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Archive for April 25th, 2013
Harvard Study: FracFocus Fails to Provide Adequate Disclosure for Fracking Chemicals
Posted by EcoWatch: Alan Septoff on April 25th, 2013
EcoWatch: Thanks to two great stories by E&E’s Mike Soraghan, we know that the Harvard Law School has evaluated FracFocus.org and found government (and the public) shouldn’t rely upon it.
In short, Harvard says FracFocus is inadequate for at least three reasons:
It is hard to determine when and if companies make disclosures.
The data contained within FracFocus isn’t vetted--it consists of whatever the company reports.
Secrecy claims made by companies aren’t vetted--FracFocus allows for unchallenged...
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State Department Will Make Keystone Comments Public After All
Posted by InsideClimate: David Sassoon on April 25th, 2013
InsideClimate: A State Department official confirmed that for the first time the department will make public all the public comments received on its draft environmental impact statement for the Keystone XL pipeline. In an email to InsideClimate News, the official, who requested anonymity, said the comments would be posted on Regulations.gov. "Although the volume of comments will be extraordinarily high, the posting will maximize transparency," the official said. "We are working on the technical details and exact...
Forest Service gets new wildfire tool
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on April 25th, 2013
Climate Central: With much of the West mired in drought conditions heading into the summer, the U.S. Forest Service is preparing for what could be another damaging wildfire season. This year, firefighters will be armed with an updated tool to help them battle fires with the precision of special forces on the battlefield. The instrument, known as the "Autonomous Modular Sensor,' or AMS, can help the Forest Service detect wildfires and conduct post-burn assessments.
While similar devices have been in use for several...
New Mexico grapples with tough choices as drought persists
Posted by Associated Press: Susan Montoya Bryan on April 25th, 2013
Associated Press: In southern New Mexico, the mighty Rio Grande has gone dry - reduced to a sandy wash winding from this chile farming community to the nation's leading pecan-producing county. Only puddles remain, leaving gangs of carp to huddle together in a desperate effort to avoid the fate of thousands of freshwater clams, their shells empty and broken on the river bottom.
Across the state's eastern plains, wells stand empty and ranchers are selling their cattle. In the north, urbanites face watering restrictions...
Great Lakes water levels reaching record lows
Posted by Minnesota Public Radio: Dan Kraker on April 25th, 2013
Minnesota Public Radio: When the American Century cargo ship glides beneath the Aerial Lift Bridge into Duluth, dock workers will spring to action, ready to load it with coal.
But when the 1,000-foot "laker" departs, its holds won't be full. Before workers can fully load the ship, it must first clear a shallow spot in the St. Mary's River after passing through the Soo Locks. The river connects Lake Superior to Lake Huron, which is at record low levels.
"They have to make sure they have enough under-keel clearance...
VIDEO: What Does the Keystone XL Fight Mean for Environmentalism?
Posted by Climate Desk: Chris Mooney on April 25th, 2013
Climate Desk: The latest Climate Desk Live asked if pipeline opponents picked the wrong battle--and if that even matters.
If you`re a liberal or centrist, generally inclined to bash those "hippies" to the left of you--well, perhaps you should stop and think about it for a moment, and not resume bashing until you at least understand the best case activists can make for what they`re trying to achieve, and the particular strategy they`ve chosen.
That was one upshot of the latest Climate Desk Live briefing in...
Fires Burn More Fiercely As Northern Forests Warm
Posted by Yale Environment 360: Dylan Walsh on April 25th, 2013
Yale Environment 360: When the wildfire reached Jon Cummings’ backyard last summer, it had already traversed 50 miles of rugged terrain in Idaho’s Salmon-Challis National Forest. Thick smoke dimmed daylight and embers sailed on hot currents. While firefighters were able to preserve Cummings’ house and property, his neighbors up the river were less fortunate. “No houses burned, but when those folks came home it was a total moonscape,” he said.
Wildfires last summer burned more than 9 million acres across the U.S., predominantly...
Arkansas Oil Spill Damage Assessment: If Not the Feds, then Who?
Posted by InsideClimate: Maria Gallucci on April 25th, 2013
InsideClimate: Federal agencies have so far not decided whether to undertake an assessment of the ecological harm caused by ExxonMobil's pipeline break, which spewed a tarry oil slick into yards, streets and creeks in a central Arkansas town. For now, they're leaving it to state agencies to decide whether and how to quantify and counteract the environmental damage. The rupture in the Pegasus pipeline on March 29 dumped up to an estimated 294,000 gallons of Canadian heavy crude in Mayflower, Ark.—including in...
Amazon vs the Amazon: internet retailer in domain name battle
Posted by Guardian: Jonathan Watts , on April 25th, 2013
Guardian: When you see the word "Amazon", what's the first thing that springs to mind – the world's biggest forest, the longest river or the largest internet retailer – and which do you consider most important?
These questions have risen to the fore in an arcane, but hugely important, debate about how to redraw the boundaries of the internet. Brazil and Peru have lodged objections to a bid made by the US e-commerce giant for a prime new piece of cyberspace: ".amazon".
The Seattle-based company has applied...
Why It’s Worth Going to Jail to Stop Keystone XL
Posted by EcoWatch: Conor Kennedy on April 25th, 2013
EcoWatch: On Monday, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) told the State Department that the information in the State Department’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the Keystone XL pipeline is “insufficient.” Among EPA’s many concerns was the State Department’s failure to adequately address the pipeline’s impacts on climate change. EPA raised a host of other issues. In fact, the State Department’s EIS is not useful for answering some of the most basic questions about Keystone XL.
Ever...