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Archive for October 11th, 2013
Floods could have catastrophic impact on Australia’s east coast
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on October 11th, 2013
Guardian: A repeat of the worst floods charted over the past 150 years, potentially exacerbated by climate change, would have a “catastrophic impact” on coastal communities on the eastern seaboard of Australia, a new study has warned. Bureau of Meteorology research of a 1,500km stretch of Australia’s east coast, reaching from Brisbane south to Eden, found that more than 600 people died from floods between 1860 and 2012. In total, 253 major floods occurred in this time, caused by tropical cyclones and locally...
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Judge denies bid to reopen highway to big load
Posted by Associated Press: Todd Dvorak on October 11th, 2013
Associated Press: A federal judge has rejected a request to allow a General Electric Co. subsidiary to resume shipments of massive oil-field equipment on a scenic, two-lane highway in northern Idaho.
U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill issued the decision Thursday, handing environmentalists and Nez Perce tribal leaders another victory in the latest legal battle over the use of U.S. Highway 12 as a shipping route for the wide, heavy and long loads.
Last month, Winmill issued an injunction that essentially blocked...
Big Lagoons Could Hold Ohio Fracking Waste
Posted by Columbus Dispatch: Spencer Hunt on October 11th, 2013
Columbus Dispatch: Fracking wastewater lagoons the size of football fields could dot eastern Ohio as state officials draft rules for the storage sites. Oil and gas drillers use the lagoons to store millions of gallons of water contaminated with fracking chemicals, toxic metals and radium that come up from shale wells. Companies clean the water of pollutants so it can be recycled to frack new wells. “We are putting in a process to outline their standards of construction and their length of use,” said Mark Bruce, spokesman...
French Court Rejects Challenge to Fracking Law
Posted by Reuters: Emile Picy and Michel Rose on October 11th, 2013
Reuters: France's constitutional council rejected on Friday a challenge to a law banning hydraulic fracturing for exploration and production of the country's shale gas and oil. The ruling is a boost for President Francois Hollande, who has opposed the technology alongside ecologist Greens in his ruling coalition - to the dismay of some allies who believe France is sacrificing access to a cheap source of energy. U.S-based firm Schuepbach Energy had challenged on four counts a ban introduced in 2011 due to...
U.S. Shale-Oil Boom May Not Last as Fracking Wells Lack Staying Power
Posted by Bloomberg: Asjylyn Loder on October 11th, 2013
Bloomberg: Chesapeake Energy’s (CHK) Serenity 1-3H well near Oklahoma City came in as a gusher in 2009, pumping more than 1,200 barrels of oil a day and kicking off a rush to drill that extended into Kansas. Now the well produces less than 100 barrels a day, state records show. Serenity’s swift decline sheds light on a dirty secret of the oil boom: It may not last. Shale wells start strong and fade fast, and producers are drilling at a breakneck pace to hold output steady. In the fields, this incessant need...
Powerful cyclone Phailin heads for India’s east coast
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 11th, 2013
Reuters: A powerful cyclone intensified on Friday and was heading towards India's east coast, authorities said, forecasting a risk to life and extensive damage to property when it makes landfall in 36 hours.
Satellite images showed the storm in the Bay of Bengal to be about half the size of India.
Cyclone Phailin is expected to hit between Kalingapatnam in Andhra Pradesh state and Paradip in Odisha state on Saturday evening as a very severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 205-215...
In Remote Field, North Dakota Oil Boom Suffers First Big Spill
Posted by Reuters: Todd Melby and Selam Gebrekidan on October 11th, 2013
Reuters: A Tesoro Logistics LP pipeline has spilled more than 20,000 barrels of crude oil into a North Dakota wheat field, the biggest leak in the state since it became a major U.S. producer.
The six-inch pipeline was carrying crude oil from the Bakken shale play to the Stampede rail facility outside Columbus, North Dakota. The affected part of the line has been shut down, Tesoro said.
Farmer Steven Jensen discovered the leak on Sept. 29 while harvesting wheat on his 1,800-acre farm, about nine miles...