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April 29, 2013
(E&E Daily, sub req'd)
In the late 1990s, the Hydraulics Laboratory at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography nearly closed. The lab, founded in 1964, had lost its permanent funding.
Grant Deane, a physical oceanographer at the University of California, San Diego, stepped up to head the lab and rescue it from a possible shutdown. "I was a user of the facility at that time, but I had a broader vision for what could be done beyond my own work," Deane said.
Atmospheric chemist Kimberly Prather, who has just shed new light on one of the more difficult questions dealing with climate change, is glad for that. Prather, who heads up UC San Diego's Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment, has been working for years to better understand how aerosols -- tiny airborne particles that can reflect radiation and lead to cloud creation -- affect climate.
April 26, 2013
(Guardian)
The cities of San Francisco and Seattle have pulled their money out of fossil fuel companies, taking a climate divestment campaign from college campuses to local government.
The campaign group 350.org said on Thursday it had won commitments from a total of 10 cities and towns to divest from 200 of leading fossil fuel companies.
"Divestment is just one of the steps we can take to address the climate crisis," the Seattle mayor, Mike McGinn, said in a statement. The divestment decision carries real weight for cities such as San Francisco, which control large employee pension funds.
City supervisors in San Francisco voted this week to move some $583m in its $16bn pension fund that was invested in fossil fuel companies. Other cities that signed on to the divestment campaign include: Madison and Bayfield in Wisconsin, Ithaca, New York, Boulder, Colorado, State College, Pennsylvania, Eugene, Oregon, and Richmond and Berkeley, both in California.
(Bloomberg News)
A labor dispute between Canada and its diplomats will hinder government efforts to lobby the U.S. for approval of TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s Keystone XL pipeline, the head of the foreign-service workers’ union said.
Federal diplomats are working no more than the 7.5 hours per day required by their contracts and not answering e-mails or phone calls after 5 p.m., said Tim Edwards, president of the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers.
The union’s actions are “going to affect our ability to lobby foreign governments on issues important to the country,” Edwards said by telephone from Ottawa. “We are the face and front line of Canada abroad.”
(Financial Post)
The term cyclic solvent process may not exactly roll of your tongue, but if successful the technology could dramatically cut the use of water on one of Canada’s largest oil sands sites.
Imperial Oil Ltd. is currently tinkering with a $100-million technology that could reduce expensive water usage at its 154,000-bpd Cold Lake, Alta. project.
By using solvents rather than steam to produce bitumen, the process eliminates the need for large amounts of energy and water and reduces direct greenhouse gas emissions by more than 90%, the company claims.
(Climate Central)
As the Midwest has lurched from severe drought conditions in late 2012 to record flooding during the past two weeks, the focus of the drought has shifted west, with drought conditions continuing to intensify in the West and Southwest, where many states are facing long-term rainfall deficits from up to three years of unusually dry conditions.
According to the latest edition of the U.S. Drought Monitor, released on Thursday, an unusually cold and stormy weather pattern across the U.S. has helped ease drought conditions from the eastern Rockies to the upper Midwest. However, this same weather pattern has intensified the drought in much of the West.
(AP)
ALBANY, N.Y. — Government watchdog Common Cause and 11 environmental groups raised more questions about the role of gas industry-associated consultants in the state’s environmental impact study of shale gas drilling and fracking.
A review of Department of Environmental Conservation documents obtained by Common Cause through Freedom of Information Law requests shows two more firms with memberships in the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York were contracted for the state’s review.
The review, still incomplete after five years, is to determine whether hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which involves blasting chemical-laden water deep into the ground, will be allowed in the state.
(Green Car Congress)
The US Department of the Interior will offer more than 21 million acres offshore Texas for oil and gas exploration and development in a lease sale that will include all available unleased areas in the Western Gulf of Mexico Planning Area.
Proposed Lease Sale 233, scheduled to take place in New Orleans in August, will be the third offshore auction under the Administration’s Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017 (Five Year Program). The sale builds on the first two auctions in the current Five Year Program—a 39-million-acre sale held in March, which attracted more than $1.2 billion in high bids and a 20-million-acre sale held last November that netted nearly $134 million.
(The Hill)
A House GOP bill to implement a U.S.-Mexico offshore energy accord exempts oil companies operating under the pact from controversial federal rules that force energy producers to disclose their payments to foreign governments.
The provision could become a sticking point in enacting the Transboundary Hydrocarbon Agreement, a 2012 accord to enable cooperation in development of oil-and-gas along a maritime boundary in the Gulf of Mexico.
“I don’t see how that provision can be taken out,” said Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), the chairman of a House subcommittee that reviewed the bill Thursday.
The U.S.-Mexico energy accord has strong support from Republicans and the Obama administration.
(Guardian)
The campaign group formed to support Barack Obama's political agenda has launched an initiative to shame members of Congress who deny the science behind climate change.
In an email to supporters on Thursday, Organizing for Action said it was time to call out members of Congress who deny the existence of climate change, saying they had blocked efforts to avoid its most catastrophic consequences.
The email linked to a video mocking Republicans who reject the science on climate change. "Right now, way too many lawmakers in Washington flat-out refuse to face the facts when it comes to climate change," Jon Carson, executive director of Organizing for Action wrote in the email. "We're never going to make real progress on this issue unless members of Congress get serious."
(AP)
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — Firefighters on Thursday extinguished a huge blaze that erupted hours earlier when two fuel barges exploded, leaving three people with critical burns and forcing the evacuation of crew from a nearby cruise ship.
The cause of the explosions remained under investigation, but investigators believe it was likely from a spark caused by a crew cleaning the barges, Coast Guard Lt. Mike Clausen said.
Firefighters from Mobile and Coast Guard officials responded to the pair of Wednesday night explosions involving the gas barges in the Mobile River east of downtown. More explosions followed over the next few hours.
(PRI)
Winton, population 954, sits in the heart of Queensland.
There is not much to the town — just a crisscross of about a dozen streets in the vast Australian bush. But, in a way, Winton should not exist at all.
Temperatures here routinely climb over 100 degrees in the summertime. Rain is scarce.
The secret to this town’s survival sits deep underground. It's called the Great Artesian Basin.
April 25, 2013
(Guardian)
Canada's natural resources minister, Joe Oliver, rarely bothers to hide his dislike for critics of the country's carbon-heavy tar sands or the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.
But it still came as a surprise to hear Oliver lash out at one of America's pre-eminent scientists, climatologist James Hansen, during a visit to Washington DC.
Oliver was in Washington on one of the now-frequent visits by Canadian politicians to try to build support for the pipeline.
The charm offensive evidently did not apply to Hansen. In remarks made at a Washington thinktank, Oliver said Hansen should be "ashamed" of his opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, and for warning that exploitation of the carbon-heavy tar sands would drive climate change past a point of no return.
(Washington Post)
WAGENFELD, Germany — Germany has one of the most robust green movements in the world, but economic pressures are tempting it to try something that critics say would harm the Earth: shale gas drilling.
Motivated by a rapid-fire increase in natural gas production in the United States, business leaders and some politicians in Germany say they need to act quickly to prevent the country’s industrial core from departing for places where energy costs just a fraction of the price. They worry that the country’s ambitious environmental goals are far less meaningful if the economy withers in achieving them.
(EnergyWire)
A study by a new Harvard University policy initiative says the FracFocus.org website has "serious flaws" as a means of disclosure for hydraulic fracturing chemicals used in oil and gas production, and state governments shouldn't be relying on it.
The study says FracFocus has a one-size-fits-all approach that doesn't account for different state requirements, prevents many kinds of searching and gives drilling companies too much leeway to miss deadlines or withhold information as trade secrets.
(AP)
In a pre-emptive move, the Florida House voted Wednesday evening to require oil and natural gas companies to disclose the chemicals pumped underground as part of hydraulic fracturing operations - a process better known as "fracking."
That method for extracting oil or gas hasn't been used in the Sunshine State to date, but supporters of the measure say parts of the Panhandle and southwest Florida have been identified as as geological areas suitable for fracking.
The bill, which passed on 92-19 vote, would direct the state Department of Environmental Protection to establish and maintain an online chemical registry for wells where fracking is being done.
(The Hill)
Canadian Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver is touting the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline in meetings with congressional energy leaders and the State Department this week, he told The Hill in a Wednesday interview at the Canadian Embassy.
“There’s a lot of support,” Oliver said of congressional opinion on Keystone.
Oliver was fresh off a meeting with Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). He kept the details of that conversation confidential.
“He wasn’t viewed as being in the supporters’ camp. So we’re not staying away from people who may not be fully supportive. I think it’s important for me to hear what the issues are that are of concern,” Oliver said.
(Bloomberg News)
Europe’s failure to rescue the region’s carbon market is likely to encourage utilities to burn record amounts of coal, putting power prices in Germany on course for the worst-ever sequence of quarterly declines.
Electricity for next year, the benchmark contract already trading near an almost eight-year low, may drop a further 4.7 percent through June, according to a Bloomberg News survey, extending an unprecedented eight quarters of losses. Coal-fed power generation in Germany rose 16 percent last quarter, Federal Statistical Office data show.
(Washington Post)
Many of the man-made ponds for storing toxic sludge from coal mining operations have dangerously weak walls because of poor construction methods, according to the synopsis of a study for the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement obtained by The Washington Post.
Tests of the density of these impoundment walls showed flaws at all seven sites surveyed in West Virginia, with only 16 field tests meeting the standards out of 73 conducted, the 2011 report says.
(Environment News Service)
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must meet a court-ordered deadline to issue regulations that clean up power plant water pollution, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled today. The decision turns back an attempt by the utility industry to avoid the financial and operational burdens of the regulations.
On Friday, the EPA proposed a series of regulatory options for controlling pollution from power plants, such as mercury, arsenic, lead, and selenium, released into waterways by coal ash, air pollution control waste and other waste from steam electric power plants.
Today’s decision rejects utility industry efforts to derail the schedule for finalizing a rule in May 2014.
(AP)
In southern New Mexico, the mighty Rio Grande has gone dry — reduced to a sandy wash winding from this chile farming community to the nation's leading pecan-producing county. Only puddles remain, leaving gangs of carp to huddle together in a desperate effort to avoid the fate of thousands of freshwater clams, their shells empty and broken on the river bottom.
Across the state's eastern plains, wells stand empty and ranchers are selling their cattle. In the north, urbanites face watering restrictions while rural residents see the levels of their springs dropping more every day.
Going on three years, drought has had a hold on nearly every square mile of New Mexico. Now, with forecasts predicting hotter, drier weather ahead, farmers and small and large communities alike are questioning whether dwindling supplies can be stretched enough to avoid costly fights over water.
(Nature)
The Ontario provincial government has stepped in to keep open the Experimental Lakes Area. Thefreshwater research facility located in northern Ontario was closed in March by the government of Canada, despite protests from scientists.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced today that the government of Ontario will provide support to keep ELA running this year and in the future, as it works to transfer the facility to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), a United Nations think-tank based in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
April 24, 2013
(The Houston Chronicle)
Environmentalists opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline are pledging to turn up the heat on President Barack Obama by risking arrest through acts of civil disobedience at fundraisers, political meetings and federal agency offices.
The planned protests go beyond activists chaining themselves to construction equipment in the pipeline’s path and are designed to build political pressure as Obama nears a final decision on the project.
They also illustrate the political challenge facing Obama, who risks alienating at least one key Democratic base — environmentalists or labor unions — no matter what he decides.
Becky Bond, the political director of the progressive group CREDO, which is organizing the threatened protests, says environmentalists will hold Obama accountable.
(The Globe and Mail)
TransCanada Corp. has played the sovereignty card in the escalating debate over the Keystone XL pipeline, arguing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is interfering on Canadian turf with its recommendation that Washington work on ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the oil sands.
The Calgary-based pipeline company issued a sharp rebuttal to EPA on Tuesday, a day after the agency said the State Department’s environmental review of the long-delayed pipeline was seriously deficient and urged considerable new analysis before any permit decision is taken.
(The Hill)
House Republicans are livid that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is objecting to the State Department's plans to proceed with the Keystone XL oil pipeline, and accuse the regulatory agency of trying to shut down the project by saddling it with endless delays and analysis.
On Monday, the EPA submitted a comment to the State Department's draft Environmental Impact Study (EIS) of the pipeline's route, noting it included "insufficient information" and "does not provide a detailed analysis" of alternative routes.
"EPA's comments yesterday on the State Department's draft EIS are the perfect example of government run amok," said a statement from Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.), who in March introduced a bill that would force the State Department, which is reviewing the pipeline proposal, to approve the project.
(AP)
Newly released documents show that the Obama administration was warned as early as 2010 that electric car maker Fisker Automotive Inc. was not meeting milestones set up for a half-billion dollar government loan, nearly a year before U.S. officials froze the loan after questions were raised about the company's statements.
An Energy Department official said in a June 2010 email that Fisker’s bid to draw on the federal loan may be jeopardized for failure to meet goals established by the Energy Department.
Despite that warning, Fisker continued to receive money until June 2011, when the DOE halted further funding. The agency did so after Fisker presented new information that called into question whether key milestones — including launch of the company's signature, $100,000 Karma hybrid — had been achieved, according to a credit report prepared by the Energy Department.
(New York Times)
No one answers the phones these days at Fisker Automotive. Its visionary founder has quit; its employees have been laid off or put on furlough without pay. Production of its sleek plug-in hybrid car, the Karma, ended months ago.
Veering on the edge of bankruptcy, without a buyer in sight, Fisker has become — to lawmakers and others — the Solyndra of the electric car industry. Not only private backers but millions of dollars in government loans gave life to a company, some would argue, that was a shaky investment from the start.
(KATV)
An expert in water testing tells Channel 7 new information conflicting with reports from Exxon about the Mayflower oil spill.
A person who conducted several water tests said there are remnants of the oil spill in Lake Conway, and could be headed toward the Arkansas River.
It's been one the hottest topics talked about around morning coffee in Mayflower, and now residents may finally have answers from an outside source on whether tar sands are indeed in their beloved lake.
Mayflower resident Billy Coleman said it was along the banks of Lake Conway where shortly after the oil spill he captured a duck he routinely sees around there. This time it had a different look.
(UPI)
The cleanup from a March oil spill in Mayflower, Ark., has moved from the emergency to the long-term remediation phase, Exxon Mobil said.
About 5,000 barrels of oil spilled from a 22-foot rupture on the Pegasus pipeline in late March. The pipeline, installed in the 1940s, was carrying diluted tar sands oil from Canada.
Exxon said it has removed most of the residual oil and is focusing on cleanup operations in a marshland near the spill. The company said it's moving from emergency to long-term remediation and restoration operations.
(The Columbus Dispatch)
Rising natural-gas prices mean American Electric Power is burning more coal and less gas compared with a year ago, according to the company's chief executive.
"Our coal generation has picked back up considerably," said Nick Akins, the president and CEO, in an interview.
AEP is one of the largest users of coal in the country. But the coal industry has suffered as AEP and other utilities have made use of what had been less expensive natural gas.
The market price of natural gas bottomed out last year at about $2 per 1,000 cubic feet. Since then, it has gradually risen, hitting $4 last month. This is still a low price in the context of the past decade or so, but that is a substantial increase in the short term.
(The Hill)
A federal appeals court has upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to scuttle a previously issued permit for a big mountaintop removal coal mining project in West Virginia.
Tuesday's decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturns a lower court ruling that found the EPA had overstepped its bounds in yanking a mining company’s right to put waste into two streams and their tributaries.
It's the latest — but not the last — chapter in the political and legal battle over the agency's 2011 veto of the Clean Water Act permit for Arch Coal Inc.’s Spruce No. 1 mine, which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted in 2007.
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