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Environmentalists say NC river is ‘toxic soup’ after coal ash spill

Environmentalists and residents of North Carolina and Virginia are anxiously waiting for toxicity test results from the Dan River, where tens of thousands of tons of coal ash spilled earlier this week. Danville’s city manager has released a statement saying that while preliminary findings indicate the area drinking water is safe, they await final confirmation. North Carolina’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources has yet to provide an official determination, but people around the Dan River report that the spill was having visible and adverse effects. The spill originated from a 27-acre pond of coal ash and slurry — the waste product of burning coal — at a defunct  Duke Energy  power plant along the Dan River in Eden, N.C.   Hundreds of workers are trying to cap the leaking pipe, which has so far allowed 82,000 tons of toxic ash and 27 million gallons of contaminated water to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Accustomed to Floods, but ‘Nothing Like This,’ in Southern England

Muchelney Under Water Tommaso Protti for The New York Times MUCHELNEY, England — The village of Muchelney has become an island. Cars stand idle; locals canoe across the flooded plain or take a police boat down the road-turned-river connecting them to what they now call the “mainland.” About halfway, a silver sedan bobs in the water, its roof barely protruding. It has been there for five weeks. Even by Britain’s rain-soaked standards it has been a wet winter. For several parts of the country, it was the wettest January on record, and it is still raining. Large swaths of southern England remain on flood alert. Muchelney and the adjacent hamlet of Thorney, about 120 miles southwest of London, are among the hardest hit areas — though it took the government awhile to realize this. Roderic Baillie-Grohman, 57, was standing in knee-deep water in his living room here one recent […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Chesapeake Energy Predicts 2014 Capex Decline

Chesapeake Energy Corp. expects to spend less on capital improvements in 2014, as the natural-gas company works to trim costs after years of liberal spending. The company projected $5.2 billion to $5.6 billion in 2014 capital expenditures, representing a 20% reduction from the midpoint of 2013’s outlook. After adjusting for 2013 asset sales, the company expects to generate 8% to 10% production growth this year, consisting of 8% to 12% oil production growth, 44% to 49% natural gas liquids production growth and 4% to 6% natural gas production growth. Per-unit production and general and administrative expenses are expected to decline in 2014. The Oklahoma City company, which spent billions of dollars more than it made from operations in recent years, has started spending less, but its cost-control efforts have raised concerns among investors about the company’s growth prospects. New Chief Executive Doug Lawler has mapped out a strategy of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural gas shortage hits California power supply

Californians were urged to voluntarily cut their electricity use Thursday in a rare mid-winter conservation alert, after frigid weather across the U.S. and Canada caused a shortage of natural gas for Southern California power plants. "While the natural gas shortage is only impacting Southern California power plants, statewide electricity and gas conservation will help free up both electricity and gas supplies for Southern Californians," the California Independent System Operator, which runs the state’s power grid, said in a statement. Requests for Californians to curtail their power use typically occur in summer, when temperatures soar and air conditioners roar, especially across Southern California. The so-called Flex Alert, in which residents are asked to turn off unneeded lights, avoid using large appliances or equipment, and turn off electrically powered heaters, was set to expire at 10 p.m. Thursday. It wasn’t immediately clear if the conservation request would […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Keystone XL Pipeline Records Sought in Sierra Club Suit

Keystone XL pipeline records are being sought by the Sierra Club in a lawsuit claiming the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has to make public documents related to its review of TransCanada Corp. (TRP) ’s project. The Army Corps has wrongly withheld records describing the pipeline’s path in relation to communities and sensitive water resources, according to the environmental group’s complaint filed yesterday in federal court in San Francisco. TransCanada applied more than five years ago for a permit to build the pipeline through the U.S. heartland, connecting oil sands in Alberta with refineries along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana. The 875-mile (1,409-kilometer) pipeline would run from the U.S.-Canada border to Steele City , Nebraska. From there it would connect to an existing network. Moving Crude Through the Pipes In its final environmental review, the U.S. State Department on Jan. 31 found the Canada-U.S. oil pipeline wouldn’t […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Britain wind farm proposal scaled back in face of opposition

The developer of a controversial offshore wind farm in the English Channel announced this week it has reduced its size and moved it farther from shore. Eneco Wind U.K. Ltd. and EDF Energy Renewables, developers of the Navitus Bay wind farm, are seeking planning permission to begin construction by 2017 in hopes of generating energy by 2019. Following complaints it would despoil the natural beauty of the England’s Hampshire coast, the companies said Thursday they have instituted changes that would reduce its generating capacity from 1.1 gigawatts to 970 megawatts with 23 fewer turbines, while cutting the area of the farm from 67.5 to 60 square miles. Its revised boundaries would put the farm up to 2 miles further away from Christchurch, England, and 1 mile further from Bournemouth. However, critics noted the new boundaries wouldn’t alter its proximity to Swanage, England, or […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Rising Coal Use Clouds Europe's Future

The European Union sees itself leading the world in curbing carbon-dioxide emissions and doing more than any other region to mitigate climate change. But it is also increasing the share of electricity being generated by the most carbon-intensive energy source of all: coal. Coal-fired electrical-generation plants are being started up in Europe—and comparatively clean gas-fired generating capacity is being shut down. That is hardly what the climate doctor ordered—and it is part of what many experts see as an energy-policy mess that is weighing on the Continent’s industrial base. So who is to blame? We could start with Americans. They have turned the energy world on its head by exploiting large amounts of shale gas—natural gas tightly embedded in rocks deep underground. As a result, natural-gas prices in the U.S. have fallen, displacing coal as the country’s least-expensive energy source. Losing their home market, U.S. coal producers have sought […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Rising Coal Use Clouds Europe’s Future

The European Union sees itself leading the world in curbing carbon-dioxide emissions and doing more than any other region to mitigate climate change. But it is also increasing the share of electricity being generated by the most carbon-intensive energy source of all: coal. Coal-fired electrical-generation plants are being started up in Europe—and comparatively clean gas-fired generating capacity is being shut down. That is hardly what the climate doctor ordered—and it is part of what many experts see as an energy-policy mess that is weighing on the Continent’s industrial base. So who is to blame? We could start with Americans. They have turned the energy world on its head by exploiting large amounts of shale gas—natural gas tightly embedded in rocks deep underground. As a result, natural-gas prices in the U.S. have fallen, displacing coal as the country’s least-expensive energy source. Losing their home market, U.S. coal producers have sought […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Norway Plans to Tame Statoil Domination as Output Shrinks

Norway , which has watched its crude output fall every year since 2000, wants to attract large producers to compete with Statoil ASA (STL) as the state-controlled company cancels and delays key projects. Western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer now needs a broader group of big companies with the technological know-how and financial strength to help develop resources, Petroleum and Energy Minister Tord Lien said. “We need more large players,” Lien, who took power in October, said yesterday in an interview in Oslo. Statoil last year delayed an investment decision on its Johan Castberg oil project in the Arctic Barents Sea, citing rising costs and a tax increase by the previous government. It then pushed back by a year the start of its Johan Sverdrup field, delaying what may be the biggest Norwegian oil discovery since 1974. The company also scrapped plans for a pipeline to the Kristin […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Limits to Growth–At our doorstep, but not recognized

Page added on February 6, 2014 How long can economic growth continue in a finite world? This is the question the 1972 book The Limits to Growth by Donella Meadows and others sought to answer. The computer models that the team of researchers produced strongly suggested that the world economy would collapse sometime in the first half of the 21st century. I have been researching what the real situation is with respect to resource limits since 2005. The conclusion I am reaching is that the team of 1972 researchers were indeed correct. In fact, the promised collapse is practically right around the corner, beginning in the next year or two. In fact, many aspects of the collapse appear already to be taking place, such as the 2008-2009 Great Recession and the collapse of the economies of many smaller countries such as Greece and Spain. How could collapse be so […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA