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Archive for September 24th, 2014
E.P.A. Unveils Plan to Restore Great Lakes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 24th, 2014
New York Times: The federal government issued a new blueprint Wednesday for its efforts to restore the Great Lakes, including plans to clean up 10 contaminated rivers and harbors and step up its attack on poisonous algae blooms that coat parts of three lakes each summer. The program will include a new attempt to buffer the lakes against the effects of climate change. It will require, for example, that new wetlands include plants that can thrive in warmer temperatures. The new blueprint, called the Great Lakes...
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Japan: Food Contaminated by Fukushima Harms Animals Still
Posted by Nature World: Jenna Iacurci on September 24th, 2014
Nature World: Even several years after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, food contaminated from the meltdown is still harming animals, according to a new study. Specifically, butterflies eating food collected from cities around the site showed higher rates of death and disease.
The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant released large amounts of radiation into the surrounding atmosphere. While no significant human health effects have been reported, scientists from the University of Rukyus in...
The Overview: Alberta Tar Sands
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 24th, 2014
Yale Environment 360: These satellite images, taken from July 1984 through May 2011, reveal the development of the Athabasca oil sands, commonly called "tar sands," which lie at the heart of Alberta’s oil deposits. Tar sands mining, which has become a significant issue for environmentalists, has been rapid and extensive, growing to cover nearly 260 square miles of the Canadian province by 2011. It has also proven lucrative for Alberta: Nearly 2 million barrels of oil are produced every day, according to the provincial...
Study: Natural Gas Reliance Impediment to Renewables
Posted by Climate Central: Bobby Magill on September 24th, 2014
Climate Central: Using natural gas to produce electricity is a major part of the Obama administration's policy on climate change, which aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants in favor of renewables and natural gas-fired plants that emit less CO2.
But a new University of California-Irvine study published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Research Letters suggests that the country's push toward natural gas is not only a distraction from "decarbonizing' the U.S. and expanding renewable...
Natural gas is not a good climate solution, even without methane leakage
Posted by Grist: Mason Inman, Christine Shearer and Steven Davis on September 24th, 2014
Grist: With the boom in shale gas opened up by fracking, there’s been a lot more talk about natural gas as a “bridge fuel,” an energy source that could wean us off coal and smooth a transition to renewable energy. President Obama brought up this “bridge fuel” idea in this year’s State of the Union speech, a message echoed by the secretary of energy and Obama’s former “energy czar.” The natural gas industry, too, has been saying this for decades.
But regular Grist readers will have heard the counter-arguments:...
U.S. judge rejects BP bid to recoup some payments made for spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 24th, 2014
Reuters: BP Plc cannot recoup what it says were inflated claims paid under a multi-billion dollar settlement program to compensate people hurt by the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a U.S. judge ruled on Wednesday.
BP originally expected the payout program to cost $7.8 billion, but it has said the final bill, from the uncapped agreement that is handling thousands of claims, could be considerably higher.
The oil major has filed numerous motions to challenge what it says are excessive fees charged by the...
California firefighters face tough wildfire season
Posted by KABC: Greg Lee on September 24th, 2014
KABC: With the amount of wildfires California has already seen this year, it might come as a bit of a surprise that traditional fire season is just getting underway. Black hillsides and firefighters cleaning up some burned vegetation are the only remaining signs of the Silverado Fire that burned 968 acres in Silverado Canyon in the Cleveland National Forest earlier this month. The blaze was another reminder that fire season never really ended in California. "We're in the third year of a drought, so...