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Archive for January 30th, 2015
Pennsylvania governor bans new oil/gas leases on state land
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 30th, 2015
Reuters: Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf on Thursday signed an executive order reinstating a moratorium on new leases for oil and natural gas development in state parks and forests.
The move restores the ban lifted by his predecessor, Tom Corbett, a Republican.
Officials in Pennsylvania were not immediately available to say how much gas and oil energy companies produce from state forest and park land.
Wolf, a Democrat, generally supports fracking, but called in his inaugural speech this month for...
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U.S. Senate Votes Force Keystone XL Pipeline Approval
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on January 30th, 2015
Environment News Service: The new Republican-controlled Senate today voted for the first time to force U.S. approval of the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Proposed by TransCanada, the pipeline would carry diluted bitumen from the Alberta tar sands to TransCanada`s existing pipeline in Nebraska for transfer to refineries on the Gulf Coast.
The Republican-controlled House has already passed a similar bill in this new session of Congress and passed dozens of versions of the measure in the previous session....
World’s cities experiencing more heatwaves, study shows
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 30th, 2015
Guardian: World cities are experiencing more heatwaves and fewer cold spells, according to a study of extreme temperatures in hundreds of urban areas over the past 40 years. It found that many cities are seeing fewer extremely windy days than in the 1970s and have more extremely hot individual days and nights. The climate researchers from US and Indian universities identified 620 of the world’s urban areas with a population over 250,000 and then chose 217 which were situated close to an international weather...
Climate Change Is Altering the Global Heat Engine
Posted by Smithsonian: None Given on January 30th, 2015
Smithsonian: Climate scientists have been warning for a while that as the planet heats up, storms will become fewer but stronger. This trend has been seen in a variety of historical data tracking wind speed, rain and snow over the past century or so. Now a team of researchers has figured out why, and the explanation is firmly rooted in atmospheric thermodynamics. Global warming is intensifying the world’s water cycle, and that drains energy from the air circulation that drives stormy weather, say Frederic Laliberté...