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Archive for June, 2013
Canada: Enbridge Says Spill From Line 37 Near Fort McMurray, Alta., Is Being Cleaned Up
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 26th, 2013
Canadian Press: A clean up is underway on the oil spill from Enbridge’s Line 37 in an area southeast of Fort McMurray, Alta and the next stage will be to repair the pipeline itself, the company said Tuesday.
Enbridge said it anticipates as many as 75 workers would be on site Tuesday and the number will vary in the coming days.
“The site is very wet due to heavy rains and surface water is running down the slope to a small creek that discharges into an unnamed lake,” company spokesman Todd Nogier said.
“Containment...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Canada: Enbridge Says Spill From Line 37 Near Fort McMurray, Alta., Is Being Cleaned UpKeystone XL Protesters Stage Largest Action Yet in Oklahoma
Posted by Oklahoman: Jay F. Marks on June 26th, 2013
Oklahoman: Protesters say they shut down construction of a pump station Monday near Seminole in what they are calling their biggest action yet in opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline.
Eight people locked themselves to equipment and a work trailer on the construction site east of Seminole early Monday morning, as activists across the country began a week of protests billed as “Fearless Summer.” All events are meant to protect the country from the ravages of “extreme energy,” which includes coal mining,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Keystone XL Protesters Stage Largest Action Yet in OklahomaObama’s Climate-Change Goals Come With a Warning on Keystone
Posted by Globe and Mail: Steven Chase and Paul Koring on June 26th, 2013
Globe and Mail: U.S. President Barack Obama has laid out a sweeping plan to fight climate change that would limit pollution from coal-fired plants, a package he unveiled while making it clear that approval for Canada's Keystone XL pipeline project will only come if its backers can prove it won't worsen global warming.
Saying that the world still looks to the United States to lead, Mr. Obama called for curbs on existing and new coal-fired plants - the sector produces two-fifths of the country's electricity but...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Obama’s Climate-Change Goals Come With a Warning on KeystoneObama Links Keystone Approval to Carbon Emissions
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 26th, 2013
Associated Press: President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project from Canada to Texas should only be approved if it doesn't worsen carbon pollution.
The $7 billion pipeline has become a contentious issue, with Republicans touting the jobs it would create and demanding its approval and environmentalists urging the Obama administration to reject it, because it would carry carbon-intensive oil from Canadian tar sands to the Texas Gulf Coast.
"Allowing the Keystone pipeline to...
Location May Stymie Wind and Solar Power Benefits
Posted by Scientific America: Quirin Schiermeier and Nature Magazine on June 25th, 2013
Scientific America: Wind farms and solar installations are often located in places where they will have the least impact on climate and health, a report finds.
These renewable energies emit less carbon dioxide and air pollution than burning fossil fuels for electricity. But the windiest and sunniest places in the United States -- such as the southwestern plains and deserts -- are not always the most socially and environmentally beneficial sites for wind turbines and solar panels. The benefits, according to a study...
Calgary floods trigger an oil spill and a mass evacuation
Posted by Grist: None Given on June 25th, 2013
Grist: Epic floods forced more than 100,000 people to flee their homes last week in Calgary, Alberta, the tar-sands mining capital of Canada. More than seven inches of rain fell on the city over the course of 60 hours.
Now the floodwaters are subsiding throughout the province, leaving in their wake an oil spill, power outages, and questions about how climate change might affect flooding.
Alberta Premier Alison Redford said the crisis was “like nothing that we’ve ever seen before,” the Calgary Herald...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Calgary floods trigger an oil spill and a mass evacuationObama’s Challenge on Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 25th, 2013
Bloomberg: President Barack Obama today announced a broad attack on climate change. His hope is to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, and he aims at every target imaginable -- every target within his authority, that is.
Included in his plan are solar and wind projects on U.S. public lands, new energy-efficiency standards and fuel-economy requirements, and greater limits on greenhouse-gas emissions of all kinds.
Unfortunately, he had to leave out any strong action Congress could take. That includes a meaningful...
Canada’s oil capital Calgary starts slow clean-up from floods
Posted by Reuters: Nia Williams on June 25th, 2013
Reuters: Canada's oil capital, Calgary, started the slow process of cleaning up its downtown on Tuesday in the aftermath of record-breaking floods, with many business owners returning for the first time to properties they were forced to leave last week.
Parts of the city's center were still without power, and most shops, hotels and businesses were closed for a fifth consecutive day.
"It's kind of spooky, it's so quiet," said Calgary resident Don Usselman, a remediation technologist, as he carried hoses...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canada’s oil capital Calgary starts slow clean-up from floodsAlaska Feels Record High Temps, NASA Takes Rare Overhead Photo of the State Cloudfree
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on June 25th, 2013
Nature World News: A high pressure system over Alaska enabled NASA to capture a rare satellite image of the state almost completely devoid of cloud cover, but the odd and unusually hot weather has some climate scientists concerned.
Most days, the state is awash in clouds, which obscure much of Alaska's 6,640 miles (10,690 km) of coastline and 586,000 square miles (1,518,000 square km) of land.
The image above was taken on June 17 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA's Terra satellite and...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Alaska Feels Record High Temps, NASA Takes Rare Overhead Photo of the State CloudfreeStudy links fracking to drinking water pollution
Posted by Grist: John Upton on June 25th, 2013
Grist: While the EPA has been dumping and delaying studies of fracking’s effects on drinking water, new academic research reveals that people who live near natural gas wells in Pennsylvania are drinking the same gases that the frackers are pumping out from the shale beneath their feet. Researchers from Duke University, the University of Rochester, and California State Polytechnic University found dissolved methane, which is the main ingredient in natural gas, in water pumped from 82 percent of drinking...