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Archive for March, 2013
Updated maps: Ohio shale prospects trending west
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 16th, 2013
Associated Press: Updated studies show Ohio's oil-rich shale deposits may extend further west than earlier believed.
Revised maps produced by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources show promising shale prospects in Hancock, Hardin, Wyandot and Seneca counties in the region between Mansfield and Lima.
State geologists posted the revised maps on the agency website after reviewing information from 100 new locations.
The new maps support earlier indications that eastern Ohio - including Stark, Carroll and Tuscarawas...
Keystone XL Pipeline Not A Climate Change Cure
Posted by Time: Michael Scherer on March 16th, 2013
Time: Barack Obama has seen protesters from his motorcade for years: McCain and Romney campaign supporters, health care reform opponents and all manner of Tea Party acolytes. But when he left Argonne National Laboratory in a cold rain outside Chicago on Friday, there was another breed altogether: environmentalists bearing bright hand-painted signs with messages like, “No XL Pipeline.”
In a matter of months, the Obama Administration will have to decide whether to permit the Keystone XL pipeline, a 2,000...
University of Tennessee’s Fracking Plan Stirs Protests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 16th, 2013
New York Times: The University of Tennessee faced protests here on Friday over its proposal to let a private company drill for natural gas across a forest controlled by the university.
Environmentalists say opening the Cumberland Forest in eastern Tennessee to hydraulic fracturing, a process known as "fracking,' could harm wildlife and scenery on the 8,000-acre tract of state-owned land.
But the university says it would create a rare, controlled environment in which experts could study the environmental impact...
Oregon Residents Sound the Alarm on Pending Coal Export Permit
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on March 16th, 2013
EcoWatch: More than 450 Oregon residents and a diverse group of local leaders flooded the steps of Oregon’s Capitol Wednesday morning to call on Governor Kitzhaber to deny Ambre Energy a dredging permit at the Port of Morrow.
Many community leaders and residents feel they can’t trust the Australian-based coal company which in 2011 lied to the community of Longview about its plans to expand from annual coal shipments of 5 million tons to as much as 80 million tons--15 times the amount claimed on its application....
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Oregon Residents Sound the Alarm on Pending Coal Export PermitU.S. lawmakers push bills to approve Keystone pipeline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2013
Reuters: U.S. lawmakers in both chambers of Congress said Friday they are moving forward with bills introduced this week to pluck the power of approving the Keystone XL pipeline, which would run from Canada's oil sands to Texas, from the hands of the Obama administration.
Republican Representative Lee Terry from Nebraska introduced a bipartisan bill on Friday to approve TransCanada Corp's 800,000 barrels per day pipeline, which has been held up in the review process for more than four years.
Fred Upton,...
Obama says US must shift cars, trucks off of oil
Posted by Associated Press: Nedra Pickler and Matthew Daly on March 15th, 2013
Associated Press: Envisioning cars that can go "coast to coast without using a drop of oil," President Barack Obama on Friday urged Congress to authorize spending $2 billion over the next decade to expand research into electric cars and biofuels to wean automobiles off gasoline. Obama, expanding on an initiative he addressed in his State of the Union speech last month, said the United States must shift its cars and trucks entirely off oil to avoid perpetual fluctuations in gas prices. Citing policies that already...
Green energy more important for climate than Keystone: White House
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2013
Reuters: A White House spokesman said on Friday that new investments in green energy technology are more important for easing the effects of climate change than whether or not the controversial Keystone pipeline gets built.
Asked by reporters whether the construction of the pipeline was less important to slowing climate change than supporting projects such as the Argonne National Laboratory that President Barack Obama is visiting on Friday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said it was.
"There's no...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Green energy more important for climate than Keystone: White HouseAs U.S. Cleans Its Energy Mix, It Ships Coal Problems Abroad
Posted by National Geographic: Thomas K. Grose on March 15th, 2013
National Geographic: Ready for some good news about the environment? Emissions of carbon dioxide in the United States are declining. But don't celebrate just yet. A major side effect of that cleaner air in the U.S. has been the further darkening of skies over Europe and Asia.
The United States essentially is exporting a share of its greenhouse gas emissions in the form of coal, data show. If the trend continues, the dramatic changes in energy use in the United States-in particular, the switch from coal to newly abundant...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on As U.S. Cleans Its Energy Mix, It Ships Coal Problems AbroadSalt marsh restoration could bring carbon benefits
Posted by Plane tEarth: Tom Marshall on March 15th, 2013
Plane tEarth: Allowing farmland that's been reclaimed from the sea to flood and turn back into salt marsh could make it absorb lots of carbon from the atmosphere, a new study suggests, though the transformation will take many years to complete. Breaching the sea defences at Tollesbury in 1995. Scientists looked at one of the oldest such places in the UK, Tollesbury in Essex. Originally a salt marsh, the site was claimed for farming in the late 18th century, but eventually relinquished in 1995 when the bank separating...
Recent Storms Highlight Flaws In Top U.S. Weather Model
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on March 15th, 2013
Climate Central: The U.S., which pioneered the groundbreaking science of weather forecasting using mathematical simulations of the atmosphere, has fallen behind other nations when it comes to the accuracy of its global forecasting model. The consequences could be dire for people in harm's way if the U.S. is less prepared for extreme weather and climate events.
The emerging "modeling gap' could erode the accuracy of U.S. weather forecasts and also cause greater economic losses from weather events. A 2011 study...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Recent Storms Highlight Flaws In Top U.S. Weather Model