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In 2012, Canada’s ‘Dilbit’ Becomes a Contentious American Issue
Posted by Inside Climate News: Lisa Song on December 27th, 2012
Inside Climate News: This was the year "dilbit" registered on the U.S. political and public radar in a major way. Previously just a technical industry term, dilbit—short for diluted bitumen—became the center of citizens' concerns about the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline. Bitumen is a heavy crude oil mined from Canada's oil sands region. The bitumen is so thick that it must be diluted with liquid chemicals before it can flow through pipelines—hence the term dilbit. Environmental groups have long opposed oil...
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First Study of Its Kind Detects 44 Hazardous Air Pollutants at Gas Drilling Sites
Posted by Inside Climate News: Lisa Song on December 3rd, 2012
Inside Climate News: For years, the controversy over natural gas drilling has focused on the water and air quality problems linked to hydraulic fracturing, the process where chemicals are blasted deep underground to release tightly bound natural gas deposits. But a new study reports that a set of chemicals called non-methane hydrocarbons, or NMHCs, is found in the air near drilling sites even when fracking isn't in progress. According to a peer-reviewed study in the journal Human and Ecological Risk Assessment, more...
Enbridge Bid to Dismiss Landowners’ Lawsuit Fails, Pipeline Case to Continue
Posted by Inside Climate News: Lisa Song on November 29th, 2012
Inside Climate News: A lawsuit against pipeline company Enbridge Inc [3]. was returned to Michigan state court on Tuesday, after a judge ruled that a group that is trying to stop work on the company's 210-mile pipeline replacement project could not pursue the case in federal court. The ruling didn't address the merits of the case. POLAR (Protect Our Land And Rights) [4], the nonprofit group that filed the suit, is seeking an injunction against Enbridge, claiming the Canadian company hasn't obtained all the necessary...
In Texas Pipeline Fight, People Step In as Green Groups Step Aside
Posted by Inside Climate News: Lisa Song on November 14th, 2012
Inside Climate News: Eleanor Fairchild has been arrested twice: once outside the White House in August 2011 and again last month while standing on her own property near Winnsboro, Texas. In both cases, the 78-year old landowner was protesting the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which will cut through her farm on its way from Cushing, Okla. to refineries on the Gulf Coast.
Fairchild's latest arrest has made her a celebrity of the anti-pipeline movement, which was once dominated by the nation's largest environmental groups....
Nebraska Pipeline Debate Fizzles Despite Unresolved Problems with Keystone XL Route
Posted by Inside Climate News: Lisa Song on October 15th, 2012
Inside Climate News: The decision to detour the Keystone XL around land owned by its noisiest opponents, plus the distraction of the fall election, has lowered the volume of protests against the proposed pipeline. In the reroute TransCanada released in early September, 55 miles of the pipeline still run through Holt County, an area that sits above the aquifer and is especially vulnerable to oil spills due to its permeable soils and high water table. Despite a few small adjustments, the route through the county is nearly...