RSS Feed
Archive for November 6th, 2013
Rainwater harvesting: dismissed by Texas voters but embraced by business
Posted by Guardian: Greg Harman on November 6th, 2013
Guardian: Texas voters last night approved the creation of a water bank expected to fund nearly $30bn in water infrastructure projects in the coming decades. The passage of Proposition 6 means the state will begin putting its 2012 State Water Plan – which calls for more than $50b in spending on new water infrastructure by 2060 – into action.
The project list is heavy on big new pipelines and reservoirs (including a controversial $3.3bn reservoir in East Texas to service the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex 170...
Posted in 
Results Mixed on Colorado and Ohio Fracking Ban Initiatives
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 6th, 2013
National Geographic: Voters in three Colorado cities and one in Ohio on Tuesday passed ballot measures banning or temporarily halting fracking within their borders.
But in the Denver suburb of Broomfield-a location viewed as an active prospect for exploration-a decision hangs in the balance, as the unofficial tally has voters rejecting a moratorium by a razor-thin margin. Broomfield spokeswoman Rosann Doran said a recount is likely, but the results will not be certified for at least a week after overseas ballots are...
While New Brunswick Fracking Protests Continue, Neighboring Newfoundland Enacts Moratorium
Posted by EcoWatch: Andy Rowell on November 6th, 2013
EcoWatch: As First Nations continue to fight fracking in New Brunswick, the neighboring provincial government of Newfoundland and Labrador has halted the controversial drilling technique.
The government is arguing that more research is needed to see if it is safe for both people and the environment.
Gros Morne National Park is a world heritage site located on the west coast of Newfoundland. The tourist destination lies above Western Newfoundland`s shale oil reserves.
Western Newfoundland’s shale-oil...
Colorado voters tell fracking industry frack off
Posted by Grist: None Given on November 6th, 2013
Grist: Maybe it`s the polluted groundwater, river water, and air. Perhaps it`s the toxic stew that gushed over Colorado when it flooded. Or it could be the abject lies. Whatever the fracking industry has done to earn the hostility of voters in at least three Colorado cities, it couldn`t be undone by spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a pro-fracking ad blitz in recent weeks. On Tuesday, voters in Boulder, Fort Collins, and Lafayette all approved measures that either banned or placed a moratorium...
Huge Election Victories for Colorado’s Anti-Fracking Movement
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on November 6th, 2013
EcoWatch: Yesterday`s election brought huge results for anti-fracking voters in Fort Collins, Boulder and Lafayette where all measures were approved that will either ban or pause the practice of hydraulic fracturing. Initial results show Broomfield with a tally so close--13 votes--that it will force a recount.
"With wins in Boulder, Lafayette and Fort Collins--and a partial-victory in Broomfield--this election sends a huge wake-up call to Governor Hickenlooper that the people of Colorado do not want to...
Green alert flares after McCarthy’s comments on Keystone XL, fracking
Posted by ClimateWire: Elana Schor on November 6th, 2013
ClimateWire: A Boston Globe reporter yesterday alarmed environmentalists with a preview of his interview with U.S. EPA chief Gina McCarthy that indicated she has an open attitude about the Keystone XL pipeline and hydraulic fracturing.
The McCarthy quotes tweeted by the Globe's David Abel at 1 p.m. -- she "didn't buy the argument that blocking the Keystone pipeline would prevent the extraction of tar sands oil," he wrote -- caused a conflagration big enough that EPA spokeswoman Alisha Johnson threw cold water...
Anti-fracking measures win in three Colorado cities
Posted by Daily Camera: John Aguilar on November 6th, 2013
Daily Camera: Aversion to the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing was confirmed this afternoon as final election results showed voters in three cities along the Front Range -- including Boulder and Lafayette -- approving a halt to the energy extraction method within their borders.
In Broomfield, the only other city to have a fracking ban on the ballot, the issue was failing by a mere 13 votes out of more than 20,000 cast, according to unofficial final results released this morning by the Broomfield...
Colorado an energy battleground as towns ban fracking
Posted by Reuters: Keith Coffman on November 6th, 2013
Reuters: Three Colorado cities have rejected oil and gas production work that relies on so-called fracking, unofficial election returns showed on Wednesday in a setback for an industry that won other battles this year in Democratic strongholds like California.
Boulder, Lafayette and Fort Collins passed measures with solid margins to suspend or ban the technique formally known as hydraulic fracturing. But a fourth community, Broomfield, about 12 miles (19 km) east of Boulder, narrowly rejected a fracking...
Climate change is decreasing farm yields just when we need them to go up
Posted by Grist: None Given on November 6th, 2013
Grist: One of the most disturbing details included in the recently leaked IPCC report is that climate change could begin reducing farm yields worldwide by up to 2 percent a decade. Meanwhile, demand for crops is increasing 12 percent per decade.
You don’t have to be a math whiz to see how that (doesn`t) add up.
A collision between a rising need for food and falling yields would be terrible for the environment, as well as for people. When people are starving, they are forced to make really bad tradeoffs:...
Need for Keystone XL Erodes as U.S. Oil Floods Gulf Coast Refining Hub
Posted by InsideClimate: Elizabeth Douglass on November 6th, 2013
InsideClimate: The ongoing U.S. oil boom has flooded the Gulf Coast with domestic crude to levels not seen in decades, creating a homegrown oil glut in the nation's refining center just as the Obama Administration prepares to rule on a pipeline that would add a torrent of heavy Canadian crude to the same region. It's just the latest in a string of developments that have surprised and roiled oil markets since 2009, when the combination of falling fuel demand and an unexpected surge in U.S. oil and natural gas production...