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Archive for March, 2013
Wells Fargo Beats Rivals to Oil-Boom Deposits, Study Says
Posted by Bloomberg: Elizabeth Dexheimer and Donal Griffin on March 28th, 2013
Bloomberg: Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), the bank with the stage coach logo, is the only U.S. lender among the four largest to gain deposits in some Northern Plains states as customers flood banks with cash from an energy boom.
North Dakota, Iowa, Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska were among the 10 states that saw federally insured deposits grow the fastest in the five years through 2012, according to research by Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Deposits at Wells Fargo branches across those states increased more than...
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Comments Off on Wells Fargo Beats Rivals to Oil-Boom Deposits, Study SaysTrain Hauling Canadian Oil Derails in Minnesota, Spilling 30,000 Gallons of Crude
Posted by Reuters: David Sheppard and Jeffrey Jones on March 28th, 2013
Reuters: A mile-long train hauling oil from Canada derailed and leaked 30,000 gallons of crude in western Minnesota on Wednesday, as debate rages over the environmental risks of transporting tar sands across the border. The leak - the first major spill of the modern North American crude-by-rail transit boom - came when 14 cars on a 94-car Canadian Pacific train left the tracks about 150 miles north west of Minneapolis near the town of Parkers Prairie, the Otter Tail Sheriff's Department said. Canadian Pacific...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Train Hauling Canadian Oil Derails in Minnesota, Spilling 30,000 Gallons of CrudeCanada defends leaving UN convention on droughts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 28th, 2013
Associated Press: Canada defended its decision to pull out of a United Nations convention that fights the spread of droughts just a month before a major gathering would have forced the country to confront scientific analysis on the effects of climate change.
Canada is the only country in the world outside the agreement. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has been vilified an as outlier on climate change policy in past international meetings.
Harper said Thursday that the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification...
Train hauling Canadian oil derails in Minnesota
Posted by Reuters: David Sheppard and Jeffrey Jones on March 28th, 2013
Reuters: A mile-long train hauling oil from Canada derailed, spilling 30,000 gallons of crude in western Minnesota on Wednesday, as debate rages over the environmental risks of transporting tar sands across the border.
The major spill, the first since the start of a boom in North American crude-by-rail transport three years ago, came when 14 cars on a 94-car Canadian Pacific train left the tracks about 150 miles northwest of Minneapolis near the town of Parkers Prairie, the Otter Tail Sheriff's Department...
Greenland halts new oil drilling licences
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 27th, 2013
Guardian: The new government in Greenland has slapped a moratorium on the granting of fresh offshore oil and gas drilling licences in the country's Arctic waters in a move which has been welcomed by Greenpeace but will disappoint the industry.
The ban came as one of the Arctic drilling pioneers, the British company Cairn Energy, failed in a bid to keep an injunction on any protests organised against it by Greenpeace.
A coalition agreement signed by prime minister Aleqa Hammond and others inside a newly...
Texas House takes step toward $2 billion water infrastructure plan
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 27th, 2013
Reuters: The Texas House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would create a fund to finance water infrastructure projects in a state suffering from two years of widespread drought.
The House passed the bill along to the Senate on a vote of 146-2. The measure sets up a system for Texas to provide loans for projects such as reservoirs, wells and conservation efforts. The bill's author has a separate proposal to draw $2 billion from the state's rainy-day fund to help finance...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Texas House takes step toward $2 billion water infrastructure planCampaign Kicks Off to Ban Fracking in Michigan
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on March 27th, 2013
EcoWatch: The Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan, a citizen-led ballot initiative group seeking to ban fracking announces its campaign kick off events in communities around the state. Volunteer circulators begin collecting signatures starting April 12 for a six-month period to qualify for the 2014 ballot.
The kick off events are for volunteers and people interested in volunteering for the campaign to obtain petitions and campaign literature, learn about the ballot initiative process and how to circulate...
Summer melt season getting longer on Antarctic Peninsula
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 27th, 2013
ScienceDaily: New research from the Antarctic Peninsula shows that the summer melt season has been getting longer over the last 60 years. Increased summer melting has been linked to the rapid break-up of ice shelves in the area and rising sea level.
The Antarctic Peninsula -- a mountainous region extending northwards towards South America -- is warming much faster than the rest of Antarctica. Temperatures have risen by up to 3 oC since the 1950s -- three times more than the global average. This is a result...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Summer melt season getting longer on Antarctic PeninsulaLoss Of Arctic Ice May Be Cause Of This Chilly Spring
Posted by redOrbit: Brett Smith on March 27th, 2013
RedOrbit: Have you been experiencing the coldest spring weather in recent memory? It’s probably because of global warming.
According to climate scientists, warmer than average temperatures have thrown a monkey wrench into global weather patterns by melting Arctic sea ice at record rates during the summer months.
"Ironically ... as the ice pack retreats and the Arctic heats up, there`s a counteracting tendency in middle latitudes for colder winters, as well as hotter summers," said Stephen Vavrus, senior...
Train carrying oil derailed, Minnesota officials confirm
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 27th, 2013
Reuters: A Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd train hauling crude oil has derailed in western Minnesota, spilling up to 30,000 gallons of oil, Minnesota officials said on Wednesday.
The Otter Tail Sheriff's Department said 14 cars of the 94-car train derailed near Parkers Prairie on Wednesday morning, while officials at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said between 20,000 and 30,000 gallons of crude oil had leaked into a nearby ditch and field.
"It is still leaking right now," Dan Olson, a spokesman...
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