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Archive for March, 2013
Pennsylvania Judge Orders Records Opened in Fracking Case
Posted by Bloomberg: Mark Drajem and Sophia Pearson on March 20th, 2013
Bloomberg: A Pennsylvania judge, handing a victory to local media and health groups, ordered documents unsealed in a settlement between gas-drillers and homeowners who accused the companies of contaminating their water.
Common Pleas Court Judge Debbie O’Dell-Seneca said in a ruling today that the natural-gas drillers failed to overcome the presumption that the records should be open unless the companies, including Fort Worth, Texas-based Range Resources Corp. (RRC), showed they’d suffer harm to trade secrets...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Pennsylvania Judge Orders Records Opened in Fracking CaseAbout 23 percent of world’s rigs drilling in Texas
Posted by San Antonio Express-News: Jennifer Hiller on March 20th, 2013
San Antonio Express-News: The Texas oil industry for several decades seemed headed into territory best described by the old saying "all hat and no cattle."
But the state appears awash again in oil and gas, with drilling in fields across the state, including one West Texas shale formation that could dwarf both the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas and North Dakota's famous Bakken Shale.
Texas recently had 839 drilling rigs operating -- nearly half of all rigs in the U.S. and 22.7 percent of rigs worldwide, according to...
German scientists quit oilsands research over heated public climate concerns
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 20th, 2013
Canadian Press: Pressure over environmental concerns has forced Germany's largest scientific organization to pull out of joint research with Alberta on better ways to upgrade oilsands bitumen.
German scientists with the Helmholtz-Alberta Initiative will no longer work on such projects, Bernd Schneider, lead scientific co-ordinator for the Helmholtz Association, said Tuesday.
"This bitumen upgrading will now be quitted," Schneider said from Potsdam, Germany.
The initiative was created in 2011 with a five-year,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on German scientists quit oilsands research over heated public climate concernsCanadian and U.S. natives vow to block oil pipelines
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 20th, 2013
Reuters: An alliance of Canadian and U.S. aboriginal groups vowed on Wednesday to block three multibillion-dollar oil pipelines that are planned to transport oil from the Alberta tar sands, saying they are prepared to take physical action to stop them.
The Canadian government, faced with falling revenues due to pipeline bottlenecks and a glut that has cut the price for Alberta oil, say the projects are a national priority and will help diversify exports away from the U.S. market.
But the alliance of...
Australia: Flood plans ignore climate change: expert
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 20th, 2013
AAP: PLANNING laws and flood mitigation strategies in Australia don't take into account the future impacts of climate change, leaving communities at risk from greater and more frequent extreme weather, experts warn.
During an online forum on Wednesday, Australian National University's Karen Hussey presented the findings from a review of four major flood reports from Queensland and Victoria.
Her team analysed how effective flood mitigation strategies were and compared them to initiatives in China,...
New center to set stringent standards for fracking in East
Posted by Chicago Tribune: Neela Banerjee on March 20th, 2013
Chicago Tribune: A coalition of energy companies, environmentalists and Pennsylvania-based philanthropies announced Wednesday the creation of a center that would provide more stringent standards for fracking and natural gas development in the Eastern United States. The Marcellus Shale formation, which extends from central New York to eastern Kentucky, is the site of a vast gas boom, most of it centered in Pennsylvania. But the production method of fracking, high-volume hydraulic fracturing that has tapped the gas...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on New center to set stringent standards for fracking in EastFracking companies, environmentalists and philanthropies join forces
Posted by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Don Hopey on March 20th, 2013
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: A first-of-its-kind effort to set cleaner shale gas development standards and reduce the industry's air and water impacts was launched today by a consortium of gas drilling companies, environmental groups and philanthropic foundations in Pittsburgh.
The new Center for Sustainable Shale Development is a collaborative attempt to reduce the environmental risks and improve the performance of companies working in all phases of Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale development by setting higher performance...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fracking companies, environmentalists and philanthropies join forcesFish use adoption strategy to ensure survival of young
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 20th, 2013
Mongabay: Fish in southern Africa's Lake Tanganyika engage in adoption as a risk mitigation strategy for keeping some of their offspring from being eaten, finds a new study published in the journal Behavioral Ecology.
The research involves a group of fish known as cichlids, which practice advanced forms of parental care relative to other fish species. Franziska Schaedelin and colleagues at the Konrad Lorenz Institute of the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria found that parent fish of Neolamprologus...
Keystone XL pipeline debate rattles Massachusetts Senate race
Posted by Reuters: Scott Malone and Timothy Gardner on March 20th, 2013
Reuters: A former hedge fund manager turned environmental activist who opposes the Keystone XL pipeline has waded into the Massachusetts Senate race, threatening to undermine a pledge by the two Democratic candidates to reject outside money.
California billionaire Tom Steyer has called on Democratic Representative Stephen Lynch to abandon his support for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport crude from Canada's oil sands to refineries in Texas.
The Obama administration is expected...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Keystone XL pipeline debate rattles Massachusetts Senate raceUnited Kingdom: Owen Paterson calls for email block after bee ‘cyberattack’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 20th, 2013
Telegraph: The "bee-mails' were sent in protest at the UK Government's failure to back a ban on pesticides environmentalists believe are killing bees.
But Mr Paterson, the MP for North Shropshire, said the "cyber-attack' was a waste of his time that stopped him from carrying out important national and constituency work.
"Everyone has a right to express their view and write to me but this is a cyber-attack on the constituency office,' he said.
"The danger is that someone may have a real problem, they...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Owen Paterson calls for email block after bee ‘cyberattack’