Archive for October 1st, 2013

Alaska Hunts Oil as Arctic Damage Shows Most Change From Climate

Bloomberg: When Jerry Otto started hunting for Alaskan oil in 1980, his tractor-trailers barreled along ice roads as much as 10 feet thick for 180 days every year. Last winter, when he set out to drill 80 miles south of the Arctic Ocean for Australia’s Linc Energy Ltd. (LNC), regulators opened the roads for 126 days. The rest of the time, warm weather left the routes too mushy for vehicles, Bloomberg Markets magazine will report in its November issue. Then in January, in a twist that embodies the perplexing...

Obama faces nagging dilemma over Keystone XL pipeline

Al Jazeera: As thorny diplomatic issues and budget battles at home occupied the White House last week, a series of reports were released that underscored another headache to come for the president: The Keystone XL pipeline. Barack Obama faces a difficult choice over the controversial project, which would carry tar sands oil from Alberta province in western Canada to refineries in Texas: Approve and run the risk of outraging environmentalists, or say no and face the ire of a majority of Americans who appear...

The man who made sea-level rise go away

Daily Climate: John Droz Jr. is not the stereotypical back-room political player: A tall and trim 67, bespectacled with a shorn scalp, he's a man who prefers sweater vests and jeans rather than crisp suits and bears more resemblance to a retired high-school science teacher than a political heavyweight. Yet this semi-retired real-estate investor and self-described environmental advocate spends much of his time quietly and effectively plying the halls of power in Raleigh, N.C., deflecting credit and avoiding the...

Tokyo Electric says possibly contaminated water leaked at Fukushima

Reuters: The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant said on Tuesday that four tonnes of rainwater contaminated with low levels of radiation leaked during an operation to transfer the water between tank holding areas. Tokyo Electric Power Co, or Tepco, has been trying to contain contaminated water at the Fukushima site after it found 300 tonnes of radioactive water had leaked from a tank at the plant. Fukushima suffered triple nuclear meltdowns and hydrogen explosions after a March 2011 earthquake...

Shale Drillers Must Report Chemicals in Ohio

Columbus Dispatch: Oil and gas companies are being told for the first time to give county officials and local fire departments information about the toxic chemicals drillers use to fracture shale. Ohio officials sent a memo this month notifying companies that a federal right-to-know law trumps a 2001 state law that allowed them to send the information exclusively to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The memo “puts oil and gas companies on notice that they will have to comply with the federal requirements,”...