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Arkansas Oil Spill Damage Assessment: If Not the Feds, then Who?
Posted by InsideClimate: Maria Gallucci on April 25th, 2013
InsideClimate: Federal agencies have so far not decided whether to undertake an assessment of the ecological harm caused by ExxonMobil's pipeline break, which spewed a tarry oil slick into yards, streets and creeks in a central Arkansas town. For now, they're leaving it to state agencies to decide whether and how to quantify and counteract the environmental damage. The rupture in the Pegasus pipeline on March 29 dumped up to an estimated 294,000 gallons of Canadian heavy crude in Mayflower, Ark.—including in...
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Canada: Dilbit or Not? Wabasca Crude Is the Question
Posted by InsideClimate: Maria Gallucci on April 18th, 2013
InsideClimate: When ExxonMobil's Pegasus pipeline ruptured last month [3] in Mayflower, Ark., it was carrying diluted bitumen, a controversial form of oil from Canada's tar sands region. That was confirmed in a letter an Exxon lawyer wrote to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week. But the letter contradicts public assertions by company officials that the spilled oil was simply "heavy oil," not tar sands bitumen. It also raises, once again, the question that surfaces after every spill involving oil...
Cove Where Exxon Oil Has Been Found Is Part of Lake Conway
Posted by InsideClimate: Maria Gallucci on April 10th, 2013
InsideClimate: When ExxonMobil's Pegasus pipeline ruptured on March 29, the company announced that no oil had leaked into Lake Conway, a major recreational reservoir just nine-tenths of a mile from the spill site in central Arkansas. Some oil had spilled into a "cove adjacent to" the lake, the company said, but "Lake Conway remains oil free," according to news releases Exxon issued as recently as April 5 [3]. That position has sparked a debate over where Lake Conway—one of Arkansas' premier fishing spots—begins...
Renewable Energy Standards Target of Multi-Pronged Attack
Posted by InsideClimate: Maria Gallucci on March 19th, 2013
InsideClimate: Despite little success so far and growing support nationally for clean energy, a multi-pronged campaign to undercut renewable power mandates in the states is showing no signs of letting up.
Over the past few years, a rising tide of legislation has sought to repeal or weaken renewable portfolio standards (RPS), which require a certain share of a state's electricity supply to come from sources like solar and wind. Lesser known are the few lawsuits filed to challenge the constitutionality of these...
Pressure builds for Obama to link oil sands pipelines to climate change
Posted by InsideClimate: Maria Gallucci on February 4th, 2013
InsideClimate: President Obama hasn't publicly drawn a connection between climate change and the Keystone XL pipeline, but new pressure is building on him and other officials to connect those dots.
Protests are springing up from Maine to Washington, D.C., to Oklahoma urging leaders to stop the Keystone XL and other oil sands import projects on climate change grounds. The Texas-bound Keystone XL is the biggest of many projects being proposed to connect Canada's oil sands to U.S. refineries and export ports. Protesters...
Pressure builds for Obama to link oil sands pipelines to climate change
Posted by InsideClimate: Maria Gallucci on January 31st, 2013
InsideClimate: President Obama hasn't publicly drawn a connection between climate change and the Keystone XL pipeline, but new pressure is building on him and other officials to connect those dots. Protests are springing up from Maine to Washington, D.C. to Oklahoma urging leaders to stop the Keystone XL and other oil sands import projects on climate change grounds. The Texas-bound Keystone XL is the biggest of many projects being proposed to connect Canada's oil sands to U.S. refineries and export ports. Protesters...