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Archive for April 19th, 2013
New York’s New Abolitionists: The Fight to Stop Fracking
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on April 19th, 2013
EcoWatch: “I blocked the entrance to the Inergy gas storage facility because I believe that the institutions ... [that should] protect the people and the environment from harm can no longer be relied to do so ... When the government fails to act in the public interest, the public must act on its own.” --Michael Dineen
“I’d rather have bread and water now than no bread and toxic water later as a result of this flawed Inergy project.” --Melissa Chipman
“My small, peaceful act of trespass was intended to...
Posted in 
Keystone Pipeline Challenge Rejected by Top Texas Court
Posted by Bloomberg: Laurel Brubaker Calkins on April 19th, 2013
Bloomberg: TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s power to condemn land as a common carrier won’t be reviewed by the Texas Supreme Court in one of four state-court challenges against the Keystone XL pipeline, which will carry Canadian tar-sands oil to the Texas coast.
The Texas Supreme Court today refused to hear a challenge by Rhinoceros Ventures Group Inc., whose property lies near the industry refinery hub at Beaumont, Texas. The court denied the petition without comment.
The landowners had urged the court to use...
Antarctica Peninsula Climate Reconstruction
Posted by Environmental News Network: Andy Soos on April 19th, 2013
Environmental News Network: The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica. It is the section closest to another continent (South America). A new 1000-year Antarctic Peninsula climate reconstruction shows that summer ice melting has intensified almost ten-fold, and mostly since the mid 20th Century. Summer ice melt affects the stability of Antarctic ice shelves and glaciers. The research, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, adds new knowledge to the international effort that is required...
What food really means
Posted by PlanetEarth: None Given on April 19th, 2013
PlanetEarth: Food is not just something we eat. Its fluctuating price and availability mean it will be one of the main ways many of us will interact with the environmental issues of our time: climate change and competition for water, land and energy. Tim Benton explains why.
By the middle of the century, global demand for food is projected to grow by about 60 per cent, as population rises, and the burgeoning global middle class develops more sophisticated tastes and devotes more money to satisfying them. But...
Keystone XL Pipeline ‘All Risk, No Reward’ State Dept. Told
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on April 19th, 2013
Environment News Service: Opponents of TransCanada`s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline packed a State Department public hearing on its latest environmental analysis of the pipeline to warn that it is all risk for the United States, with no reward.
More than 1,000 pipeline opponents -- far outnumbering supporters -- packed a hearing room in Grand Island Wednesday to deliver that message to the State Department officials.
Chair of the new anti-pipeline group "All Risk, No Reward" Coalition, Nebraska landowner Randy Thompson,...
Pipelines safe, Keystone XL meeting told
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 19th, 2013
United Press International: Pipelines are the safest way to transport oil in the United States, a former U.S pipeline regulator said at a Nebraska meeting on the Keystone XL pipeline.
The U.S. State Department requested public opinion on a draft assessment of the planned cross-border pipeline.
Critics of the project say Canadian crude oil, the type designated for Keystone XL, may be more corrosive and therefore more likely to cause a pipeline spill.
A so-called tar sands oil spill in Michigan in 2010 was the costliest...
Hundreds of Brazilian Indians occupy Congress to stop proposed land policy
Posted by Survival: None Given on April 19th, 2013
Survival: Indians of various tribes invaded and occupied part of the country’s Congress this week, to protest at attempts to change the law regarding their land rights.
The Indians are outraged about a proposed constitutional amendment that would weaken their hold on their territories. They fear that ‘PEC 215’, by giving Congress power in the demarcation process, will cause further delays and obstacles to the recognition and protection of their ancestral land.
The Indians say they will not stop protesting...
Ark. Landowners File Class-Action Lawsuit Against Exxon
Posted by KARK: None Given on April 19th, 2013
KARK: Little Rock's Duncan Law Firm has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of all property owners with a contractual easement on their property for ExxonMobil's Pegasus pipeline.
This is the second lawsuit in two weeks filed against the company over the oil spill that occurred March 29 in Mayflower.
In the first suit, filed April 5, two homeowners are seeking monetary relief for themselves and "all others similarly situated."
That suit lists two damage amounts: one asking for individual damages...
Climate change, poor urban planning contributed to deadly Argentine flooding
Posted by ClimateWire: Ines Perez on April 19th, 2013
ClimateWire: Rain began to fall over the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires late at night April 1. By the next morning, rainfall records for the month had been broken and the city woke up to find its streets covered with water.
Torrential rains dumped more than 6 inches of water on the city in less than two hours, according to reports from the Buenos Aires Central Observatory, killing eight people and leaving hundreds displaced. But the worst was yet to come.
A 6-inch rain in less than two hours earlier...
Fracking Tax Pushed in Pennsylvania Green-Energy Governor Quest
Posted by Bloomberg: Karen Weise on April 19th, 2013
Bloomberg: John Hanger, a prolific blogger running for governor of Pennsylvania, recently drew attention to two farmers he learned about from a local public-radio station.
The men leased the drilling rights on their land to gas producer Range Resources Corp. (RRC), then used the proceeds to install solar panels on their property. “The shale-gas revolution has turned energy on its head, and solar will do it again,” Hanger says.
Hanger, a lawyer and former state regulator, was the first Democrat to enter...