Global Warming

Wind turbine generators are pictured in Desert Hot Springs

Calif. seeks flexible power rules as wind expands | Reuters

The California power grid wants to make sure it can keep electricity flowing as residents rely on a greater amount of wind and solar power and strict water rules force the shutdown of power plants along the coast in the next few years, the agency said.
California has the most ambitious plan of any state to [...]

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Recent Posts

Hydrofracking, quakes, injection wells, water contamination: what’s not to like?

Geologist Susie Beiersdorfer has discussed the connection between Youngstown earthquakes and the nearby injection well. She has said the brine toxic waste injected into the well reactivated an ancient fault by acting as a lubricant and reducing friction between layers of the shale, thereby causing earthquakes, meeting organizers said.
The situation in the Youngstown area has [...]

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Metals found in water at coal plants

Elevated levels of metals have been found in groundwater near ash basins at all 14 N.C. coal-fired power plants, state regulators say after intensified monitoring.
Coal ash holds metals that can be toxic in high doses. But the elements most widely detected at the power plants, iron and manganese, also occur naturally and aren’t considered health [...]

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An Oil Minister, Plugging Renewables? – NYTimes.com

When you think of proponents of green energy, the Saudi oil minister may not be the first person who comes to mind. But in a speech on Monday in London, Ali al-Naimi, the minister from OPEC’s leading member nation, had a lot to say about renewable energy and global warming.Ali al-NaimiAssociated PressAli al-Naimi, the Saudi [...]

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Environmental goals are job creators

The East Bay Express figures out the jobs picture:
During a Republican presidential primary debate last June, Michele Bachmann lit into the Environmental Protection Agency, recommending it be renamed the “job-killing organization of America.” Her fellow contenders nodded in agreement, each explaining how shutting down the EPA, or at least instituting a moratorium on regulations, would [...]

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Race to save Ecuador’s ‘lungs of the world’ park

yasuni

The Yasuni National Park, known as "the lungs of the world" and one of the most bio-diverse places on earth, is under threat from oil drilling. The race is on to find the funds required to develop new sustainable energy programmes that would leave the oil – and the forest – untouched.
In the early light [...]

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Industry objects to the new f-word

By Jonathan Fahey, AP Energy Writer

NEW YORK — A different kind of F-word is stirring a linguistic and political debate as controversial as what it defines.
The word is “fracking” – as in hydraulic fracturing, a technique long used by the oil and gas industry to free oil and gas from rock.
It’s not in the dictionary, [...]

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The man who crushed the Keystone XL pipeline – Boston.com

mckibben

On November 6, 2011, Bill McKibben arrived at Washington, D.C.’s, Lafayette Park to protest the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, designed to carry oil 1,700 miles from Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. McKibben, a Vermont writer and environmentalist, had been one of 1,252 people arrested in front of the White House in [...]

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Fracking chemicals spill into Texas creeks

Fracking Denton Creek Txsharon

Sharon Wilson in Texas reports:
Huge thanks go to Brett Shipp for staying on this story. To recap:

A chemical plant blew up and I knew right away that fracking was involved.
Chemical fire spawns fish kill, criminal investigation
Waxahachie chemical firm cited for environmental violations
Chemical plant relocation upsetting Ellis County residents
Ellis County Commissioners catch heat from chemical plant [...]

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Obama delays Keystone Pipeline

The San Jose Mercury News editorial:
President — finally — stands up to GOP, Big Oil
President Barack Obama finally seems to be standing his ground in the philosophical fight with Republicans over the direction of the country.
The decision to not approve the Keystone oil pipeline was the right one. Obama clearly signaled to Republicans, Big Oil [...]

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Pollinators play a critical role

bee-flickr-panna

Grist reports:
Anyone who’s been stung by a bee knows they can inflict an outsized pain for such tiny insects. It makes a strange kind of sense, then, that their demise would create an outsized problem for the food system by placing the more than 70 cropsthey pollinate — from almonds to apples to blueberries — [...]

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Solving climate change reduces health care costs

Lauren Simenauer writes in Science Progress:
Delegates from 194 parties are meeting in Durban, South Africa, for the annual U.N. Conference of Parties, or COP, climate change conference. Among topics being addressed is the reduction of carbon emissions worldwide, clean energy funding in lower-income nations, and the future of the Kyoto Protocol. One lesser-discussed issue that [...]

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Hybrid shark identified

Juliet Eilperin reports in the Washington Post:

Scientists have identified the first-ever hybrid sharkoff the coast of Australia, a discovery that suggests some shark species may respond to changing ocean conditions by interbreeding with one another.A team of 10 Australian researchers identified multiple generations of sharks that arose from mating between the common blacktip shark (Carcharhinus [...]

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Whistleblower says Keystone isn’t safe

The JournalStar published this statement from a civil engineer who served as an inspector for TransCanada:
There has been a lot of talk about the safety of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
I am not an environmentalist, but as a civil engineer and an inspector for TransCanada during the construction of the first Keystone pipeline, I’ve had [...]

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SoCal Edison blocks renewable energy projects

Julie Cart of the Los Angeles Times reports:
January 9, 2012
Millions of dollars in renewable energy projects intended to provide power to facilities in California’s national parks and forests are sitting idle because of a years-long squabble with Southern California Edison.
A new $800,000 solar project at Death Valley National Park, photovoltaic panels at the state-of-the art [...]

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Oil and gas companies turn to psy ops

By Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe and Lowell Brown / Staff Writers, Denton Record-Chronicle

FLOWER MOUND — In the months before, it was just Tammi Vajda and several others who came to Town Council meetings.
They were outnumbered by other Flower Mound residents who favored natural gas drilling in town. They called Vajda names.
“My husband asked me why I did [...]

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Lists of lists, best and worst of 2011

THE ULTIMATE LIST FOR ENVIRONMENTAL “LIST JOURNALISM” from the Society of Environmental Journalists
One of the latest trends, as journalism and publishing turn
increasingly to online media, is “list journalism.” We know it when we
see it — without too much basis beyond personal opinion, a
publication will ballyhoo the Top Ten of something. We have long
suspected that the [...]

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China buys out Canadian oil project

HuffPo reports:
TORONTO — PetroChina, Asia’s largest oil and gas company, is buying the 40 percent interest it didn’t own in the MacKay River oil sands project in Canada for US$673 million.
The deal with Athabasca Oil Sands Corp., announced Tuesday, gives PetroChina full ownership in one of the newest of northern Alberta’s oil sands developments. Athabasca [...]

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Santorum takes on EPA over mercury limits rule

Speaking to voters in Iowa Monday, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania ripped the Environmental Protection Agency’s new rule placing first-ever limits on the amount of mercury that coal-fired power plants can emit into the air.
The GOP presidential contender claimed the new regulations would shut down 60 coal fired power plants in America, and he [...]

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Facing rising seas, islanders call on their music — The Daily Climate

tuvalu

The applause was raucous, growing louder and faster as the beat accelerated.
A dozen dancers, arms stretched, torsos bare, pounded the stage in an increasing frenzy. They turned, swooped, slapped their thighs, swooped and turned again– birds hovering in the air, looking for something below – and shouting, “koburake!” or “rise up!” The audience exploded [...]

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