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Archive for December 1st, 2010
Erin Brockovich’s town in second battle over pollution
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 1st, 2010
Guardian: Ten years ago the small town of Hinkley shot to international attention with the release of Erin Brockovich – the movie starring Julia Roberts that dramatised the town's battle over its contaminated water supply. Now the community of fewer than 2,000 people in California's Mojave Desert is fighting again to try to stop history repeating itself.
Tempers among residents are set to run high tonight at a meeting with water board officials, representatives of California's largest utility company PG&E...
Hydraulic Fracturing in the Spotlight
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 1st, 2010
New York Times: Hydraulic fracturing -- that contentious part of the gas drilling process involving high-pressure injections of water, sand and chemicals deep underground -- took center stage on Tuesday with two forums in Washington and a decision by the New York State Legislature to ban the practice until more is known about its health and environmental impacts.
As my colleague Mireya Navarro noted, the New York State Assembly voted on Monday to place a six-month moratorium on issuing new permits for gas drilling...
Controversial gas ‘fracking’ extraction headed to Europe
Posted by Ecologist: Luke Starr on December 1st, 2010
Ecologist: Despite growing evidence from the US of a raft of negative environmental and social consequences of drilling for natural gas using the controversial hydraulic fracturing process, European energy companies are scrambling to secure licenses to roll out extraction projects this side of the Atlantic.
Hydraulic fracturing – also known as 'fracking' – is a process used in the vast majority of natural gas wells in the US, where millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground to...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Controversial gas ‘fracking’ extraction headed to EuropeWeird weather leaves Amazon forest thirsty
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 1st, 2010
Reuters: The river loops low past its bleached-white banks, where caimans bask in the fierce morning sun and stranded houseboats tilt precariously. Nearby sits a beached barge with its load of eight trucks and a crane. Its owners were caught out long ago by the speed of the river's decline.
This is what it looks like when the world's greatest rainforest is thirsty. If climate scientists are right, parched Amazon scenes like this will become more common in the coming decades, possibly threatening the survival...
Special report: How BP’s oil spill costs could double
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 1st, 2010
Reuters: Last month, BP increased by $8 billion the financial provisions it was taking for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill; the company's shares rose. Better-than- expected underlying profits and upbeat comments from new Chief Executive Bob Dudley were taken by the market as a sign the company had turned the corner and would soon return to pumping out steadily rising dividends.
Key to this sanguine outlook is confidence that the new estimate of the total cost of the spill -- $40 billion -- will be sufficient....