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Archive for December 14th, 2013
More than 4,000 evacuated from Gaza ‘disaster area’ floods
Posted by Reuters: Nidal al-Mughrabi on December 14th, 2013
Reuters: More than 4,000 people have been evacuated from flood-damaged homes in northern Gaza in what the United Nations has called "a disaster area", officials said on Saturday.
Flooding has been so severe that access to many homes is by rowing boat and water is reported to be two meters (more than six feet) high in some places. Many people have been trapped inside inundated homes by rising waters.
The flooding is the result of four days of torrential rains.
"Large swathes of northern Gaza are a...
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Fracking hell: what it’s really like to live next to a shale gas well
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 14th, 2013
Guardian: Veronica Kronvall can, even now, remember how excited she felt about buying her house in 2007. It was the first home she had ever owned and, to celebrate, her aunt fitted out the kitchen in Kronvall's favourite colour, purple: everything from microwave to mixing bowls. A cousin took pictures of her lying on the floor of the room that would become her bedroom. She planted roses and told herself she would learn how to garden.
What Kronvall did not imagine at the time – even here in north Texas,...
Keystone XL Pipeline Loses Support From U.S. Customer, Says Not Needed
Posted by Reuters: Cezary Podkul on December 14th, 2013
Reuters: Continental Resources, one of the companies that has committed to ship crude on TransCanada Corp's proposed Keystone XL pipeline, now says the controversial pipeline is no longer needed.
Continental has signed on to ship some 35,000 barrels of its own oil from the Bakken field of North Dakota on the 1,179-mile, $5.4-billion Keystone XL line. But construction of the pipeline has been delayed for years as TransCanada has sought regulatory approvals, and Continental has since turned to railroads...
Is Bakken oil safe enough for the GTA?
Posted by Toronto Star: Jessica McDiarmid on December 14th, 2013
Toronto Star: The fires burned for four days after the explosions.
A train carrying 72 cars of crude oil had barreled into the sleepy Quebec town of Lac-Mégantic and derailed. And the oil did what crude oil isn’t supposed to do: it blew up, killing 47 people, leaving the downtown core in ruin.
The crude oil on that train came from North Dakota, where it was pulled from the shale of the Bakken formation, which stretches from western North Dakota into southern Saskatchewan and eastern Montana.
It’s the...
Ethanol blends carry hidden risk
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 14th, 2013
ScienceDaily: Blending more ethanol into fuel to cut air pollution from vehicles carries a hidden risk that toxic or even explosive gases may find their way into buildings, according to researchers at Rice University.
Those problems would likely occur in buildings with cracked foundations that happen to be in the vicinity of fuel spills. Vapors that rise from contaminated groundwater can be sucked inside, according to Rice environmental engineer Pedro Alvarez. Once there, trapped pools of methane could ignite...
California Plans Tighter Control of Fracking, but Not Enough for Some
Posted by New York Times: KATE GALBRAITH on December 14th, 2013
New York Times: California drillers eager to use hydraulic fracturing to tap the nation’s largest oil shale formation will face comprehensive regulation for the first time next year under rules issued this week. The rules take effect on Jan. 1, though they will be replaced a year later by permanent regulations that are still being developed but are expected to be similar. In September, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law that established the outlines for the regulations. The new rules require drillers to alert neighboring...