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Archive for March, 2013
Environmentalists diss State Dept.’s Keystone pipeline review
Posted by USA Today: Wendy Koch on March 2nd, 2013
USA Today: The State Department riled environmentalists with a largely positive review Friday of a controversial Canada-to-U.S. pipeline, saying the project would not significantly alter the development of Canada's tar sands.
In its long-awaited draft environmental review of the Keystone XL, the State Department said the pipeline won't make much of a difference to climate change because the tar sands will likely be developed anyway. "Approval or denial of the proposed project is unlikely to have a substantial...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Environmentalists diss State Dept.’s Keystone pipeline reviewClimate change putting stress on Kansas water resources
Posted by Lawrence Journal World: Peter Hancock on March 2nd, 2013
Lawrence Journal World: The current drought gripping all of Kansas and much of the western United States may seem severe now, but it is not abnormal for a region that has seen cyclical droughts for much of the last 1,000 years.
What ought to concern Kansans more, a panel of experts said during a symposium Friday night at Kansas University, is the longer-term change in the region’s climate that will put greater demand on the state’s dwindling water resources.
“From a climate perspective, it looks like it’s going to...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate change putting stress on Kansas water resourcesState Department Keystone XL Pipeline Analysis Disspirits Climate Change Community
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 2nd, 2013
Huffington Post: Environmentalists are fuming over the conclusion from the State Department that the Keystone XL pipeline -- a fiercely-debated proposal to transport heavy crude from Alberta's oil sands deposits 1,700 miles to the U.S. Gulf Coast -- would be "environmentally sound."
The government claims in the report released on Friday that the pipeline project wouldn't significantly alter climate change. Such an assessment is at odds with the warnings of experts and advocates -- more than 40,000 of whom recently...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on State Department Keystone XL Pipeline Analysis Disspirits Climate Change CommunityState Department Again Sees No Environmental Barriers to Keystone Pipeline
Posted by New York Times: Andrew C. Revkin on March 2nd, 2013
New York Times: The State Department`s revised supplemental environmental impact statement on the proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline is out, and offers very little that Secretary of State John Kerry or President Obama might use as a reason to reject the plan.
You can best gauge the reaction of various factions on Twitter using the #noKXL and #keystoneXL tags.
The voluminous report includes this blunt conclusion on the inconsequential nature of the pipeline if one`s interest is in reducing extraction...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on State Department Again Sees No Environmental Barriers to Keystone PipelineUS admits Keystone impact, says this is only option
Posted by NBC: M. Alex Johnson on March 1st, 2013
NBC: Construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline would create "numerous" and "substantial" impacts on the environment, the State Department said Friday in a draft environmental impact statement. But the project is a better bet than any of the alternatives, it said in essentially clearing the project to go ahead.
The report concluded that the Canadian synthetic crude oil the pipeline is slated to transport into the U.S. produces 17 percent more greenhouse gases than natural crude oil already...
Keystone XL pipeline would have little impact on climate change, State Department analysis says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson on March 1st, 2013
Washington Post: The State Department released a draft environmental impact assessment of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline Friday, suggesting that the project would have little impact on climate change. Canada’s oil sands will be developed even if President Obama denies a permit to the pipeline connecting the region to Gulf Coast refineries, the analysis said. Such a move also would not alter U.S. oil consumption, the report added. The lengthy assessment did not give environmentalists the answer they had...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Keystone XL pipeline would have little impact on climate change, State Department analysis saysU.S. Report Sees No Environmental Bar to Keystone Pipeline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 1st, 2013
New York Times: The State Department issued a revised environmental impact statement for the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline on Friday that makes no recommendation about whether the project should be built but presents no conclusive environmental reason it should not be. The 2,000-page document also makes no statement on whether the pipeline is in the United States’ economic and energy interests, a determination to be made later this year by President Obama. But it will certainly add a new element to the already...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on U.S. Report Sees No Environmental Bar to Keystone PipelineRemarkable Summer in Australia Is its Hottest On Record
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on March 1st, 2013
Climate Central: Australia: It's so hot right now.
Or rather, it was so hot this summer, that the country set a record for its hottest summer since recordkeeping began there in 1910, the country's Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) announced Friday. For a country that has an arid climate and is prone to heat waves, that might not seem unusual.
But the summer was remarkable in almost every respect, as the Australian continent smashed records for heat intensity, geographic scope, and duration. Moreover, the heat continued...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Remarkable Summer in Australia Is its Hottest On RecordKeystone XL clears big hurdle, gets thumbs-up from State Dept. report
Posted by Grist: None Given on March 1st, 2013
Grist: The U.S. State Department just released a draft environmental impact statement for the Keystone XL pipeline, and it`s not what climate activists have been hoping for.
As The New York Times puts it, the report "makes no recommendation about whether the project should be built but presents no conclusive environmental reason it should not be." According to The Washington Post, the report "suggest[s] that blocking the project would not have a significant impact on either the future development of...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Keystone XL clears big hurdle, gets thumbs-up from State Dept. reportPopulation growth is threat to other species, poll respondents say
Posted by LA Times: Kenneth R. Weiss on March 1st, 2013
LA Times: Nearly two-thirds of American voters believe that human population growth is driving other animal species to extinction and that if the situation gets worse, society has a "moral responsibility to address the problem," according to new national public opinion poll.
A slightly lower percentage of those polled -- 59% -- believes that population growth is an important environmental issue and 54% believe that stabilizing the population will help protect the environment.
The survey was conducted...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Population growth is threat to other species, poll respondents say