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Archive for September, 2015
U.S. workers sue Monsanto claiming herbicide caused cancer
Posted by Reuters: Carey Gillam on September 30th, 2015
Reuters: A U.S. farm worker and a horticultural assistant have filed lawsuits claiming Monsanto Co.'s Roundup herbicide caused their cancers and Monsanto intentionally misled the public and regulators about the dangers of the herbicide. The lawsuits come six months after the World Health Organization's cancer research unit said it was classifying glyphosate, the active weed-killing ingredient in Roundup and other herbicides, as "probably carcinogenic to humans." One suit, filed in U.S. District Court in...
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New Report Exposes Hidden Fracking Subsidy on Public and Tribal Lands
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on September 30th, 2015
EcoWatch: A new, peer-reviewed report from Friends of the Earth brings to light one of Big Oil’s most overlooked subsidies: royalty-free flaring on public and tribal lands.
As the fracking boom spreads across the country, companies eager to tap profitable shale oil are burning away--or flaring--natural gas in record amounts. This practice increases air pollution and sends climate-busting carbon dioxide directly into the atmosphere. Last updated 35 years ago, existing federal guidelines allow widespread...
TransCanada to seek Nebraska approval for Keystone XL route
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 30th, 2015
Reuters: TransCanada Corp said on Wednesday it will seek approval from the Nebraska Public Service Commission for its Keystone XL crude oil pipeline route through the state. The proposed route for the pipeline was evaluated by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality and approved by the Nebraska Governor in 2013, the company said. The U.S. State Department is yet to grant approval for the 1,179-mile (1,900-km) pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska that will transport Canadian...
Jeb Bush lays out energy plan with call relax environmental rules
Posted by Guardian: Dan Roberts on September 30th, 2015
Guardian: The embattled Jeb Bush campaign turned to an industry his family knows well on Tuesday with a stop at a shale gas producer in Pennsylvania and the launch of an energy policy focused heavily on deregulation.
Promising to create 1m manufacturing jobs and energy security for North America if elected president, Bush blamed onerous environmental rules for holding back the growth of alternative drilling industries.
He also pledged to repeal the ban on oil and liquid natural gas exports from the US...
Judges rule study not needed for oil sands project
Posted by Greenwire: Robin Bravender on September 29th, 2015
Greenwire: Federal judges today denied environmentalists' challenge to a 600-mile pipeline carrying oil sands crude from Illinois to Oklahoma.
Attorneys from the Sierra Club and National Wildlife Federation told the court that the government should have conducted more thorough environmental assessments of Enbridge Inc.'s Flanagan South pipeline, but the three-judge appeals panel today rejected their argument.
Central to environmentalists' case was their contention that the government should have analyzed...
Cities bear rising cost of keeping water safe to drink
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 28th, 2015
Associated Press: Standing at the edge of the Great Lakes, the world's largest surface source of fresh water, this city of 280,000 seems immune from the water-supply problems that bedevil other parts of the country. But even here, the promise of an endless tap can be a mirage.
Algae blooms in Lake Erie, fed by agriculture runoff and overflowing sewers, have become so toxic that they shut down Toledo's water system in 2014 for two days. The city is considering spending millions of dollars to avoid a repeat.
Similar...
Nigeria: ‘70m affected by desertification, drought’
Posted by Nation: None Given on September 28th, 2015
Nation: Over 70 million people living in the North have experienced the negative impact of drought and desertification directly or indirectly, the Federal Government has said.
The government has embarked on tree planting in 11 states to curb desertification.
The Director-General, National Agency for the Great Green Wall (NAGGW), Mr. Goni Ahmed, who spoke during a visit to Sokoto State by members of the agency, said six-kilometre of shelterbelt, two hectares of orchards and one hectare of community...
Walker donor wants OK to anchor floating bog
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2015
Associated Press: A major donor to Gov. Scott Walker wants state approval to keep a 12-acre floating bog away from his property in northern Wisconsin. Richard Uihlein (EE'-lyne) is proposing moving the bog north and fastening it to the lake bed. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (http://bit.ly/1KMTy4i ) reports the plan calls for crews to use barges, a crane and a pile driver to pound large posts through the bog and anchor it to the lake bed. The scale of the project is outlined in an Aug. 17 memo to the Wisconsin...
Canada: New Democrat climate change plan allow provinces to opt out
Posted by Global News: None Given on September 27th, 2015
Global News: The NDP is releasing a climate change plan that would allow provinces to opt out if their efforts to minimize carbon emissions are as good or better than those of the federal government.
The party says in its plan that money Ottawa would raise from carbon pricing would go to the provinces for reinvesting in further efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Party leader Tom Mulcair, who is releasing his plan in Toronto on Sunday, has said Canada`s climate record has fallen behind under the...
Government firefighting policies, climate change bad for trees in West
Posted by Columbia Dispatch: None Given on September 27th, 2015
Columbia Dispatch: The hills are beautiful, a rolling, green landscape of grasses and shrubs under a late-summer sky. But it is starkly different from what was in this part of northwestern New Mexico before: vast forests of ponderosa pine.
The repeated blazes that devastated the trees were caused by simple things: an improperly extinguished campfire in 1996, a tree falling on a power line in 2011.
What happened after the fire, however -- or, more accurately, what has not happened -- was a departure from the normal...