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Archive for January, 2016
Don’t block local limits fracking
Posted by Orlando Sentinel: None Given on January 30th, 2016
Orlando Sentinel: Earlier this month House Speaker Steve Crisafulli made an appeal on our opinion page for one of his legislative priorities, a bill to rewrite water policy in Florida.
"Florida's most valuable natural resource is our water," Crisafulli, a Merritt Island Republican, wrote in a guest column. "From it flows life for our people, our food supply, our environmental resources and our economic prosperity. Policy choices we make today will greatly impact the future of our state."
Legislators in both...
Oklahoma aims to find ways to reduce induced earthquakes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 30th, 2016
United Press International: Mary Fallin, governor of emerging shale state Oklahoma, said she set aside more than $1 million in emergency funds to support earthquake research.
Fallin approved $1.38 million in one-time costs to support earthquake research to be directed by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and the Oklahoma Geological Survey.
"I'm committed to funding seismic research, bringing on line advanced technology and more staff to fully support our regulators at they take meaningful action on earthquakes," she...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Oklahoma aims to find ways to reduce induced earthquakesIn Canada, Justin Trudeau takes pipelines in a new direction
Posted by LA Times: Christopher Guly on January 29th, 2016
LA Times: It's getting harder to build an oil pipeline in Canada.
In 2013, when TransCanada Corp. proposed a cross-country pipeline that would be among the longest in the world, the Conservative Party was in power and the project's approval seemed a given.
But the new Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is now requiring pipeline projects to pass a more stringent environmental review, including a climate test to determine how it would affect greenhouse gas emissions.
That change represents...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on In Canada, Justin Trudeau takes pipelines in a new directionCopenhagen Set to Divest Funds Out of Coal, Oil and Gas Holdings
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on January 29th, 2016
EcoWatch: The city of Copenhagen is set to become the latest recruit to the unstoppable divestment movement, with its plan to sell off the coal, oil and gas assets of its 6.9 billion Krone (EUR1.29 bn) investment fund.
The Danish capital will join a movement worth more than $3.4 trillion worldwide, following Norway’s capital Oslo and non-European cities such as Newcastle, Australia, as well as more than 500 institutions, universities, banks, companies and thousands of people, who have already pulled their...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Copenhagen Set to Divest Funds Out of Coal, Oil and Gas HoldingsEuropean Summers Hottest Since Roman Empire, According to Tree Ring Analysis
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 29th, 2016
Yale Environment 360: For the past three decades, Europe has been experiencing its warmest summers since the days of the Roman Empire, according to a study published in the Environmental Research Letters Journal. The study, compiled by 40 academics, concluded that average summer temperatures have been 1.3 degrees Celsius hotter than they were 2,000 years ago. Heat waves also occur more often and last longer. The temperature figures were calculated by analyzing the tree ring analysis of three pine species found in Austria,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on European Summers Hottest Since Roman Empire, According to Tree Ring AnalysisAustralia bushfires raze ancient World Heritage-listed forests
Posted by Agence France-Presse: Glenda Kwek on January 29th, 2016
Agence France-Presse: World Heritage-listed forests whose origins pre-date the age of the dinosaurs are being destroyed by raging Australian bushfires, with conservationists increasingly fearful they could be lost forever.
Firefighters in Tasmania -- a state south of the mainland known for its cooler temperatures -- have been battling bushfires for 18 days, with 95,000 hectares (234,750 acres) of land burnt so far, authorities said Friday.
While no properties have been destroyed and no one hurt in the infernos --...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia bushfires raze ancient World Heritage-listed forestsErin Brockovich to Stephen Colbert: ‘Flint, Michigan Is the Tip of the Iceberg’
Posted by EcoWatch: Cole Mellino on January 29th, 2016
EcoWatch: Environmental activist Erin Brockovich appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to talk about the Flint water crisis. Brockovich said members of the Flint community reached out to her a year ago because they were concerned about how their water looked, tasted and smelled. She sent a team of experts to Flint to investigate and even drafted a protocol for how the city should deal with the problem.
She explained to the audience what went wrong in Flint and what the city needs to do to provide...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Erin Brockovich to Stephen Colbert: ‘Flint, Michigan Is the Tip of the Iceberg’As memory of Chernobyl, Fukushima fades, activists renew nuclear warning
Posted by Climate Home: Alex Pashley on January 29th, 2016
Climate Home: As aides escorted him past swaying chandeliers to a panic room, the mind of Japan`s prime minister flashed to his country`s seaside nuclear power stations.
Tremors in Tokyo meant tsunamis, Naoto Kan, a physics graduate, feared. It was 11 March 2011.
The next day 250km north-east of the capital, three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant went into meltdown as cooling systems failed.
Large explosions shot radioactive materials into the atmosphere following a barrage by 20-metre waves. Over...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on As memory of Chernobyl, Fukushima fades, activists renew nuclear warningOilpatch seethes over new environmental rules for pipelines: ‘Deeply disappointing.’
Posted by Financial Post: None Given on January 29th, 2016
Financial Post: Many in the oilpatch are quietly seething over Ottawa`s announcement that decisions on the Energy East and Trans Mountain pipelines will be delayed as it studies the projects’ contributions to greenhouse gas emissions.
Ottawa to take more time weighing Energy East, Trans Mountain pipeline approvals
The two companies proposing the pipelines, TransCanada Corp. and Kinder Morgan Inc., were diplomatic in their responses to the new approval rules announced Wednesday, saying they had "concerns" about...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Oilpatch seethes over new environmental rules for pipelines: ‘Deeply disappointing.’Pipeline reforms ‘great step’ but don’t account for most emissions, say climate critics
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 29th, 2016
Tyee: The Trudeau government's newly announced reforms to pipeline environmental assessments still fail to consider the impact of almost 90 per cent of resulting greenhouse gas emissions, climate experts have told The Tyee.
The government announced a new interim assessment regime Wednesday, saying it will restore public confidence in much-criticized National Energy Board reviews.
The major change will see a pipeline's upstream emissions included in the assessment. For a pipeline from Alberta's oil...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Pipeline reforms ‘great step’ but don’t account for most emissions, say climate critics