response to climate change.
Mr. Oliver plans on reminding influential Americans that even with a rise in domestic production, the U.S. will continue to rely heavily on imported oil for decades.
"You can make a decision to take oil from some other countries...
Protesters Set Up Camp Along Enbridge Pipelines in Minnesota
Posted by Duluth News Tribune: John Hageman, on March 5th, 2013
Duluth News Tribune: Just over a snowbank in rural Clearwater County, Minn., four orange posts stick out of the ground.
They mark where four pipelines run underground, transporting crude oil to the Enbridge Energy terminal in Superior. But they also mark a point of protest for those sitting around a campfire on the other side of the snowbank.
Those protesters, some American Indian and some not, oppose the pipelines’ existence under Red Lake reservation lands, which they say is illegal. Since Thursday, they’ve camped...
Colombia’s glaciers could disappear in 30 years – report
Posted by AlertNet: Anastasia Moloney on March 5th, 2013
AlertNet: Colombia's glaciers are melting so fast that the country has lost more than half of its glacier mass over the past three decades due to rising temperatures linked to climate change, according to a report by the Colombian Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM).
"In the last 30 years, we have lost 57 percent of our glacier mass due to climate change... If current trends continue it is estimated that in about 30 years there will be no snow-capped mountains in the country,"...
Snowstorm hits north-central U.S., heads to mid-Atlantic
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 5th, 2013
Reuters: A blizzard dumped heavy snow on the midwestern United States, disrupting highway and air travel on Tuesday as it moved east toward the Ohio Valley and the mid-Atlantic states.
More than 1,000 flights were canceled in and out of Chicago's O'Hare and Midway airports and nearly 100 more were canceled in and out of Minneapolis-St.Paul International Airport, according to the FlightAware.com flight tracking service.
Heavy snow and patches of ice made driving difficult along the highways in parts...