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Archive for June, 2013
Six Arrested Attempting to Block Oil Train to Canada
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on June 28th, 2013
EcoWatch: When police arrived last night to break up the peaceful protest, six people who refused to leave the scene were arrested after trying to destroy scaffolding with a chain saw. Local news media reported a surprisingly large number of law enforcement officials who responsed to the action, including troopers from the state police.
Trains running through Maine carry crude from the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota, where it is extracted--fracked--by blasting a high pressure mix of water, silica and...
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In win for fish, oil companies allowed to abandon old rigs
Posted by Grist: John Upton on June 28th, 2013
Grist: For all the harm that the oil and gas industry inflicts on wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico, it does offer the marine ecosystem at least one big benefit. Offshore oil-drilling rigs serve as artificial reefs, providing shelter for animals and an anchor for plants, coral, and barnacles. Yet once a well is tapped, the federal government has required the drilling company to uproot its rig to help clear clutter that could obstruct shipping.
Following complaints from fishermen and conservationists, however,...
U.S. and World Bank might stop financing dirty coal plants
Posted by Grist: John Upton on June 28th, 2013
Grist: The World Bank says it cares about climate change, so why is it providing loans to help developing countries build coal power plants? Same goes for America`s support for coal plants abroad.
In recognition of this glaring climate policy disconnect, both the World Bank and the Obama administration appear to be finally backing away from financial support of such dirty energy enterprises.
From Bloomberg:
The World Bank plans to restrict its financing of coal-fired power plants to “rare circumstances,”...
Will Obama OK the Keystone pipeline?
Posted by Chicago Tribune: Editorial on June 28th, 2013
Chicago Tribune: President Barack Obama's push this week to put a new emphasis on curbing greenhouse gas emissions had the feel of wishful thinking. He knows that Congress has little interest in the effort, so he plans to focus on what he can do by Environmental Protection Agency rule-making. The exercise of such regulatory power tends to be a slow grind through government bureaucracy, though, and he may not be able to get much of his agenda accomplished before his term ends.
One bit of his speech, though, held...
Spain’s wetlands wildlife at risk from illegal boreholes for strawberry crop
Posted by Guardian: James Bryce on June 28th, 2013
Guardian: Spain must act urgently to stop illegal water extraction from a protected national park or risk the wildlife-rich wetlands being placed on a list of world heritage sites in danger, a UN agency has warned.
Doñana national park in Andalusia is threatened by huge demand for water, fuelled by a strawberry industry which supplies British supermarkets.
Some producers in the area are accused of using illegal boreholes to draw water from underground aquifers, which the fragile ecosystem is dependent...
Six chemicals we consume in our food and drink that should be banned
Posted by Guardian: Dr Mark Lorch on June 28th, 2013
Guardian: Last week BuzzFeed published a list of eight foods that folks in the USA are eating but are banned in other parts of the world. The chemical community turned its venom on BuzzFeed. But I think BuzzFeed did a pretty good job of bringing the debate on chemicals in food to the fore. Don't believe the defence of food additives coming from the likes of Derek Lowe. After all he's part of the mainstream chemical conspiracy so he would defend chemicals wouldn't he?
Before you go breathing a sigh of relief...
Fracking the nation: the dash for gas beneath rural Britain
Posted by Guardian: John Harris on June 28th, 2013
Guardian: Compton Martin is not the most obvious place to have a conversation about drilling for gas, and what's already happening in US states such as Texas, Oklahoma and Ohio. It sits on the northern edge of the Mendip Hills, in the famously picturesque Chew Valley. It may say something about the place that it still has a functioning village water pump.
At a bus stop, I meet two local mums: Chloe Mann, 35, and Sarah Kirwan, 39. "It's quiet little village," says Mann, a mother of two who works part-time...
World Bank Closes the Door on Coal Financing
Posted by TckTckTck: Emily Saari on June 28th, 2013
TckTckTck: From the leaked World Bank report:
[The World Bank] will cease providing financial support for greenfield [new] coal power generation projects, except in rare circumstances where there are no feasible alternatives available to meet basic energy needs and other sources of financing are absent.
As a powerful funder of global energy projects--the Bank spent $8.2 billion on energy projects in the 2012 fiscal year--this decision is pivotal for shifting global investments away from coal, one of the...
So shale gas could meet demand for 40 years. What then?
Posted by Guardian: Andrew Simms on June 28th, 2013
Guardian: For a moment, let's take the shale gas evangelists at their word. Britain has stumbled on a pile of carbon cash in its cellar, the energy equivalent of finding a stack of ugly but valuable china in the attic. With North Sea oil and gas in decline and global markets volatile and pricey, suddenly there seems a sure way to deliver the government's promise of building 40 new gas power stations. By odd coincidence, newly estimated gas resources in the Bowland shale could meet our demand for gas for 40...
The Resource War Over Pebble Mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay
Posted by Center for American Progress: Jessica Goad, Shiva Polefka, Michael Conathan and Christy Goldfuss on June 28th, 2013
Center for American Progress: The battle lines are being drawn for what is becoming one of America’s largest natural resources fights in decades, pitting the mining industry against defenders of a way of life and an economy that are inextricably linked to one of the U.S.’s most intact and productive ecosystems.
The Bristol Bay region in southwest Alaska, often referred to as “America’s fish basket,” is home to the most valuable salmon fishing ground in the U.S. This pristine area supports the production of more than half of...