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Archive for January 6th, 2015
Senate Republicans to try to force construction of Keystone pipeline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 6th, 2015
Guardian: Republicans will introduce a bill on Tuesday to force construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, setting the new Congress on a collision course with the White House over Barack Obama’s environmental agenda.
The Keystone XL bill aims to take the decision about the controversial pipeline out of the president’s hands. It is seen as the first shot in an all-out Republican offensive against the Democratic president’s environmental and health agenda.
The bill is expected to pass but it faces a potential...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Senate Republicans to try to force construction of Keystone pipelineUS coastal cities face daily flooding by mid-century
Posted by RTCC: Tim Radford on January 6th, 2015
RTCC: Oceanographers have just identified the US coastal regions likely to experience 30 days or more of “nuisance” flooding every year. And the answer is that most of the American coast will experience high waters that are 30-60 cms above local high tides, at least 30 times a year. Nuisance flooding means just that - somewhere between an inconvenience and modest damage. But climate change, and its attendant sea-level rise, will make them much more frequent, and possibly more damaging. William Sweet...
Australia battles to contain worst wildfires in 30 years
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 6th, 2015
Reuters: Hundreds of firefighters were battling on Tuesday to contain Australia's worst wildfires in 30 years which have already swept across more than 12,000 hectares outside the southern city of Adelaide and destroyed at least 26 homes.
The fires, which are burning across a 240-km (150-mile) perimeter in the state of South Australia, come as the Australian Bureau of Meteorology announced on Tuesday that 2014 had been the country's third warmest year on record.
That has raised questions about whether...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia battles to contain worst wildfires in 30 yearsAustralia’s third hottest year on record
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on January 6th, 2015
Sydney Morning Herald: Australia has capped two years of extraordinary warmth with 2014 declared the third hottest on record just 12 months after 2013 smashed annual highs, the Bureau of Meteorology said. No year since 1985 has observed a below-average global mean temperature and all of the 10 warmest years have occurred between 1998 and the present. Mean temperatures across the country in 2014 came in 0.91 degrees above the 1961-1990 average, behind only 2013 and 2005. Melbourne posted its equal warmest year on record...
Conflicting views aired at hearing on oil pipeline from North Dakota
Posted by Associated Press: Steve Karnowski on January 6th, 2015
Associated Press: Supporters of the proposed Sandpiper oil pipeline told an administrative law judge Monday in St. Paul that it will provide a safer and more efficient alternative to the trains that now carry most of the crude from the Bakken fields of North Dakota, while opponents said the project will exacerbate climate change. About 302 miles of the proposed 616-mile pipeline would cut across northern Minnesota, transporting light crude from western North Dakota to the Enbridge oil terminal in Superior, Wis. It...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Conflicting views aired at hearing on oil pipeline from North DakotaAustralia: Australian businesses feel the heat as temperatures soar
Posted by BBC: Phil Mercer on January 6th, 2015
BBC: Australia has recorded its third-warmest calendar year since national records began in 1910. For farmers, adapting to the harsh conditions can be difficult, and many businesses are now being urged to start "heat-proofing" their operations.
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia: Australian businesses feel the heat as temperatures soarPlummeting oil price casts shadow over fracking future
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 6th, 2015
Guardian: There’s no doubt that US-based fracking – the process through which oil and gas deposits are blasted from shale deposits deep underground – has caused a revolution in worldwide energy supplies.
Yet now the alarm bells are ringing about the financial health of the fracking industry, with talk of a mighty monetary bubble bursting - leading to turmoil on the international markets similar to that in 2008.
In many ways, it’s a straightforward case of supply and demand. Due to the US fracking boom,...
White House issues veto threat over Keystone pipeline bill
Posted by Fox: None Given on January 6th, 2015
Fox: The White House on Tuesday threatened to veto fresh legislation approving the controversial Keystone pipeline, setting up a likely showdown between President Obama and the new GOP-controlled Congress over one of Republicans' top agenda items.
"If this bill passes this Congress, the president wouldn't sign it," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday, stressing that the president wants to wait for a State Department review process to finish.
Republicans, with several Democratic...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on White House issues veto threat over Keystone pipeline billLandslides, flooding menace rain-soaked western Washington state
Posted by Reuters: Eric M. Johnson on January 6th, 2015
Reuters: An unusual burst of heavy rainfall in western Washington state caused landslides and flooding early on Monday, knocking three homes off foundations and forcing the evacuation of a nursing home, officials said.
Several landslides in rain-soaked coastal Grays Harbor County pushed muddy floodwater and debris across key state highways, county and rural roads, most of which remained closed at nightfall in and around Aberdeen and Hoquiam, the county's largest cities.
"It's not one of these snow-melt...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Landslides, flooding menace rain-soaked western Washington stateAustralia: Fire Forces Thousands to Flee
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 6th, 2015
New York Times: More than two dozen homes have been destroyed or badly damaged and about 30 people have sought medical treatment as a result of a huge wildfire that has raged out of control for days in southern Australia, officials said Monday. The fire has forced thousands of residents to flee from their homes and has razed 31,000 acres northwest of Adelaide.