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Archive for April 18th, 2013
Opponents Rally Against Keystone XL Pipeline at State Department Hearing
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on April 18th, 2013
EcoWatch: Landowners, community leaders, experts and activists gathered in Grand Island, NE with a clear message to State Department on the Keystone XL pipeline: this pipeline is too risky for American families because of its threats to water, land and climate. The recent Arkansas tar sands spill highlights the risks of piping corrosive tar sands across the country on a route that crosses through the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the country’s largest sources of freshwater. The Keystone XL tar sands pipeline would...
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Keystone XL opponents brace for protests in Neb
Posted by Associated Press: Grant Schulte on April 18th, 2013
Associated Press: Opponents of a massive Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline converged on a snowy Nebraska town Thursday for a critical hearing on the project, but they already were preparing for acts of civil disobedience should President Barack Obama approve it.
Despite a spring storm that brought sleet and snow to Nebraska, the U.S. State Department hearing in Grand Island drew more than 1,000 supporters and opponents from around the state, as well as activists from outside the region who consider Nebraska a key battleground...
Three Arrested at Court Appearance for Protesting Fracking Infrastructure Storage Site
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on April 18th, 2013
EcoWatch: More than 150 people packed the Town of Reading Court in New York on April 17 to witness what they believe is a shocking miscarriage of justice.
Three members of a group dubbed the “Seneca Lake 12”--massage therapist Melissa Chapman of Schuyler County, farm owner Michael Dineen of Seneca County and Sandra Steingraber, PhD, author, biologist and distinguished scholar at Ithaca College--were sentenced to jail terms for their resistance to the heavy industrialization of the peaceful rural region...
ExxonMobil deserves a pat on the back for Arkansas spill response, says representative
Posted by Grist: None Given on April 18th, 2013
Grist: ExxonMobil’s recent oil spill dumped some 200,000 gallons into Mayflower, Ark., killed wildlife, and caused 22 homes to be evacuated. As the Natural Resources committee takes up another bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) argued at a hearing that the spill is more evidence the Keystone XL pipeline is a safe bet for Americans.
Comparing the safety of a pipeline to other transportation methods, Mullin said there is no reason to make a “big deal” about the spill:...
Canada: Dilbit or Not? Wabasca Crude Is the Question
Posted by InsideClimate: Maria Gallucci on April 18th, 2013
InsideClimate: When ExxonMobil's Pegasus pipeline ruptured last month [3] in Mayflower, Ark., it was carrying diluted bitumen, a controversial form of oil from Canada's tar sands region. That was confirmed in a letter an Exxon lawyer wrote to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week. But the letter contradicts public assertions by company officials that the spilled oil was simply "heavy oil," not tar sands bitumen. It also raises, once again, the question that surfaces after every spill involving oil...
India’s top court keeps bauxite mining ban, eases some iron ore curbs
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 18th, 2013
Reuters: India's top court has kept a ban on bauxite mining in hills in the eastern state of Odisha considered sacred by residents, whose opinion it has ordered to be sought on whether digging would disrupt the environment or their livelihoods.
The Supreme Court also allowed just nine more iron ore mines to restart in the southern state of Karnataka, in another decision reflecting the competition between the claims of environmental and social rights groups and the need for resources to power Asia's third-largest...
Mexico Lacks Water to Frack for Shale Gas
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 18th, 2013
Inter Press Service: Mexico plans to expand shale gas exploration this year, but it could run into a shortage of water, which is essential to hydraulic fracturing or fracking, the method used to capture natural gas from shale rocks.
"In Mexico there isn't enough water. Where are they going to get it to extract shale gas?" Professor Miriam Grunstein at the Centre for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) remarked in an interview with IPS.
She is opposed to the involvement of PEMEX, Mexico's state-run oil company,...
The dirty little secret to tackling climate change
Posted by Crikey: Cathy Alexander on April 18th, 2013
Crikey: Forget the carbon price, forget the opposition`s Direct Action climate plan. Australia could probably meet its targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without either, provided we did one thing. But you won`t hear the politicians talk about it.
A statistical analysis by Crikey, based on data released this week, indicates that if Australia`s high population growth rate were reined in, the country would already be meeting its targets to cut pollution. In fact, we`d probably be under those targets....
France Should Explore Potential of Shale Resources, Senator Says
Posted by Bloomberg: Tara Patel on April 18th, 2013
Bloomberg: France should allow exploration for shale oil and gas to gauge potential reserves even after banning hydraulic fracturing used to extract the fuels, the author of a report into alternative technologies told fellow lawmakers.
“We can’t close the door to research,” said Jean-Claude Lenoir, a senator who’s researching the alternatives to so- called fracking, banned in 2011. “Good sense tells us we should allow exploration to see how much resources we actually have.” He spoke at a parliamentary hearing...
South Africa: Backing a Legal Rhino Horn Trade
Posted by Inter Press Service: Brendon Bosworth on April 18th, 2013
Inter Press Service: In the face of rampant rhino poaching in South Africa, some conservationists and private rhino farmers are lobbying for removal of the international ban on rhino horn trading and the creation of a legal market, to quell poaching.
"The trade ban is creating a situation where rhinos are being killed unnecessarily," Duan Biggs, research fellow at the Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions at Australia's University of Queensland, told IPS. "It's taking resources away from other conservation...