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Archive for May, 2015
Victory! University Washington Divests from Coal
Posted by EcoWatch: Morgan Sinclaire on May 14th, 2015
EcoWatch: “If it’s wrong to wreck the planet, then it’s wrong to profit from that wreckage.”
This quote by Bill McKibben has become the mantra of the fossil fuel divestment movement, the campaign which has sprouted up on hundreds of college campuses across the country with one simple goal: to get universities to stop investing in the same fossil fuel industry that is accelerating us all towards planetary catastrophe.
Here at the University of Washington in Seattle, Divest UW has gotten one of the biggest...
NY Fracking Report Underscores Quake, Climate Risks
Posted by Climate Central: Bobby Magill on May 14th, 2015
Climate Central: New York is 2,000 pages closer to becoming the first fossil fuels-rich state in the U.S. to ban fracking indefinitely because of the climate-changing methane it could emit and the earthquakes, air pollution and water contamination it could cause.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced in December that fracking, short for the natural gas extraction process called hydraulic fracturing, would be banned in New York, where the energy-rich Marcellus shale holds up to 9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The state...
Australia lobbies Unesco stop it from listing Great Barrier Reef as ‘in danger’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 14th, 2015
Guardian: The Australian government is undertaking frantic diplomatic efforts to avoid the Great Barrier Reef being listed as “in danger” by the UN, amid rising international concern over the opening up of a vast region in the state of Queensland for gigantic new coal mines.
A draft decision on the reef’s status is expected to be delivered by the end of this month ahead of a meeting of Unesco’s world heritage committee in Bonn, Germany in June. Unesco has already expressed its concern over erosion of the...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Australia lobbies Unesco stop it from listing Great Barrier Reef as ‘in danger’The financial case against Australia’s largest coal mine
Posted by Guardian: Jennifer Rankin on May 14th, 2015
Guardian: The case against building Australia’s largest coal mine has focused on the threats of runaway climate change and ruin of the Great Barrier Reef. But finances may yet prove the key.
Leading economists and City analysts are baffled by plans from India’s Adani Group to build the A$16.5bn (£8.4bn, $13.2bn) Carmichael mine and Abbot Point port expansion – just as coal prices have collapsed.
If the Carmichael project fails to convince investors, it could jeopardise plans for at least eight other...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on The financial case against Australia’s largest coal mineU.S. green groups sue in challenge to oil train safety rules
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 14th, 2015
Reuters: Seven environmental groups filed a lawsuit on Thursday challenging safety rules issued earlier this month for trains carrying oil, arguing the regulations are too weak to protect the public. The groups, including the Sierra Club and Center for Biological Diversity, charge that the rules, issued on May 1, will allow industry to continue to use "unsafe tank cars" for up to 10 years and fail to set adequate speed limits for oil trains. "We’re suing the administration because these rules won’t protect...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on U.S. green groups sue in challenge to oil train safety rulesDuke Energy pleads guilty to environmental crimes in North Carolina
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 14th, 2015
Reuters: Duke Energy Corp pleaded guilty on Thursday to environmental crimes over a North Carolina power plant's coal ash spill into a river and management of coal ash basins in the state, U.S. prosecutors said.
The plea entered in federal court in Greenville, North Carolina, by the country's largest utility owner was expected under a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice announced in February.
As part of the deal, Duke agreed to pay $102 million in fines and environmental projects, and to...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Duke Energy pleads guilty to environmental crimes in North CarolinaUS Honeybee Population Plummets by More Than 40%, USDA Finds
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on May 14th, 2015
EcoWatch: To the horror of beekeepers around the country, it appears that the worrisome decline in honeybees is getting even worse. According to the latest annual government study, U.S. beekeepers reported losing 42.1 percent of the total number of colonies managed from April 2014 through April 2015, much higher than the 34.2 percent from the year prior. The study was conducted by the Bee Informed Partnership in collaboration with the Apiary Inspectors of America and the United States Department of Agriculture...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on US Honeybee Population Plummets by More Than 40%, USDA FindsCanada’s Finance Minister: ‘Frustrating’ Keystone Delay Hinders Canada Economy
Posted by Bloomberg: Josh Wingrove on May 14th, 2015
Bloomberg: Delayed approval of TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline is “frustrating” and puts off any economic benefit from the project, according to Canada’s Finance Minister. Speaking today in New York, Joe Oliver praised the trading relationship between the two countries and said “candor is not out of place when we believe matters could be handled a trifle better.” The Finance Minister spoke after the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, who said the relationship between the two countries is about more than...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canada’s Finance Minister: ‘Frustrating’ Keystone Delay Hinders Canada EconomyCanadian Aboriginal Group Rejects $1B Fee for Natural Gas Project
Posted by New York Times: Ian Austen on May 14th, 2015
New York Times: A small aboriginal community in British Columbia has rejected a $1 billion payment for a natural gas project, the latest setback for the Canadian energy industry’s effort to bolster exports. A group led by the Malaysian energy company Petronas had offered the money to the Lax Kw’alaams Band, to help push through a plan to build a liquefied natural gas ship terminal near their remote community. It is part of an overall pipeline and gas drilling project that the group, Pacific NorthWest LNG, values...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canadian Aboriginal Group Rejects $1B Fee for Natural Gas ProjectUnited States: The Human Cost of Keystone XL
Posted by Pacific Standard: None Given on May 14th, 2015
Pacific Standard: In a Montana Greyhound station, Annita Lucchesi, a 24-year-old Southern Cheyenne woman, noticed an entire wall filled with photos of missing women. “The majority of them were native women and it broke my heart,” she says. Lucchesi works for the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Council. Because of her job, she knew that human trafficking around North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields was on the rise. But this wall was a visualization of the numbers she and her colleagues dealt with every day. In her...