Shale Gas Issues From Various Jurisdictions ...... 7 Foreword ...... 7 Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition, Luzerne County, PA ...... 8 Calls for Moratoriums and Bans ...... 9 Boulder Ups the 'Anti' in the Fracking Game ...... 9 Dutch fracking ban extended to 2016 ...... 9 Doctors, scientists, engineers calling for fracking moratorium ...... 9 Cuomo to Ban Fracking in New York State, Citing Health Risks ...... 9 Shale gas moratorium details unveiled by Brian Gallant ...... 10 Government introduces moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in New Brunswick ...... 10 N.B. fracking moratorium raises industry ire, pleases environmentalists ...... 11 Fracking moratoria could cause “domino effect” in North America, including NL ...... 11 New York State Bans Fracking: California Next? ...... 11 New Yorkers Strongly Approve Of State’s New Ban On Fracking ...... 12 Contamination and Science ...... 13 Fracking site in UK suffered possible “loss of wellbore integrity” ...... 13 Radiated soil another concern in Marcellus Shale fracking ...... 13 Fracking Produces More Radioactive Waste than Nuclear Power Plants ...... 13 Thermal wells point to ‘worst case’ leaks from the deep ...... 14 The Science on Fracking Is In: Not One Well! ...... 14 Feds missing in fracking wastewater debate ...... 15 Families Forced to Flee Their Homes From Out-of-Control Leak at Fracking Well ...... 15 Abandoned wells can be 'super-emitters' of greenhouse gas ...... 16 Assessment of Effluent Contaminants from Three Facilities Discharging Marcellus Shale Wastewater to Surface Waters in Pennsylvania ...... 16 Renewable Energy ...... 17 Poll: Americans Want More Wind Power ...... 17 Tracking the Energy Revolution Global Edition 2014 ...... 17 E.ON to quit gas and coal and focus on renewable energy ...... 17 Wind turbines have little effect on property values, study finds ...... 17 Groundbreaking technology stores wind power in salt caverns ...... 18 Every 3 Minutes Solar Industry Flips Switch on New Project ...... 18 Wind and solar are much less financially risky than other power projects ...... 19 Mountainkeeper Awarded $1.8m Grant to Bring Community Solar to the Hudson Valley, Catskills and Southern Tier ...... 19 Hydro-Quebec selects 446MW in latest tender ...... 19 269 Sunken Turbines To Make Scotland Home To World’s Largest Tidal Farm ...... 20 Saudi Arabia aims to be world’s largest renewable energy market ...... 20 How Solar Power Could Slay The Fossil Fuel Empire By 2030 ...... 20 While You Were Getting Worked Up Over Oil Prices, This Just Happened to Solar ...... 20 The switch to renewable power is a battle we cannot afford to lose ...... 21 Science and Health ...... 22 Minority Children More Likely to Attend School Near Fracking, Face Higher Health Risks ...... 22 Inside the petrochemical industry’s $36m 'research strategy' on ubiquitous poison benzene ...... 22 Health impact of fracking on residents ‘should be monitored’ ...... 22 Fracking may echo history of tobacco, asbestos ...... 23 Review finds environmental impact and toxicity of biocides used in fracking still largely unknown 23 Scientists: “rapid and thorough” response needed to fracking ...... 23 Scientists Release Analysis of 400 Peer-Reviewed Studies on Fracking along with Major Scientific Compendium Update ...... 24 How Fracking Is Bad for Our Bodies ...... 25
1 A Public Health Review of High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing for Shale Gas Development ...... 25 Fracking Fumes: Where There's a Well, All is Not Well ...... 25 Pennsylvania lags in studying health risks of shale fracking ...... 25 Even With Ban, New York Can't Escape Effects of Fracking ...... 26 Autism Risk Linked to Particulate Air Pollution ...... 26 Study Finds Treated Fracking Wastewater Still Too Toxic ...... 26 Economics, Legal, and Investigations ...... 28 Green energy sector jobs surpass total oil sands employment ...... 28 Clean Energy Jobs Overshadow Oil and Gas Jobs? Oh C'mon! ...... 28 Junk Bonds Backing Shale Boom Facing $11.6 Billion Loss ...... 28 Lawsuit Launched Against Offshore Fracking in California's Santa Barbara Channel ...... 28 Shale Gas May Not Be Quite As Revolutionary As We Think ...... 29 Fracking Boom Could Start to Collapse in 2020 ...... 29 Ann Craft's Fracking Nightmare: A Top Lawyer's Startling Counsel Embedded video ...... 29 Founding Father of Fracking Boom Is Crying the Blues ...... 30 With weak Marcellus Shale gas prices, Wolf's $1B severance tax prediction might be too high .... 31 The Fracking Boom Could Burn Out Decades Before It's Supposed To ...... 31 Goodrich puts shale gas field up for sale ...... 31 Banks Fear Risk Of Investment In Fossil Fuels ...... 31 Wind and solar are much less financially risky than other power projects ...... 32 Oil price collapse claims WA's Red Fork Energy, shale gas company in receivership ...... 32 Oil Investors at Brink of Losing Trillions of Dollars in Assets. Gore: It's That Road Runner Moment ...... 33 Exaggerating Shale Drilling's Employment Impacts: How & Why ...... 33 Shale gas drilling operator penalized for landslide that diverted Greene County streams ...... 34 Oil & Gas Market: There Will Be Blood!! [Part II] by AdventuresInCapitalism ...... 34 The Fracking Boom is a Fracking Bubble ...... 34 Natural gas contrarian: Glut not deterring CEO of Houston's Southwest Energy ...... 34 Lawsuits Over New York Fracking Ban Unlikely, Experts Say ...... 35 Shale Gas and Fracking ...... 35 Saudis Tell Shale Industry It Will Break Them, Plans to Keep Pumping Even at $20 a Barrel ...... 36 Finance minister says economy could be held back by stalled pipelines, fracking ...... 36 U.S. opening of oil export tap widens battle for global market ...... 36 Regulations ...... 38 Riverkeeper questions fracking use report ...... 38 Environment and Enjoyment of Property ...... 39 Carbon emissions: past, present and future – interactive ...... 39 Canada's climate inaction leaves it 'increasingly isolated' ahead of COP 20 ...... 39 Carney Calls Fossil Fuels Unburnable ‘Tragedy of Horizons’ ...... 39 Shale Gas increasing Threat to Climate, Environment, Communities Worldwide ...... 40 Global Surface Temperature: Going Down the Up Escalator, Part 1 ...... 40 The Last Time the Arctic Was Ice-Free During the Summer, Modern Humans Didn't Exist ...... 40 Animal populations ‘have halved since 1970’ ...... 40 Ban-Ki Moon Says Canada Must Do More On Climate Change ...... 41 California Experiences Worst Drought in 1,200 Years ...... 41 Laurentide Ice Sheet evolution...... 41 The Ethics of Climate Hope - Naomi Klein ...... 41 Origins, a Documentary ...... 42 Waters Warm, and Cod Catch Ebbs in Maine ...... 42 10 Things Canada Would Be Doing if We Were Serious About Climate Change ...... 42 Climate change: How do we know? ...... 43
2 Thousands March in Lima Demanding Climate Action ...... 44 7 Must-See Climate Action Videos of 2014 ...... 44 Drought, Heat and Ice: 2015 Could Be a Tipping Point on Climate ...... 44 10 Best Eco-Docs of 2014 ...... 45 Nukes Fade As Wind and Solar Soar ...... 45 Government, Meetings, News, and Letters ...... 46 The hardening of N.B.'s political narrative ...... 46 Information Morning Fredericton - Fear and Compliance ...... 46 Peoples Lawsuit Youth Claimants Call for Lawful Rebellion & Immediate 25 yr ...... 46 Federal programs and research facilities that have been shut down or had their funding reduced 47 Media Release: Peoples Lawsuit Youth Claimants Call for Lawful Rebellion & Immediate 25 yr MORATORIUM ON GAS & OIL DEVELOPMENT 5 Dec 2014 ...... 47 Shale gas exploration not worth the risk, Quebec environmental agency says ...... 47 Will Government put people ahead of politics? ...... 48 'Social licence' clouds debates over fracking, pipelines ...... 48 UP! Empowering communities from the bottom up ...... 49 Groups say N.B. moratorium should only last 6 months ...... 49 Mikisew Cree Say Court Ruling On Environmental Law Consultation A Victory ...... 50 Naomi Klein: This Changes Everything live with Owen Jones - Full Length | Guardian Live ...... 50 It might be legal. It's not lawful...... 50 7 New Brunswick political stories to watch in 2015 ...... 50 Fracking moratorium may not protect environment, writer says ...... 51 New Brunswick News ...... 52 Chief Medical Health Officer Says NB's Health System Is Unsustainable ...... 52 Women get suspended sentence over shale gas protests in New Brunswick ...... 52 Above Their Law - by Maxime Daigle (Eonamogsit Pagtesm) ...... 52 Petitcodiac group draws attention to sewage going into river ...... 53 Irving Oil Ltd., Saint John agree to new water deal ...... 54 Maritime News ...... 55 A project from hell - Alton Gas not welcome, local residents tell MLAs ...... 55 NL fracking panel and the messiah complex ...... 55 Institutional discrimination at its best: The ‘old boys club’ reviews fracking NFLD ...... 55 Colchester county approves plan to dispose of fracking waste water through debert sewer system ...... 56 Windsor council requests more info on fracking wastewater disposal ...... 56 Fracking waste company tries again to dump it in Colchester ...... 56 LETTER: Now is not the time for fracking ...... 57 Indian Brook opposes plan to dispose fracking waste in sewer system ...... 57 Colchester documentation related to the Approval to Discharge Treated Hydraulic Fracturing Wastewater ...... 57 BP oil spill dispersants concern Nova Scotia environmentalist ...... 58 5 million litres of fracking waste water to be moved to Brookfield plant ...... 58 Provincial study deems Debert fracking water safe for disposal ...... 58 Canadian News ...... 60 Explosion rocks town north of Regina; one house levelled, a dozen others damaged ...... 60 Second leak found after natural gas explosion rocks Regina Beach ...... 60 Native band takes down barriers at Ipperwash - Sunday, December 7, 2014 ...... 60 Crews rush to contain spill after CP derailment in Banff park sends train cars into creek ...... 60 CN Railway Derailments, Other Accidents & Incidents ...... 61 Other News ...... 62 Oxnard shuts out Santa Clara Waste Water from sewer system ...... 62
3 Conservation groups say Duke Energy plant leaks coal ash into N.C. river ...... 62 MarkWest operates Donegal compessor station without permit ...... 62 FBI Files Charges Against President Of Company Behind West Virginia Chemical Spill ...... 63 Surreal Aerial Photos Show Impact From Fracking ...... 63 Here's Where You'll Find All Of America's Shale Energy ...... 64 Letter: Banning fracking a moral imperative ...... 64 Air Monitoring Ongoing At Airport Fracking Site ...... 65 Water ...... 66 Watershed Victory: Yukon First Nations score big win in Peel case ...... 66 Executives and Employees of Company That Poisoned W.Va. Drinking Water Indicted ...... 66 Alarm bells toll for human civilization as world's 12th largest mega-city to run out of water in just 60 days ...... 66 Oil and Pipelines ...... 68 For Alberta's premier, the Energy East pipeline will be a tough sell in the east ...... 68 Canada’s failure to enforce its environmental laws around the release of toxic chemicals from the tar sands ...... 68 Energy East: TransCanada standing down on further work in Quebec ...... 68 178 barrels of oil spill into Colorado’s only designated wild and scenic river ...... 69 Toronto Blockade In Solidarity with Burnaby Protestors ...... 69 Crude Connections: Where Do Trains Carry Crude Oil? ...... 69 Tar Sands Oil Extraction - The Dirty Truth ...... 69 youtube search for Tar Sands Oil Extraction - The Dirty Truth ...... 69 Energy East Pipeline Rally ...... 69 The original "Route Safety" video Enbridge doesn't want you to see ...... 70 Original Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline route animation ...... 71 Google Earth Kitimat to Pacific ...... 71 Stop the Energy East Pipeline ...... 71 Wax on, oil off ...... 71 Oil Spill Removal Demo using Wax ...... 72 Lawsuit Filed Calling for Ban on Fracked Oil Bomb Trains ...... 72 Quebec lowers environmental requirement for Energy East project ...... 72 Harper guts more fish protections: NEB takes over habitat along pipelines ...... 72 PHOTOS: Israel Hit With Massive 600,000 Gallon Oil Spill ...... 73 Ninety percent of future oil sands projects at risk from eroding oil price ...... 73 Canada – Corporate Drug Dealer (Bitumen) ...... 73 Shale gas pipeline to the Northeast gets fed nod ...... 74 Leaked Playbook Shows How Big Oil Fights Clean Energy ...... 74 Pipeline exporting crude isn’t good for Canada, job creation ...... 74 Enbridge Line 9: W5 uncovers unreported spills, alarming communities along 830-km pipe ...... 74 Canada rail safety jobs vacant as budget cuts bite ...... 75 Waterloo woman finds NEB e-mail lauding public’s inability to question pipelines ...... 75 Beluga Whales Obstruct TransCanada’s Energy East Pipeline Port ...... 76 Oil tanker adrift off coast of Nova Scotia after loss of steering ...... 76 Energy Giant Kinder Morgan’s Ambitious Goals Cost Communities Big ...... 76 Oil in Tankers Not Our Responsibility, Says Kinder Morgan, Recalling Exxon Valdez Lessons ..... 77 Northern Gateway Pipelines Inc NEB File OF-Fac-Oil-N304-2010-01 01 ...... 77 Leaked study on Energy East risks to Quebec Rivers ...... 77 Tougher Canadian oil tanker rules leave liability cap in place ...... 78 Kinder Morgan's historic oil spills are double the Kalamazoo disaster: NDP MP ...... 78 Letter addressed to the new National Energy Board Chair, Peter Watson Re Energy East ...... 78 Kinder Morgan: Oil Spills' Economic Effects Are Both Good And Bad ...... 79
4 Pipeline spills 60,000 litres of crude oil into muskeg in northern Alberta ...... 79 Justin Trudeau au Soleil: Énergie Est n'est pas socialement acceptable ...... 79 Justin Trudeau in the Sun: energy is is not socially acceptable ...... 79 California communities fight back against crude by rail ...... 80 Unsafe and Unnecessary Oil Trains Threaten 25 Million Americans ...... 80 Energy East – Myth busting, mounting opposition & taking action ...... 81 Special report: Leaking oil and gas wells across Canada ‘a threat to the environment and public safety’ ...... 81 Fracking the USA: New Map Shows 1 Million Oil, Gas Wells ...... 82 NEB Finds That An "Untrammeled Right" Of The Public To Open Expression Would Defeat The NEB’s Statutory Objectives ...... 82 An open letter to the South Shore on oil exploration and extraction ...... 82 Trudeau media scrum ...... 83 Justin Trudeau Interrupted by Climate Activists on Energy East Pipeline ...... 83 Energy East Pipeline is Unsafe and Unwanted ...... 83 Guysborough seeks Energy East pipeline extension to Cape Breton Island ...... 84 Keystone PipeLIES Exposed Embedded video ...... 84 57,000-Gallon Oil Spill In Canada Forces Closure Of Pipeline To U.S...... 84 The largest vessel the world has ever seen - Floating LNG Plant ...... 85 Obama Takes A Swing At 'Tar Sands' And Keystone Pipeline ...... 86 Oilsands breach fouls water east of Edmonton, well is shut down ...... 86 Oil Investors at Brink of Losing Trillions of Dollars in Assets. Gore: It's That Road Runner Moment ...... 86 Canadian pipeline projects face litany of challenges heading into 2015 ...... 87 Earthquake 'swarm' strikes off B.C. coast, but no sign of the 'Big One' ...... 87 Opinion: Tories, pipeline firms growing apart ...... 87 Few Oil Pipeline Spills Detected by Much-Touted Technology ...... 88 Pipeline consultations to take place in January ...... 88 Inside the Exxon Oil Spill in Arkansas ...... 89 Alberta doctor tells U.S.: Canada is ‘lying’ about tar sands’ health effects ...... 89 Prosperity is in the pipeline: ...... 89 Emails show secrecy on federal oilsands probe ...... 90 Some States See Budgets at Risk as Oil Price Falls ...... 90 UCI-led study documents heavy air pollution in Canadian area with cancer spikes ...... 90 What Changes Are Needed for Transporting Crude in North America? ...... 91 Canadian Coast Guard Cleaning Up Spill After Chaulk Determination Sinks ...... 91 BP oil spill dispersants concern Nova Scotia environmentalist ...... 91 Ontario gives green light to clear-cutting at Grassy Narrows ...... 92 Effects on the flora in Norway spruce forests following clearcutting and shelterwood cutting ...... 92 In North Dakota, a Tale of Oil, Corruption and Death ...... 93 Top Business Story Of The Year: Oil's Dramatic Price Plunge ...... 93 TransCanada chief slams ‘ludicrous’ arguments by Energy East opponents ...... 93 U.S. opening of oil export tap widens battle for global market ...... 93 Mining ...... 95 Mount Polley: Husband and wife warned company, faced consequences ...... 95 David Suzuki's grandson brings star power to Sacred Headwaters fight over Imperial Metals ...... 95 Strateco suing Quebec for $190-million over blocked uranium project ...... 95 Two Bloody Days : Michael Binder insulting the Crees / insulte les Cris (CNSC/CCSN) ...... 95 Tailings spill poisons creek ...... 96 Sisson Brook - A world-class tungsten and molybdenum deposit in central New Brunswick ...... 96 Bloom Lake hit with record environmental fine ...... 96
5 Firm fined after tailings pond dam breach, other environmental accidents ...... 96 Forestry ...... 97 Forestry agreement details released by Liberals ...... 97 Memorandum of Agreement with J.D Irving Ltd...... 97 Memorandum of Agreement with Twin Rivers Ld...... 97 Memorandum of Agreement with Chaleur Sawmills Ltd...... 97 The Forestry Management Agreement with J.D. Irving Ltd on Licenses 6 and 7 and relevant schedules ...... 97 Details of wood allocations to 15 First Nations communities resulting from forestry plan announced in March 2014 ...... 97 Information Morning Fredericton Coon on Forestry Deal ...... 98 Crown forest agreements need review, conservationist says ...... 98 Information Morning Fredericton Public Forests Debate ...... 98 Charles Theriault - 184 university and college profs say SCRAP THE FOREST PLAN! ...... 98 J.D. Irving forestry deal needs public input, group says ...... 98 Video Links ...... 100 Toronto Blockade In Solidarity with Burnaby Protestors ...... 100 Tar Sands Oil Extraction - The Dirty Truth ...... 100 Energy East Pipeline Rally Nov 5 Fredericton, Council of Canadians ...... 100 Stop the Energy East Pipeline ...... 100 Wax on, oil off ...... 100 Oil Spill Removal Demo using Wax ...... 100 Mount Polley: Husband and wife warned company, faced consequences ...... 100 Laurentide Ice Sheet evolution...... 100 Ann Craft's Fracking Nightmare: A Top Lawyer's Startling Counsel ...... 101 Origins, a Documentary ...... 101 Two Bloody Days : Michael Binder insulting the Crees / insulte les Cris (CNSC/CCSN) ...... 101 Charles Theriault - 184 university and college profs say SCRAP THE FOREST PLAN! ...... 101 Trudeau media scrum ...... 101 Justin Trudeau Interrupted by Climate Activists on Energy East Pipeline ...... 101 Keystone PipeLIES Exposed Embedded video ...... 101 Naomi Klein: This Changes Everything live with Owen Jones - Full Length | Guardian Live ...... 102
6 Shale Gas Issues From Various Jurisdictions
Foreword
The following documents have been collected by searching the web for information related to shale gas and from the Following web sites and
New Brunswick is NOT For Sale http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_132079906855023
New Brunswickers Concerned About Shale Gas http://www.facebook.com/ccnbshalegas
Ban Hydraulic Fracturing (hydro-fracking) In New Brunswick, Canada http://www.facebook.com/BanFrackingNB
Know Shale Gas NB – Support the legal action to stop Shale Gas in NB http://noshalegasnb.ca/news
NoShaleGasNB http://www.facebook.com/NoShaleGasNB
Shale Gas Info http://www.facebook.com/shalegas
Upriver Environment Watch http://www.facebook.com/groups/UpRiver/
Fracidental Drillers http://www.facebook.com/groups/133930663364584/
Fracking Research and New Brunswick, Canada http://nbfrackingresearch.com/
Facebook Groups: USA - A FACEBOOK FULL OF FRACTIVISTS: State-by-State Listings http://keeptapwatersafe.org/facebook-groups-usa/
Propublica – Links to many articles on Fracking http://www.propublica.org/series/fracking
Another good site: Fracking, Shale Gas and Health http://frackingandhealth.ca/
Is Our Forest Really Ours? http://isourforestreallyours.com/Isourforestreallyours/Welcome.html http://isourforestreallyours.com/Isourforestreallyours/Start_here.html https://www.facebook.com/groups/132079906855023/#!/groups/258525050949366/
More facebook information https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=617426124942641
7 United Opponents of Fracking International http://portjervisny.com/uaf.htm
SHALE GAS ALERTS NEW BRUNSWICK https://www.facebook.com/groups/112468105590081/? hc_location=stream#!/groups/112468105590081/
New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance / anti-gaz de schiste du N.-B http://www.noshalegasnb.ca/our-resources/
Willi Nolan Shares - Willi Nolan Speaks http://willinolanspeaks.com/shares/
Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition, Luzerne County, PA Click to visit the "GDAC YouTube VIDEO Channel" - lots of great information http://www.gdacoalition.org/GDAC_VIDEO.html
FACEBOOKS AGAINST FRACKING http://my-pages.net/alerteschiste/facebooks.php
8 Calls for Moratoriums and Bans
Boulder Ups the 'Anti' in the Fracking Game
Boulder County, one of the first places in Colorado to take a stand against hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, back in early 2012, recently extended its temporary ban on the controversial process until July 2018.
A handful of towns in the state, including the Boulder County cities of Longmont and Lafayette, have temporarily or permanently banned fracking in recent years. http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20141203/boulder-ups-anti-fracking-game
Dutch fracking ban extended to 2016
The government of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte adopted a resolution this week banning shale gas extraction in the Netherlands during the current administration until 2016.
"This means the current moratorium… which was already in place, is extended until 2016," Mariska van de Sanden, associate at law firm Bird & Bird Netherlands, told Interfax. http://interfaxenergy.com/gasdaily/article/14435/dutch-fracking-ban-extended-to-2016
Doctors, scientists, engineers calling for fracking moratorium
Health professionals and scientists are raising awareness about the possible negative effects of allowing hydraulic fracturing in New York, and are calling on the governor to extend the moratorium an additional three-to-five years.
The call follows the release of a new study in an environmental health journal, which looked at evidence showing the negative effects of fracking operations on reproductive and developmental health.
In a press conference held in the Legislative Office Building last Thursday, Dec. 11, scientists and health professionals said the science is clearly indicating there are potential negative effects of the controversial natural gas drilling process on the public living near drilling sites. http://www.legislativegazette.com/Articles-Top-Stories-c-2014-12-15-90215.113122-Doctors-scientists- engineers-calling-for-fracking-moratorium.html
Cuomo to Ban Fracking in New York State, Citing Health Risks
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration announced on Wednesday that it would ban hydraulic fracturing in New York State because of concerns over health risks, ending years of uncertainty over the disputed method of natural gas extraction. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/nyregion/cuomo-to-ban-fracking-in-new-york-state-citing-health- risks.html?emc=edit_tnt_20141217&nlid=63694708&tntemail0=y&_r=1
9 Shale gas moratorium details unveiled by Brian Gallant
The bill to impose the moratorium is to be introduced in the legislature on Thursday afternoon.
"We have been clear from day one that we will impose a moratorium until risks to the environment, health and water are understood," said Gallant.
Gallant told a news conference the moratorium will be applied to hydraulic fracturing through any means, regardless of whether the process uses water, propane or another substance to extract natural gas from shale rock beneath the earth's surface.
The moratorium won't be lifted until five conditions are met, said Gallant.
Those conditions include: • A "social licence" be established through consultations to lift the moratorium; • Clear and credible information on the impacts on air, health and water so a regulatory regime can be developed; • A plan to mitigate impacts on public infrastructure and address issues such as waste water disposal is established; • A process is in place to fulfill the province's obligation to consult with First Nations; • A "proper royalty structure" is established to ensure benefits are maximized for New Brunswickers.
Gallant said there will be no `grandfathering' of projects already underway that allows fracking to take place outside of the moratorium. http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/canada/newbrunswick/story/1.2877440
Government introduces moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in New Brunswick
Backgrounder
What exactly does ‘moratorium’ mean in this context?
The moratorium is a cessation and prohibition of all types of hydraulic fracturing throughout New Brunswick.
Does the moratorium amount to an outright ban?
No, the moratorium is a temporary cessation and prohibition of all types of hydraulic fracturing in New Brunswick.
How will the moratorium be implemented?
The amendment to the Oil and Natural Gas Act will allow the government to proceed with prohibiting hydraulic fracturing activity from taking place in the province. http://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/news/news_release.2014.12.1404.html
10 N.B. fracking moratorium raises industry ire, pleases environmentalists
Sheri Somerville, a natural gas adviser with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said the industry is disappointed with the government's decision.
Corridor Resources president Steve Moran said his company doesn't support the moratorium.
Jean-Guy Leclair, general manager of PotashCorp New Brunswick, said in a news release if the moratorium removes a supply of natural gas it could raise costs and prompt a review of the firm's operations in the province.
But Stephanie Merrill of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick welcomed the legislation. "It's really refreshing to see the premier be so concerned about the environment and our water," she said, adding that she hopes the moratorium is permanent.
Mark D'Arcy of the Council of Canadians, who has attended anti-shale gas rallies across the province, said he believes many New Brunswickers support the government's decision. "This is a great Christmas present," he said. http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/n-b-fracking-moratorium-raises-industry-ire-pleases-environmentalists- 1.2153588
Fracking moratoria could cause “domino effect” in North America, including NL
Three major decisions this week to ban fracking in New York, New Brunswick and Quebec indicate what some say could be the beginning of the end for fracking in Canada and the United States http://theindependent.ca/2014/12/20/fracking-moratoria-could-cause-domino-effect-in-north-america- including-nl/
New York State Bans Fracking: California Next?
Acting Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said 4,500 staff hours were spent reviewing health studies about the drilling method of extracting oil and gas from deep underground by pumping huge amounts of water, sand and chemicals at high pressures to break up rock formations. It’s being done in many other states, including neighboring Pennsylvania.
Zucker said his counterparts in several other states told him they were not consulted before their high- volume hydraulic fracturing began. He said he wouldn’t want his family to live near it, and suggested it could be like secondhand smoke, which studies eventually identified as harmful.
“If the state health commissioner doesn’t want his kids living there, I don’t want my kids living there and I don’t want any New Yorker’s kids living there,” [Cuomo] said. “I am not going to put health at risk for jobs. I’m not going to make that choice.”
Will California Follow New York and Ban Fracking?
11 California is the fourth largest state producer of oil and gas. The Central Valley is also America’s breadbasket. Fracking and farming are on a collision course.
The battle being fought there gives new meaning to the sentiment that oil and water don’t mix. Kern County is ag and oil country in California. More than 80% of the state’s oil and gas is produced here. About 600 new wells are fracked each year using millions of gallons of water. This is water farmers say they need in order to produce their crops. http://sandiegofreepress.org/2014/12/new-york-state-bans-fracking-california-next/
New Yorkers Strongly Approve Of State’s New Ban On Fracking
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent decision to ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the state is receiving widespread support from the people who live there, according to a new poll.
The Quinnipiac University poll released Monday found that 55 percent of New Yorkers across the state support Cuomo’s decision on fracking, while 25 percent oppose it and the remainder are undecided. In upstate New York, where fracking likely would have likely taken place, 56 percent of respondents approved of the ban while 30 percent opposed it. Republicans approved of the ban 42 to 40 percent, Democrats approved 67 to 11 percent, and people who live in New York City supported the ban 56 to 19 percent.
Overall, no political party, gender, age, or regional group disapproved of Cuomo’s decision. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/12/24/3606821/new-yorkers-dont-like-fracking/
12 Contamination and Science
Fracking site in UK suffered possible “loss of wellbore integrity”
According to reports and information gained under the UK Freedom of Information Act it appears that one of Cuadrilla’s initial drilling sites in the UK suffered a previously unreported structural failure.
The damage has been described by engineers as a possible “loss of wellbore integrity”, this can result in a leaking of fluid or gases from shale extraction and cause possible environmental or public health hazards.
The allegations originate from emails between Cuadrilla and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) which suggest that the site at Preese Hall, Lancashire, suffered structural damage.
The news has caused environmental and safety concerns regarding fracking, although there is no indication that any gases escaped from the well into the air or surrounding rocks.
Cuadrilla has made no admission of such damage but Anthony Ingraffea, Professor of Engineering at Cornell University, said “it is quite apparent… that there was indeed a loss of wellbore integrity followed by attempts to remediate.” http://www.shaleenergyinsider.com/2014/12/02/fracking-site-in-uk-suffered-loss-of-wellbore-integrity/? utm_source=Shale+Energy+Insider&utm_campaign=6ab8b2dd04- 03_12_2014_NL&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_346cca65c0-6ab8b2dd04-14604705
Radiated soil another concern in Marcellus Shale fracking
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the geologic formations that contain oil and gas deposits also contain naturally-occurring radionuclides, which are referred to as “NORM,” or naturally-occurring radioactive materials. They include uranium, thorium and radium and their decay products, and lead-210.
According to the EPA, much of the petroleum in the earth’s crust was created at the site of ancient seas by the decay of sea life. The result is, petroleum deposits often are found in aquifers containing brine, or salt water. Radionuclides and other minerals that are dissolved in the brine separate and settle out, forming various wastes above ground such as mineral scales inside pipes, sludges, contaminated equipment or components and water that flows back out. http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news-news/50753843/
Fracking Produces More Radioactive Waste than Nuclear Power Plants
Fracking puts more hazardous radioactive material into the environment than all the US nuclear power plants combined. About a Fukushima worth a month. Another Chernobyl every six months.
That plus the fatalities from fracking, gas compressor explosions, and gas line blasts make fracked gas by far the deadliest form of energy in the US. A bigger body count in a month than nuclear energy in 50 years. More fatalities in a quarter than coal in a year. More accidents in a year than in the history of solar and wind energy.
13 The feds can’t regulate it at all and the state regulators get the fat envelopes to look the other way. So a lot of fracking’s radioactive legacy just gets dumped. In a river, on roads, in landfills, or abandoned barn near you. So much for “Clean Energy.” Has your town or county banned frack waste ? What are you waiting on ? Another frackastrophe ?
The fact that drilling for oil or gas increases radiation is not news. Avner Vengosh, a professor of geochemistry at Duke University told Bloomberg News that we’ve know that since the 1970s, but the pace and intensity of drilling now, combined with the huge amount of wastewater, is taking the issue to a new level of concern. “We are actually building up a legacy of radioactivity in hundreds of points where people have had leaks or spills around the country,” he said.
Vengosh was part of team of researchers that turned up some troubling findings in Pennsylvania, ground zero for hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale. Their study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology, took samples over a two-year period from Blacklick Creek just below the discharge from the Josephine Brine Treatment Facility, which accepted water from drilling operations. They found that radium levels of wastewater from fracking operations had been reduced in treatment by about 90 percent, but what was coming out of the plant still exceeded upstream levels by 200 times. And several billions gallons of radioactive sludge is involved. Yearly. http://www.nofrackingway.us/2014/05/04/fracking-produces-more-radioactive-waste-than-nuclear- power-plants/
Thermal wells point to ‘worst case’ leaks from the deep
VANCOUVER — The water burbles out of the earth carrying evidence of its underground voyage.
It’s come from depths of up to five kilometres, bringing plenty of heat, gas and chemicals with it. Bright green and orange mats of micro-organisms grow on rocks where the water tumbles from the thermal springs in the mountains adjacent to areas of active hydraulic fracturing in northeastern B.C. and the southern Yukon. The water is not from the fracking operations, but the springs show fluids can – and do – naturally make the trip to great depths.
They are like a “worst case scenario” showing that “communication” with the shale gas zone is possible, says Steve Grasby, a federal scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada, who has bushwhacked in to nine thermal springs where natural cracks and faults extend deep underground.
“We can see right next door to where shale gas development is going on that we do have circulation of surface (waters) down to five kilometres depth and back to surface again,” Grasby said in a recent presentation to the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting in Vancouver. http://www.canada.com/technology/Thermal+wells+point+worst+case+leaks+from+deep/10453311/stor y.html
The Science on Fracking Is In: Not One Well!
While filming a new movie in London, I learned that the sole shale gas well in the nation -- just a few hours north of me -- has triggered two earthquakes, suffered a "structural integrity failure," and risked poisoning water supplies.
14 That's right: the only fracking well in the United Kingdom failed and caused two earthquakes!
This news is a stark reminder of what's at stake in my home state of New York, where newly re-elected Governor Andrew Cuomo has said that he will soon make an announcement about fracking.
In his first four year term to date, despite much sound and fury from the gas industry, Governor Cuomo maintained a de facto moratorium on the practice. The emerging science shows the wisdom of that decision -- as scientists themselves are quick to point out. Just last week, Concerned Health Professionals of New York presented the Governor with an updated, hundred-page Compendium on the risks and harms of fracking to health, water, air, wildlife, and economic vitality.
On the same day, the Physicians Scientists & Engineers for Healthy Energy released its own analysis of the 400 peer-reviewed studies on fracking -- nearly all of them indicating dangers and nearly all of them published since the Governor took office in 2011. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-ruffalo/the-science-on-fracking_b_6336392.html
Feds missing in fracking wastewater debate
Communities in the Atlantic are currently dealing with the fallout of fracking projects that occurred prior to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia’s moratoriums. There are two New Brunswick communities, Saint John and Dieppe, that are exploring plans to treat fracking wastewater in their municipal wastewater treatment plants and to discharge the waste in local rivers connected to the Bay of Fundy.
This summer, Atlantic Industrial Services (AIS) pitched a proposal that would see the town of Dieppe treat 30 million litres of ‘treated’ fracking wastewater into its sewer system. Dieppe Mayor Yvon Lapierre is waiting for the results of an environmental impact assessment being conducted by the New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government. Concerned citizen Daniel Goudreau told CBC, “It will then be dumped in a municipal water system that serves Dieppe, Moncton and Riverview. From the sewer it will go on to the Petitcodiac River and from there up and down the Bay of Fundy and God knows what it's going to do to the environment at that point." http://canadians.org/blog/feds-missing-fracking-wastewater-debate
Families Forced to Flee Their Homes From Out-of-Control Leak at Fracking Well
More than two dozen families have been forced to flee their homes in Monroe County in eastern Ohio as natural gas poured from a leak at an unused fracking well, the C0lumbus Dispatch revealed.
According to Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) spokeswoman Bethany McCorkle, crews lost control of the well Saturday and have not yet been able to stop the leak. http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/17/families-flee-fracking-leak/? utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=f8784271d8- Top_News_12_18_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-f8784271d8-85899661
15 Abandoned wells can be 'super-emitters' of greenhouse gas
Princeton University researchers have uncovered a previously unknown, and possibly substantial, source of the greenhouse gas methane to Earth's atmosphere.
After testing a sample of abandoned oil and natural gas wells in northwestern Pennsylvania, the researchers found that many of the old wells leaked substantial quantities of methane. Because there are so many abandoned wells nationwide (a recent study from Stanford University concluded there were roughly 3 million abandoned wells in the United States) the researchers believe the overall contribution of leaking wells could be significant.
The researchers said their findings identify a need to make measurements across a wide variety of regions in Pennsylvania but also in other states with a long history of oil and gas development such as California and Texas.
"The research indicates that this is a source of methane that should not be ignored," said Michael Celia, the Theodore Shelton Pitney Professor of Environmental Studies and professor of civil and environmental engineering at Princeton. "We need to determine how significant it is on a wider basis." http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141209120400.htm
Assessment of Effluent Contaminants from Three Facilities Discharging Marcellus Shale Wastewater to Surface Waters in Pennsylvania
Unconventional natural gas development in Pennsylania has created a new wastewater stream. In an effort to stop the discharge of Marcellus Shale unconventional natural gas development wastewaters into surface waters, on May 19, 2011 the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) requested drilling companies stop disposing their wastewater through wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs).
This research includes a chemical analysis of effluents discharged from three WWTPs before and after the aforementioned request. The WWTPs sampled included two municipal, publicly owned treatment works and a commercially operated industrial wastewater treatment plant.
Analyte concentrations were quanitified and then compared to water quality criteria, including U.S. Environmental Protection Agency MCLs and “human health criteria.” Certain analytes including barium, strontium, bromides, chlorides, total dissolved solids, and benzene were measured in the effluent at concentrations above criteria.
Analyte concentrations measured in effluent samples before and after the PADEP’s request were compared for each facility. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es301411q?source=cen
16 Renewable Energy
Poll: Americans Want More Wind Power
A recent national poll commissioned by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) finds that the majority of Republicans, Democrats and Independents want more American-produced wind power; they also back an extension of the Production Tax Credit (PTC). The poll found 73 percent of registered voters support continuing the PTC, including 63 percent of registered Republicans, 74 percent of Independents, and over 71 percent overall in all regions of the country.
This poll supports similar results from a national survey conducted by USA Today, Standford University and Resources for the Future in December 2013 when the PTC was originally set to expire (it was extended one year). The renewable energy PTC and Investment Tax Credit have a history of bipartisan support, as they did last April when five Republicans joined Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee in an 18-6 vote to include them in this year’s tax extenders bill, the EXPIRE Act. http://domesticfuel.com/2014/12/01/poll-americans-want-more-wind-power/
Tracking the Energy Revolution Global Edition 2014
Buoyed by enabling public policy and a rising flood of investment, companies, countries, and whole economies are steadily reducing their dependence on fossil fuels and embracing clean and renewable energy.
Though carbon-based fuels will remain an important part of our energy system for decades to come, for the first time in more than a century, multiple signs suggest that their dominance is beginning to wane. http://cleanenergycanada.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Tracking-The-Energy-Revolution-Global- 2014.pdf
E.ON to quit gas and coal and focus on renewable energy
Germany’s biggest utility firm, E.ON, has announced plans to split in two and spin off most of its power generation, energy trading and upstream businesses, responding to a crisis that has crippled the European energy sector.
E.ON said it wanted to focus on its renewable activities, regulated distribution networks and tailor-made energy efficiency services, citing “dramatically altered global energy markets, technical innovation, and more diverse customer expectations”. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/01/eon-splits-energy-renewables? utm_content=buffer67f2e&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Wind turbines have little effect on property values, study finds
TORONTO -- Wind turbines generally have little effect on the value of nearby properties with possibly isolated exceptions, a recent study of thousands of home and farm sales has found.
17 The surprising findings, published in the Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics, come amid an already fiery debate over wind farm impacts and appear to contradict widely-held views among turbine critics.
The study focused on Ontario's Melancthon township -- home to one of the country's oldest and largest wind farms -- and surrounding areas.
"The lack of significant effects of the Melancthon wind farm is somewhat surprising, given the public outcry regarding the construction of these turbines," according to the authors. http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/wind-turbines-have-little-effect-on-property-values-study-finds- 1.2136486
Groundbreaking technology stores wind power in salt caverns
EDMONTON - In the Lloydminster area, a Calgary company is ready to carve out large underground salt caverns to store excess wind energy — the first use of the technology in Canada.
Rocky Mountain Power president Jan van Egteren says the storage sites could be ready in five years
Excess wind electricity would be used to pump compressed air into caverns about the size of a 60- storey building. The salt walls allow very little to escape. Then, when the wind dies, the compressed air is released and used to turn a generator to make electricity.
The cavern could store enough compressed air to provide electricity for five days to a city the size of Red Deer, says van Egteren. http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Groundbreaking+technology+stores+wind+power+salt+caverns/1044 8638/story.html
Every 3 Minutes Solar Industry Flips Switch on New Project
Few things threaten America’s future prosperity more than climate change.
But there is growing hope. Every 3 minutes of every single day, the U.S. solar industry is flipping the switch on another completed solar project.
Maintaining its vibrant growth, the U.S. installed 1,354 megawatts (MW) of solar photovoltaics (PV) in Q3 2014, up 41 percent over the same period last year. The numbers come from the latest edition of GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association’s (SEIA) U.S. Solar Market Insight Report, which was released yesterday. http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/10/solar-industry-soars/? utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=fd571d7873- Top_News_12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-fd571d7873-85899661
18 Wind and solar are much less financially risky than other power projects
Here in Seattle, we are in the midst of a truly epic fustercluck. We’re trying to build a huge tunnel beneath our downtown and it is not going well, to put it mildly. If only someone had warned us! (Like, I don’t know, a mayor.)
Our own Nate Johnson has written about the propensity of transportation megaprojects to blow past their projected budgets. But what about my own personal obsession, power projects? Think, for instance, of the Kemper power plant in Mississippi, which is still under construction and already several billion dollars over budget and several years behind schedule.
Nerds to the rescue! As it happens, energy researcher Benjamin Sovacool and colleagues recently released a pair of peer-reviewed studies (one, two) that dig way, waaay into this subject. Some of the results are surprising, going against widespread assumptions and my own hunches. Some are just what you’d expect. (Spoiler: Smaller, more modular power projects see cost overruns less often and therefore represent less financial risk.)
http://grist.org/climate-energy/wind-and-solar-are-much-less-financially-risky-than-other-power-projects/
The studies http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544214008925 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629614000942
Mountainkeeper Awarded $1.8m Grant to Bring Community Solar to the Hudson Valley, Catskills and Southern Tier
Catskill Mountainkeeper is pleased to announce that we have been awarded a grant of $1.8 million from the State of New York to lead a collaborative project to increase energy conservation and solar penetration in the Southern Tier and Mid-Hudson regions. Our lead partners in this project are the Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coalition, Sustainable Hudson Valley, and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County, each of which brings extensive experience in conservation, renewable energy promotion and sustainable community development. http://www.catskillmountainkeeper.org/renewable_ny_awarded_1_8m_grant_for_community_solar
Hydro-Quebec selects 446MW in latest tender
Hydro-Quebec has selected three projects totalling 446.4MW in its latest request for wind energy proposals, with the winning bidders poised to bring some new turbine suppliers to the province.
Quebec's 60% local content requirement means developers had to team up with turbine makers willing to set up manufacturing facilities in the province or use suppliers already in place. http://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1327030/hydro-quebec-selects-446mw-latest-tender
19 269 Sunken Turbines To Make Scotland Home To World’s Largest Tidal Farm
The world’s largest tidal energy project, capable of powering nearly 175,000 homes in the U.K. with 400 megawatts of power, will break ground next month in northeast Scotland. Atlantis, majority owner of the MeyGen project, announced that its flagship project had met all the conditions required to start drawing down finance through the U.K.’s Renewable Energy Investment Fund.
The completed project will have 269 sunken turbines, according to Atlantis, which expects to have about 60 of these installed and delivering power by 2020. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/12/22/3606131/269-sunken-turbines-tidal-power-scotland/
Saudi Arabia aims to be world’s largest renewable energy market
Saudi Arabia aims to become the world’s foremost market for renewable energy with an aggressive investment budget of $109 billion. By 2032, the country strives to generate as much as a third of the Kingdom’s energy demands using renewable energy (54 GW). http://www.arabnews.com/news/458342
How Solar Power Could Slay The Fossil Fuel Empire By 2030
In just 15 years, the world as we know it will have transformed forever. The age of oil, gas, coal and nuclear will be over. A new age of clean power and smarter cars will fundamentally, totally, and permanently disrupt the existing fossil fuel-dependent industrial infrastructure in a way that even the most starry-eyed proponents of ‘green energy’ could never have imagined.
These are not the airy-fairy hopes of a tree-hugging hippy living off the land in an eco-commune. It’s the startling verdict of Tony Seba, a lecturer in business entrepreneurship, disruption and clean energy at Stanford University and a serial Silicon Valley entrepreneur.
https ://www.popularresistance.org/how-solar-power-could-slay-the-fossil-fuel-empire-by-2030/
While You Were Getting Worked Up Over Oil Prices, This Just Happened to Solar
Every time fossil fuels get cheaper, people lose interest in solar deployment. That may be about to change. After years of struggling against cheap natural gas prices and variable subsidies, solar electricity is on track to be as cheap or cheaper than average electricity-bill prices in 47 U.S. states -- in 2016, according to a Deutsche Bank report published this week. That’s assuming the U.S. maintains its 30 percent tax credit on system costs, which is set to expire that same year.
Even if the tax credit drops to 10 percent, solar will soon reach price parity with conventional electricity in well over half the nation: 36 states. Gone are the days when solar panels were an exotic plaything of Earth-loving rich people. Solar is becoming mainstream, and prices will continue to drop as the technology improves and financing becomes more affordable, according to the report. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-29/while-you-were-getting-worked-up-over-oil-prices-this- just-happened-to-solar.html
20 The switch to renewable power is a battle we cannot afford to lose
Since the final gavel fell at the Lima climate talks earlier this month, discussions have centred on one question: what did the talks actually accomplish?
After two weeks of intense negotiation, governments settled on a draft text that will hopefully lead to a successful global climate deal in Paris next December. While opinions vary regarding the success or failure of the outcome, there is another story emerging outside the negotiation room.
This year’s conference represented a highly-significant shift in the positive momentum to act on climate change. While negotiators engaged in contentious debates, businesses, non-governmental organisations and local authorities stepped forward to present their own climate initiatives and committed to more action on the ground.
In this shift, renewable energy took centre stage. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/24/the-switch-to-renewable-power-is-a-battle-we- cannot-afford-to-lose?CMP=share_btn_link
21 Science and Health
Minority Children More Likely to Attend School Near Fracking, Face Higher Health Risks
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – A new analysis released on November 18 on the distribution of California oil and gas wells in relation the state’s public schools finds that minority children are at a much greater risk of health problems related to fracking and other methods of oil drilling than white children (See PDF). http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/12/02/18764973.php
The report http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/12/02/18764973.php
Inside the petrochemical industry’s $36m 'research strategy' on ubiquitous poison benzene
The Center for Public Integrity, Columbia University and the City University of New York are making public some 20,000 pages of benzene documents — the inaugural collection in Exposed: Decades of denial on poisons, an archive of previously secret oil and chemical industry memoranda, emails, letters, presentations and meeting minutes.
Hundreds of thousands of additional documents on different chemicals will be added in 2015 and beyond. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/04/-sp-documents-petrochemical-industry-poison- benzene?CMP=share_btn_link
Health impact of fracking on residents ‘should be monitored’
Scientists in the US have linked chemicals used to fracture shale rock with fertility and developmental problems
People who live near fracking operations should be monitored for chemical contaminants and health problems, according to researchers who surveyed the risks posed by substances used in the process.
Scientists in the US found that many of the 750 or so chemicals that are pumped into the ground at high pressure to fracture shale rock were associated with fertility and developmental problems.
But while the chemicals have been linked to health effects ranging from poor semen quality and endocrine issues to miscarriages and low birth weight, very little is known about the levels of chemicals that people are exposed to from fracking operations, making it impossible to assess the real risk.
The research drew on published scientific reports on the health impacts of chemicals such as benzene and toluene, and elements including cadmium and arsenic that are released from rocks in the drilling process. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/05/health-impact-fracking-monitored
22 Fracking may echo history of tobacco, asbestos
The report of Britain's chief scientific advisor "Innovation: Managing Risk, Not Avoiding It", contains a chapter dealing with fracking. The author, Prof Andrew Stirling of the University of Sussex, warns that insufficient investigation into the negative effects of this relatively new technology could lead to serious consequences.
He cites several notorious historic cases of products and technologies where there was delayed recognition of serious adverse effects. These include asbestos, benzene, thalidomide (the anti-morning sickness pill which caused birth defects in the 1950s), dioxins, lead in petrol, tobacco, many pesticides, mercury, chlorine and hormone-disrupting compounds, CFCs, and fossil fuels.
Sterling adds that not only did such examples lead to grievous health and environmental impacts, there were considerable financial losses for firms and economies that persisted in using them. http://www.health24.com/Lifestyle/Environmental-health/News/Fracking-compared-to-asbestos- tobacco-thalidomide-20141205
Review finds environmental impact and toxicity of biocides used in fracking still largely unknown
FORT COLLINS - A Colorado State University-led research team has completed the most comprehensive review to date of the environmental fate and toxicity of the biocides most commonly used in hydraulic fracturing fluids.
Researchers analyzed more than 200 research papers, studies, and other literature to critically evaluate the current knowledge on how these chemicals may enter the environment, whether they are likely to degrade or persist, and if they or their degradation products may pose a risk to human health and the environment. The team also pinpointed various areas in which more research is urgently needed and identified the pros and cons of potential biocide alternatives.
The critical review article, “Biocides in Hydraulic Fracturing Fluids: A Critical Review of Their Usage, Mobility, Degradation, and Toxicity,” was recently published in the prestigious journal Environmental Science &Technology. http://www.news.colostate.edu/Release/7520
The paper http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es503724k
Scientists: “rapid and thorough” response needed to fracking
A group of doctors and scientists reviewed a number of recent studies of hydraulic fracturing against what is known about reproductive health and identified increased health risks for infants, children and adults.
The peer-reviewed literature review, “Development and reproductive effects of chemicals associated with unconventional oil and natural gas operations,” was published today in the quarterly scientific journal, Reviews of Environmental Health. The authors, Ellen Webb, Sheila Bushkin-Bedient, Amanda
23 Cheng, Christopher D. Kassotis, Victoria Balise and Susan C. Nagel, concluded there was a compelling need to better understand the consequences of fracking “through rapid and thorough further health research.” http://newsgatheringblog.dentonrc.com/2014/12/scientists-rapid-and-thorough-response-needed-to- fracking.html/
Scientists Release Analysis of 400 Peer-Reviewed Studies on Fracking along with Major Scientific Compendium Update Concerned Health Professionals of NY » Health Professionals
Albany – Health professionals and scientists released two new, independent summations of the state of the science on the risks and harms of shale gas development and fracking.
The first is a new working paper analysis from the energy science organization, PSE Healthy Energy. Covering a wide range of outcomes—air pollution, water contamination, and public health—the PSE Healthy Energy analysis is a statistical evaluation of the approximately 400 peer-reviewed studies to date on the impacts of shale gas development. Among the key findings: 96% of all papers published on health impacts indicate potential risks or adverse health outcomes. 87% of original research studies published on health outcomes indicate potential risks or adverse health outcomes. 95% of all original research studies on air quality indicate elevated concentrations of air pollutants. 72% of original research studies on water quality indicate potential, positive association, or actual incidence of water contamination. There is an ongoing expansion in the number of peer-reviewed publications on the impacts of shale and tight gas development: approximately 73% of all available scientific peer-reviewed papers have been published in the past 24 months, with a current average of one paper published each day.
The second new document is the release of a major update to the Compendium of scientific, medical and media findings from Concerned Health Professionals of New York. This qualitative compilation, assembled by a team of scientists and health professionals working independently from PSE Healthy Energy, presents concise summations of key information in a manner accessible and useful to policymakers, journalists, researchers, and the general public. http://concernedhealthny.org/health-professionals-scientists-release-analysis-of-400-peer-reviewed- studies-on-fracking-along-with-major-scientific-compendium-update-new-analysis-and-science-answer- governor-cuomos-conce/
PSE Healthy Energy report http://psehealthyenergy.org/data/Database_Analysis_12_10.pdf http://psehealthyenergy.org/data/Database_Appendix_.pdf
Copncerned Health Professionals of NY http://concernedhealthny.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/CHPNY-Fracking-Compendium.pdf
24 How Fracking Is Bad for Our Bodies
Fracking doesn't only impact health when mistakes are made. It also impacts health when everything goes right, the population explodes, and a town is drastically changed.
We've known about the boomtown health effect since the coal mining boom of the 1970s and 1980s. Here’s the idea: When mostly male newcomers flood a small town, they overwhelm community services. After all, the new population isn't met with more doctors, police officers, or teachers. Housing lags behind demand. This jacks up property taxes and rent, which hit people on a fixed income the hardest. The housing inflation also has a tendency to push out teachers, which rattles stable schools and makes boom work more attractive to struggling students than a diploma. There’s often a spike in crime rates, dropouts, alcohol abuse, sexually transmitted infections, and mental health problems.
In 1974, psychologist ElDean Kohrs called this phenomenon “Gillette Syndrome,” after the Wyoming boomtown. Kohrs compared the rates of divorce, crime, and high school dropouts with two other Wyoming communities. Gillette’s rates were far higher. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/10/how-fracking-is-bad-for-our-bodies/280384/
A Public Health Review of High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing for Shale Gas Development
The New York State Department of Health https://www.health.ny.gov/press/reports/docs/high_volume_hydraulic_fracturing.pdf
Fracking Fumes: Where There's a Well, All is Not Well
Emissions from oil-and-gas production pose a significant threat to human health, and immediate steps must be taken to reduce exposure to the toxic pollution, according to an analysis of scientific studies by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
After reviewing the findings of 24 studies conducted by both government agencies and academic organizations, the evidence shows that people living both close to and far from oil-and-gas drilling are exposed to fracking-related air pollution that can cause at least five major types of health problems, according to the NRDC's report, Fracking Fumes. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20141222/fracking-fumes-where-theres-well-all-not-well
Pennsylvania lags in studying health risks of shale fracking
New York and Pennsylvania share a border, but on shale gas policy the states are separated by a gulf.
The breach widened last week when New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration announced that state will ban fracking, citing uncertainty about the health risks posed by the oil and gas extraction process.
25 In Pennsylvania, where elected officials from both parties embrace shale gas development, government leaders are still debating whether to fulfill a three-year-old recommendation for how to study the potential impact of shale gas development on public health.
Gov. Tom Corbett’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission urged the state Department of Health in 2011 to create a health registry to track the well-being of people who live near natural gas drilling sites over time. The project was not funded, and the registry was never created.
Could the starkness of New York’s warning influence policy in Pennsylvania?
“I don’t put a lot of stock in the New York analysis,” said Drew Crompton, chief of staff for state Sen. Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, the Senate president pro tempore. http://eaglefordtexas.com/news/id/142907/pennsylvania-lags-studying-health-risks-shale- fracking/#.VJsimZa5648.facebook
Even With Ban, New York Can't Escape Effects of Fracking
Unfortunately, just because New York banned fracking, and even though more than 150 New York municipalities have banned fracking using local zoning laws, the state won't escape its effects. In fact, New York is already burdened with the fracking industry's health and safety problems and threats to the environment because of gas infrastructure.
Gas companies are building pipelines to service increasing demand in New York City. In spite of opposition from groups like OccupythePipeline concerned about radon exposure and the risk of explosion, Spectra Energy's pipeline, which runs under Greenwich Village, went into service in November 2013. http://truth-out.org/news/item/28203-even-with-ban-new-york-can-t-escape-effects-of-fracking
Autism Risk Linked to Particulate Air Pollution
NEW YORK, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Children whose mothers were exposed to high levels of fine particulate pollution in late pregnancy have up to twice the risk of developing autism as children of mothers breathing cleaner air, scientists at Harvard School of Public Health reported on Thursday.
The Harvard study included children of the 116,430 women in the Nurses' Health Study II, which began in 1989. The researchers collected data on where the women lived while pregnant and levels of particulate pollution. They then compared the prenatal histories of 245 children with autism spectrum disorder to 1,522 normally-developing children, all born from 1990 to 2002. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/autism-risk-linked-to-particulate-air-pollution/
Study Finds Treated Fracking Wastewater Still Too Toxic
One of the biggest concerns about hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is that the vast amount of wastewater produced by the process of extracting oil and gas from shale rock deep underground is incredibly toxic.
26 Most often, the wastewater is injected into disposal wells deep underground. But a process does exist to convert contaminated water into drinking water that involves running it through wastewater treatment plants and into rivers.
Now a new report says that treated wastewater could be fouling drinking water supplies.
In an article published in Environmental Science & Technology -- the journal of the American Chemical Society -- a team of researchers acknowledged that the disposal of fracking wastewater is a serious challenge for energy companies that use hydraulic fracturing.
The wastewater left over from the process is not only highly radioactive, but also is contaminated with heavy metals salts known as halides, which are not suitable for consumption, according to the scientists.
The results were not encouraging. The researchers found that the chlorine and ozone – used to rid samples of fracking wastewater containing as little as 0.01 percent and up to 0.1 percent of halides per volume of water – also formed an array of other toxic compounds known as “disinfection byproducts,” or DBPs.
As Climate Progress pointed out, “these chemicals — trihalomethanes, haloacetic acids, bromate, and chlorite — are formed when the disinfectants used in water treatment plants react with halides, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.” All are potentially dangerous to humans, not to mention wildlife.
The results of the study have led researchers to advise the industry not to discharge fracking wastewater into surface waters, even if it has been treated. http://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Study-Finds-Treated-Fracking-Wastewater-Still-Too-Toxic.html
27 Economics, Legal, and Investigations
Green energy sector jobs surpass total oil sands employment
Canada’s green energy sector has grown so quickly and has become such an important part of the economy that it now employs more people than the oil sands.
About $25-billion has been invested in Canada’s clean-energy sector in the past five years, and employment is up 37 per cent, according to a new report from climate think tank Clean Energy Canada to be released Tuesday. That means the 23,700 people who work in green energy organizations outnumber the 22,340 whose work relates to the oil sands, the report says. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/green- energy-sector-jobs-surpass-oil-sand-employment-total/article21859169/
Clean Energy Jobs Overshadow Oil and Gas Jobs? Oh C'mon!
One fact jumped right off the page as I looked over this week's coverage of job numbers from Tides affiliate Clean Energy Canada.
It wasn't the fact the report claimed to have generated more jobs than all the jobs in the oilsands put together. Such a ludicrous claim came as no great surprise. Clean Energy Canada cherry-picks data like the slick, US-backed pros that they are. I expected as much.
No, what really surprised me was the effortless way Clean Energy spokesperson Merran Smith has managed her transition from anti-oilsands ForestEthics ideologue to the appearance of a constructive energy analyst in such short order. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/cody-battershill/clean-energy-jobs-oil-and-gas-jobs_b_6129982.html
Junk Bonds Backing Shale Boom Facing $11.6 Billion Loss
Bond investors who helped finance America’s shale boom are facing potential losses of $11.6 billion as oil prices plummet by the most since the credit crisis.
The $90 billion of debt issued by junk-rated energy producers in the past three years has fallen almost 13 percent since crude oil peaked in June. Halcon Resources Corp. (HK:US), SandRidge Energy Inc. and Goodrich Petroleum Corp. have been among the hardest hit as OPEC’s refusal to ease a supply glut pushed prices to a five-year low of $66.15 a barrel last week. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-12-01/junk-bonds-funding-shale-boom-face-8-dot-5-billion- of-losses
Lawsuit Launched Against Offshore Fracking in California's Santa Barbara Channel
SAN FRANCISCO— The Center for Biological Diversity today filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Interior Department for violating three federal laws by rubber-stamping offshore fracking in California’s
28 Santa Barbara Channel without evaluating its polluting effects on coastal communities or blue whales, sea otters and other marine wildlife.
The notice faults government officials for allowing oil companies to frack at least 21 times in federal waters off California’s coast with no public consultation, no analysis of the environmental risks, and no determination of whether fracking is consistent with California’s Coastal Management Program.
Several offshore fracks revealed in federal documents took place in an area that’s part of a proposed national marine sanctuary. The government approved at least four fracks just last year. http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2014/fracking-12-04-2014.html
Shale Gas May Not Be Quite As Revolutionary As We Think
The main difference between the Texas and EIA forecasts may come down to how fine-grained each assessment is. The EIA breaks up each shale play by county, calculating an average well productivity for that area....The Texas team, by contrast, splits each play into blocks of one square mile (2.6 square kilometres) — a resolution at least 20 times finer than the EIA's.
Resolution matters because each play has sweet spots that yield a lot of gas, and large areas where wells are less productive. Companies try to target the sweet spots first, so wells drilled in the future may be less productive than current ones....The high resolution of the Texas studies allows their model to distinguish the sweet spots from the marginal areas. As a result, says study co-leader Scott Tinker, a geoscientist at the University of Texas at Austin, “we've been able to say, better than in the past, what a future well would look like”.
So what does this mean? The chart on the right tells the story. If the EIA is right, shale gas production in the Big Four fields will continue rising through 2025 before plateauing at around 300 billion cubic meters. But if the Texas team is right, production will peak in 2020 at around 250 bcm and then start declining rapidly. http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/12/shale-gas-may-not-be-quite-revolutionary-we-think
Fracking Boom Could Start to Collapse in 2020
The standard forecasts by the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) currently estimate that natural gas from fracking shale the big four formations in the U.S. will continue to grow significantly until 2040, at which point they expect other new “plays” will have come online. Those estimates may be overstated, though. Over the last few years, a team at the University of Texas at Austin has been studying well outputs and geological formations to arrive at their own independent, peer-reviewed forecasts. Their results suggest that output from the big four plays would peak in 2020 and be halved just 10 years later. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/earth/fracking-boom-start-collapse-2020/
Ann Craft's Fracking Nightmare: A Top Lawyer's Startling Counsel Embedded video
Albertan's son, seeking legal help, records an insider's blunt advice on how petro giants and regulators fend off lawsuits.
29 In fall 2013 Brent O'Neil*, a veteran global oil and gas driller, went in search of a lawyer to help his mother, realtor Ann Craft.
For the last two years she's been embroiled with a fight with the province's regulators over two separate incidents as exclusively reported by The Tyee yesterday.
"We were forced to sue after it was clear that no regulatory bodies were going to help my mom," recalls 36-year-old O'Neil.
The oil patch veteran eventually made an appointment with Glenn Solomon, a seasoned and respected Calgary lawyer. Solomon, one of Canada's top rated lawyers, is also a senior partner in Jensen Shawa Solomon Duguid Hawkes LLP (JSS Barristers).
The bluntness of Solomon's comments stunned O'Neil.
In no uncertain terms, Solomon warned O'Neil that suing oil and gas companies was not only "scary" but expensive.
O'Neil recorded the entire two-hour-long meeting with Solomon on his cell phone: "I recorded the conversation as I wanted my mother to be able to decide which lawyer she felt comfortable with." (Craft eventually hired a lawyer in Ponoka for her case.)
O'Neil says that he found it shocking that someone in Solomon's position "would be so bold about how the law works in favour of oil companies in Alberta or Canada."
But he adds that Solomon's responses accurately reflected the way his mother had been treated by both regulators and industry: "His comments were true."
To listen to and read parts of the discussion between Solomon and O'Neil, play the video below. http://m.thetyee.ca/News/2014/12/05/Ann-Craft-Fracking-Nightmare/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LKuCR3hHmf4
Founding Father of Fracking Boom Is Crying the Blues
The price of a barrel of oil has been dropping steadily due to decreasing demand and a glut of oil on the market, thanks in large part to the fracking boom in the U.S. Last week, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, announced it wasn’t going to cut back on production. The announcement sent prices down to less than $70 a barrel, creating financial worries for some banks and a billionaire whose wealth depends upon the success of fracking.
But Hamm isn’t the only one getting edgy about declining oil prices. The oil and gas industry sold Americans a rosy portrait of energy independence thanks to fracking, and some banks, buying into this picture, exposed themselves to risk from dropping prices.
“A huge chunk of the shale oil boom can be traced back to Wall Street, where years of low interest rates have encouraged energy companies to fuel their growth by tapping eager investors in the bond
30 and loan markets,” reports The Financial Times in an article headlined “U.S. Shale Lenders Caught in Energy Sell-Off.” http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/02/fracking-bust-harold-hamm/? utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=5da00f0c57- Top_News_12_7_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-5da00f0c57-85899661
With weak Marcellus Shale gas prices, Wolf's $1B severance tax prediction might be too high
Gov.-elect Tom Wolf might have been off the mark by hundreds of millions of dollars when he said during his campaign that a new severance tax on natural gas drillers would raise more than $1 billion, potentially complicating his bid to secure new funding for Pennsylvania schools and alleviate a severe budget shortfall. http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/25de075b7fa549efbde9a3b237ea8f57/PA--Gas-Drilling- Severance-Tax/
The Fracking Boom Could Burn Out Decades Before It's Supposed To
Overenthusiastic shale gas estimates may be setting the world up for a fracking crash
Thanks to the U.S. fracking boom, the world is coasting on a wave of cheap natural gas. As far as official forecasts suggest, that wave should last for decades to come. But a new analysis that takes a higher-resolution look at shale gas suggests that wave could crash far sooner than producers expect. And with the rest of the world anticipating cheap American gas, a crash could sends shocks rippling across borders. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/overenthusiastic-shale-gas-estimates-may-be-setting- world-fracking-crash-180953521/?utm_source=facebook.com&no-ist
Goodrich puts shale gas field up for sale
Goodrich Petroleum's shares have collapsed 86 per cent since crude oil began its descent in June.
With a market value of $182m it's a small company, but the US oil and gas driller is typical of the sort that investors have fled from during the six-month rout in crude.
The company, which drills shale rock for oil and gas in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, said on Wednesday that it's exploring the sale of its Eagle Ford Shale play. http://www.ft.com/intl/fastft/248781/post-248781
Banks Fear Risk Of Investment In Fossil Fuels
A growing number of senior figures in the financial community—some of them controlling many millions of dollars worth of investment funds—have been pressing fossil fuel companies to disclose how
31 investments would be affected if energy reserves became frozen or stranded by regulatory moves associated with tackling climate change. Photo credit: Ellen Gibson / Fossil Free Future
In a move that’s likely to cause consternation in some of the world’s most powerful corporate boardrooms, the Bank of England has disclosed that it is launching an inquiry into the risks fossil fuel companies pose to overall financial stability.
Mark Carney, governor of the UK’s central bank, has written to British Members of Parliament telling them that his officials have been discussing whether or not coal, oil and gas reserves held by the fossil fuel industry are, in fact, unburnable. https://www.popularresistance.org/banks-fear-risk-of-investment-in-fossil-fuels/
Wind and solar are much less financially risky than other power projects
http://grist.org/climate-energy/wind-and-solar-are-much-less-financially-risky-than-other-power-projects/
Oil price collapse claims WA's Red Fork Energy, shale gas company in receivership
The collapse of the oil price has snared its first West Australian victim with Red Fork Energy losing the support of its major lender.
The Perth-based company drills for shale gas in the United States, producing oil and gas.
32 But, it is completely exposed to the US shale gas industry, which analysts say has become unviable at current oil prices.
The oil price has tumbled 40 per cent in recent months, dragging down the value and margins of oil and gas producers.
Red Fork's major lender, Guggenheim Corporate Funding, called in the receivers this week. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-11/oil-price-drop-claims-first-wa-victim-red-fork-energy/5962020
Oil Investors at Brink of Losing Trillions of Dollars in Assets. Gore: It's That Road Runner Moment
A major threat to fossil fuel companies has suddenly moved from the fringe to center stage with a dramatic announcement by Germany’s biggest power company and an intriguing letter from the Bank of England.
A growing minority of investors and regulators are probing the possibility that untapped deposits of oil, gas and coal -- valued at trillions of dollars globally -- could become stranded assets as governments adopt stricter climate change policies.
The concept gaining traction from Wall Street to the City of London is simple. Limits on emissions of carbon dioxide will be necessary to hold temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius, the maximum climate scientists say is advisable. Without technologies to capture the waste gases from combusting fossil fuels, a majority of known oil, gas and coal deposits would have to stay underground. Once that point is reached, they become stranded. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-02/oil-investors-may-be-running-off-a-cliff-they-can-t- see.html
Exaggerating Shale Drilling's Employment Impacts: How & Why
Over the last five years, firms with an economic interest in the expansion of drilling in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations — and their allies, supporters, and trade associations — have used a variety of tools and techniques to exaggerate the employment impacts of shale drilling. These strategies have ranged from the use of inappropriate measures, such as data on new hires, to represent job growth to the misleading attribution of all jobs in “ancillary” industries to the shale industry.
A review of statements by representatives of shale drilling firms and their allies makes the motivation for this exaggeration clear — to preclude, or at least to minimize, taxation, regulation, and even careful examination of shale drilling. http://www.multistateshale.org/shale-employment-report
The report https://pennbpc.org/sites/pennbpc.org/files/MSSRC-Employment-Impact-11-21-2013.pdf
33 Shale gas drilling operator penalized for landslide that diverted Greene County streams
Vantage Energy Appalachia LLC will pay a $999,900 penalty for more than a dozen Pennsylvania environmental law violations resulting from illegal waste disposal and a landslide that covered and diverted two small streams near its Porter Street well pad in Franklin Township, Greene County.
The state Department of Environmental Protection said Monday the penalty is part of a consent order that requires the Engelwood, Colorado-based gas drilling company to fully restore the impacted unnamed tributaries of Grimes Run, which flows into the Monongahela River, and remediate the surface and groundwater in the area. All remediation work must be completed by the end of 2015. http://www.post-gazette.com/powersource/companies-powersource/2014/12/22/Vantage-Energy- Appalachia-penalty-Franklin-Township-Greene-County-Pennsylvania/stories/201412220201
Oil & Gas Market: There Will Be Blood!! [Part II] by AdventuresInCapitalism
In oil and gas, most of the money is spent up front in acquiring the drilling rights and putting the well into production.
You then have revenue and hopefully some profit in the period afterwards, as the well produces for you.
Unfortunately, shale wells are very different from conventional wells. Shale wells see the vast majority of their total production in the first two years after they are drilled. This means that you have to keep drilling more wells just to stay at a constant level of production.
In many ways this is akin to a hamster wheel—except you can never get off—or your production collapses. If you want to grow production, you need to drill even more wells—all of which see signficant declines after two years. http://www.valuewalk.com/2014/12/oil-gas-market-will-blood-part-ii/
The Fracking Boom is a Fracking Bubble
Gas prices have plunged to the low $2 range—except in Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, the prices at the pump are in the mid-$2 range.
That’s because Gov. Tom Corbett and the legislature imposed a 28-cent per gallon surcharge tax. Until 2019, Pennsylvanians will be paying an additional $2.3 billion a year in taxes and fees—$11.5 billion total—to improve the state’s infrastructure. In addition to the increased tax on gas at the pumps, Pennsylvania motorists will also be spending more for license registrations, renewals, and title certificates. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article48786.html
Natural gas contrarian: Glut not deterring CEO of Houston's Southwest Energy
34 WONDERVIEW, Ark. — Across the giant Fayetteville shale gas field here, country roads that were clogged by truck traffic just a few years ago are empty again. Once aglow at night from the bright lights twinkling on drilling rigs, the roads are dark under the starry Arkansas sky.
Virtually all of the few remaining rig and frack crews belong to one survivor: Southwestern Energy, a stubborn believer in the future profitability of natural gas.
“I’d rather have the gas to myself with no one following,” Steven Mueller, Southwestern’s chief executive, said last month as he watched his rig hands pull pipe and mud from a new natural gas well here in northern Arkansas. http://www.news-journal.com/business/natural-gas-contrarian/article_d46552b9-4759-5b3d-b10c- 8a59c6a3146e.html
Lawsuits Over New York Fracking Ban Unlikely, Experts Say
"I think most of the companies in the industry are disinterested in fighting," said Brad Gill, the executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York, a trade group.
Six years ago, before the start of a lengthy New York moratorium on hydraulic fracturing of natural gas, the governor might have been right. But since then, the fracking phenomenon has turned from mania to mundane.
Chesapeake Energy, once one of the biggest leaseholders in New York, last year gave up a legal battle to retain thousands of acres in the state. Norse Energy went bankrupt in 2012 after more than 100,000 acres in the state it leased were deemed off-limits to drilling.
The industry's less confrontational stance reflects the dramatic shift in the U.S. natural gas industry over the years since the state's de facto ban came into force in 2008. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/18/lawsuits-new-york-fracking_n_6344896.html
Shale Gas and Fracking
LATEST NEWS
• Chevron Shale Exit Shreds Ukraine’s Hope of Energy Independence • C&J Asks Court to Allow Nabors Merger Over Claims of Secret Sale • Isn't Cheap Oil Good for Stocks? Price Plunge Is Fracking the Quants' Consensus to Pieces • Oil Storm Has Texas Wildcat Veterans Warning Bakken Rookies to Take Cover • Ukraine Says Chevron May Exit Agreement to Extract Shale Gas • Fed, Housing Data, BOE Stress Tests, BOJ: Week Ahead Dec. 15-20 • Berkshire Extends Energy Bet in Deal for Arsenal’s Charter • Halliburton Cuts 1,000 Employees as Sanctions Slow Russia • Mexico Shale Boom Outlook Dims as U.S. Drillers Struggle • Oil, Natural Gas Drillers Lag in Disclosing Risks • Fed, Housing Data, BOE Tests, Japan Vote: Week Ahead Dec. 13-20 • A Provocateur Sees Profits in Coal’s Long, Slow Death
35 • Oil Drops Below $60 After Saudis Question Need to Cut • Traders Hedge Oil ETF While Energy Stocks Lure Buyers • Billionaire Richard Kinder to Relinquish CEO Role http://topics.bloomberg.com/shale-gas-and-fracking/
Saudis Tell Shale Industry It Will Break Them, Plans to Keep Pumping Even at $20 a Barrel
When the Saudis announced their intention not to support oil prices when they were sliding towards $90 and plunged quickly through that level, we deemed the move to be a masterstroke. It served to damage both economic and political enemies. On the economic front, the casualties would include renewables, Canadian tar sands, and the US shale gas industry. On the geopolitical front, the casualties would include Iran, Syria, Russia.... and the US.
Even though Riyadh is nominally still an ally, relations with the US are fraught. The Saudis are mighty unhappy with America over its failure to get rid of Assad, its refusal to indulge Saudi demands of attacking Iran (our leaders may be drunk on power, but they haven't quite gone over the deep end) and or indirectly working with Iran against ISIS (which started out as Prince Bandar's private army and may still have the kingdom as a stealth patron). So the Saudis are not at all unhappy if the US suffers as a result of the whackage of its energy industry. First, that's an inevitable outcome if the Saudis are to succeed in maximizing the value of their oil assets, which is a survival issue for the royal family. Second, since relations between the US and Riyadh are frayed right now, it is an opportune time to show that the kingdom is not to be treated casually. http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/28282-saudis-tell-shale-industry-it-will-break-them-plans-to-keep- pumping-even-at-20-a-barrel
Finance minister says economy could be held back by stalled pipelines, fracking
Finance Minister Joe Oliver says he is concerned that divisions within Canada over the energy sector will eventually hold back the country’s growth.
In a year-end interview for The Exchange with Amanda Lang, Oliver cited opposition to fracking and to pipelines in some provinces as potential points of conflict.
“It’s important to communicate with Canadians that we’re not just missing out on a new opportunity. We’re potentially also looking at a decline which would adversely affect the Canadian economy and degrade the standard of living of Canadians across the country,” Oliver said. http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/joe-oliver-concerned-about-a-canada-divided-over-energy-1.2886792
U.S. opening of oil export tap widens battle for global market
(Reuters) - The Obama administration has opened a new front in the global battle for oil market share, effectively clearing the way for the shipment of as much as a million barrels per day of ultra-light U.S. crude to the rest of the world.
36 The Department of Commerce on Tuesday ended a year-long silence on a contentious, four-decade ban on oil exports, saying it had begun approving a backlog of requests to sell processed light oil abroad. It also issued a long-awaited document outlining exactly what kinds of oil other would-be exporters can ship.
With global oil markets in flux, it is far from clear how much U.S. condensate will find a market overseas. Drillers are already slashing billions of dollars off their 2015 budgets because of lower prices, actions likely to slow growth in output next year and push forward the point at which supply overtakes demand. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/31/us-usa-crude-exports-analysis-idUSKBN0K908M20141231
37 Regulations
Riverkeeper questions fracking use report
The Delaware Riverkeeper Network, one of the most vigorous opponents of a proposed natural gas pipeline that would pass through Hunterdon and Mercer counties from its source in Luzerne County, Pa., has challenged a recently issued report on fracking, which was issued by the Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD).
Ms. Van Rossum said that, according to the Riverkeeper experts who reviewed them, the CSSD performance standards:
• Are unsupported by science; • Fail to address public health issues; • Fail to protect air and water supplies; • Lack the scientific rigorousness required of effective standards or sustainability; • Contain broad loopholes; • Are vague and fail to provide the specificity necessary for clear understanding, analysis and application; • Advance practices already implemented by the industry or required by law that have been demonstrated to do nothing to further advance community or environmental protection; • Have never been subject to independent peer review.
Ms. Van Rossum said performance standards reviewed the Riverkeeper in its new report were issued in August 2013 by the CSSD, which she called "a nonprofit partnership of drilling interests." http://www.centraljersey.com/articles/2014/12/26/the_beacon/news/doc5494865218fe9397130891.txt
38 Environment and Enjoyment of Property
Carbon emissions: past, present and future – interactive
As the UN climate talks open in Lima to agree on a draft text for a treaty in Paris next year, here is a timeline of world’s top 20 emitters of carbon dioxide since the dawn of industrialisation dominated by UK and US.
This interactive is jointly produced with the World Resources Institute http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2014/dec/01/carbon-emissions-past-present- and-future-interactive
Canada's climate inaction leaves it 'increasingly isolated' ahead of COP 20
Earlier this month, the U.S. and China announced an agreement to significantly cut and cap their greenhouse gas emissions.
Why your taxes pay to make climate change worse: Don Pittis
Not only does that give a big boost to the global momentum to tackle climate change, but it cranks up the international pressure on Canada ahead of the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 20), which opens today in Lima, Peru.
"They make [Prime Minister Stephen] Harper look increasingly isolated," said Simon Dalby, CIGI chair in the political economy of climate change at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Ont. http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/canada-s-climate-inaction-leaves-it-increasingly-isolated-ahead-of- cop-20-1.2853774
Carney Calls Fossil Fuels Unburnable ‘Tragedy of Horizons’
When Mark Carney resigned as Governor of the Bank of Canada and became Governor of the Bank of England it seemed, on the face of it, he was just making a good career move. A recent speech by Mr. Carney to a World Bank seminar, however, reveals what may be a different motivation. In this speech, he laid out an analysis of the world’s energy future that it is hard to imagine he could have articulated as Governor of the Bank of Canada. Speaking of the world’s oil reserves, Mark Carney told the assembled investment professionals that “the vast majority are unburnable if the world is to avoid catastrophic climate change.”
This is not an analysis that is easy to imagine the Governor of the Bank of Canada making – at least not with the Harper government in power. As the Governor of the Bank of England, Mr. Carney, apparently, has a professional and political context for speaking plainly and with integrity about the world’s energy future. He is not shy in using a powerful economic metaphor to describe what is happening to the hydrocarbon industry: He warns of “stranded assets” – oil reserves that cannot be extracted, sold, and burned. But Mark Carney goes further. http://nbharbinger.wordpress.com/2014/12/02/carney-calls-fossil-fuels-unburnable-tragedy-of-horizons/
39 Shale Gas increasing Threat to Climate, Environment, Communities Worldwide
As world climate talks open in Peru today, new research shows how fracking is likely to further accelerate climate change, destroy water sources and infringe on communities’ rights worldwide unless urgent action is taken to stop the ‘dash-for-gas’.
The report, from Friends of the Earth Europe, maps the expansion of the shale gas industry outside Europe and North America with examples of 11 key countries on three continents. It finds that multinational oil and gas companies such as Total, Shell and Chevron are moving into increasingly vulnerable countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia where the ecosystems, communities and authorities are even less unable to cope with the impacts of extraction. http://www.globalresearch.ca/shale-gas-increasing-threat-to-climate-environment-communities- worldwide/5417270
Global Surface Temperature: Going Down the Up Escalator, Part 1
To see how climate change skeptics and realists view the same data look at Figure 1. http://www.skepticalscience.com/going-down-the-up-escalator-part-1.html
The Last Time the Arctic Was Ice-Free During the Summer, Modern Humans Didn't Exist
Ice has been a relatively constant feature of the Arctic for most of the past 36 million years, but there have been some gaps. Scientists aren’t exactly sure what happened during the most recent major ice- free period, but it’s often considered an analog to our future, warmer Earth. The only difference is, the gap in Arctic sea ice that scientists believe will happen by midcentury is being caused by us.
Scientists are now piecing together the puzzle in an increasingly urgent attempt to understand what might happen once Arctic ice goes away again, effectively for good. One new study, published last week in the journal Nature Communications, attempts determine what happened during that last major gap in Arctic ice. http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/27301-the-last-time-the-arctic-was-ice-free- during-the-summer-modern-humans-didnt-exist
Animal populations ‘have halved since 1970’
Researchers from the WWF wildlife NGO, headquartered in Woking, UK, and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) aggregated data on 10,380 populations from 3,038 species into an index of the health of the five main groups of vertebrates — mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes and amphibians. Set at 1 in 1970, this index has decreased to 0.48 (meaning by 52%) since then, according to their latest report. http://blogs.nature.com/news/2014/09/animal-populations-have-halved-since-1970.html
The report 35 megabytes http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/living_planet_report_2014.pdf
40 Ban-Ki Moon Says Canada Must Do More On Climate Change
Ban Ki-moon told CBC on Thursday that Canada needs to stop stalling on setting climate change goals, and instead become "ambitious and visionary."
"It's only natural that Canada as one of the G7 countries should take a leadership role," he said in an interview with Peter Mansbridge of The National.
Part of that change would involve moving away from a reliance on fossil fuels.
"There are ways to make a transformative change from a fossil fuel-based economy to a climate- resilient economy by investing wisely in renewable energy choices," he said. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/12/05/ban-ki-moon-climate-change-canada_n_6273722.html
California Experiences Worst Drought in 1,200 Years
While rain this week provided California with some relief from a long spell of high temperatures and dry weather, it scarcely made a dent in the state’s multi-year drought. And they’ll hardly be encouraged by a new study, which says the drought is the worst in the region in 1,200 years. http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/05/california-drought-worst-since-middle-ages/? utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=2bb16c4d46- Top_News_12_6_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-2bb16c4d46-85368257
Laurentide Ice Sheet evolution.
This animations integrates the state of the art knowledge about the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet since the Last Glacial Maximum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbsURVgoRD0&feature=youtu.be
The Ethics of Climate Hope - Naomi Klein
According to Elizabeth Kolbert’s review of my book, This Changes Everything, humans are too selfish to respond effectively to the climate crisis. “Here’s my inconvenient truth,” she writes, “when you tell people what it would actually take to radically reduce carbon emissions, they turn away. They don’t want to give up air travel or air conditioning or HDTV or trips to the mall or the family car.”
Kolbert’s only proof for this sweeping judgment is her partial account of a single Swiss research project that began in 1998. The researchers behind the 2,000-Watt Society, as the project is known, determined that if humans are to live within ecological limits, then every person on earth will need to keep their energy consumption below 2,000 watts.
Big investments in renewables and efficiency, as well as re-imagining how we live and work, can deliver a low-carbon, high quality of life to everyone on this planet. And as I write on page 101, “In 2009, Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, and Mark A. Delucchi, a research scientist at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California,
41 Davis, authored a groundbreaking, detailed road map for ‘how 100 percent of the world’s energy, for all purposes, could be supplied by wind, water and solar resources, by as early as 2030.” http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/27343-focus-the-ethics-of-climate-hope
Origins, a Documentary
Four years in the making, Origins is a stunningly ambitious new documentary that challenges us to reevaluate our existence in the modern world, and embrace the simplicities that defined the beginnings of our species. "I believe to understand our present and to map our future, we have to go back in time," says Alan McSmith, an ecology instructor and a key interview subject featured in the film. http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/origins/
Waters Warm, and Cod Catch Ebbs in Maine
PORTLAND, Me. — In the vast gulf that arcs from Massachusetts’s shores to Canada’s Bay of Fundy, cod was once king. It paid for fishermen’s boats, fed their families and put their children through college. In one halcyon year in the mid-1980s, the codfish catch reached 25,000 tons.
Today, the cod population has collapsed. Last month, regulators effectively banned fishing for six months while they pondered what to do, and next year, fishermen will be allowed to catch just a quarter of what they could before the ban.
But a fix may not be easy. The Gulf of Maine’s waters are warming — faster than almost any ocean waters on earth, scientists say — and fish are voting with their fins for cooler places to live. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/15/us/waters-warm-in-gulf-of-maine-and-cod-catch-ebbs.html? emc=eta1&_r=1
10 Things Canada Would Be Doing if We Were Serious About Climate Change
To make matters worse, this week Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced in the House of Commons that it would be “crazy” to regulate emissions in Canada’s oil and gas sector, signaling the long-overdue rules are no longer on the table.
Meanwhile in Peru, Canadian delegates are working hard to keep Canada’s oil and gas sector off the climate-negotiating table, despite the genuine efforts from nations across the planet to come to a meaningful agreement for addressing the globe’s growing carbon emissions problem.
Here are 10 things Canada would be doing if we were actually serious about addressing climate change at COP20 in Lima and beyond. 1. Slow expansion of the oilsands. 2. Introduce climate legislation and regulate fossil fuel industry emissions. 3. Nationalize our natural resources. 4. Build a rainy-day fund with oil revenues like Norway did. 5. Stop subsidizing fossil fuel development. 6. Invest in clean, renewable energy.
42 7. Give serious money to Green Climate Fund and help developing nations transition to clean energy. 8. Work with (rather than against) science and environmental organizations. 9. Respect Canada’s indigenous people. Yes, this is a climate strategy that even the IPCC advances. 10. Use our political clout to bolster international climate efforts (rather than obstruct them). http://www.desmog.ca/2014/12/13/10-things-canada-would-be-doing-if-we-were-serious-about-climate- change
Climate change: How do we know?
This graph, based on the comparison of atmospheric samples contained in ice cores and more recent direct measurements, provides evidence that atmospheric CO2 has increased since the Industrial Revolution. (Credit: Vostok ice core data/J.R. Petit et al.; NOAA Mauna Loa CO2 record.)
The Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of the last ice age about 7,000 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era — and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth’s orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives.
Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal. - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
43 Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities, and most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position. http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
Thousands March in Lima Demanding Climate Action
Putting People Before Profit: Thousands March in Peruvian People’s Climate March in Lima
On Wednesday, climate justice activists from around world marched in Lima at the people’s climate march. We hear voices from Uganda, Mozambique, Australia, Canada Peru, Nigeria, and more. “We the people have come together to stand up against injustice. We are saying enough is enough,” says Godwin Uyi Ojo, executive director of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/11/march-lima-demanding-climate-action/? utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=2b47c15fff- Top_News_12_11_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-2b47c15fff-85899661
7 Must-See Climate Action Videos of 2014
Thanks to 350.org‘s Thelma Young for pulling together what she found to be the seven best climate action videos of 2014. Check out these inspiring moments of 2014. The “films of incredible people and communities standing up for the climate.”
1. The People’s Climate March 2. Disruption 3. Canoes vs. Coal 4. Marshallese poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner at the UN Climate Summit 5. Reject and Protect 6. Healing Walk 2014 7. Divestment Flashmob in Sweden http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/26/climate-action-videos-2014/? utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=249b9d5da7- Top_News_12_26_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-249b9d5da7-85899661
Drought, Heat and Ice: 2015 Could Be a Tipping Point on Climate
"There seem to have been some real breakthroughs that signal hope," he says, "particularly the work by China and the United States to step up and recognize their outsized rolls in causing the problem, as well as in solving the problem."
"The U.S.-China accord is a very important step," agrees Dennis Hartmann, a University of Washington atmospheric scientist and IPCC co-author.
44 Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping last month announced a U.S. pledge to reduce carbon emissions by a quarter come 2025 and China's first-ever pledge to stop CO2 emissions growth by 2030.
That was followed by international talks in Peru earlier this month that Overpeck calls "a warm-up act" to get nations "focused on what it will take to finally make a serious bid to curb global emissions." http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/27723-drought-heat-and-ice-2015-could-be-a- tipping-point-on-climate
10 Best Eco-Docs of 2014
1. DamNation 2. Unearthed 3. Koch Brothers Exposed 4. Oil & Water 5. Just Eat It 6. Exposed: USDA’s Secret War on Wildlife 7. Burt’s Buzz 8. The Trail of a Tale 9. Last Rush for the Wild West: Tar Sands, Oil Shale and the American Frontier 10. Wrenched http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/29/environmental-documentaries-2014/? utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=bd978974b9- Top_News_12_29_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-bd978974b9-85899661
Nukes Fade As Wind and Solar Soar
With nuclear power falling ever further behind renewables as a global energy source, and as the price of oil and gas falls, the future of the industry in 2015 and beyond looks bleak.
Renewables now supply 22 percent of global electricity and nuclear only 11 percent—a share that is gradually falling as old plants close and fewer new ones are commissioned.
New large-scale installations of wind and solar power arrays continue to surge across the world. Countries without full grids and power outages, such as India, increasingly find that wind and solar are quick and easy ways to bring electricity to people who have previously had no supply.
Developed countries, meanwhile, faced with reducing carbon dioxide emissions, find that the cost of both these renewable technologies is coming down substantially. Subsidies for wind and solar are being reduced and, in some cases, will disappear altogether in the next 10 years. http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/30/nukes-fade-wind-solar-soar/? utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=2139f14e0a- Top_News_12_30_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-2139f14e0a-85899661
45 Government, Meetings, News, and Letters
The hardening of N.B.'s political narrative
Pity the political newcomer to New Brunswick. And pity new Premier Brian Gallant, who was not yet in office when the insistent and very public lobbying started.
Pity also the New Brunswick citizen whose opposition to shale gas fracturing contributed, at least in part, to putting Gallant in the premier's seat.
Lest those citizens get too smug with the idea of a working democracy, reminders are constant in the provincial press that what really matters is industry, energy development and policy reform that serves both.
In the wake of the recent provincial election, one could be forgiven for thinking of Mark Twain's view of democracy: “If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it.”
So appears to be the situation in New Brunswick: regardless of the election outcome, powerful members of the province's political class are refusing to allow Gallant his position on shale gas and, by extension, refusing to acknowledge the choice that New Brunswick voters made. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/tony-tremblay-the-hardening-of-n-b-s-political-narrative- 1.2855823
Information Morning Fredericton - Fear and Compliance
The hardening of New Brunswick's political narrative, and what to do about it. Terry Seguin talks to Tony Tremblay. http://www.cbc.ca/informationmorningfredericton/2014/12/03/fear-and-compliance/
Peoples Lawsuit Youth Claimants Call for Lawful Rebellion & Immediate 25 yr MORATORIUM ON GAS & OIL DEVELOPMENT 5 Dec 2014
The Youth claimants of the Peoples Lawsuit held a media conference in Cocagne, New Brunswick and unveiled their draft for a 25 year moratorium on fossil fuel operations, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for natural gas and oil. They want action on Climate Change, a healthy, sustainable economy and an end to fossil fuel subsidies and abuses of legal processes such as the injunctions, SLAPP lawsuits and military-style arrests against peaceful protesters in New Brunswick in 2013. They’re suing SWN Resources Canada and the New Brunswick and Canadian governments.
Letters with the draft moratorium text that were sent to the Wabanki, Canadian and New Brunswick governments were shared with those attending their media conference and with other young people all over the world via the internet and social media.
The youth have also asked elected Green Party politicians David Coon and Elizabeth May to present their moratorium to provincial and federal legislatures on behalf of Future Generations.
46 Several Peoples Lawsuit Plaintiffs were on hand with comments. Marcel White is unhappy about a regional fracking moratorium being discussed in the New Brunswick legislature, calling it “Pussyfooting, what part of NO Fracking don’t they understand?” Plaintiff Marc Bernard called the move “Crap, a weak effort that only pleases the companies, not the people.” http://willinolanspeaks.com/shares/media-release-peoples-lawsuit-youth-claimants-call-for-lawful- rebellion-immediate-25-yr-moratorium-on-gas-oil-development-5-dec-2014/
Federal programs and research facilities that have been shut down or had their funding reduced
Hundreds of federal programs and world renowned research facilities have been shut down or had their funding reduced by the federal government. This list was compiled by the Canadian Association of University Teachers and the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada. If you are a federal government scientist or researcher and your program, project, or research facility has been affected by the cuts we would like to hear from you, please comment below or send us an email at [email protected] http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/blog/federal-programs-and-research-facilities-that-have-been-shut-down-or-had- th
Media Release: Peoples Lawsuit Youth Claimants Call for Lawful Rebellion & Immediate 25 yr MORATORIUM ON GAS & OIL DEVELOPMENT 5 Dec 2014
The Youth claimants of the Peoples Lawsuit held a media conference in Cocagne, New Brunswick and unveiled their draft for a 25 year moratorium on fossil fuel operations, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for natural gas and oil. They want action on Climate Change, a healthy, sustainable economy and an end to fossil fuel subsidies and abuses of legal processes such as the injunctions, SLAPP lawsuits and military-style arrests against peaceful protesters in New Brunswick in 2013. They’re suing SWN Resources Canada and the New Brunswick and Canadian governments.
Letters with the draft moratorium text that were sent to the Wabanki, Canadian and New Brunswick governments were shared with those attending their media conference and with other young people all over the world via the internet and social media.
The youth have also asked elected Green Party politicians David Coon and Elizabeth May to present their moratorium to provincial and federal legislatures on behalf of Future Generations. http://willinolanspeaks.com/shares/media-release-peoples-lawsuit-youth-claimants-call-for-lawful- rebellion-immediate-25-yr-moratorium-on-gas-oil-development-5-dec-2014/
Shale gas exploration not worth the risk, Quebec environmental agency says
MONTREAL -- Quebec's environmental review board has concluded that exploiting the province's shale gas deposits is not worth the risk.
The agency's highly anticipated report -- released Monday -- stated there are too many potential negative consequences to the environment and to society from extracting natural gas from shale rock along the St. Lawrence River.
47 The report estimated that Quebec could receive between $71 million and $475 million a year, over 25 years, in royalties from shale gas extraction. However, the risks to air and water quality and potential increases in noise and light pollution are not worth the money, it said.
Moreover, the report noted that the risks associated with shale gas drilling are exacerbated due to the gas deposits being located in the densely populated area between Montreal and Quebec City. It is unclear how the government will respond to the report or if it will extend a moratorium on shale gas exploration that has been in place since 2011. http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/shale-gas-exploration-not-worth-the-risk-quebec-environmental- agency-says-1.2148763
Will Government put people ahead of politics?
For four years, NBASGA’s representatives from 22 community organizations have worked to educate the public about the peer-reviewed scientific evidence of the harmful effects of shale gas extraction. As a result of our efforts, 65% of voters in the September election, voted for parties that promised a moratorium on activities related to oil and gas exploration and development.
We recognize that the Government is under significant pressure from the oil and gas lobby, in both public and private, to reverse or weaken its decision, and its promise to the electorate. This is no less than a direct attempt by industry to subvert the will and voice of the people and therefore, is also a direct attempt to undermine our democratic process.
Others have commented on how unseemly it is that much of this rhetoric comes from those who have strong personal, business and financial ties to the oil and gas industry. And we note that these arguments focus on unproven economic and job benefits, but despite repeated efforts by this organization and our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Eilish Cleary, the proven health impacts that accompany oil and gas extraction are never mentioned.
We have met with several MLAs who admit that they do not have a thorough understanding of this issue. This has also been evidenced by comments in the media regarding fracking with propane versus water. While the use of propane gel reduces the volume of water required, it still injects a mix of toxic chemicals into the ground and potentially into water aquifers and still vents toxic gases including methane into atmosphere. All of which is harmful to public health and contributes to climate change.
Along with the disinformation that the industry is pushing through the media, the Liberal caucus needs to hear the compelling research coming from scientists and economists with no ties to the industry. Having monitored global research on the issue for the past four years, NBASGA has the ability and willingness to supply that research. The government needs to assess this information to understand why the residents of the province see a shale gas industry as harmful to human health and the environment. http://www.noshalegasnb.ca/will-government-put-people-politics/
'Social licence' clouds debates over fracking, pipelines
Vague term has been used in debates around abortion, hydraulic fracturing and the Energy East pipeline
48 The phrase “social licence” seems to have made a late push to become New Brunswick’s political catchphrase of 2014. The line has appeared twice in the last two weeks in reference to two different energy issues.
Premier Brian Gallant says gaining social licence will be one of the five conditions hydraulic fracturing will have to meet if his government is to lift its moratorium on the technique.
Steve Moran, the chief executive officer of Corridor Resources, says it’s a frustratingly vague concept that he doesn’t know how to achieve. "Even the premier when he was asked didn't really have an answer in terms of what that mean," Moran told CBC News.
At the news conference where Gallant announced the moratorium legislation, he told a reporter who asked for a definition that “the question is a good one.”
“What really is a social licence, and how do you define that? We recognize that it is hard to define,” he said. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/social-licence-clouds-debates-over-fracking-pipelines- 1.2881039
UP! Empowering communities from the bottom up
The September 2014 New Brunswick election was not just an election. It was a referendum on shale gas and unconventional hydraulic fracking.
The Conservative party tried to convince voters that the development of shale gas is New Brunswick's only hope to create jobs and stop the exodus of young workers out west. But, most voters did not buy into this narrow one-sided view. Citizens elected a Liberal majority government on the promise of an immediate moratorium on fracking and David Coon, leader of the Green Party, became the first elected Green MLA in Canadian history. http://rabble.ca/news/2014/12/empowering-communities-bottom
Groups say N.B. moratorium should only last 6 months
FREDERICTON – Groups representing hundreds of New Brunswick businesses and workers are speaking out about the province’s fracking moratorium.
Fredericton’s Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association say a prolonged moratorium will mean lost jobs and investments.
“Corridor Resources has had an extremely safe track record in the province,” he said. “I think that it is very true that Corridor has achieved a social license in the Sussex and Penobsquis area.”
Krista Ross of Fredericton’s Chamber of Commerce says the industry has economic potential in the province and as such, every attempt should be made to develop it. http://globalnews.ca/news/1740300/groups-say-n-b-moratorium-should-only-last-6-months/
49 Mikisew Cree Say Court Ruling On Environmental Law Consultation A Victory
EDMONTON - A judge says the federal government should have consulted with an Alberta First Nation before making significant changes to environmental laws.
The Mikisew Cree challenged the changes that affect water and fisheries laws that were part of two Conservative omnibus budget bills passed in 2012.
In his ruling last Friday, Federal Court Judge Roger Hughes says the Crown failed to consult with the Mikisew before each bill was introduced in Parliament.
He also says the Crown should have given the First Nation a reasonable opportunity to make submissions about the changes. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/12/24/mikisew-cree-bill-c-38_n_6378210.html
Naomi Klein: This Changes Everything live with Owen Jones - Full Length | Guardian Live
Naomi Klein, the award-winning journalist and author of global best-sellers The Shock Doctrine and No Logo discusses her most provocative book yet, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate.
Klein challenges the myths that cloud the climate debate, refutes the argument for dependence on fossil fuels and aims to show how our current economic model is waging and winning a war on earth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhJA7HCPHDA
It might be legal. It's not lawful.
Interview with senior policy developer on New Brunswick's 'Duty to Consult' or lack thereof
K'JIPUKTUK (HALIFAX) – Traci Braaten, a former long-time public servant with the Saskatchewan provincial government, was involved in developing that province's guidelines on the 'Duty to Consult' with First Nations Communities. Braaten has been following the shale gas story in New Brunswick for some time, particularly the ongoing fiasco that passes as provincial consultation.
We have learned that key players in the Assembly of First Nations Chiefs of New Brunswick – the organization with the lead role on First Nations' consultation – co-own private consulting firms with siblings of provincial government ministers. We have also learned that the Assembly has been funded by SWN Resources Canada, the very natural gas company it is supposed to be deciding upon neutrally. http://beforeitsnews.com/politics/2014/04/it-might-be-legal-its-not-lawful-2617794.html
7 New Brunswick political stories to watch in 2015
1. What will be the impact of the fracking moratorium? 2. Will the Gallant government try to change the forestry plan?
50 3. How high — or low — will the deficit go? 4. Will pipeline diplomacy bear fruit? 5. Will Mother Nature wreak havoc again, including with the bottom line? 6. Will the Green Party eclipse the NDP? 7. What will the federal campaign mean for New Brunswick? http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/7-new-brunswick-political-stories-to-watch-in-2015- 1.2883549
Fracking moratorium may not protect environment, writer says
An environmental writer calls New Brunswick's planned moratorium on shale gas fracking "ironic."
Andrew Revkin, an award-winning science reporter and creator of the New York Times blog, Dot Earth, says the Gallant government's plan to put fracking on hold may be too late and may not protect the province as planned.
That's because the main cause of pollution is still allowed, he said.
"In New Brunswick, the [well] drilling is still allowed, even though the hydraulic fracturing of the wells isn't. What's a little ironic is that in most of the instances in the States where there has been water contamination, it's from the drilling, not the fracking," Revkin said. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/fracking-moratorium-may-not-protect-environment- writer-says-1.2887270
51 New Brunswick News
Chief Medical Health Officer Says NB's Health System Is Unsustainable
New Brunswick's Chief Medical Health Officer calling for an overhaul of way government thinks about health care in this province, saying going down the same well-trodden path is unsustainable and won't make us healthier.
Cleary says if we want to be successful we have to put the well-being of the people first. She goes on to say a charge must immediately be given to the Department of Health to truly become a Department of Health and not only a Department of Sick Care. http://country94.ca/news/1333740448/chief-medical-health-officer-says-nbs-health-system- unsustainable
Women get suspended sentence over shale gas protests in New Brunswick
MONCTON, N.B. – Two women have been handed suspended sentences and placed on probation after pleading guilty to intimidation related to an incident involving media covering shale gas protests in New Brunswick last year.
Thirty-seven-year-old Abby Ward and 35-year-old Angel Mae Wilcox of the Elsipogtog First Nation were sentenced in Moncton provincial court after they each pleaded guilty to intimidation earlier this year.
They were charged following an incident on Oct. 19, 2013, in Rexton, N.B., where journalists from three television networks were prevented from taking video footage of several RCMP vehicles destroyed by fire during a shale gas protest. http://metronews.ca/news/canada/1228784/women-get-suspended-sentence-over-gas-protest/
Above Their Law - by Maxime Daigle (Eonamogsit Pagtesm)
After six week deliberation, all shale gas charges dropped against Maxime Daigle. The question is how.
I was "ordered" to appear in court in January, 2014. I was representing myself. I did not receive a disclosure. I had been studying with Wapo Piesew at that time for over a year. What I came to know, from my legal and spiritual studies, was that it was my choice to give my allegiance to either the Crown and Christianity OR to my Tribal Indian ancestors. As I was acknowleged by a Tribal Scholar, a Signatory Tribe, and my Ancestors in ceremonies, I had to make my choice.
I do have to say it wasn't an easy task to de-program and learn and live what I needed to do. But I had given my word to Creator, Great Spirit, that I would give my all to find a solution to Our problem as Tribal Indian descendants. Legally and Spiritually I was no more Maxime Daigle, I was Eonamoksit Pagtsem. A Signatory Indian, not a First Nation, a Metis, a Native, but again a Legal Indian not subject to their Laws anymore.
Being an Indian, the only one who could legally represent me in a Crown court was my tribal legal advisor...Wapo Piesew, qualified by a Signatory Indian, the grandson of the Head Clanmother who appointed Sitting Bull to speak on behalf of her and the Dakota Tribe, which is today a Legal, Signatory
52 Tribe. As the Migmaq and Penobscot are no longer legal Tribes in fault of Assimilation, this sister Tribe took me under their legal and spiritual protection as a Signatory Indian.
No lawyer can represent an Indian legally, because a lawyer's allegiance is to the Crown and Crown law.
Next, we reconvened in October of 2014. During the proceedings the judge tried to address me by my Christian name. I would not respond. I was allowed to represent myself and ask questions of the Crown's witnesses against me.
One witness was Staff Sergeant Bernard. In particular, I asked Bernard if he saw any American Indians on that day in November, 2013, when I was arrested.
He said he saw some "First Nations" people at the site.
I asked again: "You said you saw First Nations Peoples, but did you see any American Indians? Remember, American Indians are recognized by International Law, not incorporated law."
The judge yelled out for Bernard not to answer. One of the Crown prosecutors jumped up and started mumbling, trying to plea to the judge that I should not be allowed to ask these questions of Bernard.
By the end, the judge took six weeks for "his decision". Why? The matter before him appeared simple enough.
I say it was because he had to find a way, without breaking the laws that he lives under, to be in a gray area of International Law, and without saying what was the real reason why "he didn't find me guilty." For a second, Imagine the implication of that judge saying plainly that there is a Law that supercedes the Crown's. He couldn't possibly voice this, as he would subject to Treason according to the Laws he has sworn allegiance to. http://halifax.mediacoop.ca/story/above-their-law/32500
Petitcodiac group draws attention to sewage going into river
Wastewater system in Moncton area gets overloaded with 25 mm or more of rain Video of raw sewage being discharged into the Peticodiac River has stirred things up in Moncton.
The Petitcodiac Watershed Alliance posted the video on social media on Wednesday of sewage entering the river through two of the city's discharge points.
Christine McLaughlan, the executive director of the environmental organization, says the video reached about 15,000 people online.
"I think it was a big shock for a lot of people," said McLaughlan.
"The wastewater treatment facility or TransAqua gets overloaded with water and they can't handle all that water, so what they have to do is discharge everything or it would damage their plant. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/petitcodiac-group-draws-attention-to-sewage-going- into-river-1.2873214
53 Irving Oil Ltd., Saint John agree to new water deal
Saint John and Irving Oil Ltd. have agreed to a new water deal, 14 years after the previous agreement expired.
The water agreement was a surprise addition to Monday night’s city council agenda.
Irving Oil and the city had been at loggerheads for 14 years over a new deal to supply the refinery with water. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/irving-oil-ltd-saint-john-agree-to-new-water-deal- 1.2882353
54 Maritime News
A project from hell - Alton Gas not welcome, local residents tell MLAs
(K'JIPUKTUK) HALIFAX – Speaker after speaker at a town hall meeting held at the South Colchester Academy in Brookfield this Sunday told Alton Gas to please just go away.
“When you live next to a project from hell, then you find yourself living in hell,” local resident Deborah Munro told about 120 attendants.
Earlier this year Alton Gas started construction on three planned underground caverns to store liquid natural gas. Each cavern is about the size of a 30-storey office building. Ultimately there may be as many as sixteen caverns. http://halifax.mediacoop.ca/story/project-hell/32382
NL fracking panel and the messiah complex
Reading the recent interview in The Independent with NL fracking review panelist Maurice Dusseault, I was left with an impression of a man who believes he is on the side of the good.
Here is a quote from Dusseault: I believe that people in China deserve clean air and a reasonable electrical supply … Generation of power from natural gas is the quickest way to achieve a huge environmental benefit in China.
So, shouldn’t socially conscious people be promoting hydraulic fracturing (which is far far less impactive than coal use) and natural gas development to achieve this?
If you would like an object-lesson in sophistry, read the whole interview. The gist of it, and what is underlined in the above quotation, is that Dusseault is saying NL should embrace fracking because it is morally and ethically correct, because, you know, China.
In light of Dusseault’s self-righteousness, and by extension my diminishing faith in this “independent” review panel, I’ve got a suggestion, in two parts, a radical idea about how to solve the issue of fracking in NL: 1. Scrap the review panel 2. In the upcoming provincial election, which will happen before the review panel is due to make its recommendation, put the question on the ballot and let the people decide http://theindependent.ca/2014/12/04/nl-fracking-panel-and-the-messiah-complex/
Institutional discrimination at its best: The ‘old boys club’ reviews fracking NFLD
The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador appointed five upper-middle class, university educated white men to decide whether hydraulic-fracturing (“fracking”) should happen here in the province. Though the final decision is up to the Minister of Natural Resources, this homogenous group of men will have a major influence on whether fracking will happen in the province. The mandate of the review panel, as chairperson Ray Gosine adamantly points out, is to advise on “the socio-economic and environmental implications of the hydraulic fracturing process.”
55 In appointing an all-‘expert’ panel, the government seems to interpret the mandate as a technical problem. But questions about society, the economy, and the environment encompass a range of ethical dilemmas and considerations. Yet the men who hold the power in the fracking review process ardently discount anything other than purely ‘scientific’ data.
The process of oil and gas extraction (“how should we frack?”) must be designed by experts in engineering, geology, and similar fields. But deciding whether we want fracking at all is a political question. Political questions are about people’s lives, experiences, feelings, health, kinships, and how we organize and manage our societies knowing that it is our children who will inherit the societies we create. Political questions are about what we do, knowing that things like oil development impact different people in different ways. http://theindependent.ca/2014/12/06/should-we-frack-emotions-need-not-apply/
Colchester county approves plan to dispose of fracking waste water through debert sewer system
Approval has been granted by the County of Colchester for Atlantic Industrial Services to dispose of millions of litres of treated fracking water into the municipal sewer system.
Under the approval the public has been given until Dec. 29 to submit an appeal.
For the past several years Atlantic Industrial Services has been storing millions of litres of flowback water from hydraulic fracking operations in Kennetcook. http://www.bigdog1009.ca/news/story.aspx?ID=2171115
Windsor council requests more info on fracking wastewater disposal
WINDSOR — Windsor’s town council is asking staff to research the latest information regarding the safe disposal of fracking wastewater.
The topic was discussed at a committee of the whole meeting Dec. 9. Coun. Laurie Murley said she recently read a letter in the provincial newspaper that suggested Windsor would be the ideal place to process the fracking wastewater from holding ponds in Kennetcook. http://www.kingscountynews.ca/News/Local/2014-12-11/article-3972896/Windsor-council-requests- more-info-on-fracking-wastewater-disposal/1
Fracking waste company tries again to dump it in Colchester
Colchester County approved last week an Atlantic Industrial Services (AIS) application to discharge treated fracking waste water from Kennetcook to the Debert sewage treatment plant on a Bay of Fundy estuary.
If this gives readers a sense of deja vu, it is probably because this is exactly the same approval process that was launched early last year, ultimately ending with rejection by the County in May 2013. http://halifax.mediacoop.ca/story/fracking-waste-company-tries-again-dump-it-colches/32506
56 LETTER: Now is not the time for fracking
Fracking is the wrong development because the provincial government has not yet shown that it can safely regulate onshore conventional oil drilling, let alone fracking, which would be 10 times harder.
The messes and regulatory problems at two sites on the Port au Port Peninsula are very well known. To go ahead with permitting fracking without the capacity to properly regulate it would be reckless in the extreme.
This is the wrong time to lift the fracking moratorium, because, even if there were to be oil to be pumped (which is still in serious question), it would be very unwise to allow development at a time when world oil prices are sliding. In fact to do so would amount to another giveaway by the provincial government. http://www.thewesternstar.com/Opinion/Letter-to-the-Editor/2014-12-16/article-3977211/LETTER%3A- Now-is-not-the-time-for-fracking/1
Indian Brook opposes plan to dispose fracking waste in sewer system
A First Nations community is appealing a Nova Scotia municipality’s decision to approve the disposal of millions of litres of fracking wastewater in its sewer system.
Indian Brook band chief Rufus Copage says an appeal letter was sent to the chief administrative officer for the Municipality of Colchester County on Dec. 19.
Copage says his community strongly opposes transporting and disposing of fracking wastewater in the Debert sewer system and it wants county council to reverse its approval granted earlier this month.
Under the municipality’s approval process members of the public have until Dec. 29 to submit an appeal. http://westcoastnativenews.com/indian-brook-opposes-plan-to-dispose-fracking-waste-in-sewer- system/
Colchester documentation related to the Approval to Discharge Treated Hydraulic Fracturing Wastewater
• Reverse Osmosis Pilot Project Approval NSE June 2013 • Maxxam Sample Report September 2013 • Maxxam Sample Report December 2013 • Table of Sample Results • Letter from AIS January 2014 • Schedule A Wastewater Survey Report Form • Pilot Project Approval NSE January 2014 • Maxxam Sample Report December 16 2013 • SRC Analytical Sample Results December 2013 • AquaTox Testing Sample Results April 2014 • Maxxam Sample Report April 2014
57 • Deadline Extension - Appeals • Approval to Discharge MCC December 2014 • SUAC Decision 2013 • Sewer Use Bylaw http://www.colchester.ca/documentation
BP oil spill dispersants concern Nova Scotia environmentalist
A Shelburne County environmentalist is raising concerns about a toxic chemical that could be used off Nova Scotia in the future.
When the Deepwater Horizon oil platform erupted in flames in 2010, it spewed oil into the Gulf of Mexico, but some research says the cleanup was worse because about 6.8 million litres of the chemical Corexit 9500A was used to disperse the oil.
The dispersant used by oil company BP, when mixed with crude oil, was found to be 52 times more toxic than oil alone to some microscopic plankton-like organisms called rotifers. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/bp-oil-spill-dispersants-concern-nova-scotia- environmentalist-1.2885233
5 million litres of fracking waste water to be moved to Brookfield plant
The province has given the green light for another five million litres of hydraulic fracturing waste water to be moved from Debert for use as coolant in the Lafarge cement plant in Brookfield.
A pilot project was approved last April for Atlantic Industrial Services to move two million litres of waste water from a Debert holding ponds to the plant. The water was first treated for radioactive materials and put through a reverse-osmosis process before being trucked to Lafarge. The treated waste water, which met national guidelines to be released into fresh water, was used in the plant’s kiln and evaporated at 700 degrees. http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1247192-5-million-litres-of-fracking-waste-water-to-be-moved- to-brookfield-plant#.VKMBv04_WbU.facebook
Provincial study deems Debert fracking water safe for disposal
TRURO – A study of treated hydraulic fracturing wastewater in Debert states it is safe for disposal.
A provincial study into the wastewater at Atlantic Industrial Services was released at a public meeting in Truro Jan.30. Approximaely 80 people gathered to hear the results, which stated the wastewater meets Health Canada and the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment guidelines to be released into water.
58 “The tests … show that the wastewater poses a minimal risk to the health of Nova Scotians and our environment,” said Environment Minister Randy Delorey, adding the tested material was flowback wastewater from 2007 and 2008. http://www.novanewsnow.com/News/Regional/2014-01-31/article-3598034/Provincial-study-deems- Debert-fracking-water-safe-for-disposal/1
59 Canadian News
Explosion rocks town north of Regina; one house levelled, a dozen others damaged
REGINA BEACH, Sask. - The owner of a Saskatchewan home that was levelled in an explosion says a hand-sewn quilt was among the sentimental items engulfed in flames. "It took 15 years," said Cathy Oldershaw, whose Regina Beach cottage was at the epicentre of a massive blast on Wednesday. "I just finished a couple of months ago."
She added that her family is relieved no one was injured. Oldershaw, 62, and her husband have their permanent residence in Regina, about 50 kilometres to the south. She said the couple had planned to be at the cottage in Regina Beach on Wednesday, but she had to work.
"We could have been here," she said. RCMP spokeswoman Mandy Maier said up to 12 other homes within 800 metres of the blast were damaged in the small resort community north of Regina. https://ca.news.yahoo.com/apparent-house-explosion-rocks-town-north-regina-no-214459608.html
Second leak found after natural gas explosion rocks Regina Beach http://globalnews.ca/news/1708376/second-leak-found-after-natural-gas-explosion-rocks-regina-beach/
Native band takes down barriers at Ipperwash - Sunday, December 7, 2014
IPPERWASH BEACH, ONT.—Tensions between homeowners and the native community here are rising this weekend after the Kettle and Stony Point band sent in trucks and workers to remove barriers that have kept vehicles from driving on the Lake Huron beach for more than 40 years.
Under the watchful eyes of the OPP and local property owners, band workers pulled down the wood and metal barricades with locked gates at lake’s edge at the end of three rural roads Friday, allowing vehicles to drive the three kilometres of beach linking Kettle Point and the land at the former Canadian army camp claimed by the band.
One of the access roads affected is only metres from where native protester Dudley George was shot and killed by the OPP in 1995 during a protest over the camp’s ownership. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/12/06/native_band_takes_down_barriers_at_ipperwash.htm l Video http://london.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=508013&binId=1.1137796&playlistPageNum=1
Crews rush to contain spill after CP derailment in Banff park sends train cars into creek
Crews were scrambling on Friday to clean up the scene of the latest train derailment that spilled ash and grain into a Banff creek and caused the water to become cloudy just upstream from the Bow River.
60 The derailment on Canadian Pacific’s main line through Banff National Park has reignited concerns about railway safety and the speeds at which trains travel through sensitive habitats.
The spilled ash and grain each pose their own potential problems for wildlife, one that could lower acidity levels for aquatic life, another that could attract bears to unsafe territory. http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/transportation-safety-board-investigates-train-derailment- near-banff
CN Railway Derailments, Other Accidents & Incidents
Railroaded has prepared a research paper, CN Railway Derailments, Other Accidents and Incidents, which can be found at this link. The paper will be updated on a regular basis (last updated December 23, 2014).
CN Railway and other railway companies are gearing up to haul more crude oil across North America. This will add significantly to not only increased traffic of rail tank cars, but also to increased numbers of rail tank car storage, crude oil loading and transloading facilities.
As well, a growing volume of other dangerous goods is being transported by CN and others through cities and towns; and along rivers, streams, lakes and other wetlands. Canadians and Americans are becoming increasingly concerned about the escalation in the transport of dangerous goods by rail, especially as they hear about all the derailments, spills of dangerous goods, railway-caused fires, and other rail accidents. The Railway Association of Canada (RAC) indicates that 12% of all rail traffic in Canada carries dangerous goods, which heightens the fear of the hundreds of thousands of residents and businesses located near rail lines and rail yards, and raises serious concerns about the many negative environmental impacts of railway spills, fires and other accidents. http://railroaded.wordpress.com/cn-aug-18-2010-derailment-photos/
61 Other News
Oxnard shuts out Santa Clara Waste Water from sewer system
“Given the recent explosion and uncontrolled release of unknown hazardous materials ... and the recurring permit violations,” reads the letter from City Manager Greg Nyhoff, “the city must take this action ... to protect the integrity” of the system and the community’s welfare.
About 50 people were treated at local hospitals after a vacuum truck exploded about 3:45 a.m. Nov. 18 at Santa Clara Waste Water Co., leaking chemicals and starting fires at 815 Mission Rock Road west of Santa Paula. http://www.vcstar.com/news/local-news/oxnard/oxnard-shuts-out-santa-clara-waste-water-from-sewer- system_94457633
Conservation groups say Duke Energy plant leaks coal ash into N.C. river hree environmental groups said Thursday that they have discovered toxic coal ash leaks from a retired Duke Energy coal plant in North Carolina, allegedly polluting the Yadkin River nine months after a massive coal ash spill from a Duke plant fouled the nearby Dan River in February..
The groups, which posted photos of the reported leaks, said the alleged discharges have not been disclosed by Duke Energy or by state enviromental regulators. The leaks stretch for at least a quarter of a mile along the Yadkin River in central North Carolina, coating the river’s banks with orange sludge, the groups said. http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nc-coal-ash20141204-story.html
MarkWest operates Donegal compessor station without permit
MarkWest faced no resistance from Donegal Township when the company said it wanted to build a natural gas compressor station atop a high hill along Old National Pike. That is, until the football field- sized building was constructed without a building permit.
The complex, which can be seen from Interstate 70 about a mile east of the West Alexander exit, is already up and running. MarkWest is using generators to run the facility because its hands are tied, according to North Strabane Township building inspector Don Hindman, who is contracted to work for Donegal.
“They are operating with generators because I will not give them approval to get electricity,” Hindman said Thursday after visiting the site.
In October, Hindman denied MarkWest’s building permit application for one of the buildings the company intended to – and ultimately did – construct. http://www.observer-reporter.com/article/20141204/NEWS01/141209763#.VILcmMJ0xjp
62 FBI Files Charges Against President Of Company Behind West Virginia Chemical Spill
The former president of the company that contaminated drinking water for 300,000 West Virginians this past January has been arrested on criminal fraud charges, according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation complaint unsealed Monday.
Former Freedom Industries president Gary Southern was charged with bankruptcy fraud, wire fraud, and lying under oath during the company’s bankruptcy proceedings following the massive spill — a 10,000 gallon dump of a coal-cleaning chemical called crude MCHM into the Elk River. FBI Special Agent James F. Lafferty said in a sworn affidavit that Southern, in an attempt to protect his personal fortune of nearly $8 million and shield himself from lawsuits, developed a scheme to distance himself from the company and “deflect blame” to other parties. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/12/09/3601157/gary-southern-arrested-west-virginia-freedom- industries/
Surreal Aerial Photos Show Impact From Fracking
Sometimes it takes a bird’s eye view to get a sense of the full scope of what’s being done to our land in pursuit of profit.
Wasson oil field, Detroit City, Texas. Photo credit: Mishka Henner http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/15/mishka-henner-fracking-photos/? utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=bfb4b87a57- Top_News_12_15_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-bfb4b87a57-85899661
63 Here's Where You'll Find All Of America's Shale Energy
Indeed, the American shale boom has been a source of excitement as it has been a source of new jobs, economic growth, and energy independence.
But with oil and gas prices crashing, many of these shale plays have become uneconomical, stoking fears of fiscal and economic problems in energy-driven states like Texas, North Dakota and Alaska.
For reference, here's where the major shale plays are across the continental US.
http://www.businessinsider.com/map-us-oil-and-shale-gas-plays-2014-12
Letter: Banning fracking a moral imperative
Following the advice of his commissioners of health and the environment, Gov. Andrew Cuomo banned fracking in New York. He heeded his health commissioner's report cataloging the devastating health and environmental effects of fracking. Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said, “I wouldn't want my children living next to a fracking site.” The people already knew of those consequences when they joined the People's Climate march, which marshaled more than 325,000 people to speak the truth
64 about the climate crises, and fracking. It was indeed the voice of the citizens that tipped the scale. Now, the avalanche of research confirming the obvious health consequences of fracking propel the moral imperative of banning fracking. As is always the case in shifts of this nature, the people knew early on — the contamination of dirty money had to be brushed aside so the politicians could see more clearly. http://www.poconorecord.com/article/20141227/OPINION/141229626/101041/OPINION
Air Monitoring Ongoing At Airport Fracking Site
This past year, the Allegheny County Health Department began monitoring air quality at Pittsburgh International Airport to gauge the potential health risks of fracking.
Jim Thompson, the deputy director of environmental health for the department said they’re monitoring at the Imperial Point Development, which is approximately 2,500 feet from well pad #2 at the airport.
Since air monitoring began, some organic compounds have begun appearing.
“We’re finding concentrations, in very low concentrations in very low parts per billion. And in general, health effects due to these compounds at low concentrations are something that would show up in over a long period of time,” he said.
Drilling began at the airport in July and health officials are continuing to monitor the area. http://wesa.fm/post/air-monitoring-ongoing-airport-fracking-site
65 Water
Watershed Victory: Yukon First Nations score big win in Peel case
Two Yukon First Nations have won yet another landmark indigenous legal victory – this time against the local territorial government, over the vast Peel Watershed.
The case was brought by famed Canadian legal figure Thomas Berger on behalf of Na-Cho Nyak Dun and Tr’ondëk Hwëchin nations – both of whom share traditional territory in the largely pristine northern Yukon watershed. The plaintiffs also included several conservation groups and individuals.
The battle stems from a land use planning process for the Peel that spanned half a decade of research before devolving into years of political meddling. With various mining and resource players beginning to show interest in the largely untouched watershed, the Peel Commission was struck in the early 2000’s to gather information on the region and weigh out development and conservations objectives. http://commonsensecanadian.ca/yukon-first-nations-score-big-court-win-peel-watershed-case/
Executives and Employees of Company That Poisoned W.Va. Drinking Water Indicted
Four executives and two other employees of the company associated with the chemical spill that poisoned drinking water for 300,000 people for weeks in West Virginia last January, including 4,000 Natives.
The leak occurred on January 9, 2014, when 5,000 gallons of a clear, colorless liquid—a foaming agent used in the coal industry that smells like cherry cough syrup or licorice—leaked into the Elk River outside Charleston. Among the 300,000 people affected were members of the Appalachian American Indians of West Virginia, plus 2,000 more from the 6,000-member Native American Indian Federation Inc. of Huntington, West Virginia.
The water outage lasted for weeks and sent at least 300 people to the hospital. http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/12/20/executives-and-employees-company- poisoned-wva-drinking-water-indicted-158389
Alarm bells toll for human civilization as world's 12th largest mega-city to run out of water in just 60 days
(NaturalNews) The city of Sao Paulo is home to 20 million Brazilians, making it the 12th largest mega- city on a planet dominated by shortsighted humans. Shockingly, it has only 60 days of water supply remaining. The city "has about two months of guaranteed water supply remaining as it taps into the second of three emergency reserves," reports Reuters. [1]
But this isn't a story about Sao Paulo; it's a report that dares to point out that human societies are incredibly shortsighted and nearly incapable of sustainably populating planet Earth. In numerous regions around the world -- including California, India, Oklahoma, Brazil, China and many more -- human populations are rapidly out-growing the capacity of their local water systems. Even though keeping populations alive requires food... and growing food requires water... almost no nation or
66 government in the world seems to be able to limit water consumption of local populations to levels which are sustainable in the long term. http://www.naturalnews.com/047865_mega-cities_water_supply_human_civilization.html
67 Oil and Pipelines
For Alberta's premier, the Energy East pipeline will be a tough sell in the east
Like a Lincoln Town Car salesman who has just noticed that people are hanging out at the Tesla showroom, he is coming to get the eastern premiers to focus on the plush velour and 8-track deck and ignore the 450 cubic inch gas guzzling engine.
The fact is he’s too late. Public demand and personal motivations have led the eastern premiers to wisely set out conditions to their agreement to support Energy East. These cannot be met, and presumably, they know it.
The premiers’ first and most important condition is that they want Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions reduced, not increased. This is not possible while expanding the tarsands. http://montrealgazette.com/news/national/opinion-for-albertas-premier-the-energy-east-pipeline-will-be- a-tough-sell-in-the-east-as-well-it-should-be
Canada’s failure to enforce its environmental laws around the release of toxic chemicals from the tar sands
Ottawa, ON – We are pleased that the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) today confirmed that there is enough evidence to investigate the federal government’s failure to enforce Canada’s Fisheries Act, with respect to continuous leaking from tar sands tailings lakes.
There is clear and overwhelming evidence of the contamination of Alberta’s rivers and watersheds from the tar sands, and the Canadian government’s failure to address this toxic load. It is an ongoing tragedy that the federal government will not let anything get in the way of accelerated tar sands development, including the health of citizens downstream from the tar sands and the surrounding environment.
Canadians have the right to know the full story when it comes to the government’s management of leaking toxic tailings waste, and the CEC investigation will help to shed more light on this critical issue. http://environmentaldefence.ca/articles/statement-environmental-defence%E2%80%99s-dale-marshall- cec%E2%80%99s-decision-investigate-canada%E2%80%99s-failure
Energy East: TransCanada standing down on further work in Quebec
QUEBEC - TransCanada Corp. will halt all work on an oil terminal in eastern Quebec in response to concerns the project could hurt a beluga habitat.
The company said Monday it is "standing down" on all work in Cacouna after a report by a federal government wildlife committee concluded that the whales are endangered. http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/news/national_news/article_a42fc842-d508-52fd-8d32- 9fd8432c1993.html http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/09/26/stephen_harpers_energy_agenda_facing_new_roadb locks_hbert.html
68 178 barrels of oil spill into Colorado’s only designated wild and scenic river
A 7,500-gallon storage tank of crude oil has completely drained into the scenic Cache La Poudre, Colorado's only designated National Wild and Scenic River, southeast of Fort Collins.
Vegetation was covered by an oil slick a quarter-mile downstream, but authorities claim “no drinking water intakes have been affected.”
Spring floods caved in the riverbank with a sat storage tank containing 178 barrels (roughly 7,500 gallons or over 28 tons) of crude oil. http://rt.com/usa/167460-colorado-river-oil-spill/
Toronto Blockade In Solidarity with Burnaby Protestors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxOddtD2eps&feature=youtu.be&a
Crude Connections: Where Do Trains Carry Crude Oil?
The amount of crude oil being carried on America’s railroads has grown enormously thanks to the recent shale boom in North Dakota.
Though rail transport of flammable material is generally safe, towns and cities across America are often unaware that crude oil is being transported across their borders, and ill-equipped to handle a potential crude oil fire.
Though the routes taken by crude-bearing trains is hidden from the public, safety-incident data collected by the train companies and reported to the U.S. government reveals some of the routes.
Map and list of incidents. http://projects.propublica.org/graphics/oil-trains
Tar Sands Oil Extraction - The Dirty Truth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkwoRivP17A youtube search for Tar Sands Oil Extraction - The Dirty Truth https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Tar+Sands+Oil+Extraction+-+The+Dirty+Truth
Energy East Pipeline Rally
This 75 minute video consists of the 4 speakers at a Council of Canadians rally held in Fredericton NB on Nov 5 2014 to protest TransCanada Pipelines proposed "Energy East" pipeline through New
69 Brunswick. As well as Maude Barlow, the chairperson of the Council of Canadians the speakers were Angela Giles, Council of Canadians Halifax-based Atlantic regional organizer, Ben Gotschall, a
Nebraska-based farmer and opponent of TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline, and Matthew Abbott, the St. Andrews-based Fundy Baykeeper with the Conservation Council of New Brunswick. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0zGdkQ_zR4&sns=fb
The original "Route Safety" video Enbridge doesn't want you to see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTP7ua72vns
Screen shot from above
70 Original Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline route animation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiVfYb8lt5o
Google Earth Kitimat to Pacific
Stop the Energy East Pipeline
Winnipeg, December 2, 2014: Dennis Leneveu is a retired scientist who worked for many years in the field of nuclear fuel waste management and radiation and industrial safety. In this presentation he discusses the many reasons Canadians show oppose the proposed TransCanada Pipeline Energy East Project, a proposal that he says risks the health and safety of the environment and the many people who live along its route. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1qV_n0Y7PM
Wax on, oil off
Canadian inventor Willy Nelson talks to the CBC's Mark Kelley about his elegant solution of using candle wax to clean up oil spills https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EgcVtoOmv0
71 Oil Spill Removal Demo using Wax https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOhyU4peF1g
Lawsuit Filed Calling for Ban on Fracked Oil Bomb Trains
Earthjustice has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Sierra Club and ForestEthics, challenging the Department of Transportation’s rejection of their July request for an immediate ban of DOT-111 rail tanker cars carrying volatile crude oil from the Bakken shale formation.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) called in 2012 for an immediate ban for these tankers, which are prone to puncture in the case of accidents, crashes and rollovers, causing explosions and fires. Two-thirds of the rail cars carrying crude oil through the U.S. are DOT-111s. The industry has insisted that discontinuing their use or phasing them out rapidly would be too costly, asking for four years to phase out the older cars and up to six years for the newer ones. This lawsuit challenges the Department of Transportation’s assertion that they have responded sufficiently to the dangers posed by the cars. http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/03/lawsuit-fracked-oil-bomb-trains/? utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=45fcb81137- Top_News_12_3_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-45fcb81137-85368257
Quebec lowers environmental requirement for Energy East project
In a letter to TransCanada on Nov. 18, Heurtel didn’t specify the scope of the environmental assessment. However, Couillard made it clear during a visit from Alberta Premier Jim Prentice that the study would only include the relatively small amount of emissions related to work on the pipeline in Quebec. Taking into account overall emissions created by the project, “would add nothing to the debate,” Couillard said.
After meeting with Prentice in Toronto on Dec. 3, Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne told journalists her government would only look at local emissions as part of its decision on whether to go ahead with the project. A few weeks earlier, Ontario had backed Quebec’s original environmental requirements to approve the Energy East project. http://montrealgazette.com/news/quebec/quebec-lowers-environmental-requirement-for-energy-east- project
Harper guts more fish protections: NEB takes over habitat along pipelines
It’s the latest in a long line of efforts by the Harper Government to dismantle Canada’s environmental laws in order to facilitate energy development. In a memorandum of understanding between the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the National Energy Board – quietly released just before Christmas – DFO relinquished much of its oversight of fish habitat in pipeline corridors.
The decision means that Enbridge and Kinder Morgan – which formally filed its own pipeline application on December 16, the same day the NEB memo was made public – will no longer need to obtain permits from DFO to alter habitat for their projects. “Fish and fish habitat along those pipelines is now
72 the responsibility of the Alberta-based, energy friendly National Energy Board,” notes Robin Rowland of Northwest Energy News, who broke the story yesterday. http://commonsensecanadian.ca/harper-guts-fish-protections-neb-takes-habitat-along-pipelines/
PHOTOS: Israel Hit With Massive 600,000 Gallon Oil Spill
A nature reserve has been flooded with oil and more than 80 people have been hospitalized from exposure to toxic fumes after approximately 600,000 gallons of crude oil spilled from a pipeline in southern Israel on Wednesday, according to media reports there.
The massive spill, which resulted from a breach in the 153-mile Trans-Israel pipeline, has been described as “one of the gravest pollution events in the country’s history.” That’s according to Israel Environmental Protection Ministry official Guy Samet, who also said the spill could take months, maybe years, to fully clean up.
Some Israeli media outlets have already reported adverse effects to human health. According to at least one media report, more than 80 people in the neighboring city of Aqaba, Jordan, had been hospitalized for breathing difficulties due to hydrogen sulfide in the air. Three Israelis were also reportedly hospitalized for inhaling toxic fumes. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/12/04/3599861/israel-oil-spill/
Ninety percent of future oil sands projects at risk from eroding oil price
Investors in Canadian oil sands are at a heightened risk of wasting $271 billion of funding on projects in the next decade that need high oil prices of more than $95 a barrel to be profitable, the Carbon Tracker Initiative (CTI) revealed today, flagging faltering oil prices. http://www.carbontracker.org/report/oilsands/
Canada – Corporate Drug Dealer (Bitumen)
The Canadian Government, the National Energy Board, and Pipeline Corporations have formed a new partnership in distributing their new drug, Bitumen. Bitumen is the tar sands oil they have gorged from the earth in Alberta, thus creating a devastation too the lands for generations to come. This bitumen is so thick it takes an array, actually 100’s, of toxic chemicals to break it down. Chemicals needed to break it down enough to flow through a pipeline.
Then they want to distribute their co-dependency drug off the East, West and South coastlines of North America. The dependency to their drug will create environmental catastrophes in the ecosystems here and abroad.
But that is not the concern of the National Energy Board who will be rubber stamping their application to continue forward with their Energy East Pipeline. http://www.thecanadian.today/canada-corporate-drug-dealer/
73 Shale gas pipeline to the Northeast gets fed nod
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Federal energy regulators have approved a $700 million pipeline project designed to ferry cheap Marcellus Shale natural gas from Pennsylvania into high-priced markets in New England and New York. http://www.wfmj.com/story/27541722/shale-gas-pipeline-to-the-northeast-gets-fed-nod
Leaked Playbook Shows How Big Oil Fights Clean Energy
A leaked Powerpoint deck now circulating among climate activists--a copy of which was sent to Bloomberg Businessweek -- details a plan by the oil lobby to derail California's clean-energy legislation.
Created by the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) -- a powerful lobbying group for the oil and gas industries -- it comes from a November 11 presentation to the Washington Research Council.
The presentation details plans to raise opposition to environmental measures in California, as well as Oregon and Washington states.
The slides reveal what is reportedly an "Astroturf campaign": the creation and funding of groups that appear to represent grassroots opposition to the policies, while supporting the oil industry's point of view. The plan targets clean-energy policies both enacted and under development in California. Those include AB 32 -- a major piece of clean-energy legislation -- and low-carbon fuel standards in all three states. http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/27333-leaked-playbook-shows-how-big-oil- fights-clean-energy
Pipeline exporting crude isn’t good for Canada, job creation
According to the Alberta Federation of Labour, only 228 permanent jobs will be created from a pipeline opposed by 130 First Nations, most BC municipalities, and half of British Columbians.
Beyond a paltry 36 months of short-term pipeline construction jobs, the Northern Gateway pipeline (and pending Kinder Morgan and Keystone XL projects) will ship unrefined bitumen to foreign markets, robbing Canadians of thousands of stable, long-term upgrading, refining and petro-chemical jobs.
An Exxon Valdez-type tanker spill would cost the fishing and tourism industry on the North Coast billions, wiping out the already meager benefit to the province of British Columbia. http://www.unifor.org/en/blog/pipeline-exporting-crude-isnt-good-canada-job-creation
Enbridge Line 9: W5 uncovers unreported spills, alarming communities along 830-km pipe
An aging Enbridge pipeline that runs across Ontario has had at least 35 spills — far more than reported to federal regulators — but many municipalities along its route have never been informed of the incidents, a CTV W5 investigation reveals.
74 The National Energy Board, which regulates pipelines in Canada, has records of seven spills, while Enbridge told the investigative program there had been 13.
But W5’s analysis of information from the energy board, the company and Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment showed 35 spills associated with the 830-kilometre Line 9. (The Quebec government refused to provide W5 with any information).
The company is seeking federal approval to increase and reverse flow on the 38-year-old pipeline and use it to transport, in part, diluted bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands.
“It’s quite alarming,” said Brian McHattie, a city councillor in Hamilton, where seven leaks over the years have released nearly 3,000 litres of crude oil at company facilities northwest of the city. “This is new information for me.” http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontopipeline/2014/02/22/enbridge_line_9_w5_uncovers_unreported _spills_alarming_communities_along_830km_pipe.html
Canada rail safety jobs vacant as budget cuts bite
Budget cuts have left safety-related engineering positions vacant in the Canadian agency responsible for overseeing shipments of dangerous goods, government records show, fueling worries about trains moving oil across the country.
Rail safety is in focus with the boom in oil shipments and a spate of derailments across North America, and the vacancies create a safety risk, industry experts and Canada’s public engineers’ union say. http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKBN0JM1HM20141208?sp=true
Waterloo woman finds NEB e-mail lauding public’s inability to question pipelines
A Waterloo "citizen investigator" finds NEB memo boasting about Harper government changes at pipeline hearings designed to speed project approvals.
Louisette Lanteigne uncovered the e-mail via an Access to Information request. In the report attached to the memo, the NEB’s Hearing Manager for Oil Pipeline Applications told colleagues about the “successes” of a recently concluded Line 9A pipeline hearing in the summer of 2012.
75 The manager states that the public’s inability to cross-examine witnesses at the hearing was one of several achievements.
“Having only final oral argument and no cross examination worked well in this case,” wrote the NEB manager, “due to the highly technical issues regarding engineering and integrity." http://www.vancouverobserver.com/news/waterloo-woman-finds-neb-e-mail-lauding-public-s-inability- question-pipelines
Beluga Whales Obstruct TransCanada’s Energy East Pipeline Port
Anticipating a report released yesterday declaring the status of the animals moved from “threatened” to “endangered” with full habitat protection, TransCanada announced this weekend it was suspending work on its Cacouna oil export terminal in Quebec, pending its assessment of the report. In a statement TransCanada said, “We are standing down on any further work at Cacouna, in order to analyze the recommendation, assess any impacts from Energy East and review all viable options as we look ahead.” The company also cancelled a public information meeting scheduled for this Thursday.
But today, Canada’s national newspaper The Globe and Mail reported, “Alberta Premier Jim Prentice and Quebec’s Philippe Couillard all but put an end Tuesday to the Energy East proposal to build an oil export terminal in Cacouna, Quebec, saying it’s time for the company to go back to the drawing board for a key portion of its $12 billion pipeline and port proposal.” http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/02/beluga-whales-energy-east-pipeline/
Oil tanker adrift off coast of Nova Scotia after loss of steering
HALIFAX -- An oil tanker carrying 675,000 barrels of crude oil was drifting Wednesday off the coast of Nova Scotia after losing its steering.
A spokesman for Teekay Corp., the ship's owner, said the Australian Spirit started having problems Tuesday evening.
Jonathan Anthony said the tanker was about 70 kilometres southeast of Halifax early Wednesday afternoon and it wasn't near any other ships.
One tugboat, the Atlantic Larch, had reached the vessel and another tugboat that is capable of towing the tanker was expected to arrive by the evening, he said. http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/oil-tanker-adrift-off-coast-of-nova-scotia-after-loss-of-steering-1.2141561
Energy Giant Kinder Morgan’s Ambitious Goals Cost Communities Big
It figures that a former Enron executive is CEO of an energy giant that threatens the environment in a virtual encyclopedia of ways, while engaging in questionable business practices.
“Energy giant Kinder Morgan has big ambitions,” says the report. “Best known for its empire of oil and natural gas pipelines, the firm aspires to enlarge its role in coal transport too. Expanding its export
76 terminals in Louisiana and Texas would increase Kinder Morgan’s coal export capacity in the Gulf Coast region from roughly 5 million tons annually in recent years to nearly 29 million tons. These coal terminal expansions could boost Kinder Morgan’s profits, but they also raise questions about what the projects might cost neighboring communities.”
The report goes on to explore what Kinder Morgan’s coal transport activities have already cost communities. It’s a long list of environmental and health-related horrors that includes open piles of petcoke, dumps of toxic coal materials into rivers, wetlands and the ocean, and residential neighborhoods repeatedly covered in coal dust. As the report says, “The company’s track record is one of pollution, law-breaking and cover-ups.” http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/11/energy-giant-kinder-morgan/? utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=2b47c15fff- Top_News_12_11_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-2b47c15fff-85899661
Oil in Tankers Not Our Responsibility, Says Kinder Morgan, Recalling Exxon Valdez Lessons
“Once the oil leaves the dock, Kinder Morgan holds no obligation or responsibility, even 10 metres out – that’s the carrier’s liability.” http://www.desmog.ca/2014/09/08/oil-tankers-not-our-responsibility-says-kinder-morgan-recalling- exxon-valdez-lessons
Northern Gateway Pipelines Inc NEB File OF-Fac-Oil-N304-2010-01 01
Coastal First Nations Information Request No. 1 to Enbridge Financial Responsibility for a Spill Response and Compensation
The Application states that the tanker owner would be the responsible party for a tanker-related spill. Enbridge would not have responsibility for spill containment and cleanup costs for marine transportation, except possibly at the Marine Terminal. https://docs.neb-one.gc.ca/ll- eng/llisapi.dll/fetch/2000/90464/90552/384192/620327/624798/723530/B38-2_- _Northern_Gateway_Response_to_Coastal_FN_IR_No._1_-_A2E4Q5.pdf?nodeid=723531&vernum=- 2
Leaked study on Energy East risks to Quebec Rivers
Quebec news outlet Le Devoir has acquired a leaked study regarding the risk of landslides near rivers selected for the path of TransCanada`s proposed Energy East pipeline project. The study details the level of risk and the number of rivers used as drinking water sources. Energy East would be the largest pipeline in North America if it is built. TransCanada has had five major pipeline ruptures in the last 15 months- by far the poorest safety record in the industry. Read the original article in French here, a partial translation follows:
77 ``In Québec, the Eastern Energy pipeline must cross over thirty rivers in areas with obvious risk of landslides due to the instability of the banks. This is the conclusion of a study produced for TransCanada and Le Devoir has obtained a copy.
The risk analysis document prepared by Golder Associates is clear: there are several water crossings where the integrity of the pipeline that will transport 1.1 million barrels of crude per day could be threatened by instability soil. http://canadians.org/blog/leaked-study-energy-east-risks-quebec-rivers
Tougher Canadian oil tanker rules leave liability cap in place
SAINT JOHN, N.B. – The federal government says it is aiming to make polluters pay as it makes changes to legislation and regulations on oil tanker safety.
But under proposed changes announced today by Transport Minister Lisa Raitt in Saint John, N.B., Ottawa stops short of following a recommendation from an expert panel to remove the current $161- million liability limit for a spill in favour of unlimited liability for polluters. http://commonsensecanadian.ca/tougher-canadian-oil-tanker-rules-leave-liability-cap-place/
Kinder Morgan's historic oil spills are double the Kalamazoo disaster: NDP MP
The outspoken MP, well known for his opposition to Kinder Morgan’s $5-billion proposal to now expand the Edmonton-to-Burnaby pipeline, released new federal data on the existing pipeline's spills. The NEB records date back more than half a century, and show the total volume released by Trans Mountain was 40,000 barrels.
The Kalamazoo disaster by Enbridge released 20,000 barrels.
“Over the lifetime of this [Trans Mountain] pipeline, it’s leaked double the amount of the Kalamazoo spill,” said Stewart on Wednesday. http://www.vancouverobserver.com/news/kinder-morgans-historic-oil-spills-are-double-kalamazoo- disaster-ndp-mp#previmg
Letter addressed to the new National Energy Board Chair, Peter Watson Re Energy East
Mr. Watson,
We, the undersigned organizations and groups are writing to clearly demand the National Energy Board (NEB) revise the list of issues for TransCanada’s proposed Energy East project to include the pipeline’s climate pollution the project will facilitate. Specifically, we are calling for the inclusion of upstream tar sands emissions that Energy East would facilitate. !
Sincerely,
78 350.org, Alerte Pétrole Rive Sud, Alternatives, Association québécoise de lutte contre la pollution atmosphérique - AQLPA, Canadian Unitarians for Social Justice, Canadian Voice of Women for Peace http://350.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/FinalNEBLetterENG.pdf
Kinder Morgan: Oil Spills' Economic Effects Are Both Good And Bad
There is at least something of a bright side to oil spills, pipeline company Kinder Morgan says.
In a recent submission to the National Energy Board, the company says marine oil spills “can have both positive and negative effects on local and regional economies” thanks to the economic activity generated by cleanup operations.
“Spill response and clean-up creates business and employment opportunities for affected communities, regions, and clean-up service providers,” the company says.
The comments appear in a 15,000-page application to the NEB to triple the capacity of its Trans Mountain Pipeline, which carries oil from Alberta to Port Metro Vancouver. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/05/01/kinder-morgan-oil-spills-good-economy_n_5248096.html
Pipeline spills 60,000 litres of crude oil into muskeg in northern Alberta
RED EARTH CREEK, ALTA.—The Alberta Energy Regulator says close to 60,000 litres of crude oil have spilled into muskeg in the province’s north.
An incident report by the regulator states that a mechanical failure was reported Thursday at a Canadian Natural Resources Limited pipeline approximately 27 kilometres north of Red Earth Creek.
The report says there are no reports of impact to wildlife and that a cleanup has begun.
Red Earth Creek is over 350 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.
Carrie Rosa, a spokeswoman for the regulator, says officials have been delayed reaching the scene due to poor weather in the last few days.
No one from Canadian Natural Resources could be reached on Saturday for comment. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/11/30/pipeline_spills_60000_litres_of_crude_oil_into_muske g_in_northern_alberta.html
Justin Trudeau au Soleil: Énergie Est n'est pas socialement acceptable Justin Trudeau in the Sun: energy is is not socially acceptable
(Québec) Le projet de transport de pétrole par pipeline d'Énergie Est n'a pas obtenu la «licence sociale» nécessaire, croit le chef du Parti libéral du Canada, Justin Trudeau. Selon lui, le gouvernement et TransCanada n'ont pas démontré qu'ils entendaient exploiter la ressource naturelle de façon responsable.
79 «Le projet n'a pas encore atteint le niveau d'acceptabilité pour que ça passe», a déclaré le chef libéral en entrevue avec Le Soleil vendredi. J'espère qu'ils vont développer une façon de rassurer et de démontrer que ça se ferait de façon responsable. Ils ne sont pas encore rendus là, loin de là», a-t-il tranché.
Quebec) The project of transportation of oil by pipeline from energy East has not obtained the necessary "social license", believes the leader of the liberal party of the Canada, Justin Trudeau. According to him, the Government and TransCanada have not shown that they intended to exploit the natural resource in a responsible manner.
"Project has not yet reached the level of acceptability that it passes", said liberal leader in an interview with The Sun Friday. I hope that they will develop a way to reassure and to demonstrate that it would be in a responsible manner. They are not yet rendered there, far from it", it ruled. http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx
California communities fight back against crude by rail
Crude by rail has increased 4,000 percent across the country since 2008 and California is feeling the effects. By 2016 the amount of crude by rail entering the state is expected to increase by a factor of 25. That’s assuming industry gets its way in creating more crude by rail stations at refineries and oil terminals. And that’s no longer looking like a sure thing.
Unit trains are becoming a favored way to help move this cargo. These are trains in which the entire cargo — every single car — is one product. And in this case that product happens to be highly flammable.
This is one of the things that has Ruszel concerned. He doesn’t think the tank cars are safe enough to transport crude oil (or ethanol, which is also passing through his neighborhood) in the advent of a serious derailment.
But he’s also concerned not just with the kind of cargo, but the sheer volume of it. If a derailment occurs on a train and every single car (up to 100 cars long) is carrying volatile crude, the dangers increase exponentially. http://grist.org/climate-energy/california-communities-fight-back-against-crude-by-rail/
Unsafe and Unnecessary Oil Trains Threaten 25 Million Americans
Back in 1991 the National Transportation Safety Board first identified oil trains as unsafe -- the tank cars, specifically ones called DOT-111s, were too thin and punctured too easily, making transport of flammable liquids like oil unreasonably dangerous. As bad as this might sound, at the very least there was not a lot of oil being carried on the rails in 1991.
Now, in the midst of a North American oil boom, oil companies are using fracking and tar sands mining to produce crude in remote areas of the U.S. and Canada. To get the crude to refineries on the coasts the oil industry is ramping up transport by oil trains. In 2008, 9,500 crude oil tank cars moved on US rails. In 2013 the number was more than 400,000! With this rapid growth comes a looming threat to
80 public safety and the environment. No one -- not federal regulators or local firefighters -- are prepared for oil train derailments, spills and explosions.
Unfortunately, the rapid increase in oil trains has already meant many more oil train disasters. Railroads spilled more oil in 2013 than in the previous 40 years combined. http://www.forestethics.org/blog/unsafe-and-unnecessary-oil-trains-threaten-25-million-americans? utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=ralph%20nadar&utm_campaign=obr %20unsafe%20and%20unessary
Energy East – Myth busting, mounting opposition & taking action
This week’s Energy East update contains a myth busting commentary, concerns of Indigenous people and landowners who live in the path of the proposed pipeline, news of mounting opposition in Quebec and an easy way for you to tell the National Energy Board that climate change should be considered in their review of the tar sands pipeline. And finally, rocker Neil Young on pipelines being the “scabs of our lives.” http://www.conservationcouncil.ca/energy-east-myth-busting-mounting-opposition-taking-action/? utm_medium=email&utm_source=canfa&utm_content=10+- +Energy+East+update&utm_campaign=energy&source=energy
Special report: Leaking oil and gas wells across Canada ‘a threat to the environment and public safety’
Energy firms are boring another 10,000 wells a year as controversial fracking operations in Western Canada extend their reach
Serge Fortier has been trying for years to raise awareness about leaking oils and gas wells along the St. Lawrence River. Nothing has been quite as effective as setting them on fire.
“The reaction came very rapidly,” says Fortier, an environmental activist whose fiery demonstration near Ste-Francoise has prompted the Quebec government to acknowledge it has a problem — one that regulatory officials are often not keen to discuss.
In Alberta, where old wells have been uncovered in schoolyards, backyards and at shopping malls, officials are saying little about a well that has now turned up at Calgary’s airport, which is in the midst of a $2-billion expansion.
“There is an investigation right now with respect to an abandoned well at the airport,” Brenda Cherry, vice-president of closure and liability at the Alberta Energy Regulator, told Postmedia News. She would not comment on whether the airport well is leaking or if it’s under the new 4.2-kilometre runway, saying details are “confidential” until the investigation is complete. http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Special+report+Leaking+wells+across+Canada+threat+enviro nment+public+safety/10451346/story.html
81 Fracking the USA: New Map Shows 1 Million Oil, Gas Wells
If you’re wondering where oil and gas production and hydraulic fracturing are happening near you, FracTracker has a new mapping tool that will help you find out.
Researchers at FracTracker, an independent oil and gas research group that started as a mapping project at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Healthy Environments and Communities, analyzed oil and gas well location data for all 50 states and created a map showing where most of those wells are, including wells that have been fracked and those that haven’t. http://www.climatecentral.org/news/fracking-the-usa-maps-show-americas-1.1-million-oil-and-gas-wells- 17226 http://maps.fractracker.org/latest/?webmap=b26c43968bf8435388cbd4b33f2c4b3d
NEB Finds That An "Untrammeled Right" Of The Public To Open Expression Would Defeat The NEB’s Statutory Objectives
On October 2, 2014, the National Energy Board released a decision (found here) dismissing two motions that had been filed by a number of landowners, academics, business people and environmentalists (the "Applicants"). The Applicants had filed the two motions after they were not granted standing by the Board to participate orally on the Trans Mountain Expansion Project Application.
In its decision the Board concluded that most of the Applicants were not "directly affected" by the Project and a lack of an oral hearing did not amount to a "substantial" interference with their rights. Further, the Board concluded that an "untrammeled right of the public" to "open public expression" would come at the expense of the Board's statutory objectives and the Board would not be able to efficiently, effectively, or fairly hear the evidence it needs to assess the public interest in a project. The Board's decision is another example of the increas-ing struggle between public participation in energy development projects and the need for fair and efficient regulatory processes. http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=360052&email_access=on https://docs.neb-one.gc.ca/ll- eng/llisapi.dll/fetch/2000/90464/90552/548311/956726/2392873/2449981/2525008/A84-1_- _Ruling_No._34_-_Lynne_M._Quarmby_and_others_– _Notices_of_motion_dated_6_and_15_May_2014_-_A4C7D2.pdf?nodeid=2525674&vernum=-2
An open letter to the South Shore on oil exploration and extraction
Shell Oil is moving steadily through the regulatory process which will allow the drilling of exploratory wells on the edge of the Scotian Shelf in an area known as the Shelburne Gully. It looks very much as if this process on the Scotian Shelf will become a major offshore oil play for many years to come. Shell’s plans are to drill up to 7 exploration wells over a 4 year period (2015-2019). This represents a $1 Billion investment. British Petroleum holds a lease to the North East of the Shell holdings. They are planning a similar project.
82 “Shell is committed to responding to an offshore oil spill with a full complement of response tools and strategies including surface, aerial and subsea dispersants; mechanical recovery; in situ burning; shoreline protection and recovery and well control.”
Shell could very well be committed to this list of response tools and strategies but it is essential that South Shore communities to take a close look at the realities surrounding their actual ability to contain and secure spilled oil. Mechanical recovery as it exists at
ECRC and with any other potential responders consists of suction pumps, skimmers and rotary brush skimmers as well as offshore booms to contain the oil. This is, at this point, the only equipment available to Shell to deal with the actual cleanup of oil at the off shore site of the spill.
The U.S. Government E.P.A. states:
“Generally, booms will not operate properly when waves are over 1 meter or currents are faster than one Knot per Hour.”
Given a blow out scenario, or even a medium sized spill, the oil in even moderate wind speeds and sea states would, after a 3 to 4 day operational delay, have dispersed over an area of a size that relegates the offshore booms and skimmers virtually useless. Since “Offshore In situ Burning” also requires quick response, calm seas, and an offshore boom to contain the oil, this option too is unlikely to be utilized. http://fundytides.blogspot.ca/2014/12/an-open-letter-to-south-shore-on-oil.html?spref=fb
Trudeau media scrum https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bNwccr0-bTg
Justin Trudeau Interrupted by Climate Activists on Energy East Pipeline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21rit9KlLj8
Energy East Pipeline is Unsafe and Unwanted
TransCanada's strategy to hoister its Energy East pipeline on the Quebec public has been unmasked, and Quebecers don't buy the company's sales pitch.
Quebec citizens, not to mention citizens worldwide, have done their homework and based on the science, the facts and the statistics are keenly aware that the risks inherent in this proposed pipeline, a project endorsed by the federal government, are simply too great, and the required social acceptability for this project is not there, and never will be.
We know that to determine the risk level and viability of a project you can calculate the probability of an accident and the cost of decontamination. This can mean hundreds of billions of dollars in decontamination costs and costs in relation to persistent pollution impacts.
83 A good indicator in this case is TransCanada's dismal track record for pipeline oil spills in terms of frequency, quantity and response time.
The figures speak volumes. TransCanada wants to pump through the proposed Energy East pipeline 1.1 million barrels a day of crude oil worth $88 million per day, $32 billion per year and $320 billion per decade! But a single major oil spill could last 20 years and run Quebec taxpayers $50 billion in decontamination costs.
The Energy East pipeline would cross 5 provinces and 960 waterways, including 20 waterways in Quebec providing drinking water to 40 per cent of the population.
The pipeline would carry crude oil from the Alberta Tar Sands, which, with the federal government's blessings, plans to extract oil from the Tar Sands for the next 78 years despite the risk of massive devastation to northern Alberta. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stephane-brousseau/energy-east-pipeline_b_6335738.html
Guysborough seeks Energy East pipeline extension to Cape Breton Island
The Guysborough Journal reports, "Guysborough council voted in favour of sending letters of support for the initiative to bring the Energy East Pipeline past New Brunswick and into the Strait Area to the Premier of Nova Scotia and the appropriate federal representative at the regular council meeting on Wednesday, December 10. The extension of the pipeline into the area would be a great advantage to the MODG [Municipality of the District Guysborough] in light of various projects that are currently on the drawing board in the municipality." http://www.canadians.org/blog/guysborough-seeks-energy-east-pipeline-extension-cape-breton-island
Keystone PipeLIES Exposed Embedded video
This film, produced by the Center for Media and Democracy, debunks the claims of proponents of the Keystone XL pipeline regarding jobs, energy security, gas prices, safety, and climate change. More information about this film and research project, "Keystone PipeLIES Exposed," at http://www.pipeliesexposed.org. http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/keystone-pipelies-exposed/#.VJLcXY1G3Xk.facebook http://player.vimeo.com/video/87515971 https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DCq015rc_lk
57,000-Gallon Oil Spill In Canada Forces Closure Of Pipeline To U.S.
Enbridge, Inc. an energy delivery company based in Alberta, Canada, experienced an oil spill from one of its pipelines on Wednesday.
84 Canadian energy delivery company Enbridge Inc. has temporarily shut down and isolated one of its crude oil pipelines that connects to the United States after a 1,350-barrel, or 56,700-gallon oil spill, the company reported Wednesday evening.
While the company said it’s not sure how long the cleanup will take or when the pipeline will be re- opened, it insisted that no oil was spilled out of the area within the Regina Terminal in Saskatchewan, where the incident occurred. It’s not yet clear what kind of oil was released — the 796,000 barrel-a-day Line 4 pipeline, which connects to a terminal in Wisconsin, carries heavy, medium, and light sour crude. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/12/18/3605276/enbridge-oil-spill-canada/
The largest vessel the world has ever seen - F loating LNG Plant
Prelude is a staggering 488m long and the best way to grasp what this means is by comparison with something more familiar. Four football pitches placed end-to-end would not quite match this vessel's length - and if you could lay the 301m of the Eiffel Tower alongside it, or the 443m of the Empire State Building, they wouldn't do so either.
In terms of sheer volume, Prelude is mind-boggling too: if you took six of the world's largest aircraft carriers, and measured the total amount of water they displaced, that would just about be the same as with this one gigantic vessel.
Under construction for the energy giant Shell, the dimensions of the platform are striking in their own right - but also as evidence of the sheer determination of the oil and gas industry to open up new sources of fuel.
To exploit the Prelude gas field more than 100 miles off the northwest coast of Australia, Shell has opted to bypass the step of bringing the gas ashore, instead developing a system which will do the job of liquefaction at sea. Hence Prelude will become the world's first floating LNG plant - or FLNG in the terminology of the industry. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30394137
85 Obama Takes A Swing At 'Tar Sands' And Keystone Pipeline
WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama spent five minutes disparaging the potential benefits of the Keystone XL pipeline Friday.
He then kept it alive with five words.
At a wide-ranging year-end news conference Friday, Obama maintained his recent pattern of expressed skepticism about the project: He played down its job potential, said it wouldn't lower gas prices for Americans and, employing the language of pipeline opponents, said it would merely help Canadian "tar sands" companies export their product overseas.
Canada's ambassador to the U.S. emphasized some of those points in response to Obama.
''I did not know Canada just gained North Dakota and Montana,'' Gary Doer said Friday, referring to the non-Canadian oil that would enter the pipeline.
''The pipeline includes (U.S.) Bakken oil.'' http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/12/19/obama-keystone-pipeline_n_6356918.html
Oilsands breach fouls water east of Edmonton, well is shut down
BONNYVILLE, Alta. -- A breach at a Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. oilsands operation east of Edmonton has fouled a groundwater aquifer in the area.
The Alberta Energy Regulator says CNRL (TSX:CNQ) reported a break in a well at its Wolf Lake high pressure cyclic steam stimulation project in late October.
The regulator says since then the company discovered elevated levels of hydrocarbons in the aquifer about 50 kilometres south of Bonnyville. http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/oilsands-breach-fouls-water-east-of-edmonton-well-is-shut-down- 1.2156624
Oil Investors at Brink of Losing Trillions of Dollars in Assets. Gore: It's That Road Runner Moment
A major threat to fossil fuel companies has suddenly moved from the fringe to center stage with a dramatic announcement by Germany’s biggest power company and an intriguing letter from the Bank of England.
A growing minority of investors and regulators are probing the possibility that untapped deposits of oil, gas and coal -- valued at trillions of dollars globally -- could become stranded assets as governments adopt stricter climate change policies.
The concept gaining traction from Wall Street to the City of London is simple. Limits on emissions of carbon dioxide will be necessary to hold temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius, the maximum climate scientists say is advisable. Without technologies to capture the waste gases from combusting
86 fossil fuels, a majority of known oil, gas and coal deposits would have to stay underground. Once that point is reached, they become stranded. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-02/oil-investors-may-be-running-off-a-cliff-they-can-t- see.html
Canadian pipeline projects face litany of challenges heading into 2015
Canadian pipeline projects faced mounting opposition in 2014
Once considered a rather ho-hum line of business, pipelines dominated much of the public discourse in 2014. In recent years, the debate has spread beyond the direct environmental impacts of putting steel in the ground into broader issues around anything from global climate change to First Nations rights.
Enbridge has been “re-engaging” with B.C. First Nations along the route, many of which have been outspoken opponents of the project, concerned a potential spill would destroy the water on land on which they rely.
Pipelines have also been at the centre of a larger public debate about fighting climate change. And Monaco told the panel it’s been very “strategic” on the part of environmental groups that aim to slow oilsands expansion, and the higher greenhouse gas emissions that would follow, by preventing the crude from getting to market. http://beaconnews.ca/blog/2014/12/canadian-pipeline-projects-face-litany-of-challenges-heading-into- 2015/
Earthquake 'swarm' strikes off B.C. coast, but no sign of the 'Big One'
A 'swarm' of earthquakes struck off the coast of B.C. over the weekend, but there is no evidence that means that a large quake is imminent, says geological researcher Dr. Honn Kao.
Earthquakes Canada reported five earthquakes measuring from 4.0 to 5.0 in magnitude, all striking about midway between the northern end of Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii on Saturday and Sunday.
The first struck at around 3 p.m. PT Saturday about 517 kilometres west-northwest of Vancouver. Another hit at about 7 p.m., and then there were three additional quakes between 1:40 a.m. and 2:45 a.m. early Sunday morning.
The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a sixth quake in the 'swarm'. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/earthquake-swarm-strikes-off-b-c-coast-but-no-sign-of- the-big-one-1.2881700
Opinion: Tories, pipeline firms growing apart Government: Ottawa’s approach to project approvals isn’t working for anyone
87 “Back off,” TransCanada executives reportedly told key ministers, “especially in Quebec.” The message from the pipeline company was: just let us handle it. Indeed, comments earlier this month by Industry Minister James Moore indicate the federal government is applying this new hands-off approach here in B.C. as well.
“We’ve done everything we can,” Moore told the CBC in response to a question about Enbridge and Kinder Morgan’s proposed crude oil pipelines. And now? “It’s up to the firms to deliver on these projects.”
After three years crashing around the proverbial china shop — trampling the environmental laws and regulatory procedures that might have given project reviews some credibility with the public — Ottawa is leaving a broom and dustpan for industry and tiptoeing away. http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Opinion+Tories+pipeline+firms+growing+apart/10677096/story.ht ml
Few Oil Pipeline Spills Detected by Much-Touted Technology
InsideClimate News analysis of a decade of federal data shows general public detected far more spills than leak detection technology. For years, TransCanada, the Canadian company that wants to build the Keystone XL pipeline, has assured the project's opponents that the line will be equipped with sensors that can quickly detect oil spills.
In recent newspaper ads in Nebraska, for instance, TransCanada promised that the pipeline will be "monitored through a state-of-the-art oil control center 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. 21,000 sensors along the pipeline route relay information via satellite to the control center every five seconds." But an InsideClimate News examination of 10 years of federal data shows that leak detection systems do not provide as much protection as the public has been led to believe.
Between 2002 and July 2012, remote sensors detected only 5 percent of the nation's pipeline spills, according to data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120919/few-oil-pipeline-spills-detected-much-touted-technology? gclid=Cj0KEQiAq_SkBRC3jLvJ1IPt2eIBEiQASUZy19AmpR_WuqZoBR2IDslSfvUg9saXn_kJQofcK9eK RokaAgO48P8HAQ
Pipeline consultations to take place in January
The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) will hold consultation sessions on the construction of TransCanada's proposed Energy East Pipeline in January, including several at locations in Northern Ontario.
In part one of its consultation, the OEB met with residents in communities along the route of the proposed pipeline and sought their perspectives on the project. Now that TransCanada has filed its application with the National Energy Board, the OEB is going back to the communities to respond to what it heard in part one and share the assessments of the application by its technical advisors. http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/Industry-News/construction/2014/12/Pipeline-consultations-to- take-place-in-January.aspx
88 Inside the Exxon Oil Spill in Arkansas
Exxon Fighting to Keep Public From Seeing 900,000 Pages of Documents in Oil Spill Lawsuit
Unprecedented secrecy in a class action suit that is seeking to determine if oil giant was negligent in upkeep of burst pipeline.
Exxon to Reopen Ruptured Arkansas Pipeline, but Cause of Its Failure Remains Unknown
Exxon laid out its intentions Monday to reopen the 650-mile northern section of the Pegasus, saying the investigation into the Arkansas spill is complete. http://insideclimatenews.org/exxon-oil-spill-arkansas? gclid=Cj0KEQiAq_SkBRC3jLvJ1IPt2eIBEiQASUZy17Gcp- UnSkPscXTdrp5EzeCmyYimNALOMca0ortNDHgaAjEw8P8HAQ
Alberta doctor tells U.S.: Canada is ‘lying’ about tar sands’ health effects
American Senators told that oil sands are linked to a huge spike in cancer, despite Canadian government claims
A northern Alberta doctor warned U.S. Senators on what he says have been the devastating health impacts of the tar sands on families – effects, he says, that have been willfully “ignored” by the Canadian and Alberta governments.
“I appeal to you to keep up the pressure – this is an ongoing tragedy. A total disgrace,” said Dr. John O’Connor, Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
He sighted statistics for rare cancers – of the bile duct for example – that have shot up 400 times for what is considered normal for a tiny community, such as Fort Chipewyan – which is downstream, to the north of the oil sands.
“These are published, peer-reviewed studies that indicate that the government of Alberta and Canada have been lying, misrepresenting the impact of industry on the environment,” said O’Connor. http://www.vancouverobserver.com/news/alberta-doctor-tells-us-canada-%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%CB %9Clying%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%84%A2-about-tar-sands%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%84%A2- health-effects
Prosperity is in the pipeline: Strengthening Canada's energy sector today for a strong Alberta in Mediaplanet's "Building the Future" campaign
The print component of Building Our Future is distributed within today's Calgary Herald, with a circulation of approximately 94,500 copies and an estimated readership of 270,000. The digital component is distributed nationally through a vast social media strategy and across a network of top news sites and partner outlets. To explore the digital version of the campaign, click here.
89 The publication covers The Energy East Pipeline, and how it creates a strong flow of employment opportunities across Canada. "With 70 pumping stations along the route, that's $4.5 billion worth of building trades work -- that's going to stimulate apprentices for every trade," says John Telford, Director of Canadian Affairs at The United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada (UA). http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/2417183
Emails show secrecy on federal oilsands probe
OTTAWA—Environment Canada’s enforcement branch asked a spokesman to “limit information” given to reporters about how long it took to launch a federal investigation into a serious Alberta oilsands leak last summer.
The comments were included in more than 100 pages of emails obtained by the Star that were generated in response to questions from journalists last summer about the mysterious leak in Cold Lake, Alta., that now totals about 1.2 million litres of bitumen emulsion, a mixture of heavy oil and water.
The incident itself was not publicly disclosed until a report by the Star in July 2013. More than 100 animals died near the site of the spill, which continues to release heavy oil above the surface, one year later.
The company, Canadian Natural Resources Limited, had reported three other leaks in May and June 2013 from nearby sites using technology involving high-pressure steam in deep wells to pump out bitumen, the heavy oil mixed with sand beneath forests in northern Alberta. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/07/29/emails_show_secrecy_on_federal_oilsands_probe.ht ml
Some States See Budgets at Risk as Oil Price Falls
HOUSTON — States dependent on oil and gas revenue are bracing for layoffs, slashing agency budgets and growing increasingly anxious about the ripple effect that falling oil prices may have on their local economies.
The concerns are cutting across traditional oil states like Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Alaska as well as those like North Dakota that are benefiting from the nation’s latest energy boom.
“The crunch is coming,” said Gunnar Knapp, a professor of economics and the director of the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska Anchorage. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/27/us/falling-oil-prices-have-ripple-effect-in-texas-louisiana- oklahoma.html?emc=edit_au_20141226&nl=afternoonupdate&nlid=40689718&_r=1
UCI-led study documents heavy air pollution in Canadian area with cancer spikes
Carcinogens detected in emissions downwind of ‘Industrial Heartland’
90 Irvine, Calif., Oct. 22, 2013 – Levels of contaminants higher than in some of the world’s most polluted cities have been found downwind of Canada’s largest oil, gas and tar sands processing zone, in a rural area where men suffer elevated rates of cancers linked to such chemicals.
The findings by UC Irvine and University of Michigan scientists, published online this week, reveal high levels of the carcinogens 1,3-butadiene and benzene and other airborne pollutants. The researchers also obtained health records spanning more than a decade that showed the number of men with leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was greater in communities closest to the pollution plumes than in neighboring counties. The work is a dramatic illustration of a new World Health Organization report that outdoor air pollution is a leading cause of cancer. http://news.uci.edu/press-releases/uci-led-study-documents-heavy-air-pollution-in-canadian-area-with- cancer-spikes/
What Changes Are Needed for Transporting Crude in North America?
To get a handle on how oil transport could be improved, we asked a group of energy professionals their thoughts on this question: What changes are needed for transporting crude throughout North America?
Their answers are below, in a discussion that relates to the latest Energy Report and formed the basis of a discussion on The Experts blog in November. http://blogs.wsj.com/briefly/2014/12/29/what-changes-are-needed-for-transporting-crude-in-north- america-at-a-glance/
Canadian Coast Guard Cleaning Up Spill After Chaulk Determination Sinks
Pumping operations continue at the Trois-Rivières port after the tugboat “Chaulk Determination” sank on Friday, leaking fuel into the St. Lawrence River.
The boat was holding 22 tonnes of fuel when it sank. Since then, workers have been trying to stop the leakage of the diesel into the water and remove the fuel already in the water.
Canadian Coast Guard spokesman Michel Plamondon told CBC/Radio-Canada that nine tonnes of diesel have been removed from the water since operations began. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/12/28/chaulk-determination-spill_n_6387200.html
BP oil spill dispersants concern Nova Scotia environmentalist
A Shelburne County environmentalist is raising concerns about a toxic chemical that could be used off Nova Scotia in the future.
When the Deepwater Horizon oil platform erupted in flames in 2010, it spewed oil into the Gulf of Mexico, but some research says the cleanup was worse because about 6.8 million litres of the chemical Corexit 9500A was used to disperse the oil.
91 The dispersant used by oil company BP, when mixed with crude oil, was found to be 52 times more toxic than oil alone to some microscopic plankton-like organisms called rotifers. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/bp-oil-spill-dispersants-concern-nova-scotia- environmentalist-1.2885233
Ontario gives green light to clear-cutting at Grassy Narrows
The province has rejected a request from a northern Ontario First Nations community for an environmental assessment into the impact of clear-cut logging on Grassy Narrows.
“I am disheartened by this hurtful decision,” said Chief Roger Fobister Sr., who says the community asked for the assessment almost a year ago. “It seems that our health and our culture do not matter to the government as they attempt to force their clear-cut plans on us.”
The community is now concerned that clear-cut logging will increase mercury levels in local fish, which is a traditional dietary staple, said David Sone, an environmentalist with Earthroots.
Clear-cut logging has been reported to raise mercury levels in fish to dangerous levels. Mercury gets released into the atmosphere from coal-firing power plants and incinerators and later rains down in forests where it gets trapped in the soil. But when trees are clear-cut, mercury runs off into lakes and rivers, where it gets magnified as it moves up the food chain. Fish can have mercury levels that are way higher than the level of mercury in the water they swim in, said Sone. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/12/29/ontario_gives_green_light_to_clearcutting_at_grassy _narrows.html
Effects on the flora in Norway spruce forests following clearcutting and shelterwood cutting
Clearcutting and shelterwood cutting of mature Norway spruce peatland forests were compared regarding the effects on the forest flora. Repeated observations of the field and bottom layer vegetation were made before and until 7 or 8 years after harvesting at four sites located along a gradient from southern to northern Sweden. Clearcutting resulted in a greater change of species composition compared with shelterwood cutting. Diversity, measured as Simpson's index, and species number per subplot were lower in the clearcut than in the shelterwood after 7 or 8 years. By applying Ellenberg's indicator values, it was concluded that shelterwood regimes may preserve species preferring shaded and moist conditions, whereas those species decreased after clearcutting. Species preferring high levels of nitrogen increased in the clearcut.
According to both multivariate and univariate analyses, the vegetation changed in a similar direction at all sites, although the level of response differed considerably. Despite these similarities, there was a marked site effect, which was not surprising considering the large geographic variation between sites.
It is concluded that shelterwood cutting might be a better alternative than clearcutting for forests on fertile peatland sites, with respect to conservation of vascular plants and bryophytes. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112796038583
92 In North Dakota, a Tale of Oil, Corruption and Death
“M.H.A. Nation is No. 1 for tribal oil produced on American soil in the United States right now currently today,” Mr. Hall proudly declared, referring to the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation.
By that point, there were two murder cases — one person dead in Spokane, Wash., the other missing but presumed dead in North Dakota — tied to oil business on the reservation. And Mr. Hall, a once- seemingly untouchable leader, was under investigation by his tribal council because of his connections to an Oregon man who would later be charged with murder for hire in the two deaths. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/29/us/in-north-dakota-where-oil-corruption-and-bodies-surface.html? emc=eta1&_r=1
Top Business Story Of The Year: Oil's Dramatic Price Plunge
CALGARY - From Alberta oilfields to Bay Street boardrooms to the gas station on the corner, the precipitous drop in crude prices is expected to have far-reaching impacts across the country heading into 2015, making it The Canadian Press Business News Story of the Year.
"A sustained period of low oil prices will throw a big wrench into the works of the Canadian economy and collective psyche. Beyond the shifting fortunes of governments and companies that have benefited from high oil prices — or suffered from them — the change will surely play a role in climate-change concerns, pipeline expansions and all manner of consumer choices, notably air travel and vehicle purchases. Investors, as well as governments, may also be more interested in portfolio diversification." http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/12/30/top-business-story-of-the-year_n_6394902.html
TransCanada chief slams ‘ludicrous’ arguments by Energy East opponents
Eastern distributors, including Ontario’s Union Gas Ltd., Enbridge Gas Distribution and Gaz Métro in Quebec have said Calgary-based TransCanada’s Energy East project would jack up costs and potentially curtail natural gas deliveries in the provinces during times of peak demand. In a year-end interview, TransCanada chief executive Russ Girling called such arguments “ludicrous” with no basis in fact. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/transcanada-chief-slams-ludicrous-arguments-by- energy-east-opponents/article22233005/
U.S. opening of oil export tap widens battle for global market
(Reuters) - The Obama administration has opened a new front in the global battle for oil market share, effectively clearing the way for the shipment of as much as a million barrels per day of ultra-light U.S. crude to the rest of the world.
The Department of Commerce on Tuesday ended a year-long silence on a contentious, four-decade ban on oil exports, saying it had begun approving a backlog of requests to sell processed light oil abroad. It also issued a long-awaited document outlining exactly what kinds of oil other would-be exporters can ship.
93 With global oil markets in flux, it is far from clear how much U.S. condensate will find a market overseas. Drillers are already slashing billions of dollars off their 2015 budgets because of lower prices, actions likely to slow growth in output next year and push forward the point at which supply overtakes demand. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/31/us-usa-crude-exports-analysis-idUSKBN0K908M20141231
94 Mining
Mount Polley: Husband and wife warned company, faced consequences https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iXuqA8zKK0
David Suzuki's grandson brings star power to Sacred Headwaters fight over Imperial Metals
Kinder Morgan-style arrests expected in a conflict over a copper-gold mine in northwest B.C. in a pristine, celebrated wilderness area.
While TV cameras focused their lenses on the 100-plus arrests on Burnaby Mountain last month, at the same time, a very similar Kinder-Morgan-style drama was playing out in a remote alpine area of northwest B.C. known as the Sacred Headwaters.
That’s where Tahltan First Nations Elders called the Klabona Keepers, who are self-proclaimed guardians of that pristine wilderness, were hit in late November with a court order granted to Imperial Metals. The injunction forbids the mine opponents from continuing to interfere with the $600-million Red Chris copper and gold mine that intends operate for 30 years.
The 24-year-old Campos gave a fiery speech at a Vancouver church about why the public should now back the Klabona Keepers.
“These are Elders [who] have stood up for the Sacred Headwaters for the last decade, and it’s time that we in the south of B.C. support them, because we haven’t been paying attention to this story,” he said. http://www.vancouverobserver.com/news/david-suzukis-grandson-brings-star-power-sacred- headwaters-fight-over-imperial-metals
Strateco suing Quebec for $190-million over blocked uranium project
Quebec mining junior Strateco Resources Inc. is suing the provincial government for $190-million in investment losses following its decision to block the company’s uranium project after years of preliminary work.
“This whole thing has left us extremely frustrated,” Strateco chief executive Guy Hébert said Thursday, noting that he put two mines into production in Quebec within a nine-year period while this project has taken a decade and still isn’t producing. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/strateco- seeks-190-million-from-quebec-for-blocking-uranium-project/article22042730/
Two Bloody Days : Michael Binder insulting the Crees / insulte les Cris (CNSC/CCSN)
Re Quebec uranium mine above. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UEW7oFc_mo
95 Tailings spill poisons creek
A tailings spill at Copper Mountain Mine near Princeton has prompted a water ban for residents near Wolfe Creek.
Interior Health has issued a Do Not Use order for water from Wolfe Creek immediately downstream from Copper Mountain Mine to the mouth of the Similkameen River following a Dec. 10 tailings line spill at the mine.
This advisory covers anyone drawing water from Wolfe Creek below the mine to the mouth of the Similkameen, Lorne Lake, as well as residents using water drawn from wells adjacent to Wolfe Creek.
Karl Hardt, communications officer for Interior Health said “It was the tailings line, not the whole pond.” http://westcoastnativenews.com/tailings-spill-poisons-creek/
Sisson Brook - A world-class tungsten and molybdenum deposit in central New Brunswick
Northcliff Resources Achieves Second Milestone for Additional Funding from Todd Northcliff Announces Launch of New Sisson Project Website and Branding - "The Sisson Partnership" 2014 Exploration, Mining and Petroleum New Brunswick conference http://www.sissonpartnership.com/s/Home.asp http://www.northcliffresources.com/s/Home.asp
Bloom Lake hit with record environmental fine Firm fined after tailings pond dam breach, other environmental accidents
A mining company has plead guilty to 45 charges under the fisheries act and will pay a $7.5-million fine for improperly releasing pollutants into fish-bearing waters.
Bloom Lake General Partner Ltd. has been ordered to pay the fine because the Triangle Tailings Pond dam breach in May 2011 and other environmental accidents over a period of 18 months, Environment Canada said Wednesday.
The iron ore mine is located southwest of Labrador City but is in Quebec. In one instance, more than 14,500 litres of ferric sulfate was dumped into water frequented by fish. "On a number of occasions," Environment Canada said in a release Wednesday, "the company did not inform the Department of releases, contrary to regulatory requirements and omitted to take samples and conduct analyses as required under the regulations." http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bloom-lake-hit-with-record-environmental-fine-1.2883601? utm_content=bufferaf70e&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
96 Forestry
Forestry agreement details released by Liberals
Natural Resources Minister Denis Landry says he needs 6 weeks to determine if changes are needed
Department of Natural Resources Minister Denis Landry tabled the documents in the legislature on Wednesday morning, as promised by the Liberals during the recent election campaign.
The documents, which the Tories had kept confidential, have also been posted on the department's website.
"The previous process lacked transparency and failed to share information with the public when it comes to our Crown forests," Landry said in a statement. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/forestry-agreement-details-released-by-liberals- 1.2867132
Memorandum of Agreement with J.D Irving Ltd. http://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/Departments/nr-rn/pdf/en/ForestsCrownLands/MOA- JDIFeb2014.pdf
Memorandum of Agreement with Twin Rivers Ld. http://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/Departments/nr-rn/pdf/en/ForestsCrownLands/MOA-Twin- Rivers.pdf
Memorandum of Agreement with Chaleur Sawmills Ltd. http://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/Departments/nr-rn/pdf/en/ForestsCrownLands/MOA-Twin- Rivers.pdf
The Forestry Management Agreement with J.D. Irving Ltd on Licenses 6 and 7 and relevant schedules http://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/Departments/nr-rn/pdf/en/ForestsCrownLands/JDI- ForestmentManagementAgreementJuly2014.pdf
Details of wood allocations to 15 First Nations communities resulting from forestry plan announced in March 2014 http://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/Departments/nr- rn/pdf/en/ForestsCrownLands/FirstNationsAllocationsEnglish.pdf
97 Information Morning Fredericton Coon on Forestry Deal
Terry Seguin speaks with Green Party leader David Coon about the release of the Forestry agreements. http://www.cbc.ca/informationmorningfredericton/2014/12/11/coon-on-forestry-deal/
Crown forest agreements need review, conservationist says
Roberta Clowater, the executive director of the New Brunswick chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, said the agreements with the province's largest forestry companies leave the public with no say over what activities take place or their impact on wildlife.
"If we keep tinkering with our forest beyond its limit, reducing the habitat we conserve for wildlife and to protect rivers, we shouldn't be surprised if forests start failing to produce wood or water or trees to clean the air," said Clowater.
"Just one example is the importance of birds in keeping insect numbers down, so we don't get big infestations that kill too many trees." http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/crown-forest-agreements-need-review-conservationist- says-1.2873215?cmp=rss
Information Morning Fredericton Public Forests Debate
The deals might be signed but the fight continues for control of the province's public forests. http://www.cbc.ca/informationmorningfredericton/2014/12/15/public-forests-debate/
Charles Theriault - 184 university and college profs say SCRAP THE FOREST PLAN! http://isourforestreallyours.com/Isourforestreallyours/Ep_25.html http://vimeo.com/98086665
J.D. Irving forestry deal needs public input, group says
Democracy Watch compares handling of J.D. Irving Ltd. deal to failed attempt to sell NB Power
The advocacy group Democracy Watch says it is not too late for the New Brunswick government to abandon an agreement with forestry giant J.D. Irving Ltd. and send it out for public hearings.
The agreement with J.D. Irving Ltd. offers increased access to wood from Crown land in exchange for future investment and jobs. It is part of the government's new Crown land policy that gives more softwood from public forests to Crown licence holders like J.D. Irving.
98 Duff Conacher, a co-founder of Democracy Watch, a group that pushes for government accountability and democratic reform, called the forestry agreement with J.D. Irving Ltd. a misstep in a series of missteps. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/j-d-irving-forestry-deal-needs-public-input-group-says- 1.2649549
99 Video Links
Toronto Blockade In Solidarity with Burnaby Protestors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxOddtD2eps&feature=youtu.be&a
Tar Sands Oil Extraction - The Dirty Truth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkwoRivP17A youtube search for Tar Sands Oil Extraction - The Dirty Truth https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Tar+Sands+Oil+Extraction+-+The+Dirty+Truth
Energy East Pipeline Rally Nov 5 Fredericton, Council of Canadians https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0zGdkQ_zR4&sns=fb
Stop the Energy East Pipeline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1qV_n0Y7PM
Wax on, oil off https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EgcVtoOmv0
Oil Spill Removal Demo using Wax https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOhyU4peF1g
Mount Polley: Husband and wife warned company, faced consequences https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iXuqA8zKK0
Laurentide Ice Sheet evolution.
This animations integrates the state of the art knowledge about the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet since the Last Glacial Maximum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbsURVgoRD0&feature=youtu.be
100 Ann Craft's Fracking Nightmare: A Top Lawyer's Startling Counsel https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LKuCR3hHmf4
Origins, a Documentary
Four years in the making, Origins is a stunningly ambitious new documentary that challenges us to reevaluate our existence in the modern world, and embrace the simplicities that defined the beginnings of our species. "I believe to understand our present and to map our future, we have to go back in time," says Alan McSmith, an ecology instructor and a key interview subject featured in the film. http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/origins/
Two Bloody Days : Michael Binder insulting the Crees / insulte les Cris (CNSC/CCSN)
Re Strateco uranium mine – Quebec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UEW7oFc_mo
Charles Theriault - 184 university and college profs say SCRAP THE FOREST PLAN! http://isourforestreallyours.com/Isourforestreallyours/Ep_25.html http://vimeo.com/98086665
Trudeau media scrum https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bNwccr0-bTg
Justin Trudeau Interrupted by Climate Activists on Energy East Pipeline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21rit9KlLj8
Keystone PipeLIES Exposed Embedded video
This film, produced by the Center for Media and Democracy, debunks the claims of proponents of the Keystone XL pipeline regarding jobs, energy security, gas prices, safety, and climate change. More information about this film and research project, "Keystone PipeLIES Exposed," at http://www.pipeliesexposed.org. http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/keystone-pipelies-exposed/#.VJLcXY1G3Xk.facebook http://player.vimeo.com/video/87515971 https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DCq015rc_lk
101 Naomi Klein: This Changes Everything live with Owen Jones - Full Length | Guardian Live
Naomi Klein, the award-winning journalist and author of global best-sellers The Shock Doctrine and No Logo discusses her most provocative book yet, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate.
Klein challenges the myths that cloud the climate debate, refutes the argument for dependence on fossil fuels and aims to show how our current economic model is waging and winning a war on earth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhJA7HCPHDA
102