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Keystone XL backers hail government’s warning on oil-by-rail

A government warning about the dangers of increased use of trains to transport crude oil is giving a boost to supporters of the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline. U.S. and Canadian accident investigators urged their governments Thursday to impose new safety rules on so-called oil trains, warning that a "major loss of life" could result from an accident involving the increasing use of trains to transport large amounts of crude oil. The announcement came in the wake of a string of high-profile accidents. In July last year, a crude oil train crash in Quebec caused an explosion and fire that killed 47 people . Another train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded in North Dakota last month . No one was killed, but the incident prompted evacuation orders for residents of a nearby town. Pipeline supporters said the stern joint warning by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the Transportation […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Colder Weather Heads for U.S. as Ice Set to Coat Texas

Parts of southern Texas may get a rare coating of ice as temperatures plunging across the U.S. portend an even sharper cold snap to come. Temperatures across the eastern U.S. and parts of Ontario and Quebec will be at least 8 degrees below normal through Jan. 27, said Matt Rogers , president of the Commodity Weather Group LLC in Bethesda, Maryland. Next week will be colder, he said. “The crazy thing is that the current cold snap this week looks to be a bit more modest in the face of next week’s outbreak,” Rogers said. “The cold coming for the end of January is sufficient to make this the coldest month of the century so far and the coldest the Lower 48 has felt in at least 20 years.” Temperatures in Chicago fell lower than the South Pole this month as freezing weather boosted energy consumption, grounded thousands of […]

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Industry Awakens to Threat of Climate Change

Coca-Cola has always been more focused on its economic bottom line than on global warming, but when the company lost a lucrative operating license in India because of a serious water shortage there in 2004, things began to change. Today, after a decade of increasing damage to Coke’s balance sheet as global droughts dried up the water needed to produce its soda, the company has embraced the idea of climate change as an economically disruptive force. “Increased droughts, more unpredictable variability, 100-year floods every two years,” said Jeffrey Seabright, Coke’s vice president for environment and water resources, listing the problems that he said were also disrupting the company’s supply of sugar cane and sugar beets, as well as citrus for its fruit juices. “When we […]

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EU 2030 climate package draws mixed review

A group of the top executives from leading international energy companies said it recognized the importance of EU climate goals but others were less supportive. The European Commission called for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 40 percent from the 1990 benchmark by 2030, an increase from the 20 percent target envisioned for 2020 for members of the European Union. A "more market-orientated approach" would help increase the share of renewable energy to 27 percent by 2030. The Magritte Group, a consortium of chief executives from leading energy companies, said it recognized the emissions target as a "crucial" element to a successful European energy policy. The approach adopted by the commission "is of utmost importance in shaping the energy transition to a low carbon future," the group said in a statement Wednesday. Jason Anderson, director of climate and energy programs at the WWF’s […]

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Europe Forges Ahead With Climate Plan

BRUSSELS—The European Union executive stuck to its guns Wednesday in proposing far-reaching targets to combat climate change, defying expectations that it would ease off in the face of intense lobbying from heavy industry and even some member states. The European Commission said the 28-member bloc should cut carbon emissions by 40% by 2030, compared with 1990 levels. Heavy industry and utilities as well as some governments had sought a target of 35% . It also proposed that clean energy sources, such as wind and solar, make up at least 27% of the overall energy use by 2030, also compared with 1990 levels. That goal, however, applies to the EU as a whole and not to each member state individually. The commission also put forward legislation to fix structural weakness in the struggling European carbon-trading system, but set out guidelines only for the exploration of shale gas in the face […]

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Europe, Facing Economic Pain, May Ease Climate Rules

For years, Europe has tried to set the global standard for climate-change regulation, creating tough rules on emissions, mandating more use of renewable energy sources and arguably sacrificing some economic growth in the name of saving the planet. But now even Europe seems to be hitting its environmentalist limits. High energy costs, declining industrial competitiveness and a recognition that the economy is unlikely to rebound strongly any time soon are leading policy makers to begin easing up in their drive for more aggressive climate regulation. On Wednesday, the European Union proposed an end to binding national targets for renewable energy production after 2020. Instead, it substituted an overall European goal that is likely to be much harder to enforce. It also decided against proposing laws on environmental damage and safety during the extraction of […]

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China Exports Pollution to U.S., Study Finds

A group of researchers found that trans-Pacific air pollution is a hidden price of the goods sent abroad from China. European Pressphoto Agency BEIJING — Filthy emissions from China’s export industries are carried across the Pacific Ocean and contribute to air pollution in the Western United States, according to a paper published Monday by a prominent American science journal. The research is the first to quantify how air pollution in the United States is affected by China’s production of goods for export and by global consumer demand for those goods, the study’s authors say. It was written by nine scholars based in three nations and was published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , which last year published a paper by other researchers that found a drop in life spans in northern China because of air pollution. The latest paper explores the […]

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California declares statewide emergency amid worst drought on record

California’s worst drought in a century is devastating the state’s agriculture and destroying its forestland, which is being consumed by wildfire, Governor Jerry Brown said Friday as he declared a state emergency. The emergency declaration allows California to access federal help to battle the drought, which has left huge swathes of tinder-dry forest vulnerable to catching fire. On Thursday, a massive blaze raged just outside Los Angeles, damaging several homes and forcing residents to evacuate the area, where the fire risk had been elevated for weeks. Brown urged residents of his state to reduce their water use by at least 20 percent. “I’ve declared this emergency and I’m calling on all Californians to conserve water in every way possible,” he said in his statement. “We can’t make it rain,” he added. “But we can be much better […]

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Drought Emergency Declared in California as Residents Urge Halt to Fracking

The state of California formally declared a drought emergency today due to a lack of winter rainfall and water reserves at only 20 percent of normal levels. This is the third year of dry conditions across California, which poses a threat to the state’s economy and environment. cadroughts In addition to concerns about having an adequate water supply for food production, Californians are worried about Gov. Brown’s plan to increase fracking as oil companies are gearing up to frack large reservoirs of unconventional shale oil in the Monterey Shale. Photo credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Last year was declared the driest year in recorded history in California and Gov. Jerry Brown recently described the state’s current condition as “a mega-drought.” “The current historically dry weather is a bellwether of what is to come in California, with increasing periods of drought expected with climate change ,” said Juliet Christian-Smith, […]

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California Water Crisis May Head off Potential Oil Boom

Drilling for oil in California dates back to the late 19th Century, allowing it to become the country’s top producer by the beginning of the 20th. One hundred years later, California still ranks third, but its aging fields have been in decline for decades. Yet the state is sitting atop the largest tight oil formation in the United States. The Bakken in North Dakota and the Eagle Ford in Texas may be leading the resurgence in U.S. oil production, but the reserves sitting in California’s Monterey Shale dwarf those of its more notable counterparts. The interest in the Monterey Shale is heating up, with the legislature passing a controversial law last year to put in place the state’s first regulations over hydraulic fracturing. The Director of the California Department of Conservation claims the “regulations include the strongest and most comprehensive public protections of any oil- and gas- producing state,” […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple