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Archive for December 17th, 2014
With Unresolved Health Risks and Few Signs of an Economic Boon, Cuomo to Ban Gas Fracking
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 17th, 2014
New York Times: After years of gauging the environmental, medical, economic and political risks of hydraulic fracturing, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is moving to ban this method of extracting natural gas from shale deposits in New York State.
[Update, 9:30 p.m. | See the end of the post for an excerpt from the state health study that underpinned the decision.]
It had been clear for years, as I wrote in 2012, that there was little political or economic impetus to act quickly, even though I felt (and still am convinced)...
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Great Lakes pollution no longer driven airborne sources; land, rivers now bigger factors
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 17th, 2014
ScienceDaily: A chemical oceanographer at the University of Rhode Island who measured organic pollutants in the air and water around Lake Erie and Lake Ontario has found that airborne emissions are no longer the primary cause of the lakes' contamination. Instead, most of the lakes' chemical pollutants come from sources on land or in rivers.
According to Rainer Lohmann, professor of chemical oceanography at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography, water quality in the Great Lakes has been slowly improving for...
Families Forced to Flee Their Homes From Out-of-Control Leak at Fracking Well
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on December 17th, 2014
EcoWatch: More than two dozen families have been forced to flee their homes in Monroe County in eastern Ohio as natural gas poured from a leak at an unused fracking well, the C0lumbus Dispatch revealed.
According to Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) spokeswoman Bethany McCorkle, crews lost control of the well Saturday and have not yet been able to stop the leak. Families were evacuated from homes within a 1.5-mile radius of the well near the Ohio River. “There’s still a steady stream of natural...
Cuomo Bans Fracking in New York State
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on December 17th, 2014
EcoWatch: In a victory for environmental, health and community activists, fracking has been banned in New York state. That was the conclusion reached at a public, livestreamed meeting of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s cabinet in Albany today. Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation Joseph Martens issued the order, following a report on his own findings and a strongly cautionary report from Dr. Howard Zucker, commissioner of the Department of Health, who compared the unknown health impacts of...
Obama Protects Alaska’s Bristol Bay From Oil and Gas Development
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 17th, 2014
Yale Environment 360: President Obama yesterday announced protections for Bristol Bay, Alaska, one of the most productive fishing grounds in the nation, from future oil and gas development. The president's action is expected to benefit commercial fishermen and Native Alaskans and boost conservation efforts in the region, which is roughly the size of Florida. Noting that Bristol Bay is the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery and the source of 40 percent of U.S. wild-caught seafood — a catch worth $2 billion annually...
NASA: California Needs 11 Trillion Gallons Water to End Epic Drought
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on December 17th, 2014
EcoWatch: California’s record-setting three-year-old drought has left the state with a massive water deficit, and communities, agricultural interests and others warring over access to the supply.
Now groundbreaking new calculations based on Now groundbreaking new calculations based on NASA satellite data have revealed just how large that deficit is. A team of sci’s Jet Propulsion Laborator (JPL) crunched data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) to figure out how much water it would...
Industry’s mercury challenge could undermine attack on EPA climate rule
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 17th, 2014
Greenwire: If coal companies get their way when the Supreme Court reviews U.S. EPA's air standards for mercury and other hazardous emissions, they could undermine their primary legal challenge to another landmark pollution rule: President Obama's greenhouse gas limits for power plants. The justices last month agreed to review the Utility Air Regulatory Group and National Mining Association's challenge to EPA's 2011 mercury and air toxics standards, or MATS. A high profile environmental rule of Obama's first...
New York bans fracking after health report
Posted by Reuters: Daniel Wiessner and Edward McAllister on December 17th, 2014
Reuters: New York state will ban hydraulic fracturing after a long-awaited report concluded that the oil and gas extraction method poses health risks, Governor Andrew Cuomo's administration said on Wednesday.
New York Environmental Commissioner Joseph Martens said at a cabinet meeting he will issue an order early next year banning fracking, which has been under a moratorium since 2008. Once that happens, New York will join Vermont as the only states to completely prohibit fracking.
The decision ends...
Remote Alaskan town is the canary in the US climate change coal mine
Posted by Inhabit: Michelle Kennedy Hogan on December 17th, 2014
Inhabit: The town of Shishmaref, Alaska lies on an island 30 miles south of the Arctic Circle and next to the Chukchi Sea. Its residents, Native Alaskan Inupiaq people, can really see Russia from their house! However, the rapidly changing climate, which is changing faster in Alaska than anywhere else in the nation, is keeping the Chukchi Sea from freezing as early as it used to – leaving the shoreline exposed to fall and winter storms. It`s also melting the permafrost upon which the town`s nearly 600 residents...
Italy says it will oppose EU plans to scrap environment law
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 17th, 2014
Guardian: Plans by European policymakers to scrap a draft EU law on air quality and waste send a “negative signal” about Europe’s ambition to curb climate change and governments will challenge them, the Italian environment minister said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the European commission laid out its legislative plans for 2015, saying it would focus on priorities such as jobs and economic growth. At the same time, it planned to withdraw some proposals made by the previous EU executive, including on improving...