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Archive for July, 2012
Extreme Drought Areas in US Nearly Triple in One Week
Posted by Tree Hugger: Mat McDermott on July 28th, 2012
Tree Hugger: The drought gets worse: The US Drought Monitor reports that areas on the nation under extreme drought conditions in key agricultural states has tripled in the past week. Furthermore, the amount of land experiencing drought conditions more broadly has increased to nearly two-thirds of the nation, up from 56% just a week ago.
Phys.org quotes Brian Fuchs of Drought Monitor:
That expansion of D3 or extreme conditions intensified quite rapidly and we went from 11.9% to 28.9% in just one week. For...
In time of drought, China reaches out to Ukraine to guarantee food supplies
Posted by Voice of America: James Brooke on July 28th, 2012
Voice of America: The worst drought in half a century is hitting corn and wheat harvests in the United States, the world's largest food exporter. So China, a major food importer, is turning to a new source of supply - Ukraine, a nation once known as the breadbasket of Europe.
The drought in the United States reinforces expert forecasts that world food supplies will steadily tighten this decade, and that prices will rise. When grain prices go up, so do the prices of bread, milk, eggs and meat. When that happened...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on In time of drought, China reaches out to Ukraine to guarantee food suppliesTransCanada gets key go-ahead for final southern leg of pipeline project
Posted by Washington Post: Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin on July 28th, 2012
Washington Post: While rejecting TransCanada's initial Keystone XL pipeline application to build the pipeline across the border from Canada, President Obama has embraced the southern leg of the project, which would ease a bottleneck that is slowing the movement of oil supplies from Canada and North Dakota to refineries on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
On March 22 in the Cushing, Okla., oil terminal and pipeline crossroads, Obama directed agencies "to cut through the red tape, break through the bureaucratic...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on TransCanada gets key go-ahead for final southern leg of pipeline projectKeystone XL pipeline is issue of property rights for some ranchers
Posted by Washington Post: Steven Mufson on July 28th, 2012
Washington Post: John Harter stood on his ranch in the flat sun, a stiff breeze muffling the sound of his voice. Small sandy mounds rose behind him. In front, lay pasture and grazing cattle. At an old well, he stopped to point to water just five or six feet below the surface. Now he looked back at the row of tall cottonwood trees where his pickup truck was parked. The Keystone XL pipeline would come through right here, he said. He doesn’t want it to, and he’s even fought to stop it. It’s not a question of how much...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Keystone XL pipeline is issue of property rights for some ranchersThe Coming Food Crisis: Blame Ethanol?
Posted by Forbes: WILLIAM PENTLAND on July 28th, 2012
Forbes: A series of spikes in global food prices resulted in riots in 2008 and contributed to violent uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East in 2011. The culprit is a matter of considerable and frequently heated debate, but the most commonly cited candidates include market speculators, global warming and aggressive government renewable fuel mandates. If you believe the folks at the New England Complex Systems Institute in Cambridge, Mass., the global food supply system is stumbling into a drought-induced...
On the Missouri River, drought’s effects are diluted by tapping northern reserves
Posted by Kansas City Star: Ian Cummings on July 28th, 2012
Kansas City Star: In times like these, you might have to dip into your savings.
That's true even for the Missouri River.
The Big Muddy has run through this year's supply of snowpack and rain and is now drawing on reserves held in lakes upriver in North Dakota and Montana.
Those reservoirs insulate the Missouri from droughts like the one hurting rivers and streams across the U.S. this year. While the Mississippi fell to 15 feet below normal near Memphis last week, the Missouri stayed level, except for a one-foot...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on On the Missouri River, drought’s effects are diluted by tapping northern reservesCalifornia ranchers hit by Midwest drought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 28th, 2012
San Francisco Chronicle: California ranchers may be hit harder by the drought in the nation's heartland than farmers in the corn belt.
Most corn farmers have subsidized crop insurance, a program so generous that farmers who lose their entire crop could wind up making more money than if there were no drought at all.
Cattle ranchers across the country, however, are seeing the price of corn, hay and other feed skyrocket as a result of diminished yield, forcing many of them to slaughter their animals now rather than later....
House drought bill keeps $5 billion subsidy targeted by reformers
Posted by Reuters: Charles Abbott on July 27th, 2012
Reuters: Farmers would get another round of the $5 billion a year "direct payment" subsidy, targeted by reformers as wasteful spending, in a Republican-drawn offer of disaster aid for farmers hurt by the worst drought in half a century.
The package, unveiled on Friday, combines drought relief with a one-year extension of the farm program. If passed by the House next week and accepted by Senate, it would end a farm-bill stalemate by deferring work until 2013, when cost-cutting pressure may be intense. ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on House drought bill keeps $5 billion subsidy targeted by reformersMidwest crops, fish, water supply punished by drought
Posted by Reuters: Sam Nelson and Karl Plume on July 27th, 2012
Reuters: Temperatures heading north of 100 degrees Fahrenheit and scarce rain portended another blistering weekend for much of the U.S. Midwest, where the most extensive drought since 1956 is devastating crops, evaporating rivers, and threatening to push world food prices higher.
Violent storms brought rain to the extreme eastern portions of the corn belt in Ohio on Thursday night, but moisture was sparse further west.
The mercury soared in Missouri, where St. Louis was expected to reach 101 degrees...
Petition to waive ethanol mandate could come next week
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 27th, 2012
Reuters: At least one of four states hoping to ease requirements on adding grain-based ethanol to gasoline is expected to petition the federal government as soon as Monday as the worst drought in 50 years spikes corn prices and lowers profits for livestock producers.
Governors from states that may petition the Environmental Protection Agency to waive the mandate known as the Renewable Fuel Standard, or RFS, include Republicans Nikki Haley of South Carolina, Dave Heineman of Nebraska, Rick Perry of Texas...