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Sun, mild weather in Midwest offers new headache

Blue skies and temperatures above freezing had giddy Chicago residents basking in the rare sunshine after one of the cruelest winters in recent memory. But there were signs – melting snow, growing puddles – that Mother Nature was about to unleash a whole new miserable on the Midwest. Flooding. Weeks of subfreezing weather are giving way, at least briefly, to temperatures in the 40s and 50s, putting many Midwestern cities on guard for flooding, roof collapses and clogged storm drains. Some areas expected a double whammy: warm, spring-like air combined with heavy rains that could compound the problem and turn the big melt into a muddy, damaging mess. A whole new layer of snow and sleet was forecast to accumulate early Thursday, particularly across Wisconsin, northern Illinois and parts of Indiana, before temperatures rise and change the precipitation to rain, according to the National […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Obama Keystone Pipeline Review Roiled by Nebraska Judge

A Nebraska judge’s decision throwing out the Keystone XL pipeline route in the state may push President Barack Obama ’s final decision on the contested project until after the midterm congressional elections. Judge Stephanie Stacy in Lincoln yesterday invalidated legislation that let Republican Governor Dave Heineman approve the route and bypass the state Public Service Commission. TransCanada Corp. (TRP) will need commission approval, a process that by state law can take seven months. The judge’s decision gives Obama a reason to delay a politically sensitive decision that could roil Democratic plans to keep control of the Senate. Democrats seeking re-election in Republican states, such as Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Begich of Alaska , want Obama to approve Keystone. Putting off a decision lets Obama avoid angering voters in energy-rich states if he decides to back environmentalists and reject the project. Former hedge-fund manager Tom Steyer said he […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Governor plans $687 million for California drought

Gov. Jerry Brown and the top Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday announced a $687 million plan to provide immediate help to drought-stricken communities throughout California, including $15 million for those with dangerously low drinking water supplies. The proposal comes amid one of the driest periods in the history of the nation’s most populous state, forcing farmers to fallow fields and some communities to warn of low water supplies. "There’s many ways we can better use the water we have," Brown said during a news conference at a state office near Sacramento. "You can’t manufacture water." The Democratic plan, which now goes to the Legislature, does not address long-term improvements to California’s water supply and distribution system. Rather, it provides money for immediate aid. Most of the money – $549 million – will come in the form of accelerated spending from two bonds approved previously […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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TransCanada Nebraska Ruling Seen as Delaying Keystone

TransCanada Corp. (TRP) ’s Keystone XL pipeline route through Nebraska was ruled illegal by a state court judge in a decision seen as setting back the project by as long as a year as U.S. officials consider needed approval. The ruling sends the pipeline back to Nebraska for review as the Obama administration studies whether to approve the northern portion of the international project. “This gives the U.S. State Department and Obama an out,” said Bob Schulz, a University of Calgary business professor, who predicted there will be an appeal of the ruling. “Why would they decide if they don’t have to decide? I think he’s going to push it back another year.” Judge Stephanie Stacy in Lincoln, the state’s capital, today struck down legislation that shifted the power to approve the pipeline route to Governor Dave Heineman, a Republican, from the state’s Public Service Commission. Legislation depriving the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Keystone pipeline approval in limbo after Nebraska ruling

A Nebraska court on Wednesday voided the governor’s decision to allow the Keystone XL pipeline to pass through the Midwestern state, creating another snag for the controversial project to link Canada’s oil sands with refineries in Texas. Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman last year supported legislation that cleared the way for TransCanada Corp’s $5.4 billion pipeline to cross parts of his state. But some landowners objected to the legislation, saying it disregarded their property rights. On Wednesday, the District Court of Lancaster County sided with landowners, a move that makes inevitable additional months of delay to the project, already more than five years in the planning. The Nebraska Public Service Commission, or PSC, is the proper state agency to decide pipeline matters, Judge Stephanie Stacy wrote in a lengthy ruling, declaring the governor’s decision "unconstitutional and void." State officials and a lawyer for landowners agreed a new […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Greenpeace Pours Coal Outside French Presidential Palace

Activists from environment group Greenpeace Wednesday poured five tons of coal in front of the gates of Elysee Palace in a protest against Franco-German energy policy ahead of a meeting between French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Greenpeace parked a truck in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore and started to pour the coal on the street outside the French president palace a little before 0600 GMT. The police quickly intervened and ordered the 10 activists to leave while cleaning staff evacuated the coal and the truck from the street, said Sebastien Blavier, who is in charge of nuclear matters at Greenpeace France. The truck also contained two barrels with 2,000 liters of water that Mr. Blavier said was pumped from a groundwater deposit near a nuclear plant northern France and is mildly radioactive. Greenpeace didn’t pour the water in the street. Officials at […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Saving dying lake is priority for Iranian leader

The first cabinet decision made under Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, wasn’t about how to resolve his country’s nuclear dispute with world powers. It was about how to keep the nation’s largest lake from disappearing. Lake Oroumieh, one of the biggest saltwater lakes on Earth, has shrunk more than 80 percent to 1,000 square kilometers (nearly 400 square miles) in the past decade, mainly because of climate change, expanded irrigation for surrounding farms and the damming of rivers that feed the body of water, experts say. Salt-covered rocks that were once deep underwater now sit in the middle of desert. Experts fear the lake — famous in years past as a tourist spot and a favorite stopping point for migrating flamingos, pelicans and gulls — could disappear within two years if nothing is done. "The lake is gone. My job is gone. My children are […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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EPA Emission Rules Face Test at High Court

Seven years after a landmark Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for federal regulation of greenhouse gases, the justices will consider whether the Environmental Protection Agency has stretched its powers too far in applying new emissions rules. The stakes are high for both the EPA and the industries it is targeting to help curb pollution. Businesses say a win for the EPA could pave the way for the agency to dictate the design and operation of a wide range of industrial facilities, imposing billions of dollars in new costs. A loss could threaten the EPA’s immediate ability to require greenhouse-gas controls and complicate its broader carbon-emissions agenda. "EPA is under so much political fire that any legal loss will be portrayed as a reason why the agency shouldn’t be doing this," said Harvard University law professor Jody Freeman, who previously served in the Obama White House as a counselor […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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200 Years Of Scorchitude: Professor Warns California To Brace For A “Mega-Drought”

Two years into California’s drought and locals are repeating (mantra-like) " we’ve never seen anything like it ." They are right, of course, since this is the worst period of rainlessness since records began… but if Cal Berkeley professor Lynn Ingram is correct, they ain’t seen nothing yet. The paleoclimatologist fears, if very long-run history repeats, California should brace itself for a mega drought, as National Geographic reports , a drought that could last for 200 years or more .   Via National Geographic, California is experiencing its worst drought since record-keeping began in the mid 19th century, and scientists say this may be just the beginning. B. Lynn Ingram, a paleoclimatologist at the University of California at Berkeley, thinks that California needs to brace itself for a megadrought—one that could last for 200 years or more.   As a paleoclimatologist, Ingram takes the long view, examining tree rings […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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200 Years Of Scorchitude: Professor Warns California To Brace For A "Mega-Drought"

Two years into California’s drought and locals are repeating (mantra-like) " we’ve never seen anything like it ." They are right, of course, since this is the worst period of rainlessness since records began… but if Cal Berkeley professor Lynn Ingram is correct, they ain’t seen nothing yet. The paleoclimatologist fears, if very long-run history repeats, California should brace itself for a mega drought, as National Geographic reports , a drought that could last for 200 years or more .   Via National Geographic, California is experiencing its worst drought since record-keeping began in the mid 19th century, and scientists say this may be just the beginning. B. Lynn Ingram, a paleoclimatologist at the University of California at Berkeley, thinks that California needs to brace itself for a megadrought—one that could last for 200 years or more.   As a paleoclimatologist, Ingram takes the long view, examining tree rings […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple