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Archive for August 28th, 2013
Keystone Seen as No Local Job Starter Along Prairie Route
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 28th, 2013
Bloomberg: If the Keystone XL oil pipeline gets built, Rick Balcom doubts he’ll see many construction workers at the bar of his No. 3 saloon in Buffalo, a remote town in the northwest corner of South Dakota.
Balcom, 44, knows most of the workers building the Canada-Nebraska pipeline will stay at a catered “man-camp” seven miles away and won’t be hoisting brews under the stuffed mountain lion that adorns his bar. On their days off, they’ll probably travel to places such as Deadwood and Spearfish an hour-and-a-half...
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Arkansas homeowners settle suit charging fracking wastewater caused quakes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 28th, 2013
Reuters: Five Arkansas residents who sued two oil companies claiming wastewater disposal wells from fracking caused earthquakes that damaged their homes settled with the companies for an undisclosed sum on Wednesday, according to U.S. court documents and the plaintiffs' lawyers.
Several similar suits against the two companies, Chesapeake Energy's operating subsidiary and BHP Billiton, remain active in federal court in eastern Arkansas, though those may also be settled, the lawyers said.
The residents...
Fukushima keeps on leaking, Japan keeps on issuing confusing explanations
Posted by Grist: John Upton on August 28th, 2013
Grist: Problems continue to burble up at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant - or, in this case, gush out.
We learned last month that contaminated water has been leaking from the plant into the sea at a rate of about 300 tons a day. Then last week came word of a more serious spill of 300 tons of extremely radioactive water, which the government classified as a level 3 incident on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale.
The scale runs from zero, where everything is peachy,...
EPA Sued for Abandoning Critical Factory Farm Rule Under Clean Water Act
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on August 28th, 2013
EcoWatch: A coalition of community, animal welfare and environmental organizations is filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) challenging the agency’s withdrawal of a proposed rule that would have allowed the EPA to collect basic information, like locations and animal population sizes, from factory farms.
The Center for Food Safety, Environmental Integrity Project, Food & Water Watch, The Humane Society of the United States and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement filed...
U.S. government paid $17 billion for weather-withered crops last year
Posted by Grist: None Given on August 28th, 2013
Grist: Desiccated corn and sun-scorched soybeans have been in high supply lately - and we`re paying through the nose for them.
The federal government forked out a record-breaking $17.3 billion last year to compensate farmers for weather-related crop losses - more than four times the annual average over the last decade.
The losses were mostly caused by droughts, high temperatures, and hot winds - the sizzling harbingers of a climate in rapid flux.
Could some of these costs have been avoided? The...
Nearly Half of All Western Wildfire Costs Go To California
Posted by Climate Central: Alyson Kenward and Urooj Raja on August 28th, 2013
Climate Central: With one of California's largest-recorded wildfires still burning largely uncontained and threatening water and electricity for millions, the total bill for fighting U.S. wildfires in 2013 is now likely to soar well past $1 billion. By the time the blaze is put out, which could be weeks from now, California's Rim Fire will likely be among the most expensive wildfires of the year. In fact, during the past 10 years, $4 billion has been spent fighting wildfires in California, more than in any other...
Coalition asks Gov. Jerry Brown to halt fracking in California
Posted by LA Times: Marc Lifsher on August 28th, 2013
LA Times: A coalition of more than 100 environmental and political activist groups is denouncing oil fracking legislation as too weak and calling on Gov. Jerry Brown to order an immediate halt to the controversial drilling practice.
"The truth is that there is no proven way to protect California from fracking besides prohibiting this inherently dangerous practice," said the letter delivered to the governor's office Wednesday.
Fracking, formally known as hydraulic fracturing, is a drilling technique that...
Drill next door: Here’s what it looks like when a fracking rig moves in
Posted by Grist: None Given on August 28th, 2013
Grist: When my wife and I pulled into a relative’s subdivision in Frederick, Colo., after a wedding on a recent weekend, it was a surprise to suddenly find a 142-foot-tall drill rig in the backyard, parked in the narrow strip of land between there and the next subdivision to the east. It had appeared in the two days we`d been gone.
This couple hundred grassy acres, thick with meadowlarks and bisected by a creek crowded with cattail, bulrush, willow, and raccoon tracks, sits atop the DJ Basin shale deposit....
Why Big, Intense Wildfires Are the New Normal
Posted by National Geographic: Melody Kramer on August 28th, 2013
National Geographic: The large wildfire burning in and around Yosemite National Park has already consumed more than 184,000 acres, and shows no signs of slowing down. The blaze, which has been dubbed "Rim Fire," is now the largest fire in the Sierra Nevada mountain range and one of the largest in California's history. elated: "With Rim Fire Near, a Look at Yosemite's History With Fire.")
The Rim Fire is one of more than 30 blazes currently churning across the West. And a combination of higher temperatures, untamed...
Fracking fears expose confusion about risk
Posted by Reuters: John Kemp on August 28th, 2013
Reuters: Should oil and gas producers be allowed to hydraulically fracture wells even if there is a small but hard-to-quantify risk to the environment, property and human life?
That is the question politicians, environmentalists, local residents and the media are all grappling with across large parts of the United States, Britain and other countries.
For some environmental campaigners and local residents, the answer is No. Fracking should not be allowed unless and until it can be shown to pose no threat...