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Archive for January 23rd, 2016
California gas leak spotlights shoddy regulation of aging storage wells
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 23rd, 2016
Reuters: Long before a natural gas storage well sprung a disastrous leak near Los Angeles, California, utilities and national industry groups were raising alarms about the danger of aging underground storage infrastructure.
The leaking well’s owner, Southern California Gas Co, warned state utility regulators in 2014 of “major failures” without a rate hike to pay for comprehensive inspections of 229 storage wells.
Twenty-six of its wells were “high risk” and should be abandoned - even though they complied...
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Indonesia’s fires blamed potent greenhouse gases
Posted by Climate Central: John Upton on January 23rd, 2016
Climate Central: Indonesian fires that are expected to flare up again in the coming months may affect temperatures far away from the nation's watery borders.
Carbon dioxide and methane from the fires is already known to be accelerating global warming, and new research is linking high levels of another potent greenhouse gas with forest and peat fires in Indonesia and elsewhere.
Analysis of tropospheric data gathered using specially-modified jets during Guam-based missions has linked elevated levels of ozone...
Snow blankets Washington D.C. in potentially record-setting storm
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 23rd, 2016
Reuters: Thick snow covered the Washington D.C. area on Saturday as a potentially record-breaking blizzard paralyzed road, rail and airline travel on the U.S. East Coast from North Carolina to New York. More than 85 million people in at least 20 states were covered by a winter weather warning, watch or advisory, the Weather Channel said, and many stores were left with bare shelves as residents stocked up on food, water and wine, preparing to spend the weekend indoors. At least six people were killed in...
Dawn of the Climate-Killing Megaproject
Posted by Tyee: Bill McKibben on January 23rd, 2016
Tyee: When I was a kid, I was creepily fascinated by the wrongheaded idea, current in my grade school, that your hair and your fingernails kept growing after you died. The lesson seemed to be that it was hard to kill something off -- if it wanted to keep going.
Something similar is happening right now with the fossil fuel industry. Even as the global warming crisis makes it clear that coal, natural gas, and oil are yesterday's energy, the momentum of two centuries of fossil fuel development means new...