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June 18, 2013
(Bloomberg)
TransCanada Corp. (TRP), which says Keystone XL will be the safest pipeline ever built, isn't planning to use infrared sensors or fiber-optic cables to detect spills along the system's 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) path to Texas refineries from fields in Alberta.
Pipeline companies have been slow to adopt new leak detection technology, including infrared equipment on helicopters flying 80 miles an hour or acoustic sensors that can identify the sound of oil seeping from a pinhole-sized opening. Instead of tools that can find even the smallest leaks, TransCanada will search for spills using software-based methods and traditional flyovers and surveys.
(Bangor Daily News)
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — A group hoping to block transportation of so-called tar sands oil through South Portland — one end of the Portland-Montreal Pipeline — have gathered four times the number of signatures needed to put a prohibitive new ordinance on the November ballot.
If the City Clerk's office certifies at least 950 signatures of the 3,779 names collected by the group Concerned Citizens of South Portland, city voters will decide this fall whether to allow the controversial bituminous oil to be moved through their port and onto the international market.
(Chicago Tribune)
Gov. Pat Quinn today signed sweeping legislation to regulate horizontal hydraulic fracturing, better known as "fracking." The move, which was expected, adds a bevy of restrictions and protections to an industry that while legal, was largely unregulated.
Legislators, who overwhelmingly supported the bill, say they hope the new regulations will encourage the oil and gas industry to invest in Illinois, bringing jobs. Many oil and gas companies have held off on investing in drilling operations pending the outcome of proposed regulations.
(The Hill)
House appropriators on Monday revealed that they plan to cut Energy Department spending on renewable energy in half next year as part of their plan to cope with automatic sequestration cuts in fiscal 2014.
Renewable energy, a key priority for President Obama, would be cut to $1 billion, a reduction of $911 million compared to 2013.
(AP)
Outgoing U.S. ambassador to Canada David Jacobson said Monday he is leaving the relationship between Canada and the United States in a very good state, but acknowledged a "very important decision" on the contentious Keystone XL pipeline looms.
Jacobson, who leaves July 4 after a four-year stint, said in an interview with The Associated Press that the Obama administration knows how important the pipeline is to Canada but he won't speculate about how much it would damage the relationship should it not be approved.
(Bloomberg)
In the farming country of northwest Alberta, heavy oil wells are becoming more common than cattle and combines. Along with money and jobs, the boom has brought smells and fumes that are adding to the greenhouse gas emissions from Canada's oil sands.
Emissions from flaring, or burning of natural gas, methane and hydrogen sulphide associated with oil production, have risen in each of the last three years as drillers increased activity and the government failed to implement new industry targets.
(CTV News)
The operator of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project is celebrating a decade of oil sands production and says it has pumped out about 500 million barrels of oil since production began in 2003.
Shell started operations in the oil sands 10 years ago with just a handful of employees.
The company has built up the business over the years and says it is capable of delivering over a quarter of a million barrels per day which provides about 17% of Canada's total oil production.
(The Guardian)
An extraordinarily big thing might happen in the world of marine conservation next month at a meeting in Germany of a little known international commission.
And while you probably haven't read much about it, the outcome could see the creation of the two largest areas of protected ocean on the planet that would lock out fishing from more than 1.5 million square kilometers of ocean around the Antarctic.
(The Hill)
A senior Energy Department (DOE) official is warning House lawmakers of constraints on what he can discuss at Tuesday's Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on natural gas export proposals.
Christopher Smith, the acting head of the DOE’s fossil energy office, said topics, including the merits of a key study informing decisions on industry export applications are off-limits. He's among the witnesses at a Tuesday hearing on controversial liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plans, among other topics.
(BusinessGreen)
Almost 50 US mayors have committed to make their communities more resilient to droughts, floods, extreme storms and wildfires, arguing that spending on defences against climate change-related events is more cost-efficient than cleaning up the aftermath.
Elected officials from across the country yesterday released a one-page plan under the Resilient Communities for America (RC4A) banner, including actions such as increasing the use of renewable energy, implementing energy efficiency programmes, preparing risk strategies and reducing their own carbon footprints.
(Time)
Electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf and Honda Fit EV used to languish on dealership lots for months. A pricing war with aggressive incentives and cheap lease deals has changed all that.
Last year, Nissan sold about half the number of Leafs it had anticipated, marking two years in a row of disappointing sales for the electric car pioneer. One of the factors holding the Leaf back from appealing to the masses has been the upfront price premium drivers have had to pay for the cars, when compared with similar vehicles that run on plain old gas.
June 17, 2013
(Bloomberg)
Wendy Abrams' opportunity came in the photo line. As she stepped up to take her picture with President Barack Obama during a fundraiser last month in Chicago, she made her pitch: How could a president who vowed to tackle climate change possibly approve the Keystone XL pipeline?
Obama, she recalled, told her that environmental activists are too focused on the $5.3 billion Keystone project and promised she’d be pleased with his proposals on climate change later this summer.
(Reuters)
President Barack Obama has vowed to tackle climate change in his second term, but so far has not acted to strengthen a tool that does not require backing from Congress - the National Environmental Policy Act.NEPA, a statute that dates to the Nixon administration, calls on officials to weigh whether projects such as highways, dams or oil drilling could harm the environment.
While it does not have the power to block development, NEPA forces officials to consider the environment before approving federal projects, and the White House has proposed that climate change should rank high among those concerns.
(The Canadian Press)
Repair crews have finished their work on a small defect in the Trans Mountain pipeline that prompted an oil spill earlier this week.
Andy Galarnyk , spokesman for pipeline owner Kinder Morgan Canada, said Friday all the contaminated soil has been removed and the pipeline was expected to be back up to full operation by the end of the day.
Galarnyk and the National Energy Board say the total volume of oil spilled was less than about six barrels -- or just under 1,000 litres. That's a minuscule amount compared to the 300,000 barrels of petroleum products the pipeline moves every day.
(Omaha World-Herald)
Skirmishes between opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline and the company behind the project could be a preview of future tensions between construction crews and protesters in Nebraska. The environmental advocacy group Bold Nebraska last week denounced a presentation TransCanada delivered previously to state law enforcement officials. Bold Nebraska obtained documents from the presentation through a Freedom of Information Act request and posted them on its website.
(Guardian)
Safety on North Sea oil platforms is being compromised because the workforce is scared to speak out, a three-day conference to mark the 25th anniversary of Britain's worst offshore accident will be told on Tuesday.
In addition, the dismantling of a specialist offshore safety division set up by the government after the Piper Alpha accident will make things worse and should be reversed, Jake Molloy, Aberdeen-based regional organiser of the RMT union, will warn.
Oil & Gas UK, the lobby group for the major oil companies, has issued its latest annual health and safety report before the Piper 25 conference in Scotland, outlining a 48% reduction in the number of reportable oil and gas releases over the last three years, plus an all-time low in 2012 in the incidence of "over-three-day injuries".
(USA Today)
Could your driveway be making you sick?
Mounting research suggests it could. It's prompting more cities, states and businesses to ban a common pavement sealant linked to higher cancer risks and contaminated soil.
These sealants, used mostly in the eastern half of the USA to beautify pavement and extend its life, contain up to 35% coal tar pitch, which the National Toxicology Program considers a human carcinogen.
(The Irish Times)
The world is still on course for an international agreement to tackle global warming in 2015 despite days of bickering in Bonn over how decisions are made under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Russia – supported by Belarus and Ukraine – collapsed one of the key strands of the UN talks here this week after repeatedly complaining about how its objections to a deal renewing the Kyoto Protocol were ignored at last December’s climate summit in Doha.
But UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres was "encouraged by the progress" made over the past two weeks, and said it laid the groundwork for this year's Warsaw climate summit in November and, ultimately, an agreement in 2015.
(Scientific American)
Ever since Hurricane Sandy’s 3.3-meter sea surge drowned parts of New York City on October 29, 2012, scientists and engineers have been scrambling to devise a plan to protect the city against future storms. Two reports are due within a week, as the 2013 hurricane season gets rolling. One report, to be released this week, is from the New York City Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency, created by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to figure out how the city should bolster itself against climate change. The other study, expected this month, is from the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC), led by university researchers who in 2009 had published a long list of recommendations that would primarily fend off sea level rise, but not storm surges.
(AP)
Standing on a hilltop above his Wayne County cattle farm, Bob Rutledge surveys rolling hills and a sea of green grass.
His gaze falls to the earth beneath his worn brown boots, where he believes more than a mile below the surface lies an opportunity - natural gas.
But Mr. Rutledge, whose ragged blue jeans betray his love for hard work, will never know if that opportunity can be realized unless an obscure regulatory agency lifts its ban on drilling in the Delaware River basin.
(AP)
U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell says new federal Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz plans to visit the Hanford Nuclear Reservation next week.The Washington state Democrat said Thursday that Moniz will visit the site June 19. He was sworn in last month as the nation's new energy chief.Just last week, the federal government notified officials in Washington and Oregon that it is at serious risk of missing two cleanup deadlines at Hanford, the nation's most contaminated nuclear site.
(The Plain Dealer)
Climate change is a serious and complex problem that society may not be able to fix and will just have to deal with, the head of the world's largest oil company said Friday.
"I view it as a risk management problem," Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil, said in response to a question following his address to the City Club of Cleveland.
It was the second time in 13 months that Tillerson articulated Exxon's new acceptance that climate change appears to be a reality.
And it was the second time that Tillerson suggested the problem may not solvable. Previously Exxon did not acknowledge the possibility of climate changes, let alone how it might be dealt with.
(Guardian)
Floods, bushfires and this year's scorching summer heatwave have raised awareness of the dangers of climate change, but an "infantile" debate over the validity of the science has cost Australia precious time, according to a key Climate Commission expert.
The commission, an independent body that advises the government on climate science, has updated its 2011 The Critical Decade study to analyze the latest findings on climate change and Australia's response to it.
The report is likely to be the Climate Commission's last major contribution if, as expected, the Coalition wins power at the 14 September election. Opposition leader Tony Abbott has signaled that he will scrap the commission , along with the carbon price, if he becomes prime minister.
The commission's updated analysis states that evidence of a "rapidly changing climate has continued to strengthen over the last two years", including, importantly, the link between climate change and extreme weather events.
June 14, 2013
(Los Angeles Times)
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department and the state of Arkansas filed suit against the oil giant ExxonMobil over a March 29 pipeline rupture that spilled 210,000 gallons of oil into a residential neighborhood and waterways in the small town of Mayflower.
The spill prompted evacuations, killed wildlife, polluted wetlands and a lake, and stirred health complaints from people living near the rupture site, north of Little Rock.
In the suit filed in federal district court, the Justice Department seeks civil penalties for violations of the Clean Water Act. The Arkansas attorney general is also pursuing civil penalties for violations of the Arkansas Hazardous Waste Management Act and the Arkansas Water and Air Pollution Control Act. The state also seeks to have ExxonMobil pay for all cleanup and removal costs under the federal Oil Pollution Act.
(Bloomberg)
With his administration under pressure from environmentalists to reject the Keystone XL pipeline project, President Barack Obama plans to unveil a package of separate actions next month focused on curbing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
At closed-door fundraisers held over the past few weeks, the president has been telling Democratic party donors that he will unveil new climate proposals in July, according to people who have attended the events or been briefed.
(New York Times)
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Thursday proposed major changesto New York City’s building code, saying Hurricane Sandy showed that both commercial and residential properties needed additional safeguards against severe weather.
Mr. Bloomberg unveiled the work of a task force whose recommendations, once put in place, would make the city a leader in the national effort to overhaul codes so that buildings would be more resilient to natural disasters. He and the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, set up the task force after the October hurricane, which did billions of dollars in damage to property in the city.
(The Hill)
Democrats from states hit by Hurricane Sandy are putting fresh political pressure on the White House to impose carbon emissions standards on power plants, claiming the storm makes the case for tougher steps to confront climate change.Five senators from New Jersey, New York and Connecticut sent a letter Thursday to President Obama saying the “superstorm” that tore through the Northeast last year “brought home the increasing costs of global warming for millions of Americans.”The Democratic senators' letter notes Sandy wrecked tens of thousands homes and businesses, and inflicted major damage to infrastructure, transit systems and the coastline.
(Reuters)
Two people have been killed by the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history, law enforcement officials said on Thursday, as crews fought to keep the fierce, wind-whipped blaze from roaring into the outskirts of Colorado Springs.
El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said the bodies of two people had been recovered in the burn area of the so-called Black Forest Fire, which has destroyed at least 360 homes near the northeastern fringe of the state's second-largest city.
The blaze has ripped across more than 24 square miles of terrain northeast of Colorado Springs since it erupted on Tuesday, forcing some 38,000 people to flee the flames.
(Baton Rouge Advocate)
GEISMAR
A bomb-like explosion ignited a raging fire at the Williams Olefins chemical plant early Thursday, killing one man and injuring dozens as terrified workers sought shelter from the sprawling flames.
At least 77 people were injured, and three people remained in intensive care hours after the blast, which could be felt from away. State Police identified the man killed in the explosion as 29-year-old Zachary C. Green, of Hammond.
“It’s a sad day in Geismar,” Ascension Parish Sheriff Jeff Wiley said. “It’s an industry that practices safety every second of every day, and regrettable things do happen.”
(New York Times)
Every year, the United States Department of Energy’s far-flung operations generate millions of tons of climate-warming greenhouse gases. By tightening valves, replacing worn gaskets and such, Josh Silverman and the department’s engineers have managed to cut the annual leaks of one gas by about 35,000 pounds.
Which would seem a pittance. Except that this gas is sulfur hexafluoride, the most potent greenhouse gas in existence — in fact, 23,900 times more potent than carbon dioxide. In three years, they have stanched leaks equivalent to 1.1 million tons of carbon dioxide.
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