Shale Gas Issues From Various Jurisdictions ...... 7 Foreword ...... 7 Calls for Moratoriums and Bans ...... 9 Maryland Senate, House Pass Two-Year Fracking Ban ...... 9 Fracking banned for five years by Tasmanian Government ...... 9 State board approves petition language to ban drilling ...... 9 Albany Co. bans hydrofracking waste ...... 9 Municipalities against Fracking (New Brunswick) ...... 10 Contamination and Science ...... 11 Shock: Fracking Used to Inject Nuclear Waste Underground for Decades ...... 11 States Fail to Properly Manage Fracking Waste, Says Groundbreaking Report ...... 12 Four Of 10 Fracked Wells In Pennsylvania Are Projected To Fail, Spewing Methane Into Air And Water ...... 12 Fracking Study on Water Contamination Under Ethics Review ...... 12 Another frac mess! 200 Evacuated, Nearly 70 homes damaged in Marinza, Albania ...... 13 Emergency crews still trying to replug gas well in southwest Arlington ...... 13 Fracking Waste Puts Public at Risk, Study Says ...... 13 Athens County likely to become No. 1 chemical frackwaste acceptor in Ohio ...... 13 A Dirty Dozen Reasons to Oppose Fracking ...... 14 Colorado Fracking Wastewater Injection Site Up In Flames ...... 14 Questionable Science ...... 16 Critics say SU prof hid ties to gas driller Chesapeake in fracking study ...... 16 Renewable Energy ...... 17 Parrsboro tidal turbines set to roll ...... 17 Sackville couple says solar power becoming affordable ...... 17 Tesla's expected home battery announcement could spark energy revolution ...... 17 Science and Health ...... 19 Dallas doctor gets no answers on frack fluid ingredients ...... 19 Scientists Discover Two New Pollutants In Fracking Waste ...... 19 Fracking And Toxic Air ...... 20 Fracking criticism spreads, even in Alberta and Texas ...... 20 Why was a 2012 Health Canada Report, admitting significant health hazards and risks ...... 20 Increased levels of radon in Pennsylvania homes correspond to onset of fracking ...... 21 Study raises questions about measuring radioactivity in fracking wastewater ...... 21 Researchers find 7,300-sq-mile ring of mercury around tar sands in Canada ...... 22 Frustrated Tar Sands Industry Looks for Arctic Export Route ...... 22 Energy East pipeline puts northern environment at risk: report ...... 22 Fracking Waste Puts Public at Risk, Study Says ...... 23 8 Striking Portraits of People in the Path of Canada’s Mega Tar Sands Pipeline ...... 23 As Researchers Tie Fracking and Radon, Pennsylvania Moves to Keep Drilling Radioactivity Data Under Wraps ...... 24 Sour gas from oil wells a deadly problem in southeast Saskatchewan ...... 24 Beneath the tar sands is even dirtier oil, and industry is salivating over it ...... 25 ALERT Project ...... 25 Offering a case against fracking ...... 25 Economics, Legal, and Investigations ...... 26 Guardian Media Group to divest its £800m fund from fossil fuels ...... 26 Jeremy Clarkson joins Guardian drive for fossil fuel divestment ...... 26 Syracuse University to divest $1.18bn endowment from fossil fuels ...... 26 No returns on LNG for years, global energy expert warns ...... 26 Creditors Pulling The Rug From Under U.S. Shale Sector ...... 27

1 Family awarded $3MILLION after court finds chemical exposure from fracking ...... 27 Corridor Resources cuts natural gas reserves for McCully Field ...... 27 Study Finds Frackers Average at Least Two Violations a Day ...... 28 Canadian Legal Information Institute ...... 28 Judgements of the Supreme Court of Canada ...... 28 CN takes action against Grassy Narrows over blockade that didn’t happen Embedded video ...... 29 No title? No problem. Aboriginals can sue over property rights: appeal court ...... 29 22,000+ jobs from tidal power in the Bay of Fundy? That oughta make some waves for the fossil fuel industry! ...... 29 Canadian clean technology is going for gold ...... 30 Regulations ...... 31 Mandatory federal guidelines needed on fracking, coal mining ...... 31 Environment and Enjoyment of Property ...... 32 Study: Direct Evidence That Global Warming Causes More Global Warming ...... 32 Air pollution in Asia may be changing weather patterns in the United States. Embedded video .... 32 Seventy percent of western Canada's glaciers could be gone by 2100 ...... 32 April 3, 1980: The Day That Walter Cronkite Warned Us About Global Warming Embedded video ...... 33 9 Planetary Boundaries to Ensure a Healthy Planet Embedded video ...... 33 Over 25,000 March in Quebec Demanding Climate Leadership in Canada ...... 33 Arctic Sea Ice At Record Low On April 9 2015 ...... 34 Carbon taxes offer economic pain for little to no environmental gain ...... 34 10 reasons a carbon tax is trickier than you think ...... 34 IPCC and media coverage of climate reports ...... 35 The Climate Change March to the parliament building in Quebec City ...... 35 Shift: Beyond the Numbers of the Climate Crisis Embedded video ...... 35 Climate change debate brings all government levels together ...... 35 How is Your Province Acting on Climate? A Primer for the Premiers' Climate Summit ...... 36 The Pacific Ocean may have entered a new warm phase and the consequences could be dramatic ...... 36 'Warm blob' in Pacific Ocean linked to weird weather across the U.S...... 36 Emergency Shut Down Of West Coast Fisheries: “Populations Have Crashed 91 Percent” – Mac Slavo ...... 37 Covert Operations - The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama...... 37 Information Morning Fredericton - Effects of Climate Change ...... 37 Earth to humans: Planetary health now in jeopardy ...... 38 Energy and Health 5 - Food, livestock production, energy, climate change, and health ...... 38 Government, Meetings, News, and Letters ...... 39 Aboriginal Law News & Analysis ...... 39 PMO ordered Justice department to re-word Criminal Code to weaken Gladue principles for Aboriginal offenders ...... 39 Aboriginal Leader Says Consult or Risk Canada Resource Gains ...... 39 'There is no way to save this bill': Pamela Palmater skewers Bill C-51 ...... 40 Premiers fail to take climate action at Quebec City summit ...... 40 David Coon’s Response to the 2015-2016 Budget ...... 40 NB Political Panel: April 16 ...... 41 New Brunswick News ...... 42 A Call Out - IMW Consultation Delegation - Iapjiw Maliaptasiktitiew Wskwitqamu ...... 42 Maritime News ...... 43 Bear Head LNG signs MOU with Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq ...... 43 Warning to visitors to Nova Scotia ...... 43

2 LETTER: Social license, more than public consultation ...... 43 Environmental coalition says Nova Scotia bill to ban fracking is badly flawed ...... 43 Dept. of Natural Resources in conflict of interest on fracking ...... 44 May 21, 2015: Day of the Damned ...... 44 Canadian News ...... 45 Edmonton’s bad air is dirtier than Toronto’s, which has five times the people ...... 45 Edmonton Air Carcinogens: Study Finds Alarming Levels Of Chemicals Downwind Of Petrochemical Plants ...... 45 Jessica Ernst's fracking case to be heard by Supreme Court of Canada ...... 45 Other News ...... 46 Anti-fracking support could swing the General Election, survey reveals ...... 46 Public won’t see Pavillion water report data until after its been reviewed, corrected by Encana, EPA ...... 46 Over population, over consumption - in pictures ...... 46 Train cars hauling fracking sand derail near Uniontown homes ...... 46 Fracking Activist Alma Hasse Files $1.5 Million Lawsuit for ‘Wrongful Arrest’ After All Charges Dropped ...... 47 Pro-fracking company asked to carry out safety study - Ireland ...... 47 1,500 Fracking Leases Cancelled in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Where "Gasland" Began ...... 47 Freaking out over fracking ...... 48 High cost of cheap gas ...... 48 Water ...... 49 New report condemns Harper government's "assault" on Canada's freshwater ...... 49 Flint residents find state water control hard to swallow ...... 49 Who is Sucking Water Out of California Without a Permit? ...... 49 Will Turning Seawater Into Drinking Water Help Drought-Hit California? ...... 50 This City Could Become The Next Detroit ...... 50 Beneath California Crops, Groundwater Crisis Grows ...... 50 Oil wastewater used on Kern County crops Embedded video ...... 51 Man Gets Prison Sentence For Collecting Rainwater On His Own Property ...... 52 Mexico oil spill leaves 200,000 without water ...... 52 Bottled water ban at Regina store opens flood of debate ...... 52 Fracking and Earthquakes ...... 53 Staggering Rise in Fracking Earthquakes Triggers Kansas to Take Action ...... 53 Oil and Pipelines ...... 54 4 dead, 16 hurt in oil platform fire in Gulf of Mexico ...... 54 TransCanada will not build oil export terminal in Quebec ...... 54 Recent Crude Oil Train Derailments Intensify the Spotlight on Rail Safety and the Value of Oil Pipelines ...... 54 Energy East pipeline completion date pushed back to 2020 ...... 55 Canada pipeline regulator planning deep budget cuts ...... 55 Throwing darts at map won’t cut it: CCNB says TransCanada has moral duty to withdraw pipeline application ...... 56 Energy East risks outweigh minimal benefits ...... 56 What Atlantic Coast Should Brace For If Offshore Drilling Approved ...... 56 Man Wins Right To Sue Enbridge After Getting Sick ...... 57 Column: Premiers wrong about energy, climate change ...... 57 Strike Three for Tar Sands Pipelines? ...... 58 On May 30th, let's show Canada and the world that Red Head is "the end of the line" for Energy East ...... 58 What Canada will look like with $40 oil ...... 58

3 10 Threats from the Canadian Tar Sands Industry ...... 59 Vancouver fuel spill washes up beach in Kitsilano Embedded video ...... 59 Energy East will not bring prosperity to New Brunswick ...... 59 61% of Canadians say protecting the climate more important than pipelines and tarsands ...... 60 Dramatic photos of Vancouver oil spill spark pipeline outrage on social media ...... 60 Funding slashed for all safety programs at Transport Canada ...... 60 La Salle River rupture: TransCanada misleading on safety track record? ...... 61 Scotiabank CEO: Canadian Energy Projects Are ‘Priority’ ...... 61 VIDEO: Does James Moore still think Vancouver has Canada's #1 Coast Guard service? ...... 61 Another frac mess! 200 Evacuated, Nearly 70 homes damaged in Marinza, Albania ...... 62 Elizabeth May on Vancouver oil spill Embedded video ...... 62 US Pipelines Incidents Are a Daily Occurrence ...... 62 Utility won't appeal $1.6 billion penalty for deadly blast ...... 63 Barricades not out of the question to fight pipeline: Mohawk leader ...... 63 Energy East pipeline puts Winnipeg drinking water at risk, Barlow says ...... 63 Anti-pipeline tour comes to Saskatchewan ...... 64 Energy East pipeline: Maude Barlow raises alarm in Swift Current ...... 64 Alberta's Greatly Anticipated Tar Sands Tailings Ponds Framework Falls Short ...... 64 Ontario adopts cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gases Embedded video ...... 64 Sale of Carbon Credits ...... 65 Carbon Traders ...... 65 Researchers find 7,300-sq-mile ring of mercury around tar sands in Canada ...... 65 Vancouver oil spill creates job for clean-up company owned by oil companies ...... 66 The BC Oil Spill and the Con Clown James Moore ...... 66 Secret Videos Expose Chevron’s Corruption in Ecuadorian Oil Spill ...... 66 Saint John fire chief points out training gap for large fuel fires ...... 67 Disaster in the Gulf Five years later, not much has changed—including the impulse to drill ...... 67 Greens seeing red over oilsands pipeline ...... 67 Energy East pipeline opposition tour stops in Regina ...... 67 National Energy Board on cross-Canada tour to assure public ...... 68 Record crude volumes, pipeline delays lead to boom in oil storage ...... 68 Ewart: Alberta oil hits a hurdle en route to world markets in Quebec City ...... 69 Oil Change International, Greenpeace, and Platform – April 2015 ...... 69 Tar Sands Megaprojects Hurt Canada's Ability to Meet Climate Goals: Report ...... 69 A Love Letter to Harper From the Oil Industry ...... 70 Mexico oil spill leaves 200,000 without water ...... 70 Koch Brothers Exposed: 2014 Full Documentary Film • Brave New Films ...... 70 Draw the line against tar sands devastation Embedded video ...... 70 Doing the Unthinkable: Giant Gas Pipeline to Flank a New York Nuclear Power Plant ...... 71 Desperate B.C. Liberals want secret subsidy deals for LNG companies ...... 71 Farmers face loss of lease payments as smaller oil companies go bankrupt ...... 71 IMAGES AÉRIENNES EXCLUSIVES: Déraillement de train à Saint-Basile Embedded video ...... 72 CN train derailed near Edmundston ...... 72 CN train derails near Edmundston, no injuries reported ...... 73 TransCanada’s Pipeline Benefit Vows Fail to Sway Quebec’s Arcand ...... 73 Vancouver's oil spill: Damage in the water ...... 73 These Pictures May Give You Nightmares About The Canada Oil Sands ...... 74 Thanks to the BP oil disaster, this Louisiana barrier island is washing away Embedded video ...... 74 Ohio oil spill: When drilling hits home ...... 74 GroundWire | April 14, 2015: The pipelines episode Embedded audio ...... 75 A Danger on the Rails Embedded video ...... 75

4 The Weir - Save the Bay of Fundy ...... 75 Conservative MPs get a surprise delivery of toxic debris from Vancouver oil spill...... 75 CERAWeek: Low prices slow, but won’t end, Canadian oil sands development ...... 75 Gatekeeper of Canada's Energy East pipeline has mixed environmental record ...... 76 Beneath the tar sands is even dirtier oil, and industry is salivating over it ...... 76 Presentation raises concerns over Energy East pipeline plan ...... 76 TransCanada seeks U.S. permit on Upland line as Keystone XL waits ...... 77 U.S. bans BP from new government contracts after oil spill deal ...... 77 NEB Fight Headed to Highest Court ...... 77 U.S. energy advertising blitz cost Canadians $24M ...... 78 Irving Oil using Bay of Fundy as its refinery toxic waste dumping site...... 78 The Energy East proposal began with the Irvings... the top beneficiaries...... 79 Enbridge keeps plans secret for Line 9 ...... 79 Mel Norton orders staff to probe Canaport LNG tax deal ...... 79 Neil Young To Host Concert To Help First Nation Fight Oilsands Development ...... 80 Big Oil Is About to Lose Control of the Auto Industry ...... 80 TransCanada Keystone 1 Pipeline Suffered Major Corrosion Only Two Years In Operation, 95% Worn In One Spot ...... 80 Pipelines vs. trains: Which is better for moving oil? ...... 81 Mining ...... 82 Lost Aboriginal Artifacts in New Brunswick and Challenges for Archaeology and Aboriginal Title . 82 Wiretap transcripts raise troubling questions about Tahoe Resources' militarized security detail .. 82 PHOTOS: Company responsible for Mount Polley disaster applies to reopen mine ...... 82 Xeni Gwet’in Mining Activist Wins Goldman Environmental Prize Embedded video ...... 83 Canadian, American groups call on B.C. to end underwater storage of mine tailings ...... 83 Mount Polley Independent Expert Investigation and Review Report ...... 84 Forestry ...... 85 Information Morning Fredericton - Is Glyphosate a Threat to Human Health? ...... 85 Question Period: Herbicides – Wednesday, April 1, 2015 ...... 85 U.S. paper producers file petition against Canadian competitors ...... 85 NB Newsmaker April 8: Ben Phillips ...... 85 Fundy Biosphere group sees dramatic change in Acadian forest Embedded video ...... 86 Ecojustice sues Ottawa over refusal to review crop pesticide ...... 86 IARC Monographs Volume 112: evaluation of five organophosphate insecticides and herbicides . 86 Carcinogenicity of tetrachlorvinphos, parathion, malathion, diazinon, and glyphosate ...... 87 NB Government - Be informed about herbicides ...... 87 Difenoconazole - United States Environmental Protection Agency 22 March 1999 ...... 87 Mamwi (unedited & uncut version) - Forestry blockade in Quebec ...... 87 Question Period: Herbicides – Wednesday, April 1, 2015 ...... 87 Charles Theriault: a specific case of corp. theft from a NB mill at PANB public session April 18'14 ...... 88 Watch the World's Forests Disappear on Google Earth Embedded video ...... 88 Video Links ...... 89 Air pollution in Asia may be changing weather patterns in the United States...... 89 The Climate Change March to the parliament building in Quebec City ...... 89 Elizabeth May on Vancouver oil spill ...... 89 Act on climate change event – Moncton ...... 89 Shift: Beyond the Numbers of the Climate Crisis Embedded video ...... 89 Koch Brothers Exposed: 2014 Full Documentary Film • Brave New Films ...... 89 Draw the line against tar sands devastation Embedded video ...... 89 Thanks to the BP oil disaster, this Louisiana barrier island is washing away...... 89

5 Charles Theriault: a specific case of corp. theft from a NB mill at PANB public session April 18'14 ...... 89 A Danger on the Rails Embedded video ...... 90 Xeni Gwet’in Mining Activist Wins Goldman Environmental Prize Embedded video ...... 90 The Weir - Save the Bay of Fundy ...... 90 Conservative MPs get a surprise delivery of toxic debris from Vancouver oil spill...... 90 Who is Sucking Water Out of California Without a Permit? ...... 90 ALERT Project ...... 90 A Call Out - IMW Consultation Delegation - Iapjiw Maliaptasiktitiew Wskwitqamu ...... 90

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/

8 Calls for Moratoriums and Bans

Maryland Senate, House Pass Two-Year Fracking Ban

The bill, passed with veto-proof majorities in both chambers, will head to Gov. Hogan. His position on it is unknown. http://insideclimatenews.org/news/10042015/maryland-senate-house-pass-two-year-fracking-ban http://www.care2.com/causes/mayland-passes-2-5-year-fracking-ban.html

Fracking banned for five years by Tasmanian Government

Mr Rockliff said there was uncertainty around fracking, and his decision would "protect Tasmania's reputation for producing fresh, premium and safe produce". http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-26/fracking-banned-for-five-years-by-tasmanian- government/6265378

State board approves petition language to ban drilling

Lansing — Michigan's Board of State Canvassers approved the format of petitions for a ballot campaign to ban hydraulic fracturing Tuesday, and the leader of the effort said volunteers will start collecting signatures on May 22.

"We have a lot more momentum statewide, a lot more people wanting to sign the petitions, a lot more people wanting to volunteer," said LuAnne Kozma, chairwoman of the Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan.

The group has 180 days from the start of petition circulation to collect 252,523 signatures. If they turn in enough signatures, lawmakers will have 40 days to approve the proposed ban of this method of drilling for gas and oil — also called fracking — or allow the question to go on ballots for the November 2016 general election. http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2015/04/14/state-board-approves-petition-language- ban-drilling/25770355/

Albany Co. bans hydrofracking waste

Albany County is now the largest in the state to ban hydrofracking waste. The county legislature unanimously approved the ban Monday night. It means waste from fracking won't be allowed in Albany landfills.

The county is the third in the state to impose this kind of ban and county legislators say this goes beyond the statewide ban on fracking. http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S3764906.shtml?cat=300

9 Municipalities against Fracking (New Brunswick)

Association francophone des municipalités du Nouveau-Brunswick (51 municipalities) These municipalities reaffirmed their position in October 2013, calling once again for a moratorium. Kent Co. Regional Service Commission (14 municipalities )

1. Moncton 2. Hillsborough 3. Alma 4. Sackville 5. Memramcook 6. Hampton 7. Minto 8. Stanley 9. Bathurst 10. Sussex Corner 11. Quispamsis 12. Port Elgin 13. Wolastoqiyik First Nations Chiefs and Band Councils of NB and the Maliseet Grand Council (Oct 2013) 14. Dorchester http://www.noshalegasnb.ca/our-supporters/municipalities-against-fracking/

10 Contamination and Science

Shock: Fracking Used to Inject Nuclear Waste Underground for Decades

Unearthed articles from the 1960s detail how nuclear waste was buried beneath the Earth’s surface by Halliburton & Co. for decades as a means of disposing the by-products of post-World War II atomic energy production.

From San Antonio Express/News Sundy May 3, 1964

Fracking is already a controversial practice on its face; allowing U.S. industries to inject slurries of toxic, potentially carcinogenic compounds deep beneath the planet’s surface — as a means of “see no evil” waste disposal. http://www.globalresearch.ca/shock-fracking-used-to-inject-nuclear-waste-underground-for- decades/5435114

11 States Fail to Properly Manage Fracking Waste, Says Groundbreaking Report

It might seem illogical, but in 1988 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) put a loophole in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) which regulates hazardous and solid waste, exempting the waste from oil and gas exploration, development and production (E &P) from oversight. While it conceded that such wastes might indeed be hazardous, it said that state regulations were adequate.

That was then, and this is now. The fracking boom has brought oil and gas operations into states and communities that never dealt with them before. Elected officials in those states are often beholden to those oil and gas interests, especially as the amount of money flowing into elections has multiplied exponentially. Basically, the fox is guarding the henhouse. http://ecowatch.com/2015/04/02/fail-manage-fracking-waste/

Four Of 10 Fracked Wells In Pennsylvania Are Projected To Fail, Spewing Methane Into Air And Water

After examining the publicly available compliance records of more than 41,000 wells in northeastern Pennsylvania, the Cornell-led researchers have dropped this bombshell:

About 40 percent of the oil and gas wells in parts of the Marcellus shale region will probably be leaking methane into the groundwater or into the atmosphere…. This study shows up to a 2.7-fold higher risk for unconventional wells — relative to conventional wells — drilled since 2009.

Study after study has found consistently higher methane leakage rates from natural gas production and distribution than reported by either the industry or EPA (which uses industry self-reported data). http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/07/02/3453533/fracked-wells-methane/

Fracking Study on Water Contamination Under Ethics Review

Chesapeake Energy paid undisclosed fees to the lead author, whose study was based on water samples provided by the company.

Drinking-water wells in Pennsylvania close to natural gas sites do not face a greater risk of methane contamination than those farther away, according to a new study published in Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T). But the study is now being called into question because of its methodology and some undisclosed ties to energy giant Chesapeake Energy.

The findings contradict recent studies that identified a correlation between proximity to natural gas wells and higher methane levels in well water. The new study analyzed more than 11,000 water samples collected by Chesapeake and provided to researchers. http://www.insideclimatenews.org/news/06042015/fracking-study-water-contamination-under-ethics- review

12 Another frac mess! 200 Evacuated, Nearly 70 homes damaged in Marinza, Albania

Canadian firm Bankers Petroleum Ltd (has steam injection pilot project there), was at 500 metres depth when “volcanos” of gas, mud (chemicals?) and water erupted

Click to watch: Fontänen aus Gas und Schlamm schießen aus dem Boden [IN GERMAN, ENGLISH NOT NEEDED TO UNDERSTAND THE DAMAGES AND HORROR FOR THE COMMUNITY] Veröffentlicht am April 2, 2015, Kanadische Firma bestreitet einen Zusammenhang zu Ölbohrungen in dem Dorf. http://www.ernstversusencana.ca/200-evacuated-70-homes-damaged-in-marinza-albania-bankers- petroleum-steam-injection-pilot-project-volcanos-of-gas-mud-chemicals-water http://www.t-online.de/tv/news/id_73509666/gaseruptionen-in-einem-albanischen-dorf.html

Emergency crews still trying to replug gas well in southwest Arlington

City of Arlington crews, gas well operator Vantage Energy and Boots and Coots, a well control company, worked through the night to resolve a gas well mishap in southwest Arlington.

Boots & Coots attempted to replug the gas well at 4 a.m., but was unsuccessful, the city of Arlington said on its website. “Boots and Coots will be bringing in additional resources to replace the gas wellhead as quickly and safely as possible,” the city said. “While there has been no gas released to this point, the possibility exist that a release could occur. All citizens are asked to stay away from the area impacted by this gas well incident.”

The incident involved “flow back of pressurized fracking water” at the well site along Little Road, according to officials. http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/arlington/article18315026.html

Fracking Waste Puts Public at Risk, Study Says

Three decades after EPA left regulation to states, they're still taking a 'see no evil' approach to oil-and- gas-waste, Earthworks says. Weakness in state regulations governing hazardous oil-and-gas waste have allowed the leftovers to be disposed of with little regard to the dangers they pose to human health and the environment, according to a recent study by the environmental organization Earthworks.

The report says states disregard the risks because of a decades-old federal regulation that allows oil- and-gas waste to be handled as non-hazardous material. http://insideclimatenews.org/news/15042015/fracking-waste-puts-public-risk-study-says

Athens County likely to become No. 1 chemical frackwaste acceptor in Ohio

A brine injection well recently permitted to Troy Township will likely make Athens County the largest acceptor of chemical-laden fracking waste in Ohio.

13 The well, owned by K&H Partners, was permitted by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources on March 18 to accept as many as 12,000 barrels of brine per day from a steady flow of tractor-trailers travelling down U.S. Route 50.

The Athens County Fracking Action Network took legal action against ODNR Tuesday, citing sizeable human health concerns for air and water quality and demanding a retraction of the permit.

There is something really wrong with a system that forces an economically disadvantaged area for the economic gain of a handful of people while threatening what is a growing local food tourism and renewables industry,” said Crissa Cummings, a local activist who chained herself to the K&H gate last June to protest the safety of the wells. “The fact that our local community has no say in the decision making is a serious problem.” http://www.thepostathens.com/news/athens-county-likely-to-become-no-chemical-frackwaste-acceptor- in/article_29a5d64a-e396-11e4-a996-73157640b251.html

A Dirty Dozen Reasons to Oppose Fracking

Companies are drilling at unprecedented depths, using technology that one gas company employee told me, “is beyond our knowledge to manage it.”

Dead and injured workers (here and here), explosions on fracking pads (here), dead and injured motorists (here and here), destroyed wells and streams (here), dead livestock (here) and sickened residents (here) are just some of the public health and safety risks associated with fracking. Indeed, the list is rather long. The negative by-products of fracking include:

1. Site Development and Well Pad Activity 2. Traffic Congestion 3. Water Use and Contamination 4. Air Pollution 5. Waste Disposal 6. Public Health Issues 7. Quality of Life Issues 8. Related Pipeline Development 9. Misuse of Eminent Domain 10. Climate Change 11. Potential Earthquakes 12. Industry Instability http://appalachianchronicle.com/2015/02/19/a-dirty-dozen-reasons-to-oppose-fracking/

Colorado Fracking Wastewater Injection Site Up In Flames

Around 1:15 this afternoon a fracking waste-water injection site in Greeley Colorado went up in flames causing several large explosions. The Greeley Tribune reported that Fire-fighters waited to engage until around 5:30pm ” until the explosion risk subsided before going in with the foam fire suppression agent to subdue the fire.”

14 Explosions and fireballs erupted from the fire throughout the afternoon, spewing black smoke into the sky, which was visible for miles. The roar of the fire sounded like a freight train rumbling past.

A little after 3 p.m., the fire spread south toward a grouping of tanks, a loud whistling sound preceded a large explosion that launched a tank into the air. The tank landed about 60 feet from the site. http://revolution-news.com/colorado-fracking-wastewater-injection-site-up-in-flames/

15 Questionable Science

Critics say SU prof hid ties to gas driller Chesapeake in fracking study

Syracuse, N.Y. -- A Syracuse University researcher has come under fire from anti-fracking activists for failing to disclose his ties to the gas industry in a recent study.

Donald Siegel has said he has a contract with Chesapeake Energy Corp., and another author of the paper worked for Chesapeake. The final paper in the journal Environmental Science & Technology states that "the authors declare no competing financial interest."

The study found that drinking wells in Pennsylvania had not been contaminated with methane from nearby fracking wells. The study has been touted by pro-fracking activists as evidence that the process is safe. Anti-fracking activists say they don't trust the paper because the water samples were provided by Chesapeake and because Siegel and one of the co-authors, Bert Smith, have financial ties to the company. http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2015/04/fracking_study_syracuse_university_chesapeake_en ergy_methane_wells.html

16 Renewable Energy

Parrsboro tidal turbines set to roll

This is the year that the first power-producing turbines are expected to hit the water at the tidal energy test site off Parrsboro.

And it looks like things are sailing along.

“All components are either under construction or in the final phase of procurement,” Jeremy Poste, country manager of OpenHydro Technology Canada, said during a presentation Tuesday at the 10th annual Smart Energy Event in Halifax.

Through Cape Sharp Tidal, a joint business venture with Emera, OpenHydro will deploy two two- megawatt turbines at its berth at the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy in the Bay of Fundy slightly later than the previous estimates of a summer launch. http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/1280542-parrsboro-tidal-turbines-set-to-roll http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/tidal-power-potentially-worth-billions-to-maritimes- report-finds-1.3047209

Sackville couple says solar power becoming affordable

It's the warmest day of the year so far in Sackville, N.B., and Blane and Heather Smith are outside, opening-up the garden centre they run beside their three-floor, 27-year-old home. And on a day like today, that home is being powered by sunshine.

"Our power output is 5,100 watts, so that's enough to run our house right now," says Blane Smith.

Over the past few years the Smiths installed 24 photovoltaic panels on the roof for electrical power, two solar water-heating panels, and triple-glazed windows. Together with a heat pump system, the retrofits effectively mean the Smiths pay no more than a monthly connection fee to NB Power. Their most recent bill was $33.24. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/sackville-couple-says-solar-power-becoming- affordable-1.3036748

Tesla's expected home battery announcement could spark energy revolution

SolarCity has already run a pilot program where it installed 300 home batteries made by Tesla in California homes. Another 130 systems were being installed in early 2015, according to the company's website.

The product will be available again in late summer, the company says, as it's working on "the next phase" of the program.

17 Tesla is also in the midst of building its gigafactory, which has added to the speculation that the company is unveiling a home battery. Musk says that by 2020, the factory will produce more lithium-ion batteries than all the current factories producing them today. http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/tesla-s-expected-home-battery-announcement-could-spark-energy- revolution-1.3055438?cmp=fbtl

18 Science and Health

Dallas doctor gets no answers on frack fluid ingredients

DALLAS TWP. — After his failed attempts to fight the state’s oil and gas law in court, Alfonso Rodriguez, M.D., is ready to sign a nondisclosure form to view a full list of ingredients in hydraulic fracturing fluid.

If only someone could tell him where to find it.

Since 2010, the kidney specialist has been trying to obtain information on the chemical mix used to frack a specific Chesapeake Energy Corp. well in Bradford County.

He said he believes it could be the source of serious problems affecting one of his patients, a Luzerne County man who was coated in flowback fluid during a well blowout about five years ago.

Still, a provision in the state’s Act 13 of 2012 should allow Dr. Rodriguez access to the full list of chemicals used in a specific well, including those deemed “trade secrets,” as long as he signs a form saying he will not disclose them.

Last week, they called state health and environmental agencies, including the Department of Health, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of State, the State Board of Medicine and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. No one knew anything about a nondisclosure form, they said. http://bakken.com/news/id/235828/dallas-doctor-gets-no-answers-on-frack-fluid-ingredients/

Scientists Discover Two New Pollutants In Fracking Waste

The primary waste product created by oil and gas drilling contains two types of potentially hazardous contaminants that have never before been associated with the industry, research published in the peer- reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology on Wednesday revealed.

Duke University geochemistry professor Avner Vengosh and his team of scientists found that wastewater produced by both conventional and unconventional oil drillers contains high volumes of ammonium and iodide — chemicals that, when dissolved in water or mixed with other pollutants, can encourage the formation of toxins like carcinogenic disinfection byproducts and have negative impacts on aquatic life.

That’s a problem, the study said, because oil and gas industry wastewater is often discharged or spilled into streams and rivers that eventually flow into drinking water systems.

“We were not aware that they existed in oil and gas waste products,” Vengosh told ThinkProgress on Wednesday. “Until now, no one was aware — no one was monitoring for those contaminants.” http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/01/14/3611503/two-new-fracking-pollutants/? __scoop_post=743b3420-d9e6-11e4-bbe1- 001018304b75&__scoop_topic=3824356#__scoop_post=743b3420-d9e6-11e4-bbe1- 001018304b75&__scoop_topic=3824356

19 Fracking And Toxic Air

A new study, published today in the journal Environmental Health, identifies potentially hazardous concentrations of air pollutants near some oil and gas operations in five states.

The research shines a light on what some communities face as US oil and gas development accelerates. The United States is now the leading natural gas producer in the world. The number of natural gas wells in our country has increased by more than 80% since 1990. There are now half a million natural gas wells in the US. Countless communities are living side by side with well pads, compressor stations, and pipelines – some for the very first time.

In a years-long collaborative project, residents in Arkansas, Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming were trained to take air samples, which were lab-tested for dozens of volatile organic chemicals. http://www.momscleanairforce.org/fracking-toxic-air/

Fracking criticism spreads, even in Alberta and Texas

Canadian, U.S. studies raise concerns that chemicals used in process make people sick In a March 2015 study in the Journal of Environmental Science and Health, researchers took six-hour average measurements of air pollution instead of the traditional 24-hour averages. They found pollution levels tend to spike at certain times of the day and under certain weather conditions, which previous studies had ignored.

The study found that the closer people live to drilling sites and other gas production facilities, the more likely they are to exhibit symptoms of toxic exposure. http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/fracking-criticism-spreads-even-in-alberta-and-texas-1.3002287 http://www.ernstversusencana.ca/special-issue-of-journal-environmental-science-and-health-part-a- toxichazardous-substances-and-environmental-engineering-facing-the-challenges-research-on-shale- gas-extraction http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/lesa20/50/5#.VSPf58J0xjq

Why was a 2012 Health Canada Report, admitting significant health hazards and risks to groundwater and air from hydraulic fracturing, kept from the public?

Potential Health Hazards from Shale Gas Exploration and Exploitation by Severine Louis, M.Sc., Toxicologist Project Manager- Risk Analysis and Marie-Odile Fouchecourt, Ph.D. Toxicologist Project Director-Risk Analysis, May 4, 2012, for Mr. Richard Carrier, Head, Chemical Assessment Section Safe Environments Directorate, Health Canada, 0/Ref.: RA 11-410, Y/Ref.: SO No. 4600000047 http://www.ernstversusencana.ca/why-was-a-2012-health-canada-report-admitting-significant-health- hazards-and-risks-to-groundwater-and-air-from-hydraulic-fracturing-kept-from-the-public http://www.ernstversusencana.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012-Health-Canada-Potential-Health-Hazards- from-Shale-Gas-Drinking-water-Ambient-Air-released-under-FOIP.pdf

20 Increased levels of radon in Pennsylvania homes correspond to onset of fracking

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers say that levels of radon in Pennsylvania homes - where 42 percent of readings surpass what the U.S. government considers safe - have been on the rise since 2004, around the time that the fracking industry began drilling natural gas wells in the state.

The researchers, publishing online April 9 in Environmental Health Perspectives, also found that buildings located in the counties where natural gas is most actively being extracted out of Marcellus shale have in the past decade seen significantly higher readings of radon compared with buildings in low-activity areas. There were no such county differences prior to 2004. Radon, an odorless radioactive gas, is considered the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the world after smoking. http://phys.org/news/2015-04-radon-pennsylvania-homes-correspond-onset.html? __scoop_post=5c2d1390-de77-11e4-d5bd- 90b11c0cc348&__scoop_topic=3824356#__scoop_post=5c2d1390-de77-11e4-d5bd- 90b11c0cc348&__scoop_topic=3824356

Study raises questions about measuring radioactivity in fracking wastewater

Last year, Andrew Nelson, a doctoral candidate in human toxicology at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, helped the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) write an analysis that concluded that agency-recommended testing methods may understate some measures of radioactivity. Although EPA does not regulate most oil and gas activities, laboratories that test water for state regulators, oil and gas producers, and wastewater treatment plants often rely on the agency’s recommended methods. One problem with current EPA techniques, the report found, is that they focus on levels of radium in fresh water used for drinking, and so do not work well with fracking waste. In part, that’s because Marcellus Shale wastewater is saltier than seawater; it also holds other potentially problematic radionuclides in addition to radium.

Now, in a paper published online on 2 April in Environmental Health Perspectives, a team led by Nelson shows that radium-focused tests can significantly underestimate the total radioactivity of wastewater that is stored in closed containers, such as tanks. The researchers found the testing methods don’t fully measure radium’s daughter decay products, which can build up in the days and years after the briny waste reaches the surface. Radioactivity levels in stored wastewater can rise fivefold within 15 days, for example, and continue to rise for decades. http://news.sciencemag.org/chemistry/2015/04/study-raises-questions-about-measuring-radioactivity- fracking-wastewater

The study

Understanding the Radioactive Ingrowth and Decay of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials in the Environment: An Analysis of Produced Fluids from the Marcellus Shale http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1408855/

21 Researchers find 7,300-sq-mile ring of mercury around tar sands in Canada

Scientists have found a more than 7,300-square-mile ring of land and water contaminated by mercury surrounding the tar sands in Alberta, where energy companies are producing oil and shipping it throughout Canada and the U.S.

Government scientists are preparing to publish a report that found levels of mercury are up to 16 times higher around the tar-sand operations — principally due to the excavation and transportation of bitumen in the sands by oil and gas companies, according to Postmedia-owned Canadian newspapers like The Vancouver Sun.

Environment Canada researcher Jane Kirk recently presented the findings at a toxicology conference in Nashville, Tenn. http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/12/29/7-500-mile-ring- ofmercuryfoundaroundcanadastarsands.html

Frustrated Tar Sands Industry Looks for Arctic Export Route

The Alberta tar sands industry — and the governments that depend on tar sands tax revenues — are facing an increasingly pressing problem: How to get the growing flow of oil sands bitumen to market. And with proposed pipelines to the south, east, and west facing stiff opposition, tar sands interests are now investigating another controversial option — heading north and shipping their product via the Arctic.

To the south, the proposed $10 billion Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport Alberta tar sands oil through the heartland of the U.S. to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico, faces the possibility of being killed by the Obama administration later this year. Two pipeline proposals that would ship processed bitumen from Alberta’s tar sands to Canada’s Pacific Coast have been stalled by aboriginal, municipal, and environmental interests, who fear spills in environmentally sensitive mountain and coastal environments. A third project — Trans Canada’s Energy East Pipeline proposal, which would send Alberta oil to Atlantic Canada — has encountered such strong resistance that the pipeline company last week announced a two-year delay in its plans. http://e360.yale.edu/feature/frustrated_tar_sands_industry_looks_for_arctic_export_route/2862/

Energy East pipeline puts northern environment at risk: report

A provincial report says the Energy East oil pipeline comes with significant environmental risk and small economic reward for northern Ontario.

The report comes out of a year-long review of the project by the Ontario Energy Board.

Part of that review were a series of public hearings held across the north last year. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/energy-east-pipeline-puts-northern-environment-at-risk-report- 1.3023534

22 Fracking Waste Puts Public at Risk, Study Says

Weakness in state regulations governing hazardous oil-and-gas waste have allowed the leftovers to be disposed of with little regard to the dangers they pose to human health and the environment, according to a recent study by the environmental organization Earthworks.

http://insideclimatenews.org/news/15042015/fracking-waste-puts-public-risk-study-says

8 Striking Portraits of People in the Path of Canada’s Mega Tar Sands Pipeline

When photographer Robert van Waarden heard about Transcanada’s Energy East project—a tar sands pipeline that, if built, would be the longest such pipeline in the world and would exceed the capacity of Keystone XL by about 30 percent—he did what he knew how to do: he took pictures.

Over the course of several months, van Waarden drove all 2,800 miles of the proposed pipeline route across Canada, from Hardisty, Alberta, to the eastern terminus at St. John, New Brunswick. Using an old 4x5 film camera from the early ’70s—the kind where you put a cloth over your head—he made portraits of the people he met on the way, and recorded their words. The result was Along the Pipeline, a collective portrait of more than 70 indigenous people, farmers, fishermen, artists, and business

23 owners. He wanted to know how they felt about the pipeline, the environment, and Canada’s economic future. He spent time in their homes, camped in their backyards, cooked with them in their kitchens. http://www.yesmagazine.org/climate-in-our-hands/photographer-robert-van-waarden-documents- pipeline-resistance?utm_source=YTW&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=20150410 http://alongthepipeline.com/

As Researchers Tie Fracking and Radon, Pennsylvania Moves to Keep Drilling Radioactivity Data Under Wraps

Last week, research into the connection between fracking and radon, an odorless, colorless, radioactive gas, drew international attention, making headlines in English, German and Italian.

The study, published in the scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found that buildings in Pennsylvania counties where fracking is most common had significantly higher radon readings than the levels found in counties with little shale gas drilling — a difference that emerged around 2004, when the shale rush arrived.

The potential link between fracking and radon in people's homes was surprising, the researchers, based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said. http://desmogblog.com/2015/04/19/pennsylvania-keeps-radioactivity-study-data-under-wraps-johns- hopkins-researchers-report-correlation-between-fracking

The study http://www.jhsph.edu/news/news-releases/2015/increased-levels-of-radon-in-pennsylvania-homes- correspond-to-onset-of-fracking.html

Sour gas from oil wells a deadly problem in southeast Saskatchewan

According to Saskatchewan's Ministry of the Economy, 43 facilities it tested in southeast Saskatchewan were emitting hydrogen sulphide (H2S) at levels 30 times greater than the level that can kill a person.

The Saskatchewan government says there is a growing problem with oil wells in the province releasing levels of hydrogen sulphide (H2S), or sour gas, many times higher than what would kill a person. At 1,000 parts per million (ppm), sour gas is instantly fatal.

Sask oil industry worker dies from sour gas poisoning

The Ministry of the Economy said it tested 43 facilities in southeast Saskatchewan that were leaking sour gas "with average concentrations at 30,000 ppm." That's 30 times higher than the level that is fatal to humans.

In one case, a well emitted 150,000 ppm. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/sour-gas-from-oil-wells-a-deadly-problem-in-southeast- saskatchewan-1.3042939

24 Beneath the tar sands is even dirtier oil, and industry is salivating over it

The price of crude oil has slumped to its lowest point in six years, and that has sent some major oil companies scrambling to get out of expensive tar-sands projects in Alberta, Canada. Shell has pulled out of one of its largest lease applications, and Petrochina is attempting to get rid of its tar-sands assets. Environmentalists have watched the slowdown with great hope.

Yet at the same time, some of those very same companies are positioning themselves to tap into an even more dirty and expensive kind of oil in Alberta: bitumen carbonates.

Shell, Husky, tar-sands giant Suncor, and the dreaded Koch brothers have all snapped up leases in Alberta’s bitumen carbonates. In mid-March, the mineral rights for a portion of carbonates were sold at auction for three-and-a-half times the average price for such leases, indicating great confidence in their profit-making potential, if not in the short term, then in the long term. http://grist.org/climate-energy/beneath-the-tar-sands-is-even-dirtier-oil-and-industry-is-salivating-over-it/

ALERT Project

Documenting human health impacts of exposure to crude oil, tar sands oil, and fracking activities through education, testing & treatment of at-risk populations https://vimeo.com/105533972

Offering a case against fracking

Having said he wants science to drive the decision on whether to open the state to natural gas hydrofracking, Gov. Andrew Cuomo got a telephone book-sized dose of science dropped on his desk Thursday by two health groups that want to keep out fracking.

Speculation is mounting that the long-awaited state Health Department study on fracking's potential public health risks could be released soon, and the governor roiled some anti-fracking groups recently when he suggested that there were "credentialed academics" on both sides of the politically contentious issue.

"The growth in science examining fracking is exponential. We are adding roughly a study a day. And three-quarters of all these scientific papers have been done within the last two years," said Sheila Bushkin-Bedient, a health researcher with the Institute for Health and Environment at the University at Albany, and member of Concerned Health Professionals of New York. http://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Offering-a-case-against-fracking-5952016.php https://www.scribd.com/doc/250410752/High-Volume-Hydraulic-Fracturing

25 Economics, Legal, and Investigations

Guardian Media Group to divest its £800m fund from fossil fuels

The Guardian Media Group (GMG) is to sell all the fossil fuel assets in its investment fund of over £800m, making it the largest yet known to pull out of coal, oil and gas companies. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/01/guardian-media-group-to-divest-its-800m-fund- from-fossil-fuels

Jeremy Clarkson joins Guardian drive for fossil fuel divestment

Former Top Gear presenter says being sacked by the BBC was a ‘wake-up call’ as he joins host of celebrities backing climate change campaign http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/apr/01/jeremy-clarkson-joins-guardian-drive-for-fossil-fuel- divestment

Syracuse University to divest $1.18bn endowment from fossil fuels

Syracuse University will remove its $1.18bn (£800m) endowment from direct investments in fossil fuel companies, it announced on Tuesday.

Syracuse is the biggest university in the world to have committed to remove its endowment from direct investments in coal, oil and gas companies. It aims to make additional investments in clean energy technologies such as solar, biofuels and advanced recycling.

In a statement, the university said it will “not directly invest in publicly traded companies whose primary business is extraction of fossil fuels and will direct its external investment managers to take every step possible to prohibit investments in these public companies as well”. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/01/syracuse-university-to-divest-800m-endowment- from-fossil-fuels

No returns on LNG for years, global energy expert warns

Australia’s new generation of liquefied natural gas projects are unlikely to generate a return on investment for the foreseeable future, one of the world’s foremost energy experts has warned.

Fereidun Fesharaki, founder and chairman of consultancy FACTS Global Energy, said the knock-on effect of falling oil prices on LNG would be most keenly felt on Australian projects currently being brought into production.

“The LNG business will be heavily impacted, particularly for Australia where all these expensive projects have come on,” Mr Fesharaki told the Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong. They will not be seeing a return on investment for many years to come.”

26 Almost $200 billion has been spent or committed to developing new LNG projects around Australia in recent years, with the wave of construction set to see Australia challenge Qatar for the title of the world’s biggest LNG producer. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/no-returns-on-lng-for-years-global-energy- expert-warns/story-fnp6xelk-1227275545210

Creditors Pulling The Rug From Under U.S. Shale Sector

As Bloomberg reports, "lenders are preparing to cut the credit lines to a group of junk-rated shale oil companies by as much as 30 percent in the coming days, dealing another blow as they struggle with a slump in crude prices, according to people familiar with the matter.

Sabine Oil & Gas Corp. became one of the first companies to warn investors that it faces a cash shortage from a reduced credit line, saying Tuesday that it raises “substantial doubt” about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.

It's going to get worse: "About 10 firms are having trouble finding backup financing, said the people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the information hasn’t been announced."

Why now? Bloomberg explains that "April is a crucial month for the industry because it’s when lenders are due to recalculate the value of properties that energy companies staked as loan collateral. With those assets in decline along with oil prices, banks are preparing to cut the amount they’re willing to lend. And that will only squeeze companies’ ability to produce more oil. http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Creditors-Pulling-The-Rug-From-Under-U.S.-Shale- Sector.html

Family awarded $3MILLION after court finds chemical exposure from fracking on land next to their home left them sick and suffering horror side effects

The Parr family of Decatur, Texas, first complained of falling ill in 2008 - after Aruba Petroleum began fracking operations near to their ranch Bob and Lisa Parr and their daughter Emma developed nosebleeds, nausea, rashes and asthma

Some of their livestock were born with deformities after the Parr's land was contaminated They launched a lawsuit against the energy firm - which went to trial

The jury sided with the Parr family - a first in fracking lawsuits in the US http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2611853/Family-awarded-THREE-MILLION-claiming-fracking- land-sick-verdict-kind-US.html

Corridor Resources cuts natural gas reserves for McCully Field

"It is not where the significant potential is," said Steve Moran in an email to CBC News about ongoing production problems with the company's current wells in New Brunswick's McCully Field.

27 "Those ... really have no material impact on New Brunswick's potential as a natural gas producer."

Last week, Corridor revealed that a $27-million attempt to revitalize production in New Brunswick last summer by refracking a number of wells in the Sussex area had failed to stem a six-year long decline in output. Instead, the company said it produced a record low 2.6 billion cubic feet of gas in 2014, 12.5 per cent less than a year earlier and 62 per cent less than production levels the wells achieved during their first full year in 2008.

Currently, assessments say there is likely 66 billion cubic feet of proved and probable gas reserves remaining in McCully Field. That's well below the 146 billion cubic feet thought to be there in 2008, even after accounting for about 25 billion cubic feet of gas production in the years since. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/corridor-resources-cuts-natural-gas-reserves-for- mccully-field-1.3024415

Study Finds Frackers Average at Least Two Violations a Day

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - On average, fracking companies commit more than two-and-a-half drilling violations a day, according to a new study drawn from just a small portion of available public record information.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) studied five years' worth of online reports for West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Colorado. According to report co-author and NRDC policy analyst Amy Mall, she and her team totaled up at least 4,600 citations – about 18 per week.

She says some of the 68 drillers they looked at ran up hundreds of violations, including wastewater spills, well leaks and pipeline ruptures. http://www.publicnewsservice.org/2015-04-07/energy-policy/study-finds-frackers-average-at-least-two- violations-a-day/a45541-1

Canadian Legal Information Institute

CanLII is a non-profit organization managed by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada. CanLII's goal is to make Canadian law accessible for free on the Internet. This website provides access to court judgments, tribunal decisions, statutes and regulations from all Canadian jurisdictions.

Search by name or part of name for list of companies and cases, then click on case for details. http://www.canlii.org/en/index.html

Judgements of the Supreme Court of Canada

OTTAWA – In co-operation with Lexum, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) is pleased to announce that all decisions published in the Supreme Court Reports dating back to 1876 are now available on the SCC Judgments website. Over the past 20 years, the SCC and Lexum have been working

28 collaboratively, together with partners such as the Law Foundation of Ontario, the Law Foundation of British Columbia, the Alberta Law Foundation, the Centre d’accès à l’information juridique in Quebec, CanLII and others, to fill in gaps in the Supreme Court judgment database. We are pleased that the work begun so many years ago is nearly complete. http://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/news/en/item/4874/index.do http://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/nav_date.do http://www.canlii.org/

CN takes action against Grassy Narrows over blockade that didn’t happen Embedded video

Canadian National is taking legal action against the organizer of a blockade that never happened.

Judy Da Silva from Grassy Narrows organized a blockade of the CN mainline after a number of train derailments in northern Ontario.

But Da Silva called off the action on the advice of an elder.

But as APTN’s Jaydon Flett reports, CN is taking legal action anyway. http://aptn.ca/news/2015/04/13/cn-takes-action-grassy-narrows-blockade-didnt-happen/

No title? No problem. Aboriginals can sue over property rights: appeal court

VANCOUVER - Industrial giants, from forestry companies to mining operations, must respect aboriginal territorial claims in British Columbia just as they would heed the rights of any other Canadian landowner, the province's highest court has ruled.

A decision from the B.C. Court of Appeal paves the way for First Nations to launch lawsuits to protect their territory from private parties, even without proving aboriginal title.

Two northwestern First Nations expressed vindication on Wednesday after a panel of three judges overturned a lower court ruling that denied them opportunity to sue the aluminum producer Rio Tinto Alcan. https://ca.news.yahoo.com/no-title-no-problem-aboriginals-sue-over-property-232404181.html

22,000+ jobs from tidal power in the Bay of Fundy? That oughta make some waves for the fossil fuel industry!

The Offshore Energy Research Association (OERA) today released a report showing tidal power could be a multi-billion dollar industry for the Maritimes and create tens of thousands of jobs.

Stephen Dempsey, the head of the Halifax-based not-for-profit, told CBC News that tidal power could create 22,000 jobs in Nova Scotia alone, raking in $1.7-billion for the Bluenose economy by 2040.

29 The report goes on to say the global tidal power industry could be worth $900 billion by 2050. http://www.conservationcouncil.ca/22000-jobs-from-tidal-power-in-the-bay-of-fundy-that-oughta-make- some-waves-for-the-fossil-fuel-industry/

Canadian clean technology is going for gold

With the right policies, clean technology could become a $50-billion industry and employ 100,000 Canadians by 2022.

Decades of patient public and private investment, and some far-sighted policy decisions, helped Canada’s civilian aerospace sector become a $22-billion industry, generating quality jobs and innovative technologies. But we need more industries like that. And now we have one. Another potential winner: clean technology, which could become a $50-billion industry and employ 100,000 Canadians by 2022.

Analytica Advisors, an Ottawa-based company, has monitored Canada’s expanding clean technology sector for five years. In its 2014 Canadian Clean Technology Industry Report, Analytica Advisors has confirmed that not only is this industry broader and deeper than previously thought, it is steadily growing. It can either be a winner for Canada or an also-ran. We have to decide which we want. http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/03/16/canadian_clean_technology_is_going_for_gol d.html

30 Regulations

Mandatory federal guidelines needed on fracking, coal mining

Many state governments have a conflict of interest when ruling on coal or gas projects because of the revenue they need.

Around the nation, communities are protesting against unconventional gas and coal mining, especially in northern NSW, Queensland and South Australia.

In Queensland, much of the evidence to the recent Senate inquiry into the former Newman government (Select committee on certain aspects of Queensland government administration related to Commonwealth government affairs chaired by Senator Glenn Lazarus) expressed concerns about Queensland government maladministration with coal seam gas (CSG) and coal mining.

Let us look at one of the community concerns – the potential health effects from water contaminated either by fracking chemicals or polluted air emitted at the wellheads. Many submissions detail health effects, for example that of Dr Geralyn McCarron, a Queensland general practitioner.

Following receipt of the EIA, a state government is the arbiter in making a decision to proceed, and sits between the proponent whose duty it is to demonstrate safety, and the community that needs to be protected. Many of the state governments, instead of being arbiter, have placed themselves as an additional proponent. They have a conflict of interest because of the revenue they need.

It is clear to all that Australia needs mandatory federal guidelines based on expert scientific and medical opinion to stop state incompetence and to restore public confidence. http://www.theage.com.au/comment/mandatory-federal-guidelines-needed-on-fracking-coal-mining- 20150414-1mkk4m.html

31 Environment and Enjoyment of Property

Study: Direct Evidence That Global Warming Causes More Global Warming

Scientists agree that an increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases causes the Earth’s temperature to rise, but they’ve also noticed that relationship seems to swing both ways: warmer temperatures also seem to correspond with an increase in greenhouse gases. But drawing conclusions about the nature of the relationship is tricky, because though scientists have seen a correlation, they haven’t been able to show causation.

Now, scientists believe they’ve untangled the relationship. In a paper published Monday in Nature Climate Change, researchers from the University of Exeter claim to have found direct evidence that as global temperatures rise, so does the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases, creating a positive feedback that in turn warms the Earth even more — basically, global warming creates more global warming. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/31/3640700/positive-feedback-except-its-terrifying/

The study http://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate2568.epdf? referrer_access_token=WksVHlzHmGjQtdsajpCNBtRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0P1sIoyfkylkh5LN-- KCNCzL0KUBs12JR2d_F2bZmWvracgT1FPlFK4Otz_sE0mSTyyU1gf54i3aXfJ5E- a5V1TvaQOjfqPCONJiiDZ2nofdNTh3Ag-KInB5MeLrsY8li- ksY_DQ6IVd3Sd5nwi9nRGAHym6N6pBSJ799bOCBdItrkwSuwA0wZCk1RQnAGRNCU %3D&tracking_referrer=thinkprogress.org

Air pollution in Asia may be changing weather patterns in the United States. Embedded video

Increasingly intense storms in the United States might have an unexpected origin: Asian air pollution. Researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have found that aerosols from across the Pacific strengthen extratropical cyclones—a type of storm system that drives much of our country's weather.

Asia is home to the world's 20 most polluted cities, but that dirty air doesn’t stay put, as the above animation of aerosol emissions shows. Water vapor in the atmosphere condenses around particles, and an influx of particulate matter—say, from a coal-fired power plant—can produce bigger, badder clouds. So far, the atmospheric scientists have only looked at how pollution from the continent affects North American weather, but they expect that the effects are global in scale. http://www.onearth.org/earthwire/asia-pollution-us-weather? utm_source=fb&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=socialmedia https://youtu.be/JQiuz-9TD4I

Seventy percent of western Canada's glaciers could be gone by 2100

But Garry Clark, study author and glaciologist at the University of British Columbia (UBC), tells Toronto Star the Canadian landscape "isn't going to look the same" by the end of the century.

32 “We are going to be in less interesting mountain landscape. In that sense, it is a sad loss,” he adds. “The fact that these glaciers are signalling these changes is a much bigger story, and the real one.” http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/seventy-percent-of-western-canadas-glaciers-could- be-gone-by-2100/48746

April 3, 1980: The Day That Walter Cronkite Warned Us About Global Warming Embedded video

Thirty-five years ago today, legendary anchorman Walter Cronkite told the nation about global warming on his evening newscast.

By April 3, 1980, the bloom was long gone from the Carter administration’s energy policies: The president who put the first solar panels on the roof of the White House had made growing reliance upon coal-fired power a “crucial part of [his] energy program,” as Cronkite noted.

But Cronkite told the nation that the U.S. Senate had heard that day how “a coal-burning society may be making things hot for itself” by putting too much carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas and a product of burning coal and other fossil fuels, into the atmosphere. http://www.takepart.com/video/2015/04/03/walter-cronkite-news-story-climate-change-1980? cmpid=organic-share-twitter

9 Planetary Boundaries to Ensure a Healthy Planet Embedded video

1. Stratospheric Ozone Depletion 2. Biosphere Integrity 3. Chemical Dispersion and the release of novel entities 4. Climate Change 5. Ocean Acidification 6. Freshwater Use 7. Land-system Change 8. Biochemical Flows (Nitrogen and Phosphorus Cycling) 9. Atmospheric Aerosol Loading http://ecowatch.com/2015/04/10/randy-hayes-foundation-earth/

Over 25,000 March in Quebec Demanding Climate Leadership in Canada

An estimated 25 thousand took to the streets of Quebec City Saturday to protest the federal government’s lack of leadership on climate change and unfaltering support for increased production in the Alberta oilsands.

“Our message is simple — yes to climate equals no to the tar sands,” Christian Simard, executive direct of Nature Quebec, said. Nature Quebec along with Greenpeace, Equiterre and the David Suzuki Foundation and other eastern Canadian environmental groups organized the demonstration — already being called the largest climate protest in Canada's history. http://www.desmog.ca/2015/04/11/over-25-000-march-quebec-demanding-climate-leadership-canada

33 Arctic Sea Ice At Record Low On April 9 2015

On April 9, 2015, Arctic sea ice extent was only 14.051 square km, a record low for the time of the year, as illustrated by the image below.

http://arctic-news.blogspot.ca/2015/04/arctic-sea-ice-at-record-low-on-april-9-2015.html

Carbon taxes offer economic pain for little to no environmental gain http://business.financialpost.com/fp-comment/carbon-taxes-pain-for-no-benefit

10 reasons a carbon tax is trickier than you think

1. It’s conservative 2. It’s the revenue, stupid 3. “Revenue-neutral” means foregoing any money for climate solutions 4. Carbon money should fund clean energy

34 5. Carbon taxes are regressive 6. Carbon tax revenue is supposed to decline 7. The carbon lobby will want to axe EPA regulations in exchange 8. The carbon lobby will want to axe clean-energy support programs in exchange 9. The environmental benefits are uncertain 10. All political incentives push toward a poorly designed tax http://grist.org/climate-energy/ten-reasons-a-carbon-tax-is-trickier-than-you-think/

IPCC and media coverage of climate reports

An emerging body of literature is exploring the role of the media in reporting climate change science and the recent IPCC efforts to reach out to policymakers and the public. In this focus, Nature Climate Change presents an Article examining media coverage of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report – in broadcast, print and social media – and a series of opinion pieces looking at the effectiveness of the IPCC communication strategy and the ways experts study media power in the context of climate change. http://www.nature.com/nclimate/focus/ipcc-media/index.html

The Climate Change March to the parliament building in Quebec City https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWjP6z9odNQ&feature=youtu.be

Shift: Beyond the Numbers of the Climate Crisis Embedded video

What is climate change? For many, it sparks images of polar bears on melting ice caps, rising oceans, and polluting smokestacks. We easily ignored the changing climate when it just led to these distant problems, but now we're experiencing the effects of climate change firsthand. The dots are being connected. These super-storms, droughts, wildfires, they're getting worse and more frequent because of climate change.

However, it is important to note that the US ranks second among global emissions producers. They produce 19% of all global carbon emissions. The deep dependence on fossil fuel is at the root of the problem. Coal, oil, and natural gas take the blame. It's not difficult to understand that burning these fuels is bad for the climate, but there's been a piece missing from the conversation. We know that we humans are causing the problem, but what's the human cost? Who are the people affected by these fuels, the extractions, the drilling, the mining? What's it look like from their world? http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/shift-beyond-numbers-climate-crisis/ http://player.vimeo.com/video/69357437

Climate change debate brings all government levels together

A packed panel discussion at a church on McArthur Avenue perhaps speaks volumes to the growing concern around climate change policies in Canada, but the five participating politicians were hardly able to scratch the surface of the contentious topic during a two-hour discussion.

35 Since no one from the federal Conservative party – considered by critics to be the least environmentally-friendly federal party – currently represents the area, that voice was missing from the debate, which led to some political back-patting between the five like-minded representatives.

Bélanger pledged to “restore environmental laws that have been downgraded” under the Harper government’s watch, to end fossil fuel subsidies and to shift investment incentives to renewable energy technology and away from petroleum products. His comments, for the most part, were met with applause and the occasional obscenity cast against Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Harper’s position on transporting oil by rail and pipeline, however, was a touchier subject. Bélanger touted making rail safer for oil transportation so controversial pipelines can be avoided.

But one audience member said that strategy is counter-intuitive from a climate change perspective. “When you talk about the different modes of transportation, you distract from the fact that they’re all transporting something that is deadly for the environment,” the audience member said. http://www.ottawacommunitynews.com/news-story/5557090-climate-change-debate-brings-all- government-levels-together/

How is Your Province Acting on Climate? A Primer for the Premiers' Climate Summit

New Brunswick - Premier: Brian Gallant • Annual GHG emissions (2012): 16.4 Mt CO2 • Percentage of Canadian total emissions (2012): 2.35 per cent

“There's no doubt as a nation we have to do a better job on climate change…On top of that, we also have to have a conversation about developing our economy throughout the country in a responsible way. We believe the Energy East pipeline is one that will help us grow our economy, create jobs; it's one we that we can do, we believe, in a sustainable way.” http://desmog.ca/2015/04/13/how-your-province-acting-climate-primer-premier-s-climate-summit

The Pacific Ocean may have entered a new warm phase and the consequences could be dramatic

Two new studies have just hit about the “warm blob” in the northeast Pacific ocean — a 2 degree C or more temperature anomaly that began in the winter of 2013-2014 in the Gulf of Alaska and later expanded. Scientists have been astonished at the extent and especially the long-lasting nature of the warmth, with one NOAA researcher saying, “when you see something like this that’s totally new you have opportunities to learn things you were never expecting.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/04/10/the-pacific-ocean-may-have- entered-a-new-warm-phase-and-the-consequences-could-be-dramatic/

'Warm blob' in Pacific Ocean linked to weird weather across the U.S.

36 WASHINGTON, D.C. – The one common element in recent weather has been oddness. The West Coast has been warm and parched; the East Coast has been cold and snowed under. Fish are swimming into new waters and hungry seals are washing up on California beaches.

A long-lived patch of warm water off the West Coast, about 1 to 4 degrees Celsius (2 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal, is part of what’s wreaking much of this mayhem, according to two recent papers in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. http://news.agu.org/press-release/warm-blob-in-pacific-ocean-linked-to-weird-weather-across-the-u-s/

Emergency Shut Down Of West Coast Fisheries: “Populations Have Crashed 91 Percent” – Mac Slavo

Earlier this week Michael Snyder warned that the bottom of our food chain is going through a catastrophic collapse with sea creatures dying in absolutely massive numbers. The cause of the problem is a mystery to scientists who claim that they can’t pinpoint how or why it’s happening.

What’s worse, the collapse of sea life in the Pacific Ocean isn’t something that will affect us several decades into the future. The implications are being seen right now, as evidenced by an emergency closure of fisheries along the West coast this week.

On Wednesday federal regulators announced the early closure of sardine fisheries in California, Oregon and Washington. According to the most recent data, the sardine populations has been wiped out with populations seeing a decline of 91% in just the last eight years. http://prn.fm/emergency-shut-down-of-west-coast-fisheries-populations-have-crashed-91-percent-mac- slavo/

Covert Operations - The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.

In a study released this spring, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters in the United States.

And Greenpeace issued a report identifying the company as a “kingpin of climate science denial.” The report showed that, from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups.

Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies—from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/08/30/covert-operations

Information Morning Fredericton - Effects of Climate Change

Terry Seguin talks to Prof. Paul Kovacs from Western University. He says people in the maritimes should prepare for strange weather.

37 http://www.cbc.ca/informationmorningfredericton/2015/04/21/effects-of-climate-change/

Earth to humans: Planetary health now in jeopardy

We still seem to have little or no understanding of the vital ecological systems that sustain life on our planet. So we continue our nonchalant destruction of ecosystems without understanding the consequences.

One big consequence is that when 250 million years’ worth of stored carbon is released into the atmosphere during just 150 years, the climate heats up. If we don’t do something about it, a radical change to many of the vital ecosystems that sustain our civilization is inevitable.

Humankind has a long history of destroying ecosystems. We destroy or change ecosystems routinely. No other creature in the history of the world has disrupted as many ecosystems.

My intent is not to lay blame, but to warn that the cumulative effects have now become large enough to influence our entire planet’s climate. http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/1281869-earth-to-humans-planetary-health-now-in-jeopardy

Energy and Health 5 - Food, livestock production, energy, climate change, and health

Food provides energy and nutrients, but its acquisition requires energy expenditure. In post-hunter- gatherer societies, extra-somatic energy has greatly expanded and intensifi ed the catching, gathering, and production of food.

Modern relations between energy, food, and health are very complex, raising serious, high-level policy challenges. Together with persistent widespread under-nutrition, over-nutrition (and sedentarism) is causing obesity and associated serious health consequences.

Worldwide, agricultural activity, especially livestock production, accounts for about a fi fth of total greenhouse-gas emissions, thus contributing to climate change and its adverse health consequences, including the threat to food yields in many regions. http://www.gci.org.uk/Documents/mcmichael_etal_meat_heat.pdf

38 Government, Meetings, News, and Letters

Aboriginal Law News & Analysis

2014 was a watershed year in Aboriginal law. The effect of the Supreme Court of Canada's Tsilhqot'in and Grassy Narrows decisions will be felt for years to come.

To mark this milestone in the ongoing struggle for respect and recognition of Indigenous peoples' rights in Canada, we have combined some of our most popular essays from 2014 with powerful essays by two of our clients into one beautifully illustrated volume free to download. A limited number of hard copies are also available at a cost that covers printing and shipping.

We hope you find this collection informative, engaging and encouraging. http://www.firstpeopleslaw.com/

PMO ordered Justice department to re-word Criminal Code to weaken Gladue principles for Aboriginal offenders

OTTAWA – When Prime Minister Stephen Harper was meeting with First Nation leaders in Ottawa during the height of Idle No More the Prime Minister’s Office was directing the Justice department to reword portions of the Criminal Code to “diminish” the effect of Gladue principles for Aboriginal offenders before the courts, APTN National news has learned.

Several sections of the Criminal Code were to be adjusted under the direction of the PMO as part of the upcoming release of the Victims’ Bill of Rights Act, Bill C-32, to purposely take aim at Gladue principles according to sources. http://aptn.ca/news/2015/03/25/pmo-ordered-justice-department-re-word-criminal-code-weaken-gladue- principles-aboriginal-offenders/

Aboriginal Leader Says Consult or Risk Canada Resource Gains

Canada’s top aboriginal leader warned that the country’s push for resource projects will be bogged down in legal and political strife unless governments consult more on revenue sharing and environmental protection.

“People won’t invest in Canada if there is instability, if there is no partnership with indigenous peoples,” Perry Bellegarde, leader of the Assembly of First Nations, said Wednesday in an interview at Bloomberg’s Ottawa office. He said disputes over resource rights with aboriginals will affect most of the estimated C$675 billion ($536 billion) of projects over the next decade.

Aboriginal power is growing, as was shown in recent court victories involving land-claim issues and the Idle No More street protests that began about two years ago, said Bellegarde, who in December was elected to head the group representing about 900,000 people in 634 communities. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-10/help-aboriginals-or-risk-canada-resource-gains- new-leader-says

39 'There is no way to save this bill': Pamela Palmater skewers Bill C-51

Mr. Romeo Saganash: Given that your access to information request has shown that you've already been surveilled for perfectly legal civic actions, is it reasonable to assume—let me put it that way—that if this law is passed, this legislation is passed, you could be viewed as a terrorist for the same lawful activities?

Dr. Pamela Palmater: Bill C-51, as currently written, would capture everything under Idle No More. Imagine, Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come of the Grand Council of the Crees offered a quote for my submission as well that said that had their activities been done today as opposed to back then, there wouldn't be the negotiation of the the James Bay Agreement, they would all be in jail. The Idle No More movement, which was a historical coming together of first nations and Canadians peacefully dancing and singing and drumming, would now all be monitored -- if it isn't already, as the media has indicated that we are clearly monitored -- and perhaps arbitrarily detained. All of these things are very frightening for this country. http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/pamela-palmater/2015/04/there-no-way-to-save-this-bill-pamela- palmater-skewers-bill-c

Premiers fail to take climate action at Quebec City summit

A poll released last week found that 61 per cent of Canadians believe protecting the climate is more important than building the Energy East pipeline and further developing the tar sands, while 58 per cent want a commitment to phase out coal, oil and gas and replace it with renewable energy.

Unfortunately, the Canadian Press now reports, "The premiers did not agree to any specific goals in their joint declaration — only to 'adopt' and 'promote' ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and 'advance' new technologies. The final declaration also represented how divided the provinces are on the issue of how to fight climate change. A draft document included a reference to the ministers agreeing to 'put a price on carbon or adopt other structuring initiatives' to help reduce greenhouse gasses. The final declaration only stated that premiers agreed to 'make a transition to a lower-carbon economy through appropriate initiatives.'" http://canadians.org/blog/premiers-fail-take-climate-action-quebec-city-summit

David Coon’s Response to the 2015-2016 Budget

Who will forget the $9 million provided to J.D. Irving for its railroad, or the $11 million we provided Umoe Solar for its failed solar cells plant in the Miramichi – and in that case, we even through in a million hectare Crown land license as part of the deal. There was of course Atcon. Or how about the $4.5 million loan to install a biomass boiler in J.D. Irving’s Deersdale mill, which is now fueling a mill in Maine, or the $9 million loan to Irving Paper to install a new boiler, or the $15 million loan to J.D. Irving’s Grand Lake sawmill. We are talking about financing a company that according to Forbes magazine is worth $6.5 billion with its ultimate head office in Bermuda. How is that a wise use of public money?

Opportunities New Brunswick is being given a budget of $50 M, $33M of which it can give away, and another $60 M it can provide in loans and advances. And then there is Regional Development Corporation that has another $40 M to handout.

40 According to the Auditor General, approximately $1 billion in financial assistance was handed-out by the former Department of Economic Development over the last 10 years without formal objectives and without reporting on how effective this was. The only known evaluation of the effectiveness of this kind of financing was done by the Office of Comptroller in 2010: 41% of the $700 million in assistance granted between 2001 and 2009 was categorized as unsuccessful or doubtful, only 15% of the assistance could be considered successful. Of the financial assistance provide to large corporations in this analysis, 10,000 net new jobs were to be created, in addition to those that were to be sustained. Exactly two new net jobs were created. http://davidcoonmla.ca/david-coons-response-to-the-2015-2016-budget/?hc_location=ufi

NB Political Panel: April 16

CBC's Terry Seguin hosts the political panel. This week's topic: Climate change, and what New Brunswick's position should be. http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Canada/NB/Political+Panel/ID/2664452905/

41 New Brunswick News

A Call Out - IMW Consultation Delegation - Iapjiw Maliaptasiktitiew Wskwitqamu

We would like to thank James Munn, Mona Francis, Irving Peter Paul and Vienna Sanipass for contributing their photographs to this project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP5madzrSQU&feature=youtu.be

42 Maritime News

Bear Head LNG signs MOU with Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq

Bear Head LNG Corp. said Wednesday that a memorandum of understanding has been signed with the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs and officials with the project said the agreement sets out a commitment by the parties to work together to ensure meaningful Mi’kmaq participation and continued negotiations in relation to a benefits agreement.

“This agreement is an important step,” said Chief Terry Paul, co-chairman of the assembly. “We are confident that the relationship we have developed during these discussions with Bear Head LNG will grow and enable us to create opportunities for the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia.” http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/1278166-bear-head-lng-signs-mou-with-nova-scotia-mi %E2%80%99kmaq

Warning to visitors to Nova Scotia

Tourists, friends and family from out of province, will have to be warned about visiting Nova Scotia. The amount of toxins that will start entering the Fundy Bay on May 31st, 2015, could increase the risk of being diagnosed with cancer or some other mutated type of abnormality. Warn them not to eat the seafood and to stay away from the shores. http://savethebayoffundy.ca/warning-to-visitors-to-nova-scotia/

LETTER: Social license, more than public consultation

For social license to fully take place, the communities must: a) Have clear and adequate knowledge, based on independent scientific research, of the potential risks, the advantages and the impacts of a project. In other words, be able to make an informed decision based on all of the possible implications of the project that will affect their community. b) Have an opportunity to engage in a meaningful discussion as to the values of the project and its development to the society at large. c) Have the possibility to say “no” to a project.

In a sense, social license is more than a moral obligation, it is a social contract to be obtained and, respected. Without it, consider the project as a hostile take-over. http://www.thewesternstar.com/Opinion/Letter-to-the-Editor/2015-04-09/article-4104919/LETTER%3A- Social-license%2C-more-than-public-consultation/1

Environmental coalition says Nova Scotia bill to ban fracking is badly flawed

The group had initially applauded the province’s Liberal government when it announced a renewed moratorium last month through amendments to the Petroleum Resources Act.

43 But the Nova Scotia Fracking Resource and Action Coalition said Monday a closer review of a bill tabled last week has revealed shortcomings when it comes to a definition for fracking, community consent and exemptions for research. http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1241755-environmental-coalition-says-nova-scotia-bill-to-ban- fracking-is-badly-flawed

Dept. of Natural Resources in conflict of interest on fracking

If health, safety and environmental protection are main considerations on the issue of hydraulic fracturing, as stated by the Department of Natural Resources and the provincial government, then why is it we so rarely, if at all, see media releases pertaining to hydraulic fracturing from the premier, the environment minister, and the health minister?

I have yet to see or hear any real acknowledgement from my provincial government of the widely recognized threats to health, safety and the environment, as recognized by Nova Scotia’s Wheeler Panel and the federal government-commissioned Council of Canadian Academies report, among others.

Instead of mainly considering and representing the health, safety and environmental interests of the people of our province, Mr. Dalley and his government associates appear to mostly represent the interests of oil corporations on the issue of hydraulic fracturing. Yes, we need economic development, but not at unacceptable risks to our health, safety and the environment, and as well as to our tourism and fishery economies. http://theindependent.ca/2015/04/19/dept-of-natural-resources-in-conflict-of-interest-on-fracking/

May 21, 2015: Day of the Damned

There is the The Sewer Use Appeals Committee public hearing coming up in May where appellants wishing to make a presentation can do so. However, each person who speaks will be limited to 5 minutes, which will make it hard for people trying to make their argument in such a restrictive time frame.

This is the Day of the Damned. If the committee rejects these 5 minute appeals and approves the AIS application, Nova Scotia could soon be spiralling downward into becoming a dumping ground for toxic fracking wastewater. Once it starts, officials will run a few test claiming everything was in order and well under standard requirements, but they haven’t tested for all of the chemicals, or Radon created when Radium-226 decays or the long term consequences on the ecosystem and the health of the residents in the communities around the bay that will be affected. http://savethebayoffundy.ca/may-21-2015-day-of-the-damned/

44 Canadian News

Edmonton’s bad air is dirtier than Toronto’s, which has five times the people

On bad days, Edmonton had higher levels of a harmful air pollutant than Toronto, a city with five times the population and more industry, says a new analysis from an advocacy group.

On some winter days, the level of fine particulate matter — invisible particles that cause serious heart and lung problems — was 25 per cent higher in Edmonton than levels in Toronto on that city’s worst air days a few years ago, said Dr. Joe Vipond, with the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.

The group used Alberta government figures, released in January, showing pollution from particulate matter exceeded legal limits of 30 micrograms per cubic metre at two city monitoring stations on several winter days in 2010 through 2012.

Vipond said there are many sources contributing to the high levels of fine particulate matter in Edmonton, including a growing number of vehicles on the road that pump the pollutant directly into the air.

But the science also shows that emissions from coal-fired electricity plants west of the city are the major contributor as their emissions combine with other pollutants to form particulate matter, he said. http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/edmonton/Edmonton+dirtier+than+Toronto+which+five+times+p eople/10970540/story.html

Edmonton Air Carcinogens: Study Finds Alarming Levels Of Chemicals Downwind Of Petrochemical Plants

Other pollutants, including some known to cause cancer, also measured well above normal. And cancer rates linked to those chemicals were found to be higher in communities closest to the so-called Industrial Heartland.

Although scientists don't definitively link the two, one of the report's co-authors said the findings raise concern about the possible long-term effects of exposure to petrochemical emissions. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/10/23/edmonton-air-carcinogens-levels_n_4150670.html

Jessica Ernst's fracking case to be heard by Supreme Court of Canada

The Supreme Court of Canada will decide whether an Alberta woman can sue the province's energy regulator over her claim that hydraulic fracturing has so badly contaminated her well that the water can be set on fire. Fracking lawsuit against Alberta Environment can go ahead, judge rules

Jessica Ernst began legal action against the regulator and Calgary-based energy company Encana in 2007 and amended her statement of claim in 2011 to include Alberta Environment. http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/canada/calgary/story/1.3055627

45 Other News

Anti-fracking support could swing the General Election, survey reveals

Tens of thousands of potential voters from the four main UK parties could turn against pro-fracking candidates at the upcoming General Election, a major survey has found.

The anti-shale swing could be seen across some of the key marginal seats for the 2015 ballot, potentially affecting the outcome of a neck-and-neck election race.

Nearly a third (31%) of all British voters say they would be less likely to vote for candidates who back fracking in their own constituencies, compared to just 13% who say they would be more likely to do so, according to a nationwide ComRes poll published today. http://www.clickgreen.org.uk/news/national-news/125837-anti-fracking-support-could-swing-the- general-election,-survey-reveals.html

Public won’t see Pavillion water report data until after its been reviewed, corrected by Encana, EPA

(Pavillion, Wyo.) – East Pavillion landowners, and others, expressed concerns Thursday afternoon that the public will not have an opportunity to look at independent expert reviewed data on the East Pavillion water well investigation until after the Environmental Protection Agency and Encana Oil and Gas have had a chance to review the data and make corrections.

Landowners in the East Pavillion Gas Field have charged that hydraulic fracturing, a process known as fracking, is the cause of water well contamination in their domestic water wells. Their suspicions were confirmed by an initial EPA two-year-long study, but after industry push back, EPA withdrew from the primary investigation and turned it over to the State of Wyoming. http://county10.com/2014/06/13/public-wont-see-pavillion-water-report-data-reviewed-edited-encana/

Over population, over consumption - in pictures

How do you raise awareness about population explosion? One group thought that the simplest way would be to show people http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/gallery/2015/apr/01/over- population-over-consumption-in-pictures? utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_term=planetary %20impact&utm_campaign=greenpeace&__surl__=IgDwM&__ots__=1427982925823&__step__=1

Train cars hauling fracking sand derail near Uniontown homes

UNIONTOWN, Pa. —Seven freight cars hauling fracking sand have derailed just feet away from homes in Uniontown, Fayette County, closing down nearby roads. http://www.wtae.com/news/train-derails-near-homes-in-uniontown/30857328

46 Fracking Activist Alma Hasse Files $1.5 Million Lawsuit for ‘Wrongful Arrest’ After All Charges Dropped

Payette, Idaho — Idaho fracking activist Alma Hasse is seeking $1.5 million in damages from Payette County after being arrested at a public hearing and held in the county jail for eight days in October of 2104.

On April 6, 2015, Hasse, represented by Nicholas Warden, associate attorney with the Boise-based Fisher Rainey Hudson law firm, filed a Notice Of Tort Claim with Idaho Secretary of State Lawrence Denny and Payette County. Her claims include several losses of freedoms and liberties guaranteed by the Constitutions of Idaho and the Constitution of the United States, as well as mental anguish and distress, personal humiliation, impairment of reputation, loss of companionship and pain and suffering. http://environews.tv/040815-fracking-activist-alma-hasse-files-1-5-million-lawsuit-for-wrongful-arrest- after-all-charges-dropped/

Pro-fracking company asked to carry out safety study - Ireland

The lead company employed to carry out a study on fracking in Ireland is a pro-fracking organisation involved in the controversial gas extraction method in the United States and Poland.

In August last year the EPA, the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) awarded the contract to a consortium led by CDM Smith.

CDM Smith (Ireland) Ltd is a subsidiary of CDM Smith based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The consortium includes University College Dublin, the University of Ulster and Queen’s University Belfast (QUB).

In December, CDM Smith vice-president Kevin Molloy criticised the decision by New York governor Andrew Cuomo to ban fracking in New York State. “This [decision] is one that was based on emotion and not necessarily science,” he told Engineering News-Record. http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/pro-fracking-company-asked-to-carry-out-safety- study-1.2178909

1,500 Fracking Leases Cancelled in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Where "Gasland" Began

Certain powerful images really stick with you when you watch Gasland or Gasland 2. First is the shot of the tap water on fire. Equally powerful are the images of the film’s director Josh Fox on his porch strumming his banjo, in the woods on his property, walking by the local stream, and celebrating the pristine beauty of the nearby Delaware River.

The film keeps returning to the land that Fox treasures, cluing us in on why he turned down a sizeable offer to lease for gas drilling, and what drove him forth with his camera on a fact-finding journey that culminated in the first Gasland, the film that ignited the fractivism movement.

When millions of dollars spent on ad buys and lobbyists assure that marketing slogans like “energy independence” appear everywhere from Superbowl commercials to State of the Union talking points, then local battles erupt in places like Wayne County.

47 But over the last few weeks, that changed for Wayne County. Hess and Newfield, the two major gas companies leasing land there, decided to cancel their leases in Marcellus shale, and move out of Wayne and much of northeastern PA. The companies sent letters stating that they “have elected to release your lease, thus your lease will not be continued to the development phase,” terminating approximately 1,500 leases covering over 100,000 acres of land. http://www.occupy.com/article/1500-fracking-leases-cancelled-northeastern-pennsylvania-where- gasland-began

Freaking out over fracking

Erie's residents acknowledge the boom's benefits: more business, higher property values, lower energy costs, more money for schools. But many are also troubled by how the energy industry has approached their concerns about the controversial drilling method. Republican and Democratic residents alike say the industry isn't transparent and companies drill too close to homes.

They also are grappling with the effects of economic development: • New houses starting in the $300,000s are scooped up overnight, which means locals are being priced out of the town. • Fracking brings in money but the wells are sometimes only a couple hundred yards from a house or playground. • Gravel roads have been paved into urban thoroughfares, but now there are traffic jams.

The fight has grown so bitter that Erie residents don't tell neighbors if their spouse works for the oil industry. Many won't discuss the issue with reporters, at least not on the record.

"I just kind of try to stay low here," says Elle Cabbage, the executive director of the Erie Chamber of Commerce. She won't comment for the record, noting the town is "very divided." http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/freaking-out-over-fracking/article/2563518

High cost of cheap gas

The environmental problems caused by fracking in America have been well publicized, but lesser known are the gas industry’s plans for expansion in other countries. This investigation, filmed in Botswana, South Africa, Alaska and North America, reveals how fracking plants are quietly invading some of the most protected places on the planet - including Africa’s national parks. http://rt.com/shows/documentary/206095-environmental-problems-industry-expansion/

48 Water

New report condemns Harper government's "assault" on Canada's freshwater

A new report by the Council of Canadians harshly condemns the federal government's "assault" on laws and institutions protecting Canada's freshwater.

”The Navigable Waters Protection Act no longer protects water. The Fisheries Act no longer protects fish. The Environmental Assessment Act no longer requires environmental assessments be done before important decisions are made," a Lake Ontario waterkeeper laments in the report compiled by Council of Canadians director and former UN Advisor Maude Barlow.

While acknowledging that Liberal governments also contributed to the problem, the report calls out the current Conservative government for actively "gut[ting] the regulatory framework” that protected Canada’s water, and turning policies “upside down to advance the interests of the energy industry.”

The report, Blue Betrayal: Harper's assault on Canada's freshwater, points out a wide range of damaging actions under the Conservative government, such as changes to the Navigable Waters Protection Act that removed protection from 99 per cent of lakes and rivers in Canada. http://www.vancouverobserver.com/news/new-report-condemns-harper-governments-assault-canadas- freshwater

Flint residents find state water control hard to swallow

The nearly lifelong resident of Flint started noticing clumps of hair tangled in her comb or stranded on her pillowcase last fall, about six months after the city switched from buying water from Detroit’s system, which draws from Lake Huron, and began sourcing water from the Flint River.

At Nappier’s home, she and other family members continued to get sick, even though they heeded the series of boil-water advisories the city issued over the summer after E. coli and other bacteria were detected in the water system.

In January she and the rest of the city’s nearly 100,000 residents received a letter explaining that water testing revealed high levels of trihalomethanes, a group of chemicals known as THMs. Byproducts of the chlorination process, THMs have been linked to increased rates of cancer, kidney and liver failure and adverse birth outcomes.

Like a handful of other economically troubled Michigan cities, Flint is governed by a state-appointed emergency financial manager. He has unprecedented authority to, for example, single-handedly decide where the city’s water supply comes from or ignore City Council resolutions. In response to the vote, Flint’s emergency manager, Jerry Ambrose, called the decision “incomprehensible” and indicated that the Flint River would remain the city’s source. http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/4/3/flint-residents-find-state-water-control-hard-to- swallow.html

Who is Sucking Water Out of California Without a Permit? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoMqril0q-U

49 Will Turning Seawater Into Drinking Water Help Drought-Hit California?

Last week, Governor Jerry Brown made water conservation mandatory in the drought-stricken state of California. "As Californians, we have to pull together and save water in every way we can," he said.

But if the four-year drought continues, conservation alone — at least what's required by the governor's plan — won't fix the problem.

Across California, communities are examining all options to avoid running out of water. Some, like the coastal city of Santa Barbara, are looking to the past for inspiration.

This may be the most severe drought in recorded history in California, but it's not the longest. The last big drought started in the late 1980s and lasted seven years. http://www.npr.org/2015/04/05/397659871/will-turning-seawater-into-drinking-water-help-drought-hit- california

This City Could Become The Next Detroit

Starting this week, 25,000 households in Baltimore will suddenly lose their access to water for owing bills of $250 or more, with very little notice given and no public hearings.

Rita, a renter in Southeast Baltimore who asked to remain anonymous for this story in order to protect her two children from being taken away, told ThinkProgress she was served with a shutoff notice last week. Maryland law states that a child that is “neglected” may be taken out of his or her home and put into foster care. One characteristic of “neglect” as defined by the Maryland Department of Human Resources is a child with “consistently poor hygiene” that is “un-bathed, [having] unwashed or matted hair, noticeable body odor.”

Food and Water Watch researcher Mary Grant explained that making water unavailable to residents is a major health risk, and that if Baltimore were to deprive 25,000 households of water, diseases would have a high chance of propagating throughout densely-populated neighborhoods.

City officials like Department of Public Works director Rudy Chow claim that residents using water without paying are to blame for the $40 million in overdue water bills. In fact, the Baltimore Sun found more than a third of the unpaid bills stem from just 369 businesses, who owe $15 million in revenue, while government offices and nonprofits have outstanding water bills to the tune of $10 million. One of those businesses, RG Steel (now bankrupt) owes $7 million in delinquent water bills all by itself.

“It’s interesting that the city isn’t targeting those businesses first,” Grant said. http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/04/04/3642935/baltimore-water-shutoffs/

Beneath California Crops, Groundwater Crisis Grows

But the way that California farmers have pulled off that feat is a case study in the unwise use of natural resources, many experts say. Farmers are drilling wells at a feverish pace and pumping billions of gallons of water from the ground, depleting a resource that was critically endangered even before the drought, now in its fourth year, began.

50 California has pushed harder than any other state to adapt to a changing climate, but scientists warn that improving its management of precious groundwater supplies will shape whether it can continue to supply more than half the nation’s fruits and vegetables on a hotter planet.

Scientists say some of the underground water-storing formations so critical to California’s future — typically, saturated layers of sand or clay — are being permanently damaged by the excess pumping, and will never again store as much water as farmers are pulling out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/06/science/beneath-california-crops-groundwater-crisis-grows.html? _r=0

Oil wastewater used on Kern County crops Embedded video

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) - If you've lived in Kern County long enough, you've heard the old saying, whether it's from a farmer, on a billboard, or from a politician: "Kern County farmers feed the world."

What a lot of people don't know is that some of the food we sell on a global market - sometimes even marketed as "organic" - is grown using oil wastewater.

"It's hot. It's stinking. There's oil floating on it," said Tom Frantz, a small farmer and environmentalist. "Nobody should be eating that food." http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/Oil-wastewater-used-on-Kern-County-crops- 298949201.html?mobile=y

51 Man Gets Prison Sentence For Collecting Rainwater On His Own Property

Collecting rainwater on your own property can now lead to jail time, as proven by a man from Oregon who was just sentenced to prison for doing just that. Who owns the rain? The US government, apparently, now.

Now, a man from Grey Point, Oregon has been sentenced to thirty days in prison for storing collected rainwater on his very own property – and the public is outraged. http://yournewswire.com/man-gets-prison-sentence-for-collecting-rainwater-on-his-own-property/

Mexico oil spill leaves 200,000 without water

An oil spill in south-eastern Mexico has left more than 200,000 people without water.

The spill, near Tabasco state capital Villahermosa, was caused by oil thieves puncturing a pipeline and has polluted two rivers.

Four water treatment plants in the region have been shut down as a precaution.

Oil company workers have set out containment booms and have been trying to scoop oil from waterways.

Local authorities have asked for help from the army to supply drinking water to those most affected.

They are planning to send tanker trucks to Villahermosa and neighbouring towns. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-32313578

Bottled water ban at Regina store opens flood of debate

A Regina ice cream parlour that has stopped selling bottled water is attracting a wave of interest on social media.

Dessart Sweets says it recently decided not to carry bottled water partly because of the pollution resulting from the empties.

Dessart also says access to water is a basic human right, "and shouldn't be treated as a commodity." https://ca.news.yahoo.com/bottled-water-ban-regina-store-154551803.html

52 Fracking and Earthquakes

Staggering Rise in Fracking Earthquakes Triggers Kansas to Take Action

It seems unlikely that Kansas, known as one of the most conservative states in the U.S. and home to fossil fuel barons the Koch Brothers, would take action against the oil and gas industries. But in the face of a new wave of earthquakes attributed to the underground injection of fracking wastewater, its industry regulating body, the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC), ordered a reduction of wastewater injection in two counties abutting Oklahoma, finding that increased earthquake activity correlated with increasing volumes of injected fracking water. http://ecowatch.com/2015/04/02/kansas-fracking-earthquakes/

53 Oil and Pipelines

4 dead, 16 hurt in oil platform fire in Gulf of Mexico

At least four people were killed and 16 workers injured when a fire erupted early Wednesday on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico belonging to Mexico's state petroleum giant Pemex, the company said in a statement.

The company said one of those who died when the fire broke out at dawn at the Abkatun Permanente platform was a contractor for the Mexican oil services company Cotemar. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/04/01/pemex-oil-platform-gulf-of-mexico- fire/70773842/

TransCanada will not build oil export terminal in Quebec

(Reuters) - TransCanada Corp has decided not to build a proposed oil export terminal in Quebec as part of its C$12 billion ($9.5 billion) Energy East pipeline, opting to ship the crude from Alberta to another terminal in New Brunswick, the La Presse newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The Calgary-based company said it would provide an update on the project this week but declined further comment on the report in La Presse, a Montreal newspaper. The pipeline will still deliver oil to existing refineries in Quebec.

La Presse, which did not cite its sources, said TransCanada had considered moving the proposed terminal from Cacouna to another location in the province but ultimately decided to drop plans for oil exports from Quebec.

The project has been fiercely opposed by environmentalists in Quebec, who worry about the risk of oil spills as well as the impact that construction and shipping would have on Beluga whales in the St. Lawrence River. http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/01/transcanada-energyeast-idUSL2N0WY0N120150401 http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/transcanada-corp-s-energy-east-pipeline-will-bypass- quebec-report

Recent Crude Oil Train Derailments Intensify the Spotlight on Rail Safety and the Value of Oil Pipelines

Whether or not framing the debate regarding approval of the Keystone XL pipeline against the safety concerns raised by these Bakken crude oil train derailments was apposite, the President’s February 24 veto of the pipeline approval act being bookended by the derailments certainly intensified the discussion surrounding crude oil rail safety and the value of oil pipelines. On March 24, 2015, a U.S. Department of Energy commissioned report was released examining the properties of tight crude oil that may contribute to combustion during a train derailment. And although a final rule regulating safety of crude oil rail transport is expected in the next couple of months from the Department of Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (“PHMSA”), on March 25, 2015 several Senators introduced S. 859: The Crude-By-Rail Safety Act, which would go further than the anticipated PHMSA rule. We highlight several of the key issues that inform the rail safety discussion.

54 • Crude Oil Transportation by Rail Has Increased Substantially • The DOT Projected a Significant Number of Additional Derailments Without Additional Regulation • Is Bakken Crude Oil More Volatile Than Other U.S. Crude Oil? • Are the Keystone XL Pipeline and Other Pipeline Projects the Answer? • Regulatory Efforts Addressing Crude Oil Rail Safety: North Dakota, PHMSA and Senate Bill 859 http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/recent-crude-oil-train-derailments-inten-60849/

Energy East pipeline completion date pushed back to 2020

The earliest date when oilsands crude from western Canada could begin flowing to Saint John is being pushed back two years by Energy East pipeline proponent TransCanada Corp.

The company announced the new in-service date of 2020 on Thursday, as it officially announced it is abandoning plans for a terminal is Cacouna, Que., as part of the $12-billion project.

Beluga whales are found in the St. Lawrence River in the Cacouna area and a recommended change in status of the whales to an endangered species factored into the company's decision to ditch its plans for a terminal there.

"Our goal has been to strike a balance between TransCanada's commitment to minimize environmental impacts and the imperative to build modern infrastructure to safely transport the energy Canadians need and consume every day," said TransCanada president Russ Girling in a release.

The company says it is exploring other options for a terminal in Quebec. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/energy-east-pipeline-completion-date-pushed-back-to- 2020-1.3019311

Canada pipeline regulator planning deep budget cuts

Canada’s national pipeline regulator is making plans to cut its annual spending by 24% and workforce by 15% over the next two years as a pool of temporary funding runs dry, according to a report released this week.

An annual report presented to Parliament said the regulator, the Calgary-based National Energy Board (NEB), would run out of temporary funding to improve safety and security on pipelines in 2017-2018. Read the report here. http://business.financialpost.com/news/energy/canada-pipeline-regulator-planning-deep-budget-cuts? __lsa=2cf8-12f4 http://www.neb-one.gc.ca/bts/pblctn/plnprrt/2015-2016/rpp00-2015-2016-eng.html

55 Throwing darts at map won’t cut it: CCNB says TransCanada has moral duty to withdraw pipeline application

FREDERICTON — TransCanada Corporation has a moral responsibility to withdraw its Energy East project from the national review process now that significant changes have been made to the original oil pipeline proposal, says the Conservation Council of New Brunswick.

On Thursday, April 2, TransCanada announced it had cancelled plans to build an export terminal in Cacouna, Que., due to the negative effects it would have on a nearby nursing ground for the endangered Beluga whale.

The company said it is still looking at other potential terminal sites in Quebec and noted it would file any amendments to its application to the National Energy Board between October and December of this year. http://www.conservationcouncil.ca/throwing-darts-at-map-wont-cut-it-ccnb-says-transcanada-has- moral-duty-to-withdraw-pipeline-application/

Energy East risks outweigh minimal benefits

As economic geography students who have studied the economic viability of the Energy East pipeline proposal, we wish to take this opportunity to challenge the assertions made by TransCanada concerning this project.

In order for the public to be fully informed, we must ask two very specific questions:

For whom is this pipeline economical?

Who absorbs the risks associated with bitumen transport by pipeline?

According to the Ontario Energy Board, TransCanada’s 30,000-page application to the NEB is incomplete and incorrect in many of its statements and claims. As academics, we strive to inform public policy through meaningful discussion of credibly sourced facts. Concerned citizens should question every corporate claim and scrutinize every data set.

In our opinion, TransCanada Pipeline Corporation is making biased claims to the public without providing credibly sourced information. Our conclusion is that we could not verify TransCanada’s claims of economic benefit. http://www.nugget.ca/2015/04/03/energy-east-risks-outweigh-minimal-benefits

What Atlantic Coast Should Brace For If Offshore Drilling Approved

A ship floats amongst a sea of spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. Large-scale spills like this one are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the environmental impacts of offshore drilling.

Among those who spoke was Wilma Subra, an environmental scientist based in Louisiana and a technical adviser for the Louisiana Environmental Action Network. She has won numerous accolades

56 for her work helping communities affected by the oil and gas industry, including a MacArthur “Genius Grant” and a Global Exchange Human Rights Award.

Subra described in detail the environmental impacts that Southeastern Atlantic Coast residents would face from offshore oil and gas development and the associated industrialization of the region. We are sharing her prepared remarks in full, edited only to fix typos and other minor details. https://www.popularresistance.org/what-atlantic-coast-should-brace-for-if-offshore-drilling-approved/

Man Wins Right To Sue Enbridge After Getting Sick

(WLNS) – After a man who lives right next to the Kalamazoo River got sick when the Enbridge oil spill happened, he sought out to sue the company.

A lower court tossed the case out and said there was no direct link between the Enbridge spill and the man’s health.

The man got sick when the oil spill happened. He ended up coughing and throwing up so much that he says he suffered an avulsion of his short gastric artery that led to internal bleeding.

Since he was never formally examined by a doctor, the lower court dismissed the case.

Now an appeals court says a jury should decide whether Enbridge is responsible for the man falling ill.

However, the dissenting judge believes the jury won’t be able to decide fairly because he feels they would not be familiar with vascular injuries. http://wlns.com/2015/04/03/man-wins-right-to-sue-enbridge-after-getting-sick/

Column: Premiers wrong about energy, climate change

Canada's 13 provincial and territorial premiers are gathering in Quebec City on April 14 to discuss a co- ordinated approach to take action on climate change. For those concerned about the anticipated impacts of climate change on our economy, this initiative sounds like it might be a positive step forward by our subnational levels of government.

It would be prudent to hold the applause.

Whatever progress made by provincial leaders in Quebec is likely to be put at risk from another agreement made by the very same provincial and territorial premiers. Last fall in Charlottetown, under the guise of the Council of the Federation, the premiers announced a provisional Canadian Energy Strategy. According to the premier's public relations people, the new strategy will facilitate fossil fuel resource expansion, while considering climate change impacts. "Greener" bitumen pipelines -- whatever those are -- will be the order of the day. http://www.thesudburystar.com/2015/04/04/column-premiers-wrong-about-energy-climate-change

57 Strike Three for Tar Sands Pipelines?

Canada’s Energy East pipeline is in big trouble, just like Keystone XL and Northern Gateway.

The Harper government promised “timeline certainty” for the Energy East pipeline in February 2014, which is government-speak for a fast-tracked review process. TransCanada had good reason to seek an expedited approval process: The more the public learns about tar sands pipelines, the less they like them.

“The delay [from 2018 to 2020] gives stakeholders and people living along the route a chance to engage,” says Antony Swift, the deputy director of NRDC’s Canada project (disclosure). “The Harper government was in some ways trying to short circuit the public by fast-tracking the process.” http://www.onearth.org/earthwire/trouble-for-energy-east-pipeline

On May 30th, let's show Canada and the world that Red Head is "the end of the line" for Energy East

As attention on Energy East now focuses on New Brunswick and the Bay of Fundy, the residents of Red Head are well into their second month of planning for the large "End of the Line March" on Saturday, May 30th @ 1:00pm.

Why is the line in the sand being drawn at Red Head? The numbers speak for themselves: • a 42-inch diameter export pipeline built over 280 proposed waterway crossings in New Brunswick (see this interactive map); • a 150-hectare tank farm capable of housing 7.6 million barrels of oil and heated bitumen will be situated right in the middle of the rural community of Red Head; • a 183-hectare marine terminal complex at Red Head; • supertankers carrying 2.2 million barrels of oil crossing over the Bay of Fundy; and • pipeline leaks as large as 2.6 million litres per day for up to 2 weeks could go undetected;

The threat of spills into waterways and the Bay of Fundy, and certain toxic air pollution for Red Head, is unacceptable. http://canadians.org/blog/may-30th-lets-show-canada-and-world-red-head-end-line-energy-east

What Canada will look like with $40 oil

According to TD Economics’ latest Commodity Price report, oil could hit US$40 a barrel in the second quarter of 2015.

But while the bargain barrel prices won’t hurt the wallet when it comes to filling up the car, long-term effects will be harder to spot says Ambarish Chandra, assistant professor of economics at University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

Ultimately, he suspects oil will bounce back before consumers even notice the effects of cheaper oil on their day-to-day routine. https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/blogs/insight/the-effects-of-40-oil-150217828.html

58 10 Threats from the Canadian Tar Sands Industry

1. Digging up tar sands wreaks havoc on Alberta's boreal forest. 2. The production process wastes enormous quantities of freshwater. 3. Tar sands development produces huge amounts of toxic wastewater. 4. Burning tar sands oil creates more pollution than regular crude. 5. Corrosive tar sands increase the risk of pipeline rupture. 6. A web of new pipelines will fan out from Alberta's tar sands pits. 7. Exporting tar sands will put rivers and coastlines at risk of spills. 8. Rail cars carrying tar sands crude will pass through densely populated areas. 9. Tar sands oil refineries produce dangerous petcoke waste. 10. Low-income communities will be disproportionately impacted. http://www.nrdc.org/energy/ten-threats-tar-sands-invasion.asp? utm_source=fb&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=socialmedia

Vancouver fuel spill washes up beach in Kitsilano Embedded video

City of Vancouver warns the bunker fuel should not be touched

The toxic bunker fuel that has spilled in Vancouver's English Bay has washed up on the city's popular beach in Kitsilano.

Vancouver police told CBC News that oil has washed up on the shore at Kits Beach, where there are visible clumps.

The spill has spreading as a grimy sheen on the water, and it may push the oil to shore in Burrard Inlet, the city tweeted. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-fuel-spill-washes-up-beach-in-kitsilano- 1.3026227

Energy East will not bring prosperity to New Brunswick

Saint John, having an entirely monopolized private sector, has little economic prospects. We are at the mercy of the Irving Oil and J.D. Irving Ltd.; two quasi separate entities, but nevertheless constitute what we call, the ‘Empire’. The Irving’s, within corporate Canada, are known for their method of vertical integration, a business strategy where everything needed to produce and distribute product is internalized within the company. Companies that, on the surface, seem independent of the Empire are not.

What is good for Irving, is not what is good for Saint John or New Brunswick for that matter. According to a report released by Plan SJ, one in five Saint Johners live in poverty. Worse, 30 per cent of children live in poverty, the highest in Canada. Too many citizens are being excluded from the economy and too few command it. As all ecosystems depend on diversity, so too does a strong economy. We must collectively act on this, especially in Saint John. http://nbmediacoop.org/2015/04/09/energy-east-will-not-bring-prosperity-to-new-brunswick/

59 61% of Canadians say protecting the climate more important than pipelines and tarsands

Canadians believe: • Protecting the climate is more important than building the Energy East pipeline and further developing the tarsands (61% agree/strongly agree). • Building the Energy East pipeline to export tarsands oil is unethical because it is harmful to the environment (by a 3 to 1 margin that 56% agree/strongly agree; 18% disagree/strongly disagree).

For provinces along the Energy East Pipeline route, results were: • 71% of Québecers, 67% of Ontarians and 60% of New Brunswickers believe protecting the climate is more important than building the Energy East pipeline and further developing the tarsands (agree/strongly agree). • 68% of Québecers, 55% of Ontarians and 57% of New Brunswickers believe that building the Energy East pipeline to export tarsands oil is unethical because it is harmful to the environment http://climateactionnetwork.ca/2015/04/07/61-of-canadians-say-protecting-the-climate-more-important- than-pipelines-and-tarsands/ http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/technology/more-than-half-of-canadians-say-climate- protection-trumps-oilsands-pipelines-146914/

Dramatic photos of Vancouver oil spill spark pipeline outrage on social media

Many fear sight of fuel on water will become common if B.C. gets more oil pipelines

As a toxic bunker fuel spill spread across Vancouver's English Bay and washed ashore on the city's many beaches, people took to social media to share worrying photos, along with fears for the province's environmental future. http://www.cbc.ca/news/dramatic-photos-of-vancouver-oil-spill-spark-pipeline-outrage-on-social-media- 1.3026816

Funding slashed for all safety programs at Transport Canada

OTTAWA —The Conservative government is slashing funding for all safety and security programs at Transport Canada, with a significant chunk coming out of safety oversight initiatives, planning documents show.

The amount of funding set to be clawed away varies between programs — the budget for transportation of dangerous goods is going down 32 per cent while the budget for aviation safety is dropping 9.2 per cent, for example — but all are seeing decreases, just as the wreckage of Air Canada Flight 624 was pulled off a runway in Halifax and the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic continues to rebuild. http://globalnews.ca/news/1916438/funding-slashed-for-all-safety-programs-at-transport-canada/

60 La Salle River rupture: TransCanada misleading on safety track record?

In a recent presentation to Fredericton’s Chamber of Commerce, Kevin Maloney, the Manager of New Build Pipelines for Alberta and New Brunswick for TransCanada, stated: “We have never had a failure in a watercourse crossing. Ever.” See Global News coverage of the presentation.

As part of our Prairies Energy East, Our Risk – Their Reward tour, we were led today on a tour of key sites in St. Norbert (part of Winnipeg) by a local organic farmer. She and others in the community can testify that this just isn’t the case.

In 1996 a TransCanada natural gas pipeline (manufactured in 1962) ruptured in a watercourse here.

According to the Transportation and Safety Board report: “Several eye witnesses saw flying debris and a geyser of mud and water shooting up from the La Salle River, at a point where TCPL crosses the river.”

Visiting the site, we learned that the rupture, first identified by local residents (not TransCanada’s electronic leak detection system) led to the fire and destruction of a local home. Thankfully no one was home at the time, sadly their cat was. http://canadians.org/blog/la-salle-river-rupture-transcanada-misleading-safety-track-record

Scotiabank CEO: Canadian Energy Projects Are ‘Priority’

Canadian leaders must put aside bickering and indecision to ensure major energy projects get done before global markets move on to other suppliers, Bank of Nova Scotia Chief Executive Officer Brian Porter said in his first foray into public policy.

Efforts by Canada’s energy producers to get oil and gas out of Alberta’s land-locked oil sands to international markets have been stymied by public opposition, legal challenges and political wrangling. That’s hampered multibillion-dollar pipeline plans such as TransCanada Corp.’s Energy East and Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway. http://www.oilandgasinvestor.com/scotiabank-ceo-canadian-energy-projects-are-priority-790311

VIDEO: Does James Moore still think Vancouver has Canada's #1 Coast Guard service?

It took 6 hours to get started on containing a 2,800 litre oil spill in the waters next to Vancouver.

Then it took 12 hours to let the city know there was a spill. And nearly two days later to confirm which oil tanker was leaking (though no one's exactly sure what substance was leaking or how toxic it is).

In a statement Friday morning, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson noted that spill response is "the responsibility of the federal government" and slammed the reaction as "totally inadequate." He noted that neither Transport Minister Lisa Raitt or any other federal minister had, at that point, made themselves available to the public to explain how they're managing the response.

Who thinks that sounds like "world class tanker safety"?

61 Why don't we ask Harper's B.C. lieutenant James Moore?

Back in 2012, Moore gave a resounding "YES!" to shutting down the Kitsilano Coast Guard base (which was controversially shut down by the Harper government and could have "responded to [the] oil spill instantly"). Moore defended the cuts by explaining that "with all of the new investments that we're putting in, we'll make sure Vancouver has the best Coast Guard safety -- the best coastal safety in all of Canada": http://www.pressprogress.ca/en/post/video-does-james-moore-still-think-vancouver-has-canadas-1- coast-guard-service

Another frac mess! 200 Evacuated, Nearly 70 homes damaged in Marinza, Albania

Canadian firm Bankers Petroleum Ltd (has steam injection pilot project there), was at 500 metres depth when “volcanos” of gas, mud (chemicals?) and water erupted

Click to watch: Fontänen aus Gas und Schlamm schießen aus dem Boden [IN GERMAN, ENGLISH NOT NEEDED TO UNDERSTAND THE DAMAGES AND HORROR FOR THE COMMUNITY] Veröffentlicht am April 2, 2015, Kanadische Firma bestreitet einen Zusammenhang zu Ölbohrungen in dem Dorf. http://www.ernstversusencana.ca/200-evacuated-70-homes-damaged-in-marinza-albania-bankers- petroleum-steam-injection-pilot-project-volcanos-of-gas-mud-chemicals-water http://www.t-online.de/tv/news/id_73509666/gaseruptionen-in-einem-albanischen-dorf.html

Elizabeth May on Vancouver oil spill Embedded video

Green Party Leader says federal cuts are to blame for slow oil spill response http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Canada/BC/ID/2663595391/

US Pipelines Incidents Are a Daily Occurrence

In fact, according to data downloaded from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), there were 1,887 incidents in the nation’s gathering and transmission, distribution, and hazardous liquids pipelines between January 1, 2010 and March 29, 2013, or an average of 1.6 incidents per day.

http://www.fractracker.org/2013/04/us-pipelines-average-incidents-are-a-daily-occurrence/

62 Utility won't appeal $1.6 billion penalty for deadly blast

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California regulators approved a record $1.6 billion penalty Thursday against PG&E for a 2010 gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people and destroyed more than three dozen homes in suburban San Francisco.

The punishment comes as the state's top utility regulator, Public Utilities Commission President Michael Picker, told The Associated Press he has called for a larger review into whether the state's biggest power utility should be broken up to improve safety.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co., meanwhile, said it would accept the penalty without appeal and pledged to make its operations safer. http://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/California-regulator-State-s-utility-too-big-6188497.php

Barricades not out of the question to fight pipeline: Mohawk leader

MONTREAL -- Twenty-eight years after the Kanesatake Mohawk First Nation squared off against police during the Oka Crisis, the community's grand chief has not ruled out barricades to prevent TransCanada's Energy East pipeline from being built in its territory.

"It's possible because it's been helpful in the past," said Serge Simon. "At the moment, this isn't our strategy, but it could happen."

According to the planned route, the pipeline will pass through the northern part of Kanesatake in Quebec.

"This year, we had four feet of ice on the lake," said Simon. "If an accident happens, how are they going to get down there to clean up the oil?" http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2015/04/11/22339096.html

Energy East pipeline puts Winnipeg drinking water at risk, Barlow says

A Canadian social action organization opposing the Energy East pipeline says the project puts Winnipeg's drinking water supply at risk.

TransCanada's proposed 4,600-kilometre pipeline would transport 1.1-million barrels of crude per day from the Alberta oilsands east to refineries in Quebec and New Brunswick.

The plan would also involve repurposing a roughly 40-year-old natural gas pipeline that would run right by Shoal Lake, which is nested along the Manitoba-Ontario border and provides drinking water to Manitoba's capital.

Maude Barlow and the Council of Canadians think a rupture in the pipeline could contaminate Shoal Lake's fresh water. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/energy-east-pipeline-puts-winnipeg-drinking-water-at-risk- barlow-says-1.3029917

63 Anti-pipeline tour comes to Saskatchewan

On the heels of pipeline giant TransCanada's series of meetings last autumn promoting construction of the Energy East pipeline, the Council of Canadians is responding with its own speaking tour - opposing the multibillion-dollar project.

"The purpose of the tour is to provide some information about the project, specifically about the risk that we see of a pipeline spill," said Andrea Harden -Donahue, an energy and climate justice campaigner with the Ottawa-based council.

It warns that approval of the project, which proposes to "repurpose" an existing pipeline across the southern Prairies and Ontario to carry oil, rather than natural gas, to the Irving Oil refinery at Saint John, N.B., will encourage expansion of northern Alberta's tarsands and threaten waterways in its path. http://www.leaderpost.com/business/Anti+pipeline+tour+comes+Sask/10967501/story.html

Energy East pipeline: Maude Barlow raises alarm in Swift Current

Swift Current – Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians, Ben Gotschall of Bold Nebraska, and Melissa Daniels of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation will join a public forum in Swift Current to discuss why Energy East is all risk and little reward. The forum is part of a tour along the pipeline path in Saskatchewan and Manitoba that includes four public events, meetings and site visits, including to the Great Sandhills, which the pipeline will pass through. http://www.canadians.org/media/energy-east-pipeline-maude-barlow-raises-alarm-swift-current

Alberta's Greatly Anticipated Tar Sands Tailings Ponds Framework Falls Short

A new Tailings Management Framework released by the Government Alberta unfortunately enables industry to sidestep taking meaningful action on one of the most pressing environmental issues of tar sands development. For years, Alberta's political leaders have promised to finally address the harmful legacy of the toxic tar sands tailings problem. But this latest framework is not likely to compel industry action to clean up the tailings in a meaningful way, especially given its lack of meaningful enforcement mechanisms. This, in fact, makes the new framework a step in the wrong direction since the previous regulation, Directive 074, had concrete means of enforcement.

Tailings ponds are a blight upon Alberta's landscape that endanger both wildlife and Canadians. These ponds, which consist of the bitumen, napthenic acids, heavy metals, and other toxic substances left over from tar sands mining, kill and deform wildlife and poison downstream communities. There are currently 976 billion liters of tailings in the mineable region in Alberta--the equivalent of 390,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools--and this number is steadily growing. http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jskene/albertas_greatly_anticipated_t.html? utm_source=fb&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=socialmedia

Ontario adopts cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gases Embedded video

Ontario, Quebec and California team up on cap-and-trade system

64 Ontario will adopt a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Premier Kathleen Wynne said Monday before she travelled to Quebec to sign a deal with that province. Wynne offered scant details on how the system would work and said specifics will come later.

"It would be irresponsible of us to speculate on exactly what the costs are going to be when we haven't worked to design the mechanism yet," she said in Toronto.

Estimates from Quebec and California peg the increased cost on the price of gasoline to be between two and 3.5 cents — which Wynne characterized as "small" potential increases. Climate change is already imposing costs on society, damaging crops and increasing insurance claims, she said. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ontario-adopts-cap-and-trade-system-to-reduce-greenhouse-gases- 1.3030996

Sale of Carbon Credits

By purchasing our carbon credits, you can offset your own emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce your carbon footprint: either the total amount of pollution generated by your company or your products, the choice is yours. For example, if your company generates 20 tonnes of carbon, we can sell you the same amount of carbon credits to offset those emissions. The purchase of credits, combined with a sustainability policy, allow you to fight global warming by reducing your carbon footprint. http://www.ecotierra.co/en/our-services/sale-of-carbon-credits/

Carbon Traders

Evolution Markets provides professional brokerage services in which it brings together buyers and sellers in an efficient over-the-counter (OTC) carbon trading marketplace. This includes the brokering of highly structured trades of carbon allowances and credits for a network of global counterparties. http://www.evomarkets.com/environment/carbon_markets/traiders

Researchers find 7,300-sq-mile ring of mercury around tar sands in Canada

Scientists have found a more than 7,300-square-mile ring of land and water contaminated by mercury surrounding the tar sands in Alberta, where energy companies are producing oil and shipping it throughout Canada and the U.S.

Government scientists are preparing to publish a report that found levels of mercury are up to 16 times higher around the tar-sand operations — principally due to the excavation and transportation of bitumen in the sands by oil and gas companies, according to Postmedia-owned Canadian newspapers like The Vancouver Sun.

Environment Canada researcher Jane Kirk recently presented the findings at a toxicology conference in Nashville, Tenn. http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/12/29/7-500-mile-ring- ofmercuryfoundaroundcanadastarsands.html

65 Vancouver oil spill creates job for clean-up company owned by oil companies

Is Kinder Morgan right? Could oil spills really be "good for the economy"? No, of course not.

But ironically, it was Western Canada Marine Response Corporation -- a private oil spill clean-up company whose majority owner is Kinder Morgan (minority owners include four major oil companies: Suncor, Chevron, Shell Canada and Imperial Oil) -- who got the call for the job of cleaning up last week's oil spill in Vancouver's English Bay (where the Conservatives shut down a nearby Coast Guard base at Kitsilano in 2013).

According to WCMRC, 35 clean-up personnel were deployed, including six boats with 1,100 metres of boom to contain the spill. In documents filed with the National Energy Board, Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline company owns a 50.9% stake in this oil spill clean-up company http://www.pressprogress.ca/en/post/vancouver-oil-spill-creates-job-clean-company-owned-oil- companies

The BC Oil Spill and the Con Clown James Moore

It couldn't have been a more monstrous or absurd sight.

A day after a ship leaked about 3,000 litres of bulk oil into Vancouver's beautiful English Bay,

And a few hours after the province's premier and the city's mayor blasted the slow federal response.

The monstrous Con beluga James Moore broke through the oily sheen to spout off at his critics. http://montrealsimon.blogspot.ca/2015/04/the-bc-oil-spill-and-con-clown-james.html

Secret Videos Expose Chevron’s Corruption in Ecuadorian Oil Spill

There’s a new development in the case against Chevron for its failure to address decades of contamination in the Ecuadorian Amazon. An apparent Chevron whistleblower sent dozens of internal company videos to Amazon Watch with a note saying “I hope this is useful for you in your trial against Texaco/Chevron. [signed] A Friend from Chevron.”

The videos—some of which can be seen on Amazon Watch—show Chevron employees and consultants secretly visiting the company’s former well sites in Ecuador to find samples that didn’t contain crude oil to use in soil and water samples at later site inspections when the presiding trial judge would be there to monitor the testing. http://ecowatch.com/2015/04/09/chevron-whistleblower-leaks-videos/ http://amazonwatch.org/news/2015/0408-the-chevron-tapes

66 Saint John fire chief points out training gap for large fuel fires

Kevin Clifford says a national curriculum to train responders for emergencies hasn't been developed

Saint John's fire chief says there remains a "significant training gap" for emergency responders when it comes to large scale fuel fires.

Kevin Clifford delivered that message to city councillors Monday night as part of an update on Saint John's emergency readiness to deal with a train derailment involving oil.

In a report to council, Clifford states the fire department, Emergency Measures Organization and local industry are capable of responding to a large scale emergency.

But, he said, "there is significant concern in the fact that emergency responders are not currently provided the type of training that will ensure they are as effective and safe as they need to be." http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/saint-john-fire-chief-points-out-training-gap-for-large- fuel-fires-1.3031832

Disaster in the Gulf Five years later, not much has changed—including the impulse to drill

When BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20, 2010, and sank to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, it killed 11 workers and spewed as much as 210 million gallons or so of crude across a huge swath of ocean and coastline. It took 87 days before the flow of oil could be stopped, but the devastation to wildlife and livelihoods continues to this day.

With the support of its allies in Washington D.C., the oil industry has avoided reforms that would make drilling safer. Despite a long chain of failures that led to the blowout, Congress has yet to pass a single law to help prevent future offshore-drilling disasters—even as industry efforts expand in the Gulf and the administration considers opening Atlantic and Arctic waters. http://www.nrdc.org/energy/gulfspill/?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=socialmedia

Greens seeing red over oilsands pipeline

THE Selinger government can -- and should -- slam the brakes on a proposed national pipeline that would pump diluted bitumen from the Alberta oilsands into Eastern Canada, the Green party says.

James Beddome, leader of the Green Party of Manitoba, said if the TransCanada Pipeline Energy East project goes ahead, it will threaten the health and safety of nearly 25 Manitoba communities along its route. http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/greens-seeing-red-over-oilsands-pipeline-299654521.html

Energy East pipeline opposition tour stops in Regina

In Saskatchewan an existing natural gas line, which cuts through Regina’s Harbour Landing subdivision, would be repurposed to carry oil.

67 “I’m hearing a lot of support for concerns around spills. I met with a couple of people who were from the university (U of R) and some youth that are really concerned about what this means upstream,” said Andrea Harden-Donahue with The Council of Canadians.

As an alternative, Harden-Donahue said Canada should be focusing on clean energy solutions.

“Our federal government is putting all of its eggs in one basket,” she said. “Sustainable agriculture, clean energy and public transport, these are good jobs. http://globalnews.ca/news/1936936/energy-east-pipeline-opposition-tour-stops-in-regina/

National Energy Board on cross-Canada tour to assure public

The chair of the National Energy Board is on a cross-country tour to assure Canadians that the energy regulator is committed to protecting their safety and the environment.

The chair of the National Energy Board, currently on a cross-country tour to assure Canadians that the energy regulator is committed to protecting their safety and the environment, has just wrapped up a 10- day tour of Quebec, hotbed of environmentalism and opposition to pipelines.

Watson met first responders, environmental groups, representatives of First Nations, and over 60 mayors.

These proposals, and others, have triggered intense criticism from critics who say catastrophic spills are not a matter of if, but when. They point to the spill from an Enbridge pipeline in 2010 that resulted in 3.3 million litres of oil in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River as an example. It has cost the company over $1 billion to clean up and it is still not finished.

As oil pipelines have made headlines — mostly for the wrong reasons — the NEB has been thrust in the eye of a storm, he acknowledged. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/04/13/national-energy-board-on-cross-canada-tour-to- assure-public.html

Record crude volumes, pipeline delays lead to boom in oil storage

A storage boom is under way in Alberta’s oil patch as producers pump record volumes of crude and multibillion-dollar export pipeline proposals face lengthy delays.

Keyera Energy Corp., Kinder Morgan Inc. and Gibson Energy Inc. are some of the largest players to announce new storage projects in recent weeks, as oil sands production shows few signs of letting up despite the deep slump in energy prices. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/record- crude-volumes-pipeline-delays-lead-to-boom-in-oil-storage/article23962611/

68 Ewart: Alberta oil hits a hurdle en route to world markets in Quebec City

Canada’s premiers and territorial leaders met for a climate change summit Tuesday in Quebec City — current Alberta Premier Jim Prentice was among the notable no shows — and what was once an initiative to boost oil exports is increasingly focused on greenhouse gas emissions.

The meeting hosted by Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard ended with an agreement to work to accelerate the switch to a lower-carbon economy and strengthen cooperation between Canada’s provinces and territories on climate policies.

It occurred as responsibility for reducing GHGs increasingly falls to the provinces.

On the eve of the summit, Premier Kathleen Wynne announced Ontario would join Quebec and California in a cap-and-trade system to limit GHGs while B.C. Premier Christy Clark said her government is developing a “version 2.0″ of its carbon tax regime.

Environmentalists used the occasion to call for curbs on oilsands development and a halt to projects like TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Energy East pipeline that would move 1.1 million barrels a day of Alberta crude to tidewater ports on the East Coast. http://calgaryherald.com/business/energy/ewart-alberta-oil-hits-a-hurdle-en-route-to-world-markets-in- quebec-city

Oil Change International, Greenpeace, and Platform – April 2015

Shell is currently moving its drilling rigs to Seattle in anticipation of resuming its US offshore Arctic drilling programme in July. However, it is far from clear that Shell has adequate physical or financial plans to deal with the impacts of a major oil spill in this remote region.

This briefing examines the significant challenges in dealing with such a spill, including a lack of response infrastructure, the ineffectiveness of key response tactics, and a lack of understanding of key aspects of the dynamic Arctic region necessary according to the National Research Council in the US to “make informed decisions about the most effective response strategies.” http://priceofoil.org/2015/04/13/frozen-future-shell-us-offshore-arctic-2/ http://priceofoil.org/content/uploads/2015/04/2015-The-gaps-in-Shells-Arctic-spill-response.pdf

Tar Sands Megaprojects Hurt Canada's Ability to Meet Climate Goals: Report

It's up to the country's premiers to fill the 'leadership vacuum' left by the federal government on climate change, think tank declares

As Canada's provincial and territorial leaders meet Tuesday in Quebec City to develop a national energy strategy in the face of federal inaction on climate change, a new report warns that tar sands megaprojects like the Energy East pipeline could hinder the country's ability to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.

69 "Canada's premiers have an opportunity to collaborate and provide leadership through a Canadian Energy Strategy," said Erin Flanagan, an analyst with the Pembina Institute and author of the report, Crafting an Effective Canadian Energy Strategy (pdf). "But to achieve shared climate objectives, the provinces will have to address carbon-intensive megaprojects and their consequences in terms of emissions." http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/science/science-a-environmental/60417-tar-sands-megaprojects- hurt-canada-s-ability-to-meet-climate-goals-report.html

A Love Letter to Harper From the Oil Industry

Last week, a year-old letter signed by the associations representing the petroleum, gas and pipeline industry in Canada was exposed. It asked the federal government to modify six critical environmental laws that inconvenienced the signers' industries.

Five of these laws have since been chopped up into omnibus bills C-38 and C-45, which significantly dismantled Canada's environmental protection. The letter was obtained last week by Greenpeace via Access to Information. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/yan-roberts/omnibus-harper-oil_b_2474752.html

Mexico oil spill leaves 200,000 without water

An oil spill in south-eastern Mexico has left more than 200,000 people without water.

The spill, near Tabasco state capital Villahermosa, was caused by oil thieves puncturing a pipeline and has polluted two rivers.

Four water treatment plants in the region have been shut down as a precaution.

Oil company workers have set out containment booms and have been trying to scoop oil from waterways.

Local authorities have asked for help from the army to supply drinking water to those most affected.

They are planning to send tanker trucks to Villahermosa and neighbouring towns. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-32313578

Koch Brothers Exposed: 2014 Full Documentary Film • Brave New Films https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N8y2SVerW8&feature=player_embedded

Draw the line against tar sands devastation Embedded video

The indigenous people of Beaver Lake Cree Nation live on the beautiful territories of Alberta in Canada. But their homeland is on the front lines of destructive tar sands mining. In order to stop this industrial

70 savagery on their lands, they have taken the Canadian government and the province of Alberta to court in a landmark case. https://www.grrrowd.org/projects/draw-the-line-against-tar-sands-devastation/ https://player.vimeo.com/video/120535725

Doing the Unthinkable: Giant Gas Pipeline to Flank a New York Nuclear Power Plant

A very large gas pipeline will soon skirt the Indian Point Energy Center (IPEC), an aging nuclear power plant that stands in the town of Cortlandt in Westchester County, New York, 30 miles north of Manhattan. The federal agencies that have permitted the project have bowed to two corporations - the pipeline's owner, Spectra Energy, and Entergy, which bought the Indian Point complex in 2001 from its former owner.

A hazards assessment by a former employee of one of the plant's prior owners, replete with errors, was the basis for the go-ahead. http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/30234-doing-the-unthinkable-giant-gas-pipeline-to-flank-a-new-york- nuclear-power-plant

Desperate B.C. Liberals want secret subsidy deals for LNG companies

VICTORIA – Two years after promising openness, fair taxation and benefits for all British Columbians from LNG development, Christy Clark’s Liberal government has turned in desperation to legislation that allows new subsidies for companies and leaves British Columbians with only secrecy in return, New Democrat leader John Horgan said today.

“Christy Clark is desperate to make her LNG promises come true,” said Horgan, “She’s given companies what they wanted, then more, and now she wants the ability to give them even more tax breaks and long term deals without any public openness.” http://bcndpcaucus.ca/news/desperate-b-c-liberals-want-secret-subsidy-deals-for-lng-companies/

Farmers face loss of lease payments as smaller oil companies go bankrupt

Dozens of small oil companies are defaulting on lease payments owed to farmers and ranchers.

The province refuses to provide compensation.

Facing losses of thousands of dollars, more than 400 landowners packed the Trochu hall southeast of Red Deer the last week in a growing campaign to regain their long-standing right to compensation.

Don Bester, a Red Deer area farmer, said there is a lot of concern after the Alberta Surface Rights Board abruptly reversed a long-standing policy of compensating land owners for defaulted lease payments.

71 “We’re gearing up to have this decision reviewed by the courts,” said Bester, president of the Alberta Surface Rights Group. http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Farmers+face+loss+lease+payments+smaller+companies+bankrupt/ 10975338/story.html

IMAGES AÉRIENNES EXCLUSIVES: Déraillement de train à Saint-Basile Embedded video

http://cimt.teleinterrives.com/nouvelle- alaune_IMAGES_AERIENNES_EXCLUSIVES_Deraillement_de_train_a_Saint_Basile-19013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmpPjKc0X_o&feature=player_embedded

CN train derailed near Edmundston

Emergency crews are at scene, along Highway 144, between Sainte-Basil in Edmundston and the village of Rivière-Verte.

72 No one was injured.

Officials do not believe the train was carrying any dangerous goods, based on the manifest, said city spokesperson Mychèle Poitras. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/cn-train-derailed-near-edmundston-1.3038083

CN train derails near Edmundston, no injuries reported

EDMUNDSTON- Emergency officials are on the scene of a train derailment near the northwestern New Brunswick city of Edmundston.

About 35 cars of a CN Rail freight train left the track Friday afternoon just south of the Edmundston between the Sainte-Basil area of the city and the village of Riviere-Verte.

The train was carrying wood, paper products, automobiles and some empty tanker cars when it left the tracks. http://globalnews.ca/news/1945652/cn-train-derails-near-edmundston-no-injuries-reported/

TransCanada’s Pipeline Benefit Vows Fail to Sway Quebec’s Arcand

Quebec wants more evidence from TransCanada Corp. that its Energy East pipeline will benefit the province after a marine terminal was scrapped from the plan, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Pierre Arcand said.

“We’ve said to the company: ‘You have to bring some benefits,’” Arcand said in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. “We asked them: ‘Are you going to open an office in Montreal? What are you going to bring to us?’ And we have yet to get those answers.” http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-17/transcanada-s-pipeline-benefit-vows-fail-to-sway- quebec-s-arcand

Vancouver's oil spill: Damage in the water

As Vancouver cleans up from the bunker fuel spill in its harbour, fingers are pointing at who was responsible for the slow and confusing response. This spill happened in ideal weather conditions and in the backyard of the coast's best-equipped response location. One can only imagine the impacts — for people, wildlife and habitats — of larger amounts of oil in less ideal weather conditions.

Vancouver's harbour is a relatively rich ecological area with migrating and permanent birdlife. April is an especially important time for many birds. Trained volunteer oiled-wildlife first responders are helping at least 30 oil-covered birds, and more damage is expected. If past spills are any indication, we can expect impacts on marine life and habitats from the toxic leftovers to continue for decades. http://davidsuzuki.org/blogs/panther-lounge/2015/04/vancouvers-oil-spill-damage-in-the-water/

73 These Pictures May Give You Nightmares About The Canada Oil Sands

Canada's economic boom depends on tearing up 54,000 square-mile of pristine Alberta wilderness.

Development of the world's third largest oil supply is proceeding rapidly. It already represents a $3.5 billion annual paycheck to the Canadian government and 75,000 immediate jobs.

But many are aghast at the project, which is also the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas in Canada.

When you see the pictures, you may feel the same. We're not saying the project is good or bad. We're just saying the scale and severity of what's happening in Alberta will make your spine tingle. http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-destructive-canada-oil-sands-2012-10?op=1

Thanks to the BP oil disaster, this Louisiana barrier island is washing away Embedded video

At this time five years ago, Cat Island, off the coast of Louisiana, was getting ready for breeding season. In spring, rare and endangered birds, like brown pelicans, come from all over to nest on this 5.5-acre spit in the sea, the Gulf region's fourth-largest rookery. After hatching, chicks would imprint on the place and later return to lay their own eggs in its eight-foot mangroves. Then on April 20, 2010, disaster struck. The Deepwater Horizon blowout began to spew oil into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days straight.

As this National Geographic video shows, oil infiltrated Cat Island, killing the root system of its mangrove forest. Without those roots to hold the island together, the sea began to wash the island’s sediment away. Cat Island is disappearing. http://www.onearth.org/earthwire/cat-island-bp-oil-spill-birds? utm_source=fb&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=socialmedia https://youtu.be/UkATPicHIo4

Ohio oil spill: When drilling hits home

Then it all hit home. Literally. I signed into Facebook Saturday to see everyone posting about an oil spill in Vienna, Ohio, my hometown. About 2,000 gallons of oil spilled onto wetlands and ponds from an underground drain pipe belonging to local oil and gas company Kleese Development. The oil may have been leaking for a while, hidden under snow and ice, according to the Ohio EPA.

Vienna is a farming town where it’s easy to find pockets of nature: woods, wetlands, fields, and ponds. It’s also on the Utica shale formation, which means that the area is very hot with frackers right now. There have been fracking-related earthquakes and an oil boss was recently sentenced to jail time for dumping fracking waste in the nearby Mahoning River. Initial news reports did not make it clear if the Vienna spill was fracking-related. Either way, it’s bad news. http://greenpeaceblogs.org/2015/04/04/oil-spills-hit-home/

74 GroundWire | April 14, 2015: The pipelines episode Embedded audio

A report on the successful campaign to prevent the port at Cacouna, Quebec from becoming a terminal for TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline |Marilla Steuter-Martin , CJLO

A report on the Saturday April 11 Climate March in Quebec City | Brenna Owen, CFRC

A report on the environmental hazards associated with the development of the Energy East Pipeline route which would transform large sections of natural gas pipeline into a pipeline for diluted Tar Sands bitumen. |Jonathan Kornelsen, Adesuwa Ero, Michael Welch, Julien Cooper |CKUW http://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/groundwire/2015/04/groundwire-april-14-2015-pipelines-episode

A Danger on the Rails Embedded video

This short documentary warns about the dangers posed by trains that transport explosive oil across North America. http://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000003639391/a-danger-on-the-rails.html

The Weir - Save the Bay of Fundy

Fishing Fundy's Giant Tides https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=donTQF-5mEE

Conservative MPs get a surprise delivery of toxic debris from Vancouver oil spill. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJL58CXfWHY&feature=youtu.be

CERAWeek: Low prices slow, but won’t end, Canadian oil sands development

HOUSTON — Canadian oil sands development will keep climbing amid low crude prices but at a slower pace, as companies focus on expansions of existing projects instead of launching new greenfield endeavors, energy experts said Tuesday.

Low oil prices are far from the only challenge facing Alberta, Canada’s oil sands. The projects designed to extract dense bitumen from the oil sands — usually by strip-mining or by pumping steam underground to liquefy the hydrocarbon — are especially energy intensive.

They have become a focal point for advocates trying to move the world away from fossil fuels — with that opposition lobbed not just at upstream production but also the pipelines proposed to move the oil sands crude to market.

The prime example is Keystone XL, TransCanada Corp.’s long-planned pipeline to carry oil from Alberta and North Dakota to refineries along the Gulf Coast. There is no clear indication of when the State Department will decide whether the pipeline is in the national interest.

75 Paul Miller, TransCanada’s executive vice president of liquids pipelines, stressed that Keystone XL and the company’s separately planned Energy East pipeline, which would run from Alberta to Canada’s East Coast, “remain vital.” http://fuelfix.com/blog/2015/04/21/low-prices-slow-but-wont-end-canadian-oil-sands-development/

Gatekeeper of Canada's Energy East pipeline has mixed environmental record

(Reuters) - A company pivotal to Canada's most ambitious oil pipeline project has a mixed environmental record of spills and regulatory warnings, according to government documents reviewed by Reuters, a finding likely to bolster activist opposition to the proposal.

Family-owned Irving Oil, poised to build and operate the sole Atlantic export terminal for TransCanada's Energy East oil sands pipeline from Alberta, has logged at least 19 accidents classified by regulators as "environmental emergencies" at its existing facilities in eastern Canada since 2012, including three that drew warnings for delayed reporting.

Reuters gained access to New Brunswick Department of Environment incident records through a Right to Information Act request. http://www.businessinsider.com/r-exclusive-gatekeeper-of-canadas-energy-east-pipeline-has-mixed- environmental-record-2015-4

Beneath the tar sands is even dirtier oil, and industry is salivating over it

The price of crude oil has slumped to its lowest point in six years, and that has sent some major oil companies scrambling to get out of expensive tar-sands projects in Alberta, Canada. Shell has pulled out of one of its largest lease applications, and Petrochina is attempting to get rid of its tar-sands assets. Environmentalists have watched the slowdown with great hope.

Yet at the same time, some of those very same companies are positioning themselves to tap into an even more dirty and expensive kind of oil in Alberta: bitumen carbonates.

Shell, Husky, tar-sands giant Suncor, and the dreaded Koch brothers have all snapped up leases in Alberta’s bitumen carbonates. In mid-March, the mineral rights for a portion of carbonates were sold at auction for three-and-a-half times the average price for such leases, indicating great confidence in their profit-making potential, if not in the short term, then in the long term. http://grist.org/climate-energy/beneath-the-tar-sands-is-even-dirtier-oil-and-industry-is-salivating-over-it/

Presentation raises concerns over Energy East pipeline plan

Numerous concerns over the safety and necessity of the Energy East Pipeline were raised during a presentation in Swift Current on April 15.

Maude Barlow, National Chairperson from the Council of Canadians, highlighted a long list of issues surrounding the proposed 4,600 kilometre long Energy East Pipeline during a forum at the Days Inn last

76 Wednesday. She argued there are few reasons to utilize a four decade old pipeline, originally built to transport natural gas, to now transport Oil Sands Crude across sensitive lands and waterways.

"I find that people, when they find out what this pipeline is going to carry, regardless of their political background, they don't want it," Barlow said. "I don't even get why people even conceive of allowing this. It's a form of insanity." http://www.swbooster.com/Living/2015-04-21/article-4119496/Presentation-raises-concerns-over- Energy-East-pipeline-plan/1

TransCanada seeks U.S. permit on Upland line as Keystone XL waits

(Reuters) - TransCanada Corp , whose controversial Keystone XL pipeline project has waited more than six years for U.S. approvals, is asking the Obama administration to approve another pipeline, one that would take American crude oil into Canada.

The company, Canada's No. 2 pipeline operator, said it applied on Wednesday for a presidential permit for its planned Upland pipeline, which will carry as much as 220,000 barrels of oil per day 240 miles (386 kilometers) from Williston, North Dakota, to meet the proposed Energy East pipeline in southern Saskatchewan near the border with Manitoba.

The C$600 million ($493 million) Upland line, announced in February, will take crude from North Dakota's prolific Bakken field, where a shortage of pipeline space has forced producers to ship their crude by rail. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/04/24/transcanada-upland-idUKL1N0XL1O520150424

U.S. bans BP from new government contracts after oil spill deal

(Reuters) - The U.S. government banned BP Plc on Wednesday from new federal contracts over its "lack of business integrity" in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, possibly imperiling the company's role as a top U.S. offshore oil and gas producer and the No. 1 military fuel supplier.

The suspension, announced by the Environmental Protection Agency, comes on the heels of BP's November 15 agreement with the U.S. government to plead guilty to criminal misconduct in the Gulf of Mexico disaster, the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. The British energy giant agreed to pay $4.5 billion in penalties, including a record $1.256 billion criminal fine. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/28/us-bp-contracts-idUSBRE8AR0M120121128

NEB Fight Headed to Highest Court

(Vancouver)—The fight for Canadians ’right to be heard on major energy decisions is headed toward the Supreme Court.

A group of landowners, business people, academics, and other concerned Canadians today filed a constitutional challenge with Canada’s highest court over the National Energy Board’s (NEB’s) review

77 of projects like new oil sands pipelines. Their position is that the restrictive rules unfairly limit public participation in the debate and impede their Charter rights.

“The NEB's claim that it cannot consider scientific evidence regarding the long term impacts of the export of bitumen is simply wrong" explained David Martin, legal counsel. "Instead the NEB is making a misguided choice to adopt an unconstitutionally narrow interpretation of its jurisdiction so as to avoid having to address the real competing public interests that pipeline approval applications necessarily entail. The purpose of this application to the Supreme Court of Canada is to ask that Court to direct the NEB to do its job properly." http://www.forestethics.org/news/neb-fight-headed-highest-court

U.S. energy advertising blitz cost Canadians $24M

The multimillion-dollar campaign to market Canadian oil in the United States was hard to miss. The Maple Leaf was plastered on the walls of subway stops in Washington, D.C., and it popped up in all sorts of American publications with messages such as, "America's Best Energy Partner," and "Friends and Neighbors."

Documents obtained by The Canadian Press offer a peek at the behind-the-scenes strategic considerations in 2013, as the federal government conducted a $1.6-million ad campaign in the United States that grew into a $24-million, two-year program that wraps up this month.

The records, released under the Access to Information Act, reveal: • The websites to be shunned as advertising outlets. • The internet search words that would trigger a Canadian energy ad. • The coveted locations for billboards in Washington, D.C. • The rejected proposals. • The U.S. ad salespeople who angled for a slice of the publicity pie. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/u-s-energy-advertising-blitz-cost-canadians-24m-1.3004954

Irving Oil using Bay of Fundy as its refinery toxic waste dumping site.

Irving Oil has been poisoning the Bay of Fundy and all rivers, streams and underground aquifers that are feed by the Bay of Fundy, for years, as evident by the above Google map image. Click on the image above for an enlarged view of the Saint John New Brunswick harbor and the very toxic tar slurry that has contaminated the harbor and the Bay of Fundy. You can clearly see a toxic oil slick in the Google satellite image. You can also clearly see where the contaminate is entering the harbor. If you check out the harbor on Google yourself and zoom out you can see that the toxic waste is spread all along the coastline. Currents spreads the Irving Oil toxic waste along the Eastern Seaboard, contaminating the water of all of the East Coast States and Provinces.

Both the provincial government of Progressive Conservative David Alward and the federal government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper know that Irving Oil is dumping its toxic waste directly into the Bay of Fundy. Both Alward and Harper are allowing Irving Oil to do it and they’ve allowed Irving Oil to do it for decades. http://presscore.ca/irving-oil-using-bay-of-fundy-as-its-refinery-toxic-waste-dumping-site

78 The Energy East proposal began with the Irvings... the top beneficiaries.

Reuters) - Keystone XL, a pipeline proposal to pump Canadian oil sands through the heart of America, has alarmed environmentalists and become one of the most contentious issues of the Obama presidency. But there is a "Plan B" to cut the United States out of the picture, and it is championed by one of Canada's wealthiest business dynasties.

Since 2012, the billionaire Irving family has been advocating a proposal called Energy East. The 2,858- mile (4,600-km) pipeline would link trillions of dollars worth of oil in land-locked fields in the western province of Alberta to an Atlantic port in the Irvings' eastern home province of New Brunswick, north of Maine, creating a gateway to new foreign markets for Canadian oil. http://transitiontimes.weebly.com/canadian-affairs/the-energy-east-proposal-began-with-the-irvings-the- top-beneficiaries

Enbridge keeps plans secret for Line 9

The National Energy Board has recently called Enbridge on the carpet for attempting to put gag orders on municipalities to keep them from divulging information about Enbridge’s emergency procedures. Enbridge has been asking cities to sign “non-disclosure agreements” before sharing their emergency procedure manuals for Line 9, something that even the industry-friendly NEB finds suspect. Enbridge has been severely criticized in the past for having inadequate emergency plans for dealing with pipeline ruptures. Instead of producing robust plans that can stand up to public scrutiny, they have decided to hide the details. http://canadians.org/blog/enbridge-keeps-plans-secret-line-9

Letter to Enbridge from NEB http://www.neb-one.gc.ca/sftnvrnmnt/cmplnc/brdrdr/nbrdg/2015/2015-02-05nbnda-eng.html

Mel Norton orders staff to probe Canaport LNG tax deal

Saint John Mayor Mel Norton says the city is investigating the status of the controversial 25-year property tax deal with Canaport LNG. Norton broke his silence on the issue on Tuesday following a CBC investigation that revealed John Nugent, the city solicitor, has advised Saint John administrators that the property tax break given to Canaport LNG in 2005 only applies if the site is used for importing liquefied natural gas.

Norton said his office learned on Tuesday that oil handling is now being performed on the LNG site. Canaport carries the highest property tax assessment in New Brunswick at $299.4 million.

But under the tax deal, its annual property tax bill is frozen at $500,000.

That's a 91 per cent discount on the $5.3 million in annual property taxes the facility would owe Saint John without the deal, an arrangement that does not expire until 2030. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/mel-norton-orders-staff-to-probe-canaport-lng-tax-deal- 1.2900126

79 Neil Young To Host Concert To Help First Nation Fight Oilsands Development

Neil Young is once again holding a benefit concert for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN.) The concert, set for July 3 at Rexall Place in Edmonton, will see Canadian band Blue Rodeo join Young.

Proceeds from the show will go toward the First Nation's legal defence fund, in their fight against oil companies trying to develop on and near their traditional lands. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/04/28/neil-young-oilsands-concert_n_7165110.html

Big Oil Is About to Lose Control of the Auto Industry

While the U.S. pats itself on the back for the riches flowing from fracking wells, an upheaval in clean energy is quietly loosening the oil industry's grip on the automotive industry.

Presentations by analysts at Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) this week pick away at the idea that supply alone is behind the plunge in crude prices to $50 a barrel. The presentation also shows that low-pollution cars are gaining ground, weakening the link between oil and driving. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-16/big-oil-is-about-to-lose-control-of-the-auto-industry

TransCanada Keystone 1 Pipeline Suffered Major Corrosion Only Two Years In Operation, 95% Worn In One Spot

Documents obtained by DeSmogBlog reveal an alarming rate of corrosion to parts of TransCanada's Keystone 1 pipeline. A mandatory inspection test revealed a section of the pipeline's wall had corroded 95%, leaving it paper-thin in one area (one-third the thickness of a dime) and dangerously thin in three other places, leading TransCanada to immediately shut it down. The cause of the corrosion is being kept from the public by federal regulators and TransCanada.

“It is highly unusual for a pipeline not yet two years old to experience such deep corrosion issues,” Evan Vokes, a former TransCanada pipeline engineer-turned-whistleblower, told DeSmogBlog. “Something very severe happened that the public needs to know about.” When TransCanada shut the line down, the company and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) told the press that the shutdown was due to “possible safety Issues.” And although an engineer from PHMSA was sent to the site where TransCanada was digging up the pipeline in Missouri, no further information has been made available publicly.

Only after DeSmogBlog made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to PHMSA in August 2013 — which the agency partially responded to this April — was the information revealing the pipeline had deeply corroded in multiple spots exposed. The documents also disclosed a plan to check for a possible spill where the corrosion was detected. http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/04/30/exclusive-transcanada-keystone-1-pipeline-suffered-major- corrosion-only-two-years-operation-95-worn-one-section http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/2013-0174%20-%20Second %20Response%20Package%202015.04.09.pdf

80 Pipelines vs. trains: Which is better for moving oil?

With 4 oil-train derailments in North America in past 3 weeks, pipeline-vs.-rail debate resurfaces

There have been four oil-train accidents in the past month in North America, including two in Northern Ontario, one of which only recently stopped burning, near the town of Gogama.

These trains were travelling at moderate speeds, in some cases well under the 80 km/h speed limit, and the CPC-1232 tanker cars were sturdier, made of tougher stuff that the rail cars that exploded so tragically in Lac-Mégantic in 2013. The 1232s were supposed to be safer.

When it comes to pipelines versus rail, it's not comparing apples to apples. When a pipeline leaks, more product is spilled, but it's not likely to explode. When a oil car derails, there is a higher chance of loss of life or destruction of property, but the spill is relatively contained. It really depends on what you're worried about — cost, CO2 emissions, safety, or the environment? http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/pipelines-vs-trains-which-is-better-for-moving-oil-1.2988407

81 Mining

Lost Aboriginal Artifacts in New Brunswick and Challenges for Archaeology and Aboriginal Title

The CBC news recently reported an archaeological find of considerable significance in New Brunswick.

The find was made in the fall of 2013 by commercial archaeologists who had been contracted to do work related to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the proposed Sisson Brook tungsten and molybdenum mine, a project overseen by Sisson Mines Ltd. and Northcliff Resources Ltd.

The archaeologists did two significant things that day: first, they found the only known intact site of its kind dating to the Middle Archaic period (about 7,000 – 8,500 years ago) in the Maritime Provinces; second, they promptly (that same day) lost some of the very artifacts that had served to identify the site. The find, and the subsequent mishandling of some of the artifacts, shed light on important issues concerning commercial archaeology and the relationship between archaeology and Aboriginal rights. http://www.nbtalkingcircle.com/2015/04/raiders-of-the-lost-artifacts-lost-aboriginal-artifacts-in-new- brunswick-and-challenges-for-archaeology-and-aboriginal-title/ http://www.quirksandquiddities.ca/raiders-lost-artifacts-lost-aboriginal-artifacts-new-brunswick- challenges-archaeology-aboriginal-title/

Wiretap transcripts raise troubling questions about Tahoe Resources' militarized security detail

Wiretap transcripts ordered by Guatemala’s Public Prosecutor of Tahoe Resources’ former head of security, Alberto Rotondo, in connection with an April 27, 2013 shooting outside its Escobal mine provide strong evidence that he targeted peaceful protesters, tried to cover up the crime and flee the country.

The Public Prosecutor ordered the telephone intercepts roughly two weeks before this incident occurred, in apparent connection with suspicions over earlier violence at the mine site. The intercepts were originally presented in a public hearing in Guatemala in May 2013 at which Rotondo was charged with assault and obstruction of justice.

Hearings in a lawsuit brought by seven Guatemalan men wounded in this attack against Vancouver- based Tahoe Resources for negligence and battery are set to take place at the B.C. Supreme Court starting April 8, 2015. http://www.amnesty.ca/news/public-statements/joint-press-release/wiretap-transcripts-raise-troubling- questions-about-tahoe?utm_source=Amnesty%20International%20Canada%20- %20amnestycanada&utm_medium=FBPAGE&utm_campaign=AI%20Canada

PHOTOS: Company responsible for Mount Polley disaster applies to reopen mine

A photo essay from Secwepemc First Nations territory shows Imperial Mines has made little effort to clean the mess left by last year’s spill

On Easter Sunday, April 5, I traveled with a scientist and an engineer from Vancouver to Likely, BC, the site of the infamous Mount Polley tailings breach. The three of us shot photos, took samples and pulled

82 each other out of tailings quicksand as we hiked seven treacherous kilometres from Quesnel Lake up the completely destroyed Hazeltine Creek to the site of the dam failure. https://ricochet.media/en/396/photos-company-responsible-for-mount-polley-disaster-applies-to-reopen- mine

Xeni Gwet’in Mining Activist Wins Goldman Environmental Prize Embedded video

We are thrilled to join the Goldman Environmental Prize, the world's largest award for grassroots environmental activism, in honoring Xeni Gwet’in leader Marilyn Baptiste of British Columbia, Canada for her work to stop Taseko Mines' proposed Prosperity gold and copper mine.

Marilyn overcame great odds to spearhead a successful campaign to protect her community from the Prosperity mine proposal. The mining project was a poster child for the worst kind of mining – destroying First Nations’ lands, a pristine wilderness and rainbow trout-laden Fish Lake, or Teztan Biny.

Had it been approved, the Prosperity mine could have served as a catalyst for similar projects in a province whose government has a track record of placing mining industry needs above indigenous rights and environmental protection. http://www.earthworksaction.org/earthblog/detail/xeni_gwetin_mining_activist_wins_goldman_environm ental_prize105#.VTdthsJ0xjp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOh6w14bl8g&feature=player_embedded http://news.mongabay.com/2015/0420-morgan-mrn-gfrn-marilyn-baptiste-wins-goldman-environmental- prize.html

Canadian, American groups call on B.C. to end underwater storage of mine tailings

Mines minister says that is not going happen in the province, or likely anywhere in Canada

Dozens of Canadian and American environmental groups, First Nations and businesses, as well as scientists and individuals, have called on the B.C. government to end the use of storing mine waste under water and behind earth-and-rock dams.

But Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett said that is not going to happen in British Columbia. “I don’t think that’s in the cards for B.C. — or any other province in Canada — to adopt a policy where all you can use to manage tailings is dry-stack tailings,” Bennett said in an interview.

The groups say their demand is based on a recommendation from the B.C. government-appointed expert panel to move away from the conventional method of storing tailings underwater behind earth dams. http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Canadian+American+groups+call+underwater+storage+mine+taili ngs/11011878/story.html#ixzz3YfttI8qx

83 Mount Polley Independent Expert Investigation and Review Report

On January 30, 2015, the independent review panel delivered its final report and recommendations “Independent Expert Engineering Investigation and Review Mount Polley Tailings Storage Facility Breach” to the British Columbia Minister of Energy and Mines, the Williams Lake Indian Band and the Soda Creek Indian Band. https://www.mountpolleyreviewpanel.ca/ https://www.mountpolleyreviewpanel.ca/final-report

84 Forestry

Information Morning Fredericton - Is Glyphosate a Threat to Human Health?

Terry Seguin talks to Dr. John Mclaughlin, a member of the scientific panel that concluded a commonly used herbicide should be categorized as a probable carcinogen. http://www.cbc.ca/informationmorningfredericton/2015/04/02/is-glyphosate-a-threat-to-human-health/

Question Period: Herbicides – Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Mr. Coon: My question is for the Minister of Environment. Glyphosate, a herbicide that is sprayed over 13 000 ha of Crown land annually, at a public cost of $2.4 million per year, was recently classified as a probable cancer-causing chemical by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. One of the studies it considered found chromosomal damage in community residents after aerial spraying.

For years, New Brunswickers have been petitioning this House to end the spraying of this herbicide over our forests. Will the minister use his authority under the Pesticides Control Act to deny any further permits for the aerial spraying of glyphosate in New Brunswick, and to save taxpayers $2.4 million per year?

Hon. Mr. Kenny: It is up to our department to take a look at the regulations that are in place right now to see what the protocol is. I will take that question from the member under advisement and get back to the Legislature at a later date. Thank you. http://davidcoonmla.ca/question-period-herbicides-wednesday-april-1-2015/

U.S. paper producers file petition against Canadian competitors

The Coalition for Fair Paper Imports has filed a petition with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission asking that countervailing duties be imposed on Canadian exporters of so-called supercalendered paper. The glossy paper is used in retail catalogues, flyers and magazines.

The Canadian companies named in the petition are Resolute Forest Products Inc., Port Hawkesbury Paper, Irving Paper Ltd. and Catalyst Paper Corp. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/us-paper-producers-file-petition-against-canadian- competitors/article23389892/?cmpid=rss1&click=sf_globe

NB Newsmaker April 8: Ben Phillips

Harry Forestell and conservation scientist Ben Phillips discuss the impact of climate change on New Brunswick forests, and what can be done to minimize the impact. http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Canada/NB/ID/2662993759/

85 Fundy Biosphere group sees dramatic change in Acadian forest Embedded video

Fundy Biosphere Reserve scientist Ben Phillips says overall the Acadian forest will do worse

Climate change will have a dramatic impact on New Brunswick's Acadian forest, according to a new study.

The Fundy Biosphere Reserve completed an analysis of which native species have the best chance to thrive, and which could suffer under changing climate conditions over the next 100 years.

Ben Phillips, a conservation scientist, says a two-degree difference in temperature would have a big impact on trees that prefer the cold.

"That puts us here in southeastern New Brunswick more in a Boston type of climate," said Phillips.

"If you think of Boston, they have temperate forests there, the trees grow much faster, you don't see the coniferous softwoods down there."

Northern tree species including spruce, fir, birch, and poplar will likely face more insects, disease, extreme weather, and competition, which will lead to slower growth and higher mortality, he said. http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/canada/newbrunswick/story/1.3024409

Ecojustice sues Ottawa over refusal to review crop pesticide

Environmental groups have revived a lawsuit against the federal government because the Health Department changed its mind about reviewing a pesticide that is banned in Norway but is increasingly common in Canada.

The decision to stop the review of a fungicide used on cereal, oilseed and vegetable crops violates the government's own legislation, said Lara Tessoro, a lawyer for Ecojustice, the firm acting for several groups behind the lawsuit.

"The duty on the government is to assess all the products containing the ingredient."

The lawsuit is over difenoconazole, which is known to be toxic to fish and believed by some scientists to accumulate in increasing amounts in the food chain. The suit was originally filed in 2013 in an attempt to force the government to review 23 different pesticides. http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/ecojustice-sues-ottawa-over-refusal-to-review-crop-pesticide- 1.3035520

IARC Monographs Volume 112: evaluation of five organophosphate insecticides and herbicides

The herbicide glyphosate and the insecticides malathion and diazinon were classified as probably carcinogenic to humans. http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/MonographVolume112.pdf

86 Carcinogenicity of tetrachlorvinphos, parathion, malathion, diazinon, and glyphosate

The herbicide glyphosate and the insecticides malathion and diazinon were classified as probably carcinogenic to humans. http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanonc/PIIS1470-2045(15)70134-8.pdf

NB Government - Be informed about herbicides

See the paragraph How are herbicides applied in the document Be informed about herbicides. http://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/Departments/nr-rn/pdf/en/ForestsCrownLands/Herbicide.pdf

Difenoconazole - United States Environmental Protection Agency 22 March 1999

Carcinogenicity of Fungicide Difenoconazole see page 20 http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/chemicalsearch/chemical/foia/cleared-reviews/reviews/128847/128847- 017.pdf?hc_location=ufi

Mamwi (unedited & uncut version) - Forestry blockade in Quebec https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xsimtg_mamwi-unedited-uncut-version_news

Question Period: Herbicides – Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Mr. Coon: My question is for the Minister of Environment. Glyphosate, a herbicide that is sprayed over 13 000 ha of Crown land annually, at a public cost of $2.4 million per year, was recently classified as a probable cancer-causing chemical by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. One of the studies it considered found chromosomal damage in community residents after aerial spraying.

87 Hon. Mr. Kenny: It is up to our department to take a look at the regulations that are in place right now to see what the protocol is. I will take that question from the member under advisement and get back to the Legislature at a later date. Thank you. http://davidcoonmla.ca/question-period-herbicides-wednesday-april-1-2015/

Charles Theriault: a specific case of corp. theft from a NB mill at PANB public session April 18'14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlEKfTzJOes&feature=player_embedded

Watch the World's Forests Disappear on Google Earth Embedded video

We know forests are shrinking, but knowing exactly where and by how much often means compiling locally reported data that can be shoddy, incomplete, or outdated, according to University of Maryland geographer Matthew Hansen. Better data would be an invaluable tool for resource managers looking to preserve trees, and for climate scientists who want to crunch how much carbon they can store, Hansen realized. So he set about to create the most high-resolution map of global forests ever made, partnering with Google Earth to process some 650,000 images taken by NASA satellites over the last decade.

The result, published today in Science, is a stunning series of time-lapse maps, along with an interactive mapping tool, that reveal the Earth lost about 888,000 square miles of forest between 2000 and 2012, roughly the area of the US east of the Mississippi River. http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/11/watch-mapping-deforestation-google-earth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqiyP5Xv_PM&feature=player_embedded

The study http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6160/850

Interactive map http://earthenginepartners.appspot.com/google.com/science-2013-global-forest

88 Video Links

Air pollution in Asia may be changing weather patterns in the United States. https://youtu.be/JQiuz-9TD4I

The Climate Change March to the parliament building in Quebec City https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWjP6z9odNQ&feature=youtu.be

Elizabeth May on Vancouver oil spill

Green Party Leader says federal cuts are to blame for slow oil spill response http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Canada/BC/ID/2663595391/

Act on climate change event – Moncton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5ElVLC9yHY&feature=youtu.be

Shift: Beyond the Numbers of the Climate Crisis Embedded video http://player.vimeo.com/video/69357437

Koch Brothers Exposed: 2014 Full Documentary Film • Brave New Films https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N8y2SVerW8&feature=player_embedded

Draw the line against tar sands devastation Embedded video https://player.vimeo.com/video/120535725

Thanks to the BP oil disaster, this Louisiana barrier island is washing away. https://youtu.be/UkATPicHIo4

Charles Theriault: a specific case of corp. theft from a NB mill at PANB public session April 18'14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlEKfTzJOes&feature=player_embedded

89 A Danger on the Rails Embedded video

This short documentary warns about the dangers posed by trains that transport explosive oil across North America. http://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000003639391/a-danger-on-the-rails.html

Xeni Gwet’in Mining Activist Wins Goldman Environmental Prize Embedded video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOh6w14bl8g&feature=player_embedded

The Weir - Save the Bay of Fundy

Fishing Fundy's Giant Tides https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=donTQF-5mEE

Conservative MPs get a surprise delivery of toxic debris from Vancouver oil spill. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJL58CXfWHY&feature=youtu.be

Who is Sucking Water Out of California Without a Permit? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoMqril0q-U

ALERT Project

Documenting human health impacts of exposure to crude oil, tar sands oil, and fracking activities through education, testing & treatment of at-risk populations https://vimeo.com/105533972

A Call Out - IMW Consultation Delegation - Iapjiw Maliaptasiktitiew Wskwitqamu

We would like to thank James Munn, Mona Francis, Irving Peter Paul and Vienna Sanipass for contributing their photographs to this project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP5madzrSQU&feature=youtu.be

90