RSS Feed
Archive for August 1st, 2013
Mr. President, Canada Needs You
Posted by Bloomberg: Christopher Flavelle on August 1st, 2013
Bloomberg: When President Barack Obama said this week that Canada could increase the Keystone XL pipeline's chances by improving its broader record on carbon emissions, he was interfering with another country's domestic policy choices. When it comes to addressing climate change, some outside interference may be exactly what Canada needs. It's hard to understand the debate over Keystone without also understanding Canada's conflicted view on climate change writ large. Environmentalism, in the broad sense of...
Posted in 
United Kingdom: Fracking uproar peer causes further derision with geography revision
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2013
Guardian: A Tory peer who provoked uproar for saying that fracking should be carried out in the "desolate" north-east of England has prompted further derision after he corrected himself, saying that he meant the north-west.
Lord Howell, who advised William Hague on energy policy until April and is the father-in-law of the chancellor, George Osborne, drew gasps of astonishment in the House of Lords on Tuesday for suggesting that the controversial form of gas extraction could take place in the north-east...
United Kingdom: Frack Off protesters bring a little fire engine trouble to Balcombe oil site
Posted by Guardian: Peter Walker on August 1st, 2013
Guardian: Protests at a planned drilling site of a fracking company took an innovative turn on Thursday after activists stopped work by parking an antique fire engine outside the gates of the facility and locked themselves to the vehicle.
The campaign group Frack Off said the fire engine, bought by some of the protesters involved, arrived at the site near Balcombe, West Sussex – where the energy company Cuadrilla plans to drill wells in the hope of releasing oil from the rocks – at about 7am.
Two protesters...
Republicans Say Obama Comments Jeopardize Keystone XL Pipeline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2013
Reuters: President Barack Obama's recent comments on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, downplaying jobs that would be created, jeopardize the project by adding to its uncertainty, Republican lawmakers said in a letter to the president on Wednesday. "We are concerned that your recent statements have signaled an arbitrary and abrupt shift in how our nation approves cross-border energy projects," Republican Representatives Fred Upton, Ed Whitfield, and Lee Terry said in a letter. Obama has said twice over the...
GOP Advances Bill To Block Federal Fracturing Rules
Posted by Fuel Fix: Jennifer A. Dlouhy on August 1st, 2013
Fuel Fix: The House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday approved legislation that effectively would block the federal government from regulating the hydraulic fracturing process that is unlocking previously unrecoverable supplies of gas and oil. On a mostly party-line vote of 23-15, the panel sent the measure to the full House of Representatives, which is expected to debate the legislation later this year. Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., bucked Democratic colleagues in supporting the bill; Rep. Jon Runyan,...
Questions Linger on Who Will Pay for Lac-Mégantic Cleanup, Oil Firm Says
Posted by Globe and Mail: Grant Robertson on August 1st, 2013
Globe and Mail: The oil that exploded in the Lac-Mégantic disaster will be covered by insurance, but the company that owns the crude said many other questions about who must pay for the catastrophe still need to be worked out. World Fuel Services Corp. told analysts on its quarterly financial conference call Wednesday that its insurance covers the 50,000 barrels of oil and the dozens of rail cars that were destroyed when a train operated by Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway derailed in Lac-Mégantic, Que. The accident...