Category:

As Extreme Weather Increases, A Push for Advanced Forecasts

With a warmer atmosphere expected to spur an increase in major storms, floods, and other wild weather events, scientists and meteorologists worldwide are harnessing advanced computing power to devise more accurate, medium-range forecasts that could save lives and property. Like a pipeline in the sky, the plume of sodden tropical air advanced mile-high above the Pacific Ocean, heading toward the California coast. This “atmospheric river” — a long, narrow band of concentrated water vapor — carried the moisture equivalent of about 15 Mississippi Rivers. When it made landfall, it dumped a massive amount of rain on the densely populated stretch of California from San Francisco to Los Angeles, unleashing floodwaters, causing landslides, and cutting off power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses. Atmospheric rivers fuel some of western North America’s most intense and destructive winter storms, and this one, slamming California last December, was a big one. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

How environmental activists turned a pipeline into a climate movement

WASHINGTON— In the summer of 2011, James Hansen, then the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, raised the alarm about an obscure oil pipeline project that appeared to be on track  for approval, just as hundreds of others like it had in the years prior.    The 1,179-mile proposed pipeline would transport crude oil extracted from Canada’s tar sands—a particularly intensive process that produces 17 percent more emissions than conventional extraction—to refineries on the Gulf Coast. “The U.S. Department of State seems likely to approve a huge pipeline to carry tar sands oil (about 830,000 barrels per day) to Texas refineries unless sufficient objections are raised,” Hansen, one of the world’s foremost climate scientists, wrote in an essay entitled “Silence is Deadly.” “An overwhelming objection is that exploitation of tar sands would make it implausible to stabilize climate and avoid disastrous global climate impacts.” Hansen argued constructing […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

California Rains on Gas Drillers

ENLARGE Rain is forecast for drought-stricken California this week. That will help fill the West’s hydropower reservoirs and weigh on natural-gas prices. Photo: Associated Press Shivering New Yorkers will no doubt be pleased to hear that San Francisco, after its driest January on record, is due a spot of rain this week. One group that won’t be happy: natural-gas producers. A year ago, the combination of a frozen New York and a parched Bay Area was a boon to struggling gas drillers. When the West’s hydropower reservoirs are depleted, the region burns more gas to keep the lights on. If Northeasterners are simultaneously firing up the heating (and their own power stations) to fend off the cold, this boosts gas demand. Throw in the bottlenecks created by kinks in the country’s pipeline network, and you end up with regional price spikes. On some days in January 2014, gas delivered […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

EPA Keystone Review Links Oil Sands to Carbon Emission Jump

Oil sands mining operation near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said developing Canadian oil sands would significantly increase greenhouse gases, a conclusion environmental groups said gives President Barack Obama reason to reject the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. “Until ongoing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of oil sands are more successful and widespread,” developing the crude “represents a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions,” the EPA said Tuesday in a letter to the State Department, which is reviewing the project. The proposed pipeline has pitted Obama’s allies in the environmental movement against the U.S. energy industry. Obama has said he’ll reject TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone if it would lead to a significant increase in carbon pollution. Proposed in 2008, Keystone would deliver Alberta oil sands to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries. The Republican-led House next week probably will pass a Senate […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Lessons from a California Drought

California drought Rain finally arrived in California this past December with a series of storms dumping deluges across the state. So much rain fell that localised flooding and landslides were a concern. Whether this means that the three-year drought, which stands to be the driest “ in over a millennium ” is breaking, however, is far from certain. The drought has devastated California’s agriculture and driven LA residents to rip out their lush green lawns . There has been something apocalyptic in the air as farmers drained the state’s aquifers last year, and vast reservoirs were sucked dry, sparking water wars . As 2015 begins, 99% of the state is rated ‘ abnormally dry ’. It has been much debated whether climate change has been at work across California – and the western United States more generally. At a global level, 2014 is now confirmed as the warmest year […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Most Republicans Say They Back Climate Action, Poll Finds

WASHINGTON — An overwhelming majority of the American public, including half of Republicans, support government action to curb global warming , according to a poll conducted by The New York Times, Stanford University and the nonpartisan environmental research group Resources for the Future. In a finding that could have implications for the 2016 presidential campaign, the poll also found that two-thirds of Americans said they were more likely to vote for political candidates who campaign on fighting climate change . They were less likely to vote for candidates who questioned or denied the science that determined that humans caused global warming. Among Republicans, 48 percent say they are more likely to vote for a candidate who supports fighting climate change, a result that Jon A. Krosnick, a professor of political science at Stanford University and an author of the survey, called “the most powerful finding” in the poll. Many […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Boston leaking $90 million worth of natural gas

It is no secret the networks of aging underground pipes in many big cities can be dangerous. Now, a new study has found they are also bad for the environment. Focusing their attention on Boston, a group of Harvard researchers writing in current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that $90 million worth of natural gas — 15 billion cubic feet — escapes from its network of aging cast iron pipes each year. That accounts for 60 to 100 percent of the region’s release of the methane, a potent heat-trapping greenhouse gas. Methane has a 25 times greater impact on climate change than carbon dioxide over 100 years. It only represents about 9 percent of U.S. emissions (compared to 82 percent for carbon dioxide), but that is growing, partly due to contributions from the oil and gas industry. “This study helps us better understand […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Hopes for Drought’s End Fade as California Rains Vanish

California will reach the halfway point in its rainy season this weekend. Hopes that the three-year drought will be washed away are probably already in the past. While December brought heavy rains that put the state on pace for a normal season, there hasn’t been much precipitation since then. Since Jan. 1, Sacramento and Fresno have received too little to measure. “We’ve had four weeks of a very minimal amount of rain in the northern part of the state, which is where our key reservoirs lie,” said Pete Fickenscher, senior hydrologist at the California Nevada River Forecast Center in Sacramento. Now the forecast calls for a high pressure ridge to form along the West Coast, bringing sun, mild temperatures and an extended dry spell. “They certainly have a dry forecast with that ridge,” said Brian Hurley, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland . “That […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Keystone Debate: Senate Votes on Dueling Climate Change Amendments

Sen. Brian Schatz (D., Hawaii) addresses his supporters at the Democratic Coordinated Election Night Celebration in Honolulu on Nov. 4, 2014. Eugene Tanner/Associated Press The Senate on Wednesday cast its first votes in at least eight years on climate change, putting lawmakers on the record about the politically contentious issue. As part of its ongoing debate over the Keystone XL pipeline, senators voted Wednesday on three nonbinding amendments addressing the scientific consensus of climate change. The Senate rejected the most contentious amendment sponsored by Sen. Brian Schatz (D., Hawaii) , which stated climate change is real and that human activity significantly contributes to it, something most scientists around the world agree is occurring. The amendments have no chance of becoming law because the underlying bill faces a veto threat from President Barack Obama . But the votes were part of a strategy by Democrats to put Republicans on the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Michigan’s Governor Snyder eyes phasing out coal-fired power generation, unlike counterparts

Louisville, Kentucky (Platts)–16Jan2015/617 pm EST/2317 GMT Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is setting his energy stall out early in the state’s two-year legislative session, saying he wants to look into weaning the state off coal-fired generation. Currently, Michigan sources about 50% of its power from coal-fired plants, but Snyder told the Michigan Conservative Energy Forum Thursday that "now is the time to look at a long-term transition away from coal." In the long term, Snyder sees potential replacements for coal such as natural gas and wind "as viable options for Michigan, both of which have begun to build a presence in the state," Dave Murray, the governor’s deputy press secretary, said Friday. And the former business executive and venture capitalist’s stance on potentially expanding the state’s 10% by 2015 renewable portfolio standard during this year’s session could hold influence in the Republican-dominated state Legislature — which began its session on […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple