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Archive for March 20th, 2013
Natural climate swings contribute more to increased monsoon rainfall than global warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 20th, 2013
ScienceDaily: Natural swings in the climate have significantly intensified Northern Hemisphere monsoon rainfall, showing that these swings must be taken into account for climate predictions in the coming decades, a new study finds.
The findings are published in the March 18 online publication of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Monsoon rainfall in the Northern Hemisphere impacts about 60% of the World population in Southeast Asia, West Africa and North America. Given the possible impacts...
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U.S. top court rules for timber industry over road runoff
Posted by Reuters: Lawrence Hurley on March 20th, 2013
Reuters: The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday endorsed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's long-standing decision not to require Clean Water Act permits for stormwater that runs off logging roads.
The nine-member court ruled on a 7-1 vote, with Justice Stephen Breyer recused, that the EPA's conclusion was a reasonable interpretation of the law.
The dispute - centering on two cases that the court consolidated - has attracted intense interest from the timber industry, which is keen to be exempt...
Gas Industry Loses Fight to Keep Fracking Pollution Case Secret
Posted by EcoWatch: Earthjustice on March 20th, 2013
EcoWatch: A judge ruled today in favor of journalists seeking access to information about a fracking pollution court case.
Judge Debbie O’Dell-Seneca reversed an order by a Washington County court sealing the record in a case in which a Pennsylvania family sued several gas companies over property damage and health impacts related to air and water pollution from nearby natural gas operations.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Observer-Reporter had intervened in the case to unseal the records, while...
As Obama Signals Surrender to TransCanada, It’s Time to Focus on Keystone XL’s Southern Leg
Posted by EcoWatch: Tom Weis on March 20th, 2013
EcoWatch: Why aren’t all Keystone XL opponents loudly demanding that President Obama stop construction of the pipeline’s 485-mile southern leg that is destroying the lives of our fellow Americans in Texas and Oklahoma? This is a classic case of something being hidden in plain view.
By approving construction of Keystone XL’s southern leg last spring, our “I’m all for pipelines” president not only sold out the people of Texas and Oklahoma, he is currently lighting the fuse to the tar sands “carbon bomb.”...
Justices Say Oregon Loggers Don’t Need Permits for Water Runoff
Posted by New York Times: Adam Liptak on March 20th, 2013
New York Times: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that logging companies and forestry officials in Oregon were not required to obtain permits from the Environmental Protection Agency for storm-water runoff from logging roads. The decision was a blow to conservationists who had used the permit process to block the silty runoff from logging, which they said choked forest streams. The ruling also suggested that at least some members of the court may be open to a fundamental re-examination of how federal courts...
New Technology Records Baseline Methane Emissions Prior to Construction of Fracking Infrastructure
Posted by EcoWatch: Damascus Citizens For Sustainability on March 20th, 2013
EcoWatch: Many know fracking`s iconic image: a faucet spewing flaming water, but fewer realize that it`s largely methane, the main constituent of natural gas, burning. Since 90 percent of natural gas is methane, methane levels directly reflect the amount of natural gas in an area.
After gas related activities come to a region, homeowners frequently discover methane (and other materials) in their water and/or air. However, they have little recourse because gas and gas pipeline companies persistently deny...
Pennsylvania Judge Orders Records Opened in Fracking Case
Posted by Bloomberg: Mark Drajem and Sophia Pearson on March 20th, 2013
Bloomberg: A Pennsylvania judge, handing a victory to local media and health groups, ordered documents unsealed in a settlement between gas-drillers and homeowners who accused the companies of contaminating their water.
Common Pleas Court Judge Debbie O’Dell-Seneca said in a ruling today that the natural-gas drillers failed to overcome the presumption that the records should be open unless the companies, including Fort Worth, Texas-based Range Resources Corp. (RRC), showed they’d suffer harm to trade secrets...
About 23 percent of world’s rigs drilling in Texas
Posted by San Antonio Express-News: Jennifer Hiller on March 20th, 2013
San Antonio Express-News: The Texas oil industry for several decades seemed headed into territory best described by the old saying "all hat and no cattle."
But the state appears awash again in oil and gas, with drilling in fields across the state, including one West Texas shale formation that could dwarf both the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas and North Dakota's famous Bakken Shale.
Texas recently had 839 drilling rigs operating -- nearly half of all rigs in the U.S. and 22.7 percent of rigs worldwide, according to...
German scientists quit oilsands research over heated public climate concerns
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 20th, 2013
Canadian Press: Pressure over environmental concerns has forced Germany's largest scientific organization to pull out of joint research with Alberta on better ways to upgrade oilsands bitumen.
German scientists with the Helmholtz-Alberta Initiative will no longer work on such projects, Bernd Schneider, lead scientific co-ordinator for the Helmholtz Association, said Tuesday.
"This bitumen upgrading will now be quitted," Schneider said from Potsdam, Germany.
The initiative was created in 2011 with a five-year,...
Canadian and U.S. natives vow to block oil pipelines
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 20th, 2013
Reuters: An alliance of Canadian and U.S. aboriginal groups vowed on Wednesday to block three multibillion-dollar oil pipelines that are planned to transport oil from the Alberta tar sands, saying they are prepared to take physical action to stop them.
The Canadian government, faced with falling revenues due to pipeline bottlenecks and a glut that has cut the price for Alberta oil, say the projects are a national priority and will help diversify exports away from the U.S. market.
But the alliance of...