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Archive for February 21st, 2014
Nebraska Judge Voids Governor’s Right to Set Keystone XL Route
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on February 21st, 2014
Environment News Service: A Nebraska judge on Wednesday declared unconstitutional a state law that had allowed Governor Dave Heineman to approve the route the Keystone XL pipeline would take through Nebraska.
Pipeline opponents and the three landowners who brought the case are declaring victory, but the state of Nebraska is appealing the decision.
"I'm pleased that Attorney General [Jon] Bruning is appealing this decision," Governor Heineman said in a statement. "This is an important issue for the state of Nebraska."...
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Fracking Moratorium Bill Introduced in California
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on February 21st, 2014
EcoWatch: Yesterday, Senators Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) and Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) introduced Senate Bill 1132 to the California Legislature, which calls for a moratorium on fracking and other types of unconventional well stimulation (like acidizing).
Current law (SB4) requires an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) but there are at least two problems with it:
Fracking and acidizing is allowed to continue while regulators conduct the EIR--essentially treating Californians’ water and health as...
MSNBC’s The Ed Show Visits Nebraska to Hear From Those in the Path of Keystone XL Pipeline
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on February 21st, 2014
EcoWatch: Today, MSNBC news host Ed Schultz traveled to Nebraska to meet with farmers and ranchers facing threats of eminent domain on their land from TransCanada for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Schultz came to Nebraska to hear firsthand and share with his audience the stories of people in the path of the pipeline. They met at the Build Our Energy Barn, the wind and solar-powered barn that was built with online donations and volunteers on land directly in the path of the proposed Keystone XL.
According...
Federal water allocation drought-stricken California farms cut to zero
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 21st, 2014
Reuters: The worsening drought in California will force a first-ever complete cutoff of federally supplied irrigation water to most farm districts throughout the state's Central Valley heartland this year, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said on Friday.
The projected 2014 zero allocation to all but a handful of agricultural districts supplied by the federally run Central Valley Project comes three weeks after forecasts of similarly drastic cuts were announced by managers of a separate water-delivery system...
Melting of Antarctica’s Pine Island glacier may continue for ‘centuries’
Posted by Blue and Green: Tom Revell on February 21st, 2014
Blue and Green: The rapidly melting Pine Island glacier in West Antarctica may be the biggest contributor to rising sea levels over the next few decades, a new study has suggested.
The research, published in the journal Science, found that the largest glacier in Antarctica may be recreating 8,000-year-old history. Scientists from the US, UK and Germany found that the glacier also thinned in the Early Holocene, in a melt that may have lasted for centuries.
The Pine Island glacier has currently been thinning...
800+ Rally Against Fracked Gas Export Terminal in Largest Environmental Protest in Baltimore History
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on February 21st, 2014
EcoWatch: Yesterday, as a key state permit hearing began in downtown Baltimore, MD, activists from every corner of the state and from across the Mid-Atlantic marched to the doorstep of the Public Service Commission to send one clear message to state leaders: “Stop Cove Point.”
The controversial $3.8 billion Cove Point project, proposed by Virginia-based Dominion Resources, would take gas from fracking wells across the Appalachian region, liquefy it along the Chesapeake Bay in southern Maryland, and export...
Met Office: UK has had its wettest winter on record
Posted by Blue and Green: Ilaria Bertini on February 21st, 2014
Blue and Green: Prolonged storms and heavy rainfall have led to the wettest winter in Britain since records began in 1910, the Met Office has said.
Provisional figures said that 486.8mm of rain fell between December 1 and February 19 – beating the previous record of 485.1mm of rain back in 1995. Wales, East Scotland and Southern England all have new regional records.
The milestone comes despite the winter not being over yet. The Met Office warned that more rain might still fall over the coming weeks, as 61...
Poll: 47% of Britons say floods are a result of climate change
Posted by Blue and Green: None Given on February 21st, 2014
Blue and Green: Almost half of UK voters believe that the floods and storms that have recently affected Britain are a result of climate change, a new poll has revealed.
Forty-seven per cent of the people asked said they supported the view that “the flooding was probably the result of changing weather patterns due to climate change”, while 39% disagreed.
Interestingly, the survey found that respondents’ opinions on climate change are clearly divided down political lines.
Labour and Lib Dem voters supported...
Antarctic glacier shrank quickly in the past
Posted by Ars Technica: Scott K. Johnson on February 21st, 2014
Ars Technica: We recently covered some research on Greenland’s Jakobshavn Ice Stream, the world’s fastest glacier. While nothing on Antarctica can match that speed, the continent has ice streams of its own. Many have been shrinking, too--retreating and thinning as melting at the coast pulls continental ice out to die in the sea.
Of particular note is the Pine Island Glacier (PIG, for short). This massive glacier flows into the Amundsen Sea, and was the source of the 35km wide iceberg that made news last November....
The CEO of Exxon Stands Up for Homeowners Against Frackers (When He’s the Homeowner)
Posted by Wire: Philip Bump on February 21st, 2014
Wire: Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, who bought his house with money made from oil drilling and fracking, filed a lawsuit and petitioned his Texas town council to block a water tower that would be used for fracking. Tillerson just vaulted so far into the lead for Least Self-Aware Person of 2014 that by the time December rolls around he'll still be up 45 million laps.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
He and his neighbors had filed suit to block the tower, saying it is illegal and would create "a noise nuisance...