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Archive for August, 2013
Throwing billions more at logging wrong
Posted by Missoulian: Mike Garrity on August 29th, 2013
Missoulian: From one fifth-generation Montanan to another, I’m calling U.S. Rep. Steve Daines’ recent column on forest issues misinformed parroting of Bush-era “Healthy Forests Initiative” propaganda, which was nothing but a smokescreen for more corporate logging. Sadly, Daines now follows Bush’s path to less environmental analysis, less public review and more deforestation of our dwindling old growth forests. Ironically, Daines’ column was published at the same time as numerous articles about how wonderful...
United Kingdom: Treasury confirms “secret meetings” with industry over shale gas tax breaks
Posted by BusinessGreen: James Murray on August 29th, 2013
BusinessGreen: Treasury officials have met with representatives of the shale gas industry to discuss the introduction of tax breaks at the rate of around twice a month since Chancellor George Osborne announced his intention to provide the nascent fossil fuel industry with one of the most generous tax regimes in the world.
The revelation came in response to a freedom of information request from Friends of the Earth, although the Treasury failed to respond to accompanying requests on the nature of the meetings...
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Comments Off on United Kingdom: Treasury confirms “secret meetings” with industry over shale gas tax breaksBalcombe residents complain about continuing fracking protests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 29th, 2013
Guardian: Residents of the West Sussex village at the heart of a battle over whether the UK should go ahead with fracking have complained at the ongoing protests against the controversial technique.
Earlier this month, hundreds of protesters blockaded the site outside Balcombe where Cuadrilla is undertaking exploratory drilling for oil, leading to 29 arrests including that of green MP, Caroline Lucas. Although a camp of activists in a nearby field has now left, around fifty people remain at a 'gate camp',...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Balcombe residents complain about continuing fracking protestsIndia must stop viewing disasters as acts of God – report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 29th, 2013
Reuters: India must stop viewing natural disasters as stand-alone acts of God or nature and recognise that its development policies are increasing the number of deaths and amount of devastation caused by such calamities, a new report says.
Written by academics, aid workers, scientists and analysts, the "India Disasters Report" says that development works carried out in pursuit of greater economic growth, such as the construction of dams and unsafe buildings, are putting people and the environment at greater...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on India must stop viewing disasters as acts of God – reportCalifornia wildfire heads deeper into Yosemite, entry road closed
Posted by Reuters: Laila Kearney on August 29th, 2013
Reuters: Firefighters determined to keep a massive blaze from raging into the heart of California's Yosemite National Park have shut down half of its main east-west corridor, just days before a holiday weekend marking the end of the peak summer tourist season.
A long stretch of Tioga Road through the western half of the park was closed on Wednesday as fire crews tightened their grip on the blaze, extending containment lines around 30 percent of the wildfire's perimeter by the end of its 12th day.
The...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on California wildfire heads deeper into Yosemite, entry road closedHouse Dems to Interior: Fracking Rule is Too Weak
Posted by Hill: Ben Geman on August 29th, 2013
Hill: Senior Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee say the Interior Department’s draft plan to regulate oil and gas fracking is too weak and even worse than an earlier proposal.
Ranking Democrat Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and five colleagues, in a letter, say the rule gives industry too much leeway to avoid chemical disclosure requirements by claiming trade secrets.
The lawmakers also say the rule would allow many wells in a given oil and gas field to escape oversight, alleging it assumes...
Keystone Seen as No Local Job Starter Along Prairie Route
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 28th, 2013
Bloomberg: If the Keystone XL oil pipeline gets built, Rick Balcom doubts he’ll see many construction workers at the bar of his No. 3 saloon in Buffalo, a remote town in the northwest corner of South Dakota.
Balcom, 44, knows most of the workers building the Canada-Nebraska pipeline will stay at a catered “man-camp” seven miles away and won’t be hoisting brews under the stuffed mountain lion that adorns his bar. On their days off, they’ll probably travel to places such as Deadwood and Spearfish an hour-and-a-half...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Keystone Seen as No Local Job Starter Along Prairie RouteArkansas homeowners settle suit charging fracking wastewater caused quakes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 28th, 2013
Reuters: Five Arkansas residents who sued two oil companies claiming wastewater disposal wells from fracking caused earthquakes that damaged their homes settled with the companies for an undisclosed sum on Wednesday, according to U.S. court documents and the plaintiffs' lawyers.
Several similar suits against the two companies, Chesapeake Energy's operating subsidiary and BHP Billiton, remain active in federal court in eastern Arkansas, though those may also be settled, the lawyers said.
The residents...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Arkansas homeowners settle suit charging fracking wastewater caused quakesFukushima keeps on leaking, Japan keeps on issuing confusing explanations
Posted by Grist: John Upton on August 28th, 2013
Grist: Problems continue to burble up at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant - or, in this case, gush out.
We learned last month that contaminated water has been leaking from the plant into the sea at a rate of about 300 tons a day. Then last week came word of a more serious spill of 300 tons of extremely radioactive water, which the government classified as a level 3 incident on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale.
The scale runs from zero, where everything is peachy,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fukushima keeps on leaking, Japan keeps on issuing confusing explanationsEPA Sued for Abandoning Critical Factory Farm Rule Under Clean Water Act
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on August 28th, 2013
EcoWatch: A coalition of community, animal welfare and environmental organizations is filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) challenging the agency’s withdrawal of a proposed rule that would have allowed the EPA to collect basic information, like locations and animal population sizes, from factory farms.
The Center for Food Safety, Environmental Integrity Project, Food & Water Watch, The Humane Society of the United States and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement filed...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on EPA Sued for Abandoning Critical Factory Farm Rule Under Clean Water Act