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Archive for July 17th, 2013
Australia pledges more cash to battle reef starfish
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 17th, 2013
Agence France-Presse: Australia pledged another Aus$5 million (US$4.6 million) to the fight against a predatory starfish devastating the iconic Great Barrier Reef Thursday, revealing 100,000 of the creatures had been wiped out so far.
Environment Minister Mark Butler said the new funding, on top of Aus$2.53 million already pledged, would support a programme of culling the coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish, which is naturally-occurring but has proliferated due to pollution and run-off.
A major study of the reef's...
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States Turn Blind Eye as Fracking Industry Routinely Violates Laws
Posted by EcoWatch: Amy Mall on July 17th, 2013
EcoWatch: A scathing new investigation from EnergyWire confirms the worst fears of citizens across the country who live near fracking sites: state regulators are not doing everything they can to prevent oil and gas companies from repeatedly violating the law. EnergyWire spent months analyzing state records.
Reported spills from oil and gas well sites, according to publicly available state and federal data. Map courtesy of EnergyWire/Andrew Holmes.
While the extensive investigation uncovers numerous violations,...
Dam! Beavers have been busy sequestering carbon
Posted by New Scientist: Laurence Pope on July 17th, 2013
New Scientist: Beavers aren't going to save the world - but they are doing their bit for carbon capture and storage. The dams they build, and the wetlands produced as a result, lock away a surprising amount of carbon.
"Beavers offer a mechanism of carbon storage," says Ellen Wohl of Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Beaver dams cause water to breach riverbanks, creating areas of wetland known as beaver meadows, which contain large amounts of sediment and organic material. If the dam breaks the meadows...
Dust bowl blues
Posted by Nation: Sasha Abramsky on July 17th, 2013
Nation: Ed Moore's ranch sits on the flatlands of the Texas panhandle, east of Lubbock, just outside the tiny town of Ralls. On a clear day, you can see for miles in any direction. Most days, however, the dust blows--and when it does, the sky becomes a dull orange haze and the scene becomes impressionistic. The high gray towers of grain elevators dot the landscape. Cattle graze in silhouette. Farmers ride through the gloom on tractors with vast "sand fighters' that gather the earth into big clods so the...
Keystone XL will hike gasoline prices, report says
Posted by Fuel Fix: Jennifer A. Dlouhy on July 17th, 2013
Fuel Fix: California billionaire Tom Steyer and other Keystone XL opponents pulled out another weapon in their fight against the pipeline on Tuesday, arguing that the project would cause gasoline prices to climb up to 40 cents per gallon in the Midwest.
According to a new report by Consumer Watchdog, Keystone XL would give Canadian oil a new avenue to competitors on the Gulf Coast and access to a global market, bypassing Midwest refiners who now rely on that discounted oil for more than half of their raw...
Reid blames climate change: ‘West is burning’
Posted by Las Vegas Review-Journal: Steve Tetreault on July 17th, 2013
Las Vegas Review-Journal: As firefighters head home from Southern Nevada, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid on Wednesday blamed “climate change” for the intense blaze that consumed nearly 28,000 acres and drove hundreds of residents from their homes around Mount Charleston this month.
Reid said the government should be spending “a lot more” on fire prevention, echoing elected officials who say the Forest Service should move more aggressively to remove brush and undergrowth that turn small fires into huge ones.
“The West is burning,”...
Crude mishaps on trains spike as rail carries more oil
Posted by EnergyWire: Mike Soraghan on July 17th, 2013
EnergyWire: The number of spills and other accidents from railroad cars carrying crude oil has skyrocketed in recent years, up from one or two a year early in the previous decade to 88 last year.
Only four of those were classified as serious by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), and none involved injuries. So they didn't even approach the human tragedy caused by a runaway oil train in Quebec earlier this month.
But the jump highlights a side effect of crude oil production...
Calif. Agencies Begin Weighing Options to Replace Nuclear Supply
Posted by Reuters: Eileen O'Grady on July 17th, 2013
Reuters: Six California state agencies met to try to satisfy competing electric and air quality issues amid the pressing need to replace the electric supply lost after the crippled San Onofre nuclear plant was retired early, officials said on Monday.
Southern California Edison, owned by Edison International , said in June it would retire both nuclear reactors at San Onofre, totaling 2,150 megawatts, more than a year after severe damage was discovered in thousands of tubes inside newly installed steam generators....
Top Senate Dem Might Conduct Oversight of Keystone Pipeline
Posted by Hill: Zack Colman on July 17th, 2013
Hill: Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is weighing whether to conduct oversight of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline.
Wyden told reporters Tuesday that he’s had “a number of conversations” with senators about oversight proceedings for the proposed Canada-to-Texas pipeline.
“There are a host of questions with respect to Keystone, foremost of which is the evidence pointing to the fact that much of that energy is going to get exported,” Wyden said after a Senate...
The Costs of Climate Change and Extreme Weather Are Passing the High-Water Mark
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 17th, 2013
Time: Hurricane Sandy cost the U.S. some $70 billion in direct damages and lost economic output. This is, obviously, a lot of money -- Sandy was the second most expensive hurricane in U.S. history after a small tropical storm called Katrina. Much of that cost was borne by the government -- local, state and federal -- and some of it was absorbed by those of us who lived in the storm`s path. But about $20 billion to $25 billion of the damage from the storm was eventually covered by the insurance industry....