Shale Gas Issues From Various Jurisdictions ...... 8 Foreword ...... 8 Calls for Moratoriums and Bans ...... 9 Gaspé ban puts damper on Pétrolia oil drilling plans ...... 9 Gaspésie : Pétrolia menace de quitter la région ...... 9 NY elected officials call for continued fracking moratorium ...... 9 Shell frack Egypt, threatening scarce water resources; Egyptians demand moratorium...... 10 Contamination and Science ...... 11 When fracking came to suburban Texas ...... 11 Gov't report blames floods for 16 pipeline breaks since '93; 2.4M gallons spilled ...... 11 Meet Anthony Ingraffea—From Industry Insider to Implacable Fracking Opponent ...... 11 Canadian Government Confirms Contamination of Groundwater from Hydraulic Fracturing ...... 12 Alberta lakes show chemical effects of oilsands, study finds ...... 12 It's Official: Bitumen Mining Pollutes Northern Waterways ...... 13 Oil sands development contributes polycyclic aromatic compounds to the Athabasca River and its tributaries ...... 13 Visualizing and Understanding the Science of Climate Change ...... 13 EPA's Water Contamination Investigation Halted In Texas After Range Resources Protest ...... 13 "Duke Study" Co-Author Confirms Veracity of Thyne's Study ...... 14 Shale Gas: How Often Do Fracked Wells Leak? ...... 14 FROM THE FRONTLINES welcomes David Bohlander, Wyalusing, Bradford County, PA ...... 14 A Mysterious Patch Of Light Shows Up In The North Dakota Dark ...... 14 VIDEO: VOC Emissions Found at Barnett Shale Compressor Station ...... 15 Hydraulic Fracturing Produces Less Wastewater Per Unit of Gas, but More Overall ...... 15 Pa. auditor to review wastewater from shale well drilling ...... 15 SHALETEST AIR TESTING SHOW ELEVATED BENZENE LEVELS IN THE BARNETT SHALE 16 Chemical and Biological Risk Assessment for Natural Gas Extraction in New York ...... 16 Water truck crashes on Route 44 ...... 16 Refining the process: Canada’s oil and the risk-averse nature of the oil industry ...... 17 Over one-third of natural gas produced in North Dakota is flared or otherwise not marketed ...... 17 EPA Finds Hydrofracking Chemicals Contaminate Drinking Water Dec 2011 ...... 17 Questionable Science and Other Items of Interest ...... 18 Industry influence in universities’ shale gas research eyed ...... 18 Astroturf Gone Wrong: Fake Protesters Offered $20 To Stand At Anti-Wind Energy Rally ...... 18 Is fracking responsible for the flooding of an Upper Egyptian village? ...... 18 Renewable Energy ...... 19 Fiscal Bill Fallout - Vermont Wind Energy, Bernie Sanders US Senator ...... 19 Warren Buffett Just Bought The Largest Solar Energy Project In The World ...... 19 94% Renewable Electricity By 2017 Is Goal For Nicaragua ...... 19 90% Renewable Electricity By 2015 Is Uruguay’s Goal ...... 19 'Frozen air' could heat up renewable energy ...... 19 1st world atlas on renewable energy ...... 20 World First Renewable Energy Resources Atlas Goes Online ...... 20 What does it take to become a Solar Community? - Payson, Arizona ...... 20 Japan To Build World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm Near Fukushima ...... 21 Are Photovoltaics Or Biofuels Better At Energy Conversion? ...... 21 Davos call for $14trn 'greening' of global economy ...... 21 The Solar Powered Myth ...... 22 World's Largest Wind Farm to be Built 10 Miles Off Coast of Fukushima ...... 22 Unsubsidized Solar Revolution Starting, UBS Reports ...... 22
1 Energy/U.S. Leadership – Poll: Bipartisan 91% Want Clean Energy, Water Agenda From Congress, Obama ...... 22 Fracking wastewater could be radioactive ...... 23 Community Energy Storage Installed In North York, Canada ...... 23 V3Solar Spin Cell = 8 Cents/kWh? (CleanTechnica Exclusive) ...... 23 Canada’s First Off-Shore Wind Farm Set for B.C...... 24 Small Solar is a Big Deal ...... 24 Texas Wind and Solar More Competitive Than Natural Gas ...... 24 Science and Health ...... 26 New Fears Over Fracking Groundwater Contamination ...... 26 Methane leaks erode green credentials of natural gas ...... 26 Lawsuit: School cancer cluster near pipeline route...... 26 TEDX — Chemicals in Natural Gas Operations ...... 27 Shale Gas: Myth and Realities, Dr. Anthony Ingraffea ...... 27 Ten Problems with New York’s Shale Gas Drilling Plan ...... 27 Wanted: Drug-Free Workers - Pennsylvania ...... 28 Fracking Sand May Pose Health Hazard To Workers, Residents ...... 28 Report States Livestock Sickened, Killed by Hydraulic Fracturing Fumes ...... 28 Exxon Mobil and the Precautionary Principle ...... 29 ExxonMobil and the Precautionary Principle: Part 2 ...... 29 How to Power 100 Percent of the World’s Electricity by Solar ...... 29 Radon Threats are Grounds for Precaution - re Ontario imports ...... 30 Cancer-Causing Chemicals Used in 34 Percent of Reported Fracking Operations ...... 30 Oil Sands Industry in Canada Tied to Higher Carcinogen Level ...... 30 Drilling Boom Tied to Spike in Utah Air Pollution ...... 31 An Oil Boom Takes a Toll on Health Care ...... 31 Fracking Poisoning Families at Alarming Rate: Report ...... 32 Public health and gas development ...... 32 Gas Patch Roulette: Full Report ...... 32 Livestock falling ill in fracking regions, raising concerns about food ...... 32 Gas Drilling Accidents ...... 33 Economics, Legal, and Investigations ...... 34 Rosy Forecast of Cheap Oil Abundance, Economic Boom a Myth ...... 34 Tanking oil revenues, a government spending spree and the emerging economic predicament in Alberta ...... 34 Income Inequality and the Wealth Tax ...... 34 Natural Gas Leaks: A Risky Business In Need of a Fix | Conservation Law Foundation ...... 35 The Big Heist in the Great White North ...... 35 Oil Giants Heading to Trial in Water Pollution Lawsuit - New Hampshire ...... 36 Arctic "death spiral" leaves climate scientists shocked and worried ...... 36 Employers Protected from Liability for Gross Negligence Toward Employee Safety ...... 36 Boomtown, USA, North Dakota ...... 37 Dahlman Rose Downgrades Southwestern Energy (SWN) to Hold ...... 37 Don't Fall for the Shale Boom Hype - Chris Martenson Interview ...... 37 Trial set for local business owner - (Ohio?) ...... 37 First nations take treaty-rights conflict to the courts ...... 38 Chesapeake Energy Inquiry Launched By SEC ...... 38 Potential Canada-EU trade deal raises alarms for Atlantic ...... 38 It's time for a better capitalism, one that creates jobs and provides security ...... 39 Fossil Fuel Subsidies in the U.S...... 39 Energy Subsidies Black, Not Green ...... 39
2 How big is Canada’s oil subsidy to the U.S.? ...... 40 Natural gas, oil prices: why the long-term forecasts are wrong ...... 40 Quebec shale-gas opponents have come under police surveillance ...... 40 Unrestricted Natural Gas Exports Could Have Disastrous Effects on U.S. Economy ...... 41 Exposing the Oil and Gas Industry’s False Jobs Promise for Shale Gas Development: ...... 41 Low U.S. natural gas price seen sapping reserves, valuations ...... 41 Natural Gas Drilling in Pennsylvania - Violations ...... 41 2012 Violations per Well in Pennsylvania ...... 41 How Alberta Will Fight Fracking Folk Hero Jessica Ernst ...... 42 B.C. First Nation asks court to block Canada-China deal ...... 42 Shale gas flow report disappoints investors - Australia ...... 42 Federal energy outlook: Crude prices soft but propping up shale gas ...... 43 Competing in Clean Energy - Pembuna Institute ...... 43 Oil Guru Destroys All Of The Hype About America's Energy Boom – Arthur Berman ...... 43 World’s Cheapest Oil Crimps Alberta Budget With Price Gap ...... 43 Talisman plans job cuts as pain persists ...... 44 Booms and Busts: The Impact of West Virginia’s Energy Economy ...... 44 Regulations ...... 46 Rulemaking for oil and gas drilling faces resistance from Boulder County fracking foes ...... 46 No Fracking Problem : Fracking Waste Broker Company Masquerades as Approved Processor . 46 EPA's Fracking Study May Dodge Water Contamination Frequency Issue ...... 46 Shale Gas Uncertainty: How an Industry Talking Point Misses the Mark ...... 47 The Fracking DEC Gets Sued - New York ...... 47 More Americans Want Tough Fracking Regulations ...... 47 'Intimidation, Threats, and Lawyers': The Great American Gas Fracking 'Land Grab' ...... 48 MDE: All drilling permits have been withdrawn - Maryland ...... 48 So who is in charge of fracking wastewater, anyway? Pennsylvania ...... 48 Environment and Climate Change ...... 49 Methane contributes to accelerated warming in the Arctic ...... 49 EcoWatch TV Featuring New Fracking Documentary ...... 49 Do The Math - 350.org, Bill McKibben ...... 49 Go Fossil Free ...... 49 The Gloves are Off in the Youth Climate Change Fight ...... 49 Pitting the environment against the economy is bad business, bad politics ...... 50 Idle No More: Hints of a Global Super-Movement ...... 50 One Million Climate Jobs - UK ...... 50 Shale Gas: How Hard on the Landscape? - Big players, big aims ...... 51 What if Mother Nature had rights? She does in Ecuador - David Suzuki ...... 51 Agreement entitles Whanganui River to legal identity ...... 51 Norway to Launch the World's First Electric Ferry; Will Take Only 10 Minutes to Recharge ...... 52 Heat, Flood or Icy Cold, Extreme Weather Rages Worldwide ...... 52 Canada at 150: Suzuki sees a nation facing ‘an apocalyptic period’ ...... 52 Global food crisis will worsen as heatwaves damage crops, research finds ...... 53 Bill Moyers and Anthony Leiserowitz on Making People Care About Climate Change ...... 53 It's Already Too Late to Stop Climate Change ...... 53 Let's stand up for our right to a healthy environment - David Suzuki ...... 53 Fractured Land: BC Fracking Documentary Stirs Canadian Energy Debate ...... 54 Weekend Environmental Must-Reads – January 19-20, 2013 ...... 54 Obama Advisers Halt Shell's Arctic Oil Exploration ...... 54 Idle No More -- Think Occupy, But With Deep Deep Roots - Bill McKibben ...... 55 Billionaires secretly fund attacks on climate science ...... 55
3 How the 'Kochtopus' stifled green debate ...... 55 Top climate scientist denounces billionaires over funding for climate-sceptic organisations ...... 55 Poll: Europeans overwhelmingly favour renewables over shale gas ...... 56 Point of No Return - The massive climate threats we must avoid ...... 56 Rivers and lakes be damned: why Bill C-45 concerns us all ...... 57 Government, Meetings, News, and Letters ...... 58 Shale gas talk to heat up in new year ...... 58 SWN gas exploration head leaves province ...... 58 Running government like a business has been a dismal failure - Donald Savoie ...... 58 The Smoking Gun: Who was the real author of the 2012 omnibus bills? ...... 59 Future of budget watchdog uncertain as Page's term ends ...... 59 Mulcair to PM: extend Kevin Page's term in PBO ...... 60 CSIS: China? Controls Canadian Politicians - CBC, The National - Nov 17, 2012? ...... 60 Deficit elimination goal won't be met in 2 years ...... 60 Parliament’s looming energy debate has high stakes for Harper, Mulcair and Trudeau ...... 60 New Brunswick pushes cross-country pipeline as 'game changer' ...... 60 Common Causes - Progressive Forces Acting Together to Build a Better Society ...... 61 New Brunswick News ...... 62 Southwestern Energy Announces Capital Program And Guidance For 2013 ...... 62 How Fracking Could Ruin New Brunswick - Hassan Arif ...... 62 Crude Oil (Lots of It) Moving Through Maine on Rails! Who Woulda Thunk It! ...... 62 The Myth of the Competitive Challenge: The Irving Oil Refinery Strike, 1994-96, and the Canadian Petroleum Industry ...... 62 Canada’s first centre dedicated to swimmable, drinkable, fishable water to open in Saint John, NB ...... 63 Maritime News ...... 64 Inverness council holding public hearings on fracking bylaw ...... 64 Public hearing on fracking ban held - Cape Breton ...... 64 Inverness residents voice fracking ban support ...... 64 Move to ban fracking would not supersede N.S. law: minister ...... 65 Canadian News ...... 66 Canada’s Spy Groups Divulge Secret Intelligence to Energy Companies ...... 66 Harper forces the press to pledge allegiance ...... 66 Canada ranked worst of G7 nations in fighting bribery, corruption ...... 66 Why is Stephen Harper afraid to look this woman in the eye? ...... 66 Moment of Truth As Harper Preps For Meeting With First Nations ...... 67 Federal Court grants rights to Métis, non-status Indians ...... 67 Attawapiskat handed victory by Federal Court ...... 67 Energy industry letter suggested environmental law changes ...... 68 PSAC wants Bill C-45 opened up to public debate ...... 68 Links to many news articles - 2012 Best Of - Week 87 - Dec 25-Jan 1 ...... 68 Federal lawyer suspended after suing his own department ...... 68 Canada vs. Norway: The Petro Path Not Taken ...... 69 Kevin Page, Budget Watchdog, Accuses Government Of Breaking Law With Budget Secrecy ..... 69 Government broke the law when dismantling Wheat Board ...... 69 MP Joyce Murray says Liberal-Green co-operation could be a 'game changer' ...... 70 Other News ...... 71 Bolivia: Evo Morales' "Manifesto of the Island of the Sun" ...... 71 This fracking fantasy is the delusion of fossil fuel addiction ...... 71 Portugal warns EU-IMF troika to back off on austerity demands ...... 71 Oil and gas lawyers want residents banned from talking at rule hearing ...... 72
4 Druid perspectives on nature, culture, and the future of industrial society ...... 72 Exports of American Natural Gas May Fall Short of High Hopes ...... 72 Bans and Rules Muddy Prospects for Gas Drilling ...... 72 The battle for Bald Mountain - Mine in Maine ...... 73 Is Fracking Safe? Debate on Controversial Natural Gas Drilling Technique, New York ...... 73 Bakken Oil Tankers on The Hudson River ...... 73 Cumulative effect of sand mines creates issue ...... 74 I Was a Paid Internet Shill: How Shadowy Groups Manipulate Internet Opinion and Debate ...... 74 Astroturfing: what is it and why does it matter? ...... 74 Proposed Legislation Would Block Bank Execs From Regulating Banks ...... 75 Poll: White House, Congressional Leadership on Clean Energy, Water is High Priority for Bipartisan Majority of Americans ...... 75 Industry Consultants Warn Frackers: Do Not Underestimate the Global Anti-Fracking Movement ...... 75 Promised Land and the Illusion of Choice ...... 76 An Oil Town Where Men Are Many, and Women Are Hounded - WILLISTON, N.D...... 76 Man found dead near natural gas pad site ...... 76 The Debunking Handbook: now freely available for download ...... 77 Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, Susan Sarandon & Arun Gandhi meet families affected by Fracking .... 77 Foul smell complaints in Kent and Sussex after gas leak ...... 77 Debate - For and Against: Fracking - The Institution of Engineering and Technology ...... 77 Fracking and Farmland - Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association ...... 78 Pennsylvania Fracking: A History Of Shale Gas Drilling, As Told By The People Who Live There 78 Corporate power: exposing the global 1% ...... 78 THE GLOBAL ANTI-FRACKING MOVEMENT – What it wants, how it operates and what’s next? ...... 78 The Surprising Connection Between Food and Fracking ...... 79 We the People 2.0 - The 2nd American Revolution ...... 79 Can a Small Community Throw a Monkey Wrench into the Global Fracking Machine? ...... 79 Water ...... 80 BIG OIL TELLS BIG LIES ABOUT FRACKING ...... 80 Message from Mexico: U.S. Is Polluting Water It May Someday Need to Drink ...... 80 DRINKING WATER Safeguards Are Not Preventing Contamination From Injected Oil and Gas Wastes ...... 80 Energy's Latest Battleground: Fracking For Uranium - Texas ...... 81 Do We Have Enough Water to Frack Our Way to Energy Independence? ...... 81 The Myth of Purifying Fracking Water in Saudi America: The Competition Between Food, Drink and Energy Needs ...... 82 Oil and Pipelines ...... 83 SHELL OIL SHIP RUNS AGROUND IN ALASKA ...... 83 Is bitumen oil? Moving from tar sands to sensible solutions ...... 83 Yet another study finds gulf spill 'cleanup' chemicals useless ...... 83 Exxon Mobil proceeds with $14 billion Canada oil field ...... 84 Map Reveals How Poorly Equipped Shell Would Be To Handle An Oil Spill In The Arctic ...... 84 Pipeline company sues to block opponents ...... 84 Petronas taps TransCanada for pipeline ...... 85 Let’s build a Canadian oil pipeline from coast to coast - Frank McKenna ...... 85 Bill McKibben on Idle No More ...... 85 Petroleum Coke: The Coal Hiding in the Tar Sands ...... 86 TEDX - Garth Lenz: The true cost of oil ...... 86 Nebraska governor approves Keystone pipeline ...... 86
5 'Protect the Sacred' gathering of Indigenous Nations to draft new treaty opposing pipelines ...... 86 Sierra Club to Engage in Civil Disobedience for First Time in Organization’s History to Stop Tar Sands ...... 87 "Portland, January 26" | Montreal-Portland Pipeline Rally ...... 87 Earthquakes ...... 88 Texas is Shaking Again: 3.0 Quake Strikes Near DFW Airport ...... 88 Miscellaneous ...... 89 Digging into the practice of fracking ...... 89 Video Links ...... 90 Triple Divide ...... 90 Canada's indigenous movement gains momentum ...... 90 Idle No More: Hints of a Global Super-Movement ...... 90 Gas Plant Explosion ...... 90 Segment 1 from List of the Harmed by fracking ...... 90 Shell Arctic Oil Drill Rig Incident Sheds Doubt on Unconventional Oil Extraction - CBC The National ...... 90 "FROM THE FRONTLINES" Carol French, Bradford Co, PA ...... 90 Fracking Hollenbeck Gas Site on Franklin Forks Rd., Franklin Forks, Pa.; Susquehanna County, Pa...... 90 Safe Responsible Fracking is a Myth ...... 91 There's No Tomorrow - Post Carbon Institute's take on the oil story ...... 91 TEDX — Chemicals in Natural Gas Operations ...... 91 Letter to the President About Chemicals Disrupting our Bodies: Theo Colborn, TDEX ...... 91 The Tar Sands Come to Ontario ...... 91 The fight against fracking, Aussie-style! Brad ...... 91 Jessica Ernst 16x9 - Untested Science: Fracking natural gas controversy ...... 91 Shale gas report - Quebec 2010 ...... 91 UN Slams Canada for discriminatory practices...... 92 Idle No More. - Dr. Priscilla Settee and Sheelah McLean ...... 92 Pennsylvanians Opposed to Fracking Speak Out to Gov. Corbett ...... 92 AFN Press Conference, CBC News, January 10, 2013 ...... 92 25 minute film on Coal Bed Methane development in Australia...... 92 40 minutes with Dr. Tony Ingraffea...... 92 Howard Zinn - You Can't Be Neutral On A Moving Train ...... 92 Stephen Harper CEO of the Transnational Corporation AKA Canada ...... 92 “Be... Without Water? The Sequel” ...... 92 GlobalAtlas - Discover the Global Atlas vision, partnerships and achievements ...... 93 Five Years Into Fracking Boom, One Pa. Town At A Turning Point - National Public Radio ...... 93 FROM THE FRONTLINES welcomes David Bohlander, Wyalusing, Bradford County, PA ...... 93 "FROM THE FRONTLINES", John Trallo ...... 93 Fractured Land Documentary ...... 93 PSE board members Adam Law, MD and Tony Ingraffea, PhD, PE discuss the spatial intensity of hydraulic fracturing...... 93 VIDEO: VOC Emissions Found at Barnett Shale Compressor Station ...... 93 The Psychopathic Corporation -- A Clinical Diagnosis (PCLR), by Dr. Robert Hare ...... 93 TEDX - Garth Lenz: The true cost of oil - Video only...... 93 Jessica Ernst - Jessica Ernst, The Consequences of Fracking ...... 93 "FROM THE FRONTLINES", Bill Gorby & Randy Moyer ...... 94 CSIS: China? Controls Canadian Politicians - CBC, The National - Nov 17, 2012? ...... 94 Gashole the movie ...... 94 The world at night - NASA ...... 94
6 Dr. Ingraffea on Fracking ...... 94 Groundswell Rising Trailer ...... 94 Jessica Ernst, The Consequences of Fracking in Michigan May 21, 2012 ...... 94 16x9: Untested Science: Fracking natural gas controversy ...... 94 Fracking Ground Zero Tour - Part 1 ...... 94 Fracking Ground Zero Tour - Part 2 ...... 94 Americans Chained by Illusion | Brainwash Update ...... 95 Wilma Subra & Health Effects of Gas Drilling ...... 95 BBC Interview with Prof Noam Chomsky from 2003...... 95 Tar Sands Climate Threat ...... 95 "Portland, January 26" | Montreal-Portland Pipeline Rally ...... 95 We the People 2.0 - The 2nd American Revolution ...... 95 Iceland president: Let banks go bankrupt ...... 95
7 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
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/
8 Calls for Moratoriums and Bans
Gaspé ban puts damper on Pétrolia oil drilling plans
Pétrolia was surprised to learn on Thursday that the municipality in December voted in new rules banning oil drilling in its proximity, saying it intends to protect its drinking water supply. The company, which has exploration permits validated by the provincial government, was set to begin drilling on its Haldimand site near Gaspé sometime next week.
“We believe the city’s move is absolutely illegal,” company CEO André Proulx said in an interview Friday, adding that Pétrolia is continuing its work on the site at the moment and has sought independent legal advice on the matter.
Gaspé mayor François Roussy is expected to hold a news conference Monday to explain the city’s actions. His staff did not return calls Friday. http://business.financialpost.com/2013/01/11/gaspe-ban-puts-damper-on-petrolia-oil-drilling-plans/
Gaspésie : Pétrolia menace de quitter la région
Pétrolia refuse d'entamer un débat juridique avec la Ville de Gaspé et menace de quitter la région si le gouvernement n'intervient pas.
Bing Translation
Pétrolia threatens to leave the area
Pétrolia refuses to enter into a legal debate with the city of Gaspé and threatens to leave the region if the Government does not intervene. http://m.radio-canada.ca/regions/est-quebec/2013/01/16/006-gaspe-petrolia-reac.shtml
NY elected officials call for continued fracking moratorium
More than 600 ''Elected Officials to Protect New York" are calling on Governor Cuomo to extend the moratorium on fracking.
During a news conference in Buffalo's City Hall - East Aurora Deputy Mayor Elizabeth Weberg said she's skeptical of a process that injects precious clean water and chemicals underground.
Weberg said Albany can "follow other state's down a path of insanity" - or "lead the nation to a clean energy future." http://www.innovationtrail.org/post/ny-elected-officials-call-continued-fracking-moratorium
9 Shell frack Egypt, threatening scarce water resources; Egyptians demand moratorium.
The company is using hydraulic fracturing technology to drill three wells in Egypt’s Western Desert, in the Alam El Shawish West concession. Concerned that scarce water resources will be poisoned, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) has condemned the introduction of fracking to Egypt and demanded an immediate moratorium. http://platformlondon.org/2012/09/19/shell-frack-egypt-egyptians-say-oi/
10 Contamination and Science
When fracking came to suburban Texas
Residents of Gardendale, a suburb near the hub of the west Texas oil industry, face having up to 300 wells in their backyards.
Berry Petroleum, the main oil developer, plans to drill as many as 300 wells in Gardendale. "Berry's current plan is to drill approximately 140 wells on 40-acre spacing in and around the Gardendale area," Jeff Coyle, a company spokesman, wrote in an email. "Additionally, we are preparing to conduct a pilot study on 20-acre spacing and, if those test results are encouraging and economic conditions warrant, we may drill up to 160 additional wells."
Some of those wells will be drilled within 150ft of residents' front doors – far closer than in other towns in Texas. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/dec/31/fracking-in-towns-texas-oil
Gov't report blames floods for 16 pipeline breaks since '93; 2.4M gallons spilled
BILLINGS, Mont. - Pipeline spills caused by flooding dumped 2.4 million gallons of crude oil and other hazardous liquids into U.S. waterways over the past two decades, according to a new report from federal regulators.
Regulators found flood-related pipeline spills since 1993 in California, Texas, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Kentucky. Of the 2.4 million gallons of oil, gasoline, propane and other hazardous liquids released, less than 300,000 gallons were recovered.
Although those accidents account for fewer than 1 per cent of total number of pipeline accidents, the consequences of a release in water can be much more severe because of the threats to drinking water supplies and the heightened potential for environmental damage. http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/blames+floods+pipeline+breaks+over+decades+gallons+spilled/77 71579/story.html
Meet Anthony Ingraffea—From Industry Insider to Implacable Fracking Opponent
Ingraffea is perhaps best-known for his co-authorship of a Cornell University 2011 study that established the greenhouse gas footprint of fracking as being greater than that of any other fossil fuel including coal. The lead-investigator for Methane and the Greenhouse-Gas Footprint of Natural Gas from Shale Formations, often called “The Cornell Study,” was Robert Howarth, David R. Atkinson Professor of Ecology and Microbiology. A third co-author was research aide Renee Santoro.
Ingraffea has been a principal investigator on research and development projects ranging from the National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) through Schlumberger, Gas Research Institute, Sandia National Laboratories, Association of Iron and Steel Engineers, General Dynamics, Boeing and Northrop Grumman Aerospace. Having been an industry
11 insider for so long, he’s a formidable opponent of anyone who dares to go against him in a debate about high-volume hydraulic fracturing.
His passion for social justice has infused his teaching. He has promoted the entry of women and minorities into engineering. Among his teaching awards are the Society of Women Engineers’ Professor of the Year Award in 1997 and the 2001 Daniel Luzar ’29 Excellence in Teaching Award from the College of Engineering. He organized and directed the Synthesis National Engineering Education Coalition. Its mission: improving undergraduate engineering education and attracting larger numbers of women and minorities to the field.
HOW FRANKENSTEIN GREW
Fractures in the shale happened naturally, millions of years ago. And that natural fracture network is essential to “fracking.” If the rock hadn’t been fractured by nature, humans couldn’t “frack” it—re-frack it —effectively. But since it’s already naturally fractured, there’s no way humans can know where the fluid will go. There’s a branch of mathematics called nonlinear chaos that applies here, meaning the slightest change in conditions and you get a tremendous change in outcome.
It wasn’t until 2007 or 08 that I found that somebody had figured out how to do it. I was aghast at what the solution was: high-volume, slickwater fracking from multi-well, clustered pads with very long laterals. It was as if [I'd] beenworking on something [my] whole life and somebody comes and turns it into Frankenstein. http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/01/03/meet-anthony-ingraffea-industry-insider-implacable-fracking- opponent
Canadian Government Confirms Contamination of Groundwater from Hydraulic Fracturing
The Canadian investigation was conducted by the Energy Resources Conservation Board(ERCB). The report states:
“On September 22, 2011, Crew Energy Inc. was performing a hydraulic fracturing operation on the Caltex…well and inadvertently perforated above the base of groundwater protection at a depth of 136 metres measured depth.”
So it is clear that the company made a significant error in its operations. But what is more disturbing is that the crew was apparently unaware of its mistake. According to ERCB : http://energypolicyforum.org/2013/01/04/canadian-government-confirms-contamination-of-groundwater- from-hydraulic-fracturing/ http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/Leaked+fracking+fluid+contaminated+groundwater+near/7728 972/story.html
Alberta lakes show chemical effects of oilsands, study finds
A new study released today shows chemicals from 50 years of oilsands production are showing up in increasing amounts in lakes in Northern Alberta. And the effects are being felt much further away than previously thought.
12
The joint study between scientists at Queens University and Environment Canada looked at core samples from five lakes close to the oilsands mining and upgrading operations in Fort McMurray, Alta. They also studied samples from Namur Lake, 90 kilometres northwest.
Monday's study concludes there is "little doubt of the unprecedented increases of PAHs" in northeastern Alberta's lakes, and warns of "striking contaminant increases consistent with the prevailing winds blowing across local upgrading facilities and surface-mining areas." http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2013/01/07/pol-oilsands-alberta-lakes-pollution-pah.html
The embedded document http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/01/02/1217675110
It's Official: Bitumen Mining Pollutes Northern Waterways http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/01/07/Report-Says-Bitumen-Mining-Pollutes/
Oil sands development contributes polycyclic aromatic compounds to the Athabasca River and its tributaries http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/12/04/0912050106.full.pdf+html
Visualizing and Understanding the Science of Climate Change
"Education in and about chemistry is critical in addressing challenges such as global climate change, in providing sustainable sources of clean water, food and energy and in maintaining a wholesome environment for the well being of all people..." -UN International Year of Chemistry resolution http://www.explainingclimatechange.ca/Climate%20Change/Lessons/lessons.html
EPA's Water Contamination Investigation Halted In Texas After Range Resources Protest
WEATHERFORD, Texas (AP) — When a man in a Fort Worth suburb reported his family's drinking water had begun "bubbling" like champagne, the federal government sounded an alarm: An oil company may have tainted their wells while drilling for natural gas.
At first, the Environmental Protection Agency believed the situation was so serious that it issued a rare emergency order in late 2010 that said at least two homeowners were in immediate danger from a well saturated with flammable methane. More than a year later, the agency rescinded its mandate and refused to explain why.
Now a confidential report obtained by The Associated Press and interviews with company representatives show that the EPA had scientific evidence against the driller, Range Resources, but changed course after the company threatened not to cooperate with a national study into a common
13 form of drilling called hydraulic fracturing. Regulators set aside an analysis that concluded the drilling could have been to blame for the contamination. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/16/epa-water-contamination-investigation- fracking_n_2484568.html
"Duke Study" Co-Author Confirms Veracity of Thyne's Study
Robert Jackson, a Professor of Global Environmental Change at Duke University and co-author of the "Duke Study" linking fracking to groundwater contamination did an independent peer review of Thyne's censored findings. He found that it is probable that the methane in Lipsky's well water likely ended up there thanks to the fracking process.
Range predictably dismissed Thyne and Jackson as "anti-industry." http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/01/16/breaking-obama-epa-shut-down-weatherford-tx-shale-gas- water-contamination-study
Shale Gas: How Often Do Fracked Wells Leak?
One of the boldest claims made by the shale gas industry goes like this: oil and gas companies have drilled and fractured a million oil and gas wells with nary a problem.
Moreover industry studies clearly show that five to seven per cent of all new oil and gas wells leak. As wells age, the percentage of leakers can increase to a startling 30 or 50 per cent. But the worst leakers remain "deviated" or horizontal wells commonly used for hydraulic fracturing.
In fact leaking wellbores has been a persistent and chronic problem for decades. Even a 2003 article in Oil Field Review, a publication of Schlumberger, reported that, "Since the earliest gas wells, uncontrolled migration of hydrocarbons to the surface has challenged the oil and gas industry." http://m.thetyee.ca/News/2013/01/09/Leaky-Fracked-Wells
FROM THE FRONTLINES welcomes David Bohlander, Wyalusing, Bradford County, PA
From The Moncton Free Press http://monctonfreepress.ca/video/frontlines-dave-bohlander http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5DS5Z9h1Fc&feature=player_embedded
A Mysterious Patch Of Light Shows Up In The North Dakota Dark
Take a look at this map of America at night. As you'd expect, the cities are ablaze, the Great Lakes and the oceans dark, but if you look at the center, where the eastern lights give way to the empty western plains, there's a mysterious clump of light there that makes me wonder.
14 What we have here is an immense and startlingly new oil and gas field — nighttime evidence of an oil boom created by a technology called fracking. Those lights are rigs, hundreds of them, lit at night, or fiery flares of natural gas. http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/01/16/169511949/a-mysterious-patch-of-light-shows-up-in-the- north-dakota-dark
VIDEO: VOC Emissions Found at Barnett Shale Compressor Station
On January 12, Sharon Wilson, blogger and watchdog known as “Texas Sharon” in the fracktivist community, reported that benzene emissions were discovered at a Chesapeake Energy compressor station in Fort Worth, Texas. Last fall, Shale Test – a Texas based environmental organization – went to the Hudson Delga Compressor in Fort Worth and recorded the emissions with a FLIR camera. The station in question is emitting benzene yards from a playground. According to the CDC, short term benzene exposure can cause irregular heartbeat, trouble breather, dizziness, and the possibility of death. Long term exposure to the VOC can weaken bone marrow, cause leukemia, low birth weights and delayed bone marrow growth. http://www.ragingchickenpress.org/2013/01/17/video-benzene-emissions-found-at-barnett-shale- compressor-station/
Hydraulic Fracturing Produces Less Wastewater Per Unit of Gas, but More Overall
"We found that on average, shale gas wells produced about 10 times the amount of wastewater as conventional wells, but they also produced about 30 times more natural gas," said Brian Lutz, assistant professor of biogeochemistry at Kent State, who led the analysis while he was a postdoctoral research associate at Duke. "That surprised us, given the popular perception that hydraulic fracturing creates disproportionate amounts of wastewater."
"It's a double-edged sword," Lutz said. "On one hand, shale gas production generates less wastewater per unit. On the other hand, because of the massive size of the Marcellus resource, the overall volume of water that now has to be transported and treated is immense. It threatens to overwhelm the region's wastewater-disposal infrastructure capacity." http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/news/hydraulic-fracturing-produces-less-wastewater-per-unit-of-gas-but- more-overall
The paper is available here for members http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wrcr.20096/abstract
Pa. auditor to review wastewater from shale well drilling
Prompted by accidental spills and leaks from Marcellus Shale gas development and the industry's waste disposal practices, new Auditor General Eugene DePasquale will begin a review this week of the state Department of Environmental Protection's water regulation, testing and enforcement program.
15 Calling protection of the state's water resources, including rivers, streams, lakes and groundwater, "one of the biggest issues facing Pennsylvania," Mr. DePasquale said the performance audit will cover the years 2009 through 2012 and take up to a year to complete. http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/environment/pa-auditor-to-review-wastewater-from-shale- well-drilling-671310/
SHALETEST AIR TESTING SHOW ELEVATED BENZENE LEVELS IN THE BARNETT SHALE
During the month of October 2012 members of the non-profit organization ShaleTest.org visited many sites throughout the Barnett Shale in North Texas. These sites were viewed through a FLIR Gasfindir camera, which detects Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). Many of these sites had visible emissions present and unfortunately many of these sites were close to communities, city parks, restaurants and other place where people congregate.
A Kinder Morgan gas processing facility located on Jim Baker Rd. west of DISH, TX showed elevated levels of benzene and toluene, as well as many other chemicals known to be present at facilities such as this.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality performed sampling that validated ShaleTest’s concerns, finding elevated levels of benzene and toluene at this facility. http://www.shaletest.org/2013/01/23/for-immediate-release/
Chemical and Biological Risk Assessment for Natural Gas Extraction in New York
Approximately two percent of shale gas well projects in New York will pollute local ground-water over the short term. Serious regulatory violations will occur at more than one of every ten new shale gas projects.
More than one of every six shale gas wells will leak fluids to surrounding rocks and to the surface over the next century.
Each gas well pad, with its associated access road and pipeline, will generate a sediment discharge of approximately eight tons per year. If not sequestered from local waterways, these sediments will further threaten federally endangered mollusks and other aquatic organisms. http://www.sustainableotsego.org/Risk%20Assessment%20Natural%20Gas%20Extraction-1.htm
Water truck crashes on Route 44
JERSEY SHORE - A 4,600-gallon tanker truck hauling residual waste (treated frack water) for the drilling industry crashed on Route 44 in Watson Township Wednesday afternoon, spilling an unknown amount of its load and rupturing its oil pan, sending oil into nearby Pine Creek. http://www.lockhaven.com/page/content.detail/id/541159/Water-truck-crashes-on-Route-44.html
16 Refining the process: Canada’s oil and the risk-averse nature of the oil industry
A lengthly document about crude oil, tar sands bitumen, refining and pipelines http://oceanflynn.wordpress.com/2011/11/10/refining-the-process-canadas-oil-and-the-risk-averse- nature-of-the-oil-industry/
Over one-third of natural gas produced in North Dakota is flared or otherwise not marketed
Natural gas production in North Dakota has more than doubled since 2005, largely due to associated natural gas from the growing oil production in the Bakken shale formation. Gas production averaged over 485 million cubic feet per day (MMcfd) in September 2011, compared to the 2005 average of about 160 MMcfd.
However, due to insufficient natural gas pipeline capacity and processing facilities in the Bakken shale region, over 35% of North Dakota's natural gas production so far in 2011 has been flared or otherwise not marketed. (It is generally better to flare natural gas than to vent it into the atmosphere because natural gas—methane—is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.) The percentage of flared gas in North Dakota is considerably higher than the national average; in 2009, less than 1% of natural gas produced in the United States was vented or flared. http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=4030
EPA Finds Hydrofracking Chemicals Contaminate Drinking Water Dec 2011
So much for the oil and gas industry claim that the practice of hydraulic fracturing has never polluted a drinking water well.
On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency officially threw that claim in the waste pit. It announced that an investigation of water contamination in Pavillion, Wyoming had linked the chemicals found in a ground water aquifer that was a source of drinking water in private wells to the hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, of nearby natural gas wells. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2011/12/08/385706/epa-finds-hydrofracking-chemicals-contaminate- drinking-water/
17 Questionable Science and Other Items of Interest
Industry influence in universities’ shale gas research eyed
Industry and foundation-sponsored research, long a multimillion-dollar enterprise at U.S. universities, is under added scrutiny because of questions about shale gas studies that some universities discontinued or retracted.
Energy industry groups criticize research that environmental foundations pay for, saying they‘re dedicated to halting industry expansion. But Cary Nelson, past president of the American Association of University Professors, said a lack of disclosure in industry-sponsored shale gas research is more troubling, and the organization will include ways to avoid conflict in its revised guidelines this fall. http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/3196660-74/industry-research-gas#axzz2HKrl5MuI
Astroturf Gone Wrong: Fake Protesters Offered $20 To Stand At Anti-Wind Energy Rally
Needing 100 anti-wind protesters by next week and apparently unable to find them, a mysterious firm advertised a “quick and easy $20″ on Craigslist. According to the ad, the only thing the “volunteers” would need to do for their pay is “stand next to or behind the speakers and elected officials/celebrities” at a rally against a wind turbine project in the UK.
View the screenshot (the ad was quickly pulled down after Grist made the catch):
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/01/24/14931 01/astroturf-wind-protest/
Is fracking responsible for the flooding of an Upper Egyptian village?
The village of Fares, located about 75km north of the city of Aswan near Kom Ombo, is currently being destroyed by severe flooding of contaminated water caused by controversial oil drilling practices performed over the past four years, according to residents.
According to Sheikh Ahmed Abdel Hameed, a resident of Fares and key community activist, the initial floodings started in 2009 when oil drillers from DanaGas started test drilling on residential land in Fares without local consent.
“Not long after the drillers left, contaminated water started to pump out of the ground from the holes they had made, destroying everything,” says Abdel Hameed, adding that now over 500 feddans of land and housing has been destroyed by constant flooding.
“It’s poisonous water, and even small amounts destroy the plantations and trees, instead of hydrating them ... and sometimes it can get up to five feet high, destroying our houses too.” http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/fracking-responsible-flooding-upper-egyptian-village
18 Renewable Energy
Fiscal Bill Fallout - Vermont Wind Energy, Bernie Sanders US Senator
Sen. Bernie Sanders issued the following statement after Congress approved legislation that extends green energy incentives as part of a bill to preserve tax cuts for working families:
“This agreement preserves incentives for the development of clean energy by encouraging companies that are creating jobs in America and helping reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. That is a win-win for our economy and our environment. In Vermont and across the country, hundreds of wind manufacturing plants already are producing wind turbines, and the industry is providing jobs for 75,000 American workers. The fact that we have doubled wind generation since 2008 is an American success story. http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=935A90B9-B704-484E-B46D-4063D6C0F998
Warren Buffett Just Bought The Largest Solar Energy Project In The World
MidAmerican Energy Holdings, the electric utility owned by Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathway group, announced today it had acquired a 579-megawatt solar development in Southern California. http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-midamerican-solar-project-2013-1
94% Renewable Electricity By 2017 Is Goal For Nicaragua
Nicaragua has one of the most aggressive renewable energy goals in the world — it intends to have 94% of its electricity come from renewable energy by 2017. The spark for this new energy push was an energy crisis due to a heavy reliance on foreign oil. Reducing this over-reliance from 70% to 6% could be made possible by renewable energy infrastructure development. http://cleantechnica.com/2013/01/06/94-renewable-energy-by-2017-is-goal-for-nicaragua/? utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook
90% Renewable Electricity By 2015 Is Uruguay’s Goal
In September of 2011, Uruguay announced it could increase its wind power capacity by 800 MW. Not long afterwards, that figure was increased to 1,000 MW. In the beginning of January 2013, a new goal was publicized: 90% of all its electricity from renewables by 2015. http://cleantechnica.com/2013/01/08/90-renewable-electricity-by-2015-is-uruguays-goal/
'Frozen air' could heat up renewable energy
The technology from Highview Power Storage in the United Kingdom involves extracting carbon dioxide and water vapor from the air, chilling the nitrogen to its liquid state and storing it in a giant vacuum flask.
19 Then, when energy is needed, the liquid is warmed to ambient temperature. As it transition to the gas phase, it expands about 700 times, generating force to drive a turbine that generates electricity.
Studies have shown time and again there’s more than enough wind and solar energy available to power the world, we just need to harness it and store it so that we can use it when and where we need it instead of only when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing.
Researchers around the world are chasing a range of technologies to overcome the hurdle, such as the liquid batteries under development by Donald Sadoway at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/futureoftech/frozen-air-could-heat-renewable-energy-6283746
1st world atlas on renewable energy
Abu Dhabi - The International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) on Sunday launched the world's first atlas on clean energy which will offer open-access information on countries' renewable energy potential. stablished in 2011, Abu Dhabi-based Irena is mandated by 159 countries and the European Union to promote the sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy. http://www.news24.com/Green/News/1st-world-atlas-on-renewable-energy-20130113
World First Renewable Energy Resources Atlas Goes Online
In an effort to raise the awareness of just how much potential hour planet has to produce renewable energy, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has launched the first ever online Global Atlas of renewable energy resources.
Live now at www.irena.org/GlobalAtlas, the atlas is the largest ever initiative to help countries asssess their potential renewable energy generating potential. It combines data and maps from leading technical institutions across the planet as well as private companies, and currently charts solar and wind resources. http://cleantechnica.com/2013/01/16/world-first-renewable-energy-resources-atlas-goes-online/? utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook http://www.irena.org/GlobalAtlas/
What does it take to become a Solar Community? - Payson, Arizona
In July of 2011 the Payson Town Council unanimously voted to enact Resolution #2621. This resolution stated that the goal for Payson was to have 5% of its owner occupied homes to install solar panels or solar hot water heaters by the year 2015.
20 The earliest renewable energy project in Payson was recorded in October 2005 and is the only windmill project recorded in our Town. Our first recorded solar photovoltaic system was completed at the Kline residence in Alpine Village, January 10, 2006.
Since then, there have been 96 additional solar photovoltaic systems, including both residential and commercial, installed in Payson. The following are the number of installations each year since 2006: http://transitiontownpayson.net/2012/10/31/what-does-it-take-to-become-a-solar-community/
Japan To Build World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm Near Fukushima
Japan’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energy has announced plans to build the world’s largest offshore wind farm near Fukushima as part of plans to reconstruct the area stricken by nuclear disaster in 2011. The project aims to address electricity shortage issues that arose after the closure of the damaged Daiichi power plant and 54 other nuclear reactors throughout the country. The plan is to build 143 turbines by 2020 with the capacity to generate 1 GW of power, which will help make Fukushima energy self-sufficient by 2040. http://inhabitat.com/japan-to-build-worlds-largest-offshore-wind-farm-near-fukushima/
Are Photovoltaics Or Biofuels Better At Energy Conversion?
According to the research, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, photovoltaics is a much more efficient option than biomass.
“PV is orders of magnitude more efficient than biofuels pathways in terms of land use – 30, 50, even 200 times more efficient – depending on the specific crop and local conditions,” says Geyer. “You get the same amount of energy using much less land, and PV doesn’t require farm land.”
And when you include recent WWF research that shows that land used for solar panels is being significantly underused, the biomass option seems absurdly outdated. http://cleantechnica.com/2013/01/18/are-photovoltaics-or-biofuels-better-at-energy-conversion/? utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook
Davos call for $14trn 'greening' of global economy Political and business leaders warned of need to ensure sustainable growth
Only a sustained and dramatic shift to infrastructure and industrial practices using low-carbon technology can save the world and its economy from devastating global warming, according to a Davos-commissioned alliance led by the former Mexican President, Felipe Calderon, in the most dramatic call so far to fight climate change on business grounds. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/davos-call-for-14trn-greening--of-global-economy- 8460994.html
21 The Solar Powered Myth
The myth that solar panels don't work in the winter or a northern (Canadian) climate is completely false. The fact is that solar panels actually work even better during the winter, because of the huge temperature change between night and day. It doesn't even need to be sunny. Solar panels use the changes in air temperature to provide electricity. The more dramatic the temperature change the more energy produced.
Thanks to the temperature changes at night solar panels still provide a trickle of energy during the wee hours of the morning, combined with a battery system that hooks into your fuse box, it provides electricity at all times of the day and night. http://environmental.lilithezine.com/The-Solar-Powered-Myth.html
World's Largest Wind Farm to be Built 10 Miles Off Coast of Fukushima
World's First 1-Gigawatt Wind Farm!
Officials have unveiled plans to build the largest wind farm in the world. It will be built 10 miles off the coast of Fukushima, a location with heavy symbolism.
Currently, the largest wind farm in the world is off the coast of Suffolk in the U.K. Called the Greater Gabbard farm, it produces 504 megawatts of power using 140 turbines. The new farm planned for Japan is expected to produce 1 gigawatt using just 143 turbines. http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/japan-build-worlds-largest-wind-farm-coast- fukushima.html
Unsubsidized Solar Revolution Starting, UBS Reports
The revolution in energy markets caused by the growing impact of rooftop solar PV is about to take a dramatic leap in scale.
According to analysts from the global investment banking giant UBS, the arrival of socket parity – where the cost of installing solar is cheaper than grid-sourced supplies – is about to cause a boom in unsubsidised solar installation in Europe, and the energy market may never be quite the same again. http://cleantechnica.com/2013/01/23/unsubsidized-solar-revolution-starting-ubs-reports/? utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook
Energy/U.S. Leadership – Poll: Bipartisan 91% Want Clean Energy, Water Agenda From Congress, Obama
Americans are not opposed to more domestic energy production, but they are unwilling to achieve it by sacrificing clean water, increased energy efficiency, and expanded wind and solar power in the process, according to a major new ORC International survey conducted for the nonprofit Civil Society Institute (CSI) and Environmental Working Group (EWG).
22 94 percent of Americans – including 92 percent of Republicans, 87 percent of Independents, and 98 percent of Democrats – want political leadership on balancing calls for more energy production in U.S. with protecting clean water and air.
91 percent of Americans feel it is important that their member of Congress demonstrate leadership on a “national agenda for clean energy and protecting America’s water and air.” The vast majority of Republicans (85 percent), Independents (87 percent), and Democrats (96 percent) agree on the need for such leadership. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/20130122/energys-leadership-ndash-poll-bipartisan-want-clean- energy-water-agenda-from-congress-obama.htm
Fracking wastewater could be radioactive
Studies from the U.S. Geological Survey, Penn State University and environmental groups all found that waste from fracking can be radioactive -- and in some cases, highly radioactive.
A geological survey report found that millions of barrels of wastewater from unconventional wells in Pennsylvania and conventional wells in New York were 3,609 times more radioactive than the federal limit for drinking water and 300 times more radioactive than a Nuclear Regulatory Commission limit for nuclear plant discharges.
And Mark Engle, the USGS research geologist who co-authored the report, said that fracking flowback from the Marcellus shale contains higher radiation levels than similar shale formations.
“There (isn’t) a lot of data but in general, the Marcellus appears to be anomalously high,” Engle said. He said the USGS had agreements with a handful of oil and gas companies to sample the flowback from their wells for this particular report. These companies, he said, did not wish to be identified. http://www.shalereporter.com/environment/article_9a671938-66a8-11e2-9a94-0019bb30f31a.html
Community Energy Storage Installed In North York, Canada
This 500 kW energy storage system can also back up wind and solar plants, either with electricity from fossil-fuel or wind/solar power plants. It is also compact, just a little bigger than a typical Toronto Hydro transformer.
With the use of energy storage, solar and wind energy can be supplied in a completely stable and reliable manner. http://cleantechnica.com/2013/01/26/community-energy-storage-installed-in-north-york-canada/? utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook
V3Solar Spin Cell = 8 Cents/kWh? (CleanTechnica Exclusive)
In case you aren’t aware, the average cost of electricity in the US is about 12 cents per kWh. The average cost of electricity from solar PV in the US is now about 10-15 cents per kWh. The cost of V3Solar’s Spin Cell, as noted in the title (and based on tests that the company considers to actually be
23 conservative — meaning the cost could actually be lower), was quoted to me as being 8 cents per kWh! Bill Rever, a very well qualified 3rd party solar specialist has apparently verified the cost projection. You can see his full technical review here.
A production prototype is still in development, and a low-volume production phase would follow that before advancing on to the mass-market production phase. A lot can change between the lab, the manufacturing floor, and the Home Depot shelf. http://cleantechnica.com/2013/01/24/v3solar-spin-cell-cones-cheap-solar/
Canada’s First Off-Shore Wind Farm Set for B.C.
The multiphase project, owned by the NaiKun Wind Energy Group, will consist of 550 square feet kilometres, with a total of 396 megawatts (MW) of energy is set for phase one.
A total of 110 wind turbines are planned, providing British Columbian residents a cleaner alternative, according to the website. This will cut 450,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year rather than using natural gas, and power 200,000 homes.
The multiphase project, owned by the NaiKun Wind Energy Group, will consist of 550 square feet kilometres, with a total of 396 megawatts (MW) of energy is set for phase one.
A total of 110 wind turbines are planned, providing British Columbian residents a cleaner alternative, according to the website. This will cut 450,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year rather than using natural gas, and power 200,000 homes.
In 2012 new Canadian wind projects were expected to increase by 20%, or 1,200 MW and a total of C$2.5 billion in new investments. However, British Columbia was not one of the three top provinces in new wind capacity in 2012. Ontario (2,000MW), Quebec (1,600MW) and Nova Scotia (1,000MW) led the way. http://cleantechnica.com/2013/01/28/canadas-first-off-shore-wind-farm-set-for-b-c/? utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook
Small Solar is a Big Deal
The Bloomberg Cleantech numbers for 2012 are in and the story is one we’re by now familiar with— small solar is a big deal. Despite a slight dip in overall clean tech investment, solar continues to dominate and the big area of growth was, you guessed it, distributed generation. That’s because we’ve entered a new era of cheap PV where installations are up, total investment volumes down (as solar continues its inexorable price decline) and trade wars are expanding as countries fight for market share in tomorrow’s technology. http://ecowatch.org/2013/small-solar-is-a-big-deal/
Texas Wind and Solar More Competitive Than Natural Gas
An interesting fact seemed to go unnoticed in all the press around the Electric Reliability Council of Texas’s (ERCOT) Long Term System Assessment, a biennial report submitted to the Texas Legislature
24 on “the need for increased transmission and generation capacity throughout the state of Texas.” ERCOT found that if you use updated wind and solar power characteristics like cost and actual output to reflect real world conditions, rather than the previously used 2006 assumed characteristics, wind and solar are more competitive than natural gas over the next 20 years. http://ecowatch.org/2013/wind-solar-competitive-natural-gas/
25 Science and Health
New Fears Over Fracking Groundwater Contamination
Attention and concern has so far been given mainly to the chemicals, including corrosive salts and benzene, that are present in the fracking fluid; however, this investigation raises issues over the exhumation of other toxic materials that had previously remained sequestered in the rock over millions of years. The measured levels of radium and barium are significantly greater than those deemed acceptable in drinking water, and so the necessity to dispose properly of the waters from fracking operations is once more stressed, and that account should be taken of the kind of materials that may be washed up from deep underground, as well as the intrinsic composition of the fracking fluid that is injected into the wells in the first place. If the waters are disposed of incautiously, there may be a real risk of water supplies becoming contaminated by substances that are naturally occurring, but nonetheless highly dangerous. http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/New-Fears-Over-Fracking-Groundwater-Contamination.html
Methane leaks erode green credentials of natural gas
Losses of up to 9% show need for broader data on US gas industry’s environmental impact.
Industry officials and some scientists contested the claim, but at an American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in San Francisco, California, last month, the research team reported new Colorado data that support the earlier work, as well as preliminary results from a field study in the Uinta Basin of Utah suggesting even higher rates of methane leakage — an eye-popping 9% of the total production. That figure is nearly double the cumulative loss rates estimated from industry data — which are already higher in Utah than in Colorado. http://www.nature.com/news/methane-leaks-erode-green-credentials-of-natural-gas-1.12123 http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/01/02/1388021/bridge-to-nowhere-noaa-confirms-high-methane- leakage-rate-up-to-9-from-gas-fields-gutting-climate-benefit/
Lawsuit: School cancer cluster near pipeline route.
Leaking pipelines a few feet below the ground risk more than explosions. Between 1997 and 2001, 17 children were diagnosed with leukemia.
“We have solid evidence that the Kinder Morgan pipeline leaked into the school at E.C. Best,” Attorney and environmental immunologist Alan Levin said.
State and federal officials absolved Kinder Morgan but Mark Whitten, a “chemical expert and EPA funded scientist,” signed an affidavit stating:
“there was a leak in the pipe, and it took Kinder Morgan over a year to fix that leak, because every time we went there, you could see the hole in the ground. You could smell the jet fuel.” http://www.texassharon.com/2013/01/03/lawsuit-school-cancer-cluster-near-pipeline-route/
26 TEDX — Chemicals in Natural Gas Operations
Dr. Colborn has delivered her talk "What You Need to Know About Natural Gas Production" many times across the country. It has educated and motivated individuals nationwide to organize and address the environmental and health issues raised by natural gas operations. She calls for full public disclosure of all chemicals used during drilling and fracturing and raises the issues of ground-level ozone and air pollution that have been almost completely ignored.
Now, TEDX has produced a video of this lecture, complete with photos and data slides to illustrate the fact that natural gas is not the 'clean energy' that industry is touting it to be. http://www.endocrinedisruption.com/chemicals.videoplayer.php http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXHI2jSg5pM
Shale Gas: Myth and Realities, Dr. Anthony Ingraffea
On Dec. 14 of last year the Cornell University engineer, one of the world's foremost authorities on the science of hydraulic fracturing, gave a stunning talk on the myths and realities of unconventional shale gas development to a room full of Calgary academics and oilmen.
Only in the last two decades have four different technologies made it possible to fracture deep shale rock formations one to two kilometres underground. They include directional drilling (wells that go down a kilometre and then extend horizontally for another kilometre): the use of millions of litres of fracturing fluids including sand, water and toxic chemicals; slick water (the use of gels and high fluid volumes at 100 barrels a minute) and multi-well pad and cluster drilling (the drilling of six to nine wells from one industrial platform).
"All four of these technologies had to come together to allow shale gas fracturing," says Ingraffea. The first horizontal shale gas well was drilled in 1991; the first slick water fracture took place in 1996; and the use of cluster drilling from one pad didn't happen until 2007. Until a decade ago it just wasn't possible to open fractures in walls of shale rock 20 metres thick a kilometre under the ground with 20 million litres of fracking fluid pumped by 20,000 worth of horsepower to drain trapped methane in an area as large two kilometres by one kilometre. http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/01/07/Shale-Gas-Realities/
Ten Problems with New York’s Shale Gas Drilling Plan
The New York state government’s proposed plan for regulating and monitoring horizontal drilling and highvolume hydraulic fracturing would put the state’s water supplies and the health of its residents at great risk by allowing drilling for shale gas to proceed without an adequate scientific foundation.
While Cuomo has not made public details of his new approach, those reported by the Times appear to perpetuate the seemingly arbitrary, unscientific thinking behind the published draft plan. State officials seem to believe they can prevent pollution by confining drilling to certain underground deposits. http://static.ewg.org/pdf/Top-Ten-NY-Drilling-Problems.pdf
27 Wanted: Drug-Free Workers - Pennsylvania Amphetamine, Pain-Killer Use Is Hiring Hurdle in Appalachia's Oil-and-Gas Boom
CARNEGIE, Pa.—Dawn Fuchs's trucking and environmental-cleanup business is thriving, thanks mostly to a boom in natural-gas drilling in western Pennsylvania. But she faces an unexpected hurdle to growth: More job applicants are failing drug tests.
"It's getting harder and harder to find clean applicants," said Ms. Fuchs, chief executive of Weavertown Environmental Group. About 7% of Weavertown's applicants have been turned away in the past two years after failing screenings, roughly four times the national average for such workers. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324731304578193881448683910.html
Fracking Sand May Pose Health Hazard To Workers, Residents
The first time Bill Ferullo saw the white plumes drifting from a natural gas fracking site, he got out of his car to take pictures.
"I didn't know what it was," he recalled. "But two minutes later my chest was burning. It burned all night."
In the two years since, Ferullo has watched similar dust clouds travel as far as a mile, he estimates, from gas drilling operations around his home in Bradford County, Pa. He has also since learned what hazards they may carry. One component in particular concerns Ferullo, as well as other residents and environmental health experts: silica sand, a long-known cause of debilitating and deadly diseases such as silicosis and lung cancer.
Eric Esswein, a senior industrial hygienist with National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, monitored the exposure of 116 workers at 11 fracking sites and found that 79 percent of air samples had more silica dust than recommended and 31 percent had at least 10 times more than recommended. The highest reading came in with 137 times the U.S. recommended limit of silica -- what Esswein called "occupational hazard of antiquity" during a presentation of his findings at the Institute of Medicine earlier this year. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/fracking-sand-health-hazard-_n_2146992.html? utm_hp_ref=fracking
Report States Livestock Sickened, Killed by Hydraulic Fracturing Fumes
A recent report from Cornell University links fracking to the deaths of goats and cattle in some regions. The report has raised concerns among farmers and consumers.
Recently, a report by a veterinarian and a professor at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine raised questions about the safety of consuming meat and dairy products from farms near fracking sites. Reported illness and death among livestock exposed to fracking materials may suggest that humans could be sickened by the practice as well. http://world.einnews.com/247pr/324683
28 Exxon Mobil and the Precautionary Principle
The precautionary principle in essence states that if there is a chance of harm being done either to people or the environment from an activity and there is not enough scientific consensus or research, then policy makers should err on the side of caution and preclude the activity or heavily regulate it. It is a sensible approach but one which is all too often disregarded in the U.S. for the simple reason that lobbyists in Washington and state capitals have exceedingly deep pockets. Nevertheless in some places like the European Union, the precautionary principle is now a statutory part of law. And well it should be.
In the CSI press release, it was stated: “80 percent of Americans think we “should get the facts first about health and environmental risks before the potential damage is done by energy production.” This “precautionary principle” approach is supported by 67 percent of Republicans, 82 percent of Independents, and 89 percent of Democrats.” http://energypolicyforum.org/2013/01/17/exxonmobil-and-the-precautionary-principle/
ExxonMobil and the Precautionary Principle: Part 2
Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil, has a distinct world view. In April, 2012 he stated “If you want to live by the precautionary principle, then crawl up in a ball and live in a cave”. Unfortunately this sort of “shoot from the hip” statement does nothing for building trust with regard to fracking.
“The consequences of a misstep in a well”, he states, “while large to the immediate people that live around that well, in the great scheme of things are pretty small, and even to the immediate people around the well, they could be mitigated…they are not life-threatening, they’re not long-lasting, and they’re not new. They are the same risks that our industry has been managing for more than 100 years in the conventional development of oil and natural gas.”
This is a curious statement because in Congressional testimony in June 2010 during the Macondo debacle, Mr. Tillerson painted a very different picture. He testified:
“When these things happen, we are not well equipped to deal with them. We are not well equipped to handle them. There will be impacts, as we are seeing.”
A moment later he repeated himself.
“When they happen, it is a fact that we’re not well equipped to prevent any and all damage. There will be damage occurring.” http://energypolicyforum.org/2013/01/22/exxonmobil-and-the-precautionary-principle-part-2/
How to Power 100 Percent of the World’s Electricity by Solar
A new report released on the sidelines of the World Future Energy Summit today, shows that even if all electricity is to be generated through renewable energy (RE) sources, and with solar photovoltaics (PV) alone, it would take up only an insignificant amount of total land area, contrary to common perception.
29 The report, Solar PV Atlas: solar power in harmony with nature, shows through seven cases—six countries and one region—less than 1 percent of the total land mass would be required to meet 100 percent of projected electricity demand in 2050, if generating electricity only with solar PV . http://ecowatch.org/2013/power-worlds-electricity-solar/ http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?207268/Solar-PV-power-in-harmony-with-nature--new-WWF-report- says-land-requirements-are-insignificant
The Report http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/solar_atlas__low_res__final_8_jan_2013__1_.pdf
Radon Threats are Grounds for Precaution - re Ontario imports
Chemical Valley industries are arranging to use shale gas supplies that very likely could be contaminated with radon, given how these gas feedstocks are extracted through fracking -a technique that is used to retrieve gas from shale rock located very deep underground. Two companies have agreed to send this shale gas from the northeastern United States to the Nova Chemical plant in Sarnia, and there is wider industry support for these imports of gas from fracking.
For the sake of the health and safety of the residents of Sarnia-Lambton -and others around the region -it is important that we apply the precautionary principle to this issue. We should assume that shale gas could come with radon contamination, if we cannot prove otherwise. There should be an immediate moratorium on imports of shale gas to Ontario until tests for radon in the gas have been completed and publicized. http://www.theobserver.ca/2011/07/15/radon-threats-are-grounds-for-precaution
Cancer-Causing Chemicals Used in 34 Percent of Reported Fracking Operations
Recognized carcinogens are used in one of every three hydraulic fracturing operations across the nation—according to industry self-reporting. Independent analysis of the SkyTruth Fracking Chemical Database by IT professional David Darling found that 9,310 individual fracking operations conducted between January 2011 and September 2012 disclosed the use of at least one known carcinogen. http://ecowatch.org/2013/cancer-causing-chemicals-fracking-operations/
Oil Sands Industry in Canada Tied to Higher Carcinogen Level
OTTAWA — The development of Alberta’s oil sands has increased levels of cancer-causing compounds in surrounding lakes well beyond natural levels, Canadian researchers reported in a study released on Monday. And they said the contamination covered a wider area than had previously been believed.
“One of the biggest challenges is that we lacked long-term data,” said John P. Smol, the paper’s lead author and a professor of biology at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. “So some in industry have been saying that the pollution in the tar sands is natural, it’s always been there.”
30 The researchers found that to the contrary, the levels of those deposits have been steadily rising since large-scale oil sands production began in 1978.
Samples from one test site, the paper said, now show 2.5 to 23 times more PAHs in current sediment than in layers dating back to around 1960. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/world/americas/oil-sand-industry-in-canada-tied-to-higher- carcinogen-level.html?_r=2&
Drilling Boom Tied to Spike in Utah Air Pollution
According to a New York Times report, in 2010 federal regulators discovered an unusual winter weather pattern in the Uinta Basin that caused ozone concentrations to reach potentially dangerous levels in January, February and March. Air monitors installed in the Uinta Basin measured ozone concentrations exceeding federal health standards more than 68 times in the first three months of 2010, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The problem was equal to the worst summertime ozone tracked by the EPA in San Bernardino, California, the most polluted place in the U.S. http://www.water-contamination-from-shale.com/utah/utah/ http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_20042330 http://researchmatters.noaa.gov/news/Pages/utah.aspx http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/01/17/1465111/study-links-oil-and-gas-extraction-to-ozone- chemicals/
An Oil Boom Takes a Toll on Health Care
WATFORD CITY, N.D. — The patients come with burns from hot water, with hands and fingers crushed by steel tongs, with injuries from chains that have whipsawed them off their feet. Ambulances carry mangled, bloodied bodies from accidents on roads packed with trucks and heavy-footed drivers.
The furious pace of oil exploration that has made North Dakota one of the healthiest economies in the country has had the opposite effect on the region’s health care providers. Swamped by uninsured laborers flocking to dangerous jobs, medical facilities in the area are sinking under skyrocketing debt, a flood of gruesome injuries and bloated business costs from the inflated economy.
The problems have been acute at McKenzie County Hospital here. Largely because of unpaid bills, the hospital’s debt has climbed more than 2,000 percent over the past four years to $1.2 million, according to Daniel Kelly, the hospital’s chief executive. Just three years ago, Mr. Kelly added, the hospital averaged 100 emergency room visits per month; last year, that average shot up to 400. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/us/boom-in-north-dakota-weighs-heavily-on-health-care.html? _r=1&
31 Fracking Poisoning Families at Alarming Rate: Report
Residents living near gas fracking sites suffer an increasingly high rate of health problems now linked to pollutants used in the gas extraction process, according to a new report released Thursday.
The study, conducted by Earthworks’ Oil & Gas Accountability Project, pulled from a survey of 108 Pennsylvania residents in 14 counties, and a series of air and water tests. The results showed close to 70 percent of participants reported an increase in throat irritation and roughly 80 percent suffered from sinus problems after natural gas extraction companies moved to their areas. The symptoms intensify the closer the residents are to the fracking sites. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/10/19-2
Public health and gas development
Where oil and gas development goes, health problems often follow.
1. Contaminants associated with oil and gas development are present in air and water in many communities where development is occurring. 2. Many residents have developed health symptoms that they did not have before—indicating the strong possibility that they are occurring because of gas development. 3. By permitting widespread gas development without fully understanding its impacts to public health— and using that lack of knowledge to justify regulatory inaction—Pennsylvania and other states are risking the public’s health. http://www.earthworksaction.org/issues/detail/public_health_and_gas_development
Gas Patch Roulette: Full Report http://www.earthworksaction.org/files/publications/Health-Report-Full-FINAL-sm.pdf
Livestock falling ill in fracking regions, raising concerns about food
In the midst of the US domestic energy boom, livestock on farms near oil-and-gas drilling operations nationwide have been quietly falling sick and dying. Elizabeth Royte reports
While scientists have yet to isolate cause and effect, many suspect chemicals used in drilling and hydrofracking (or “fracking”) operations are poisoning animals through the air, water, or soil.
Last year, Michelle Bamberger, an Ithaca, New York, veterinarian, and Robert Oswald, a professor of molecular medicine at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine, published the first and only peer- reviewed report to suggest a link between fracking and illness in food animals. http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/1784382/livestock_falling_ill_in_fracking_regions_rais ing_concerns_about_food.html
32 Gas Drilling Accidents
Contrary to the claims of the gas industry, accidents do happen. In fact a researcher has uncovered 270 accidents related to gas drilling in New York State since 1979.
Below is a compilation of articles about recent gas drilling accidents throughout the United States, which show the many ways that hydrofracking is unsafe. http://www.catskillmountainkeeper.org/our-programs/fracking/whats-wrong-with-fracking-2/accidents/
33 Economics, Legal, and Investigations
Rosy Forecast of Cheap Oil Abundance, Economic Boom a Myth
Headlines about this year's "World Energy Outlook" (WEO) from the International Energy Agency (IEA), released mid-November, would lead you to think we are literally swimming in oil.
The report forecasts that the United States will outstrip Saudi Arabia as the world's largest oil producer by 2017, becoming "all but self-sufficient in net terms" in energy production - a notion reported almost verbatim by media agencies worldwide, from BBC News to Bloomberg.
In a series of investigations for the The Guardian and Le Monde, Lionel Badal exposed in 2009 how key data was deliberately fudged at the IEA under US pressure to artificially inflate official reserve figures. Not only that, but Badal later discovered that as early as 1998, extensive IEA data exploding assumptions of "sustained economic growth and low unemployment," had been systematically suppressed for political reasons, according to several whistleblowers.
The same goes, even more so, for Maugeri's celebrated Harvard report. By any meaningful standard, this was hardly an independent analysis of oil industry data. Funded by two oil majors - Eni and British Petroleum (BP) - the report was not peer-reviewed and contained a litany of elementary errors. So egregious are these errors that Dr. Roger Bentley, an expert at the UK Energy Research Centre, told ex-BBC financial journalist David Strahan: "Mr Maugeri’s report misrepresents the decline rates established by major studies; it contains glaring mathematical errors. . . . I am astonished Harvard published it." http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/13629-age-of-cheap-oil-abundance-a-myth
Tanking oil revenues, a government spending spree and the emerging economic predicament in Alberta
Alberta’s oil wealth is unpredictable.
Alberta may have some of the largest unconventional oil reserves on earth, but that makes it slave to a volatile global market. More than a quarter of its annual budget is derived from oil royalties. And the way its cut of those royalties is calculated ensures a kind of doubling down on oil prices — the windfalls are huge when the price of oil is high, but can drop very quickly if they fall. Currently, the spread between the world oil prices and Alberta bitumen is much larger than the government originally forecast, due largely to a glut of crude and a lack of pipeline infrastructure. That means the province sells its oil, mostly to the Americans, at a massive discount. An oil price decline strips money from funds that would otherwise go to government services, including healthcare and education. http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/01/01/tanking-oil-revenues-a-government-spending-spree-and-the- emerging-economic-predicament-in-alberta/
Income Inequality and the Wealth Tax
Income inequality is the result of a structural defect that allows those with more to continue to accumulate more, while at the same time limiting the gains or even forcing losses on those with less. It
34 is the consequence of what might be called a 'scale-free economy', similar to a scale-free network, which disproportionately rewards prior advantage. Scale-free economics apply not just in the domains of financial wealth, but in other distribution systems as well. For example, web-sites on a given topic created earlier will accumulate more links, all else being equal, than those created later (all else is of course rarely equal).
Recent reports have counted about $21 trillion hoarded, unused, overseas. Taxing this wealth would eliminate the U.S. debt overnight, or if applied globally, would virtually eliminate the crushing impacts of third-world debt while relieving the obligations faced by nations such as Greece and Italy, while still cutting the U.S. debt substantially. http://www.monctonfreepress.ca/blog/income-inequality-and-wealth-tax
Natural Gas Leaks: A Risky Business In Need of a Fix | Conservation Law Foundation
A few weeks ago, Springfield, MA, was rocked by a natural gas explosion that destroyed a building, ruined a city block, and was hailed as a miracle because no lives were lost.
The pipelines that lie below our communities, always out of sight, came suddenly came into focus. The explosion reminded us of the sobering reality that our streets are not always safe. Despite smart investments in energy efficiency and new energy technologies in New England, when it comes to natural gas, whose infrastructure is among the oldest in the nation, we have been reluctant to prioritize investment in replacing and repairing the pipes and valves that we rely upon not only to heat and power our homes, but to keep us safe. When it comes to natural gas efficiency and investment, there is much more we can do – so much more. http://fundytides.blogspot.ca/2013/01/natural-gas-leaks-risky-business-in.html?spref=fb
The Big Heist in the Great White North
Canada’s housing bubble has burst and prices have started to fall. Sales have dipped for 8 straight months as buyer interest has begun to wane. Housing sales in November dropped 12 percent from the same month last year, while previously-hot markets of Vancouver and Toronto saw declines of 28.6% and 16% respectively. Despite the media’s repeated predictions of a “soft landing”, Canada’s real estate market is headed for a bloodbath that will end in a wave of foreclosures, higher unemployment, slower growth, bigger budget deficits, and an aggressive campaign to implement harsh austerity measures aimed at dismantling the social safety net.
In his masterpiece, “The Predator State“, James K. Galbraith refers to the merging of corporate and State power as that
“coalition of relentless opponents of the regulatory framework……whose major lines of business compete with or encroach on the principal public functions of the enduring New Deal. It is a coalition, in other words, that seeks to control the state partly in order to prevent the assertion of public purpose and partly to poach on the lines of activity that past public purpose has established. They are firms that have no intrinsic loyalty to any country. http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/01/02/the-big-heist-in-the-great-white- north/#.UOWvS0S6pxg.facebook
35 Oil Giants Heading to Trial in Water Pollution Lawsuit - New Hampshire
Nearly a decade after it was first brought, a lawsuit accusing two oil giants of widespread groundwater contamination in New Hampshire is expected to present jurors with the most complex and time- consuming trial in the state’s history.
The products liability case against the oil companies, Exxon Mobil and Citgo, is to go to trial in mid- January. In 2003, New Hampshire sued 26 oil companies and subsidiaries, claiming the gasoline additive M.T.B.E., or methyl tertiary butyl ether, caused groundwater contamination in a state where 60 percent of the population relies on private wells for drinking water.
New Hampshire is seeking more than $700 million in damages to test and monitor every private well and public drinking water system in the state and to cover cleanup costs where needed, according to court documents. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/30/us/2-oil-giants-face-trial-in-new-hampshire-water-pollution- suit.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0
Arctic "death spiral" leaves climate scientists shocked and worried
A "radical shift" is plunging the Arctic Ocean towards an ice-free state for the first time in millions of years. One of the world's foremost ice experts, Professor Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University, calls it a "global disaster" that will cause such a big boost in global temperatures that even such extreme measures as geo-engineering need to be considered urgently.
Climate science has long understood that disappearance of summer sea ice in the Arctic would be a "tipping point" in the Earth's climate system, accelerating global temperatures and causing extreme weather and other climate changes far beyond the Arctic.
The trillion tonnes of CO2 pollution that people have released into the atmosphere from burning oil, coal and natural gas has acted like a blow torch on Arctic ice. A dozen pounds of Arctic sea ice has disappeared for every one pound of CO2 we have released. This highlights the incredible heating power of CO2 which pumps 100,000 times more energy into our climate than was given off when the oil, coal or natural gas was burned. http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/climatesnapshot/arctic-death-spiral-leaves-climate-scientists- shocked-and-worried
Employers Protected from Liability for Gross Negligence Toward Employee Safety
The recent New Mexico Court of Appeals case of May v. DCP Midstream illustrates as clearly as anything the lack of worker's remedies for work injuries caused by their employer's negligence. The case shows the absolute disdain for worker safety embodied by the Worker's Compensation Act which is purportedly for the protection of workers.
In a nutshell, the Court granted the defendant summary judgment on May's personal injury claims because the evidence failed to meet the extraordinary requirements established by Delgado v. Phelps
36 Dodge. The case is remarkable in its blunt statement of a worker's right to compensation for the negligence of his or her employer.
"An employer's disregard for safety requirements designed to help prevent injury and death on the job does not mean that an employer "specifically and willfully caused the employee to enter harm's way, facing virtually certain serious injury or death, as contemplated under Delgado." http://www.newmexicoinjuryattorneyblog.com/2010/10/employers-protected-from-liabi.html
Boomtown, USA, North Dakota
Paul Hunter reports from North Dakota, where there's an oil boom for the ages underway. He looks at what this means for the state and the rest of North America. http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/blog/2013/01/boomtown-usa.html#igImgId_58167
Dahlman Rose Downgrades Southwestern Energy (SWN) to Hold
The firm comments, "With shares outperforming its gassy peers in 2012 (up 2% vs down 38%), a 2% expected decline in Fayetteville production in 2013 (~75% of total production) is a bit concerning. This key asset's decline and an increased reliance on Marcellus to drive production growth probably puts pressure on shares." http://www.streetinsider.com/Downgrades/Dahlman+Rose+Downgrades+Southwestern+Energy+ (SWN)+to+Hold/7989120.html
Don't Fall for the Shale Boom Hype - Chris Martenson Interview
We are in the midst of an amazing energy boom, but by sweeping the idea of peak oil under the rug we are ignoring a significant fact: the relationship between hydrocarbon reserves and flow rates are not the same as they used to be-reserves have increased but flow rates are not as high or sustainable.
Perhaps the most important thing we need to pay attention to is net energy returns, on which we run society. Massive new discoveries are only netting a fraction of the returns compared to earlier decades. http://www.energy- daily.com/reports/Dont_Fall_for_the_Shale_Boom_Hype_Chris_Martenson_Interview_999.html
Trial set for local business owner - (Ohio?)
A New Matamoras business owner accused of dumping well wastewater into a Monroe County stream is set to stand trial in Feb. 11.
Robert D. Armstrong and his company, RCA Oil and Gas LLC, were indicted Nov. 29 on a charge of knowingly discharging a pollutant into United States water without a proper permit. If convicted, he could face up to three years in prison and a $50,000 fine.
37 Armstrong has pleaded not guilty, said his attorney, federal public defender Gordon Hobson, who declined to comment on the specifics of the case. http://www.mariettatimes.com/page/content.detail/id/548955.html
First nations take treaty-rights conflict to the courts
First nations are taking the federal government to court to overturn legislation that has been the touchstone for protests and disruptions sweeping the country under the banner Idle No More.
The court challenge is just one more front in a series of confrontations facing the Harper government as it wrestles with the complex issues facing Canada’s aboriginal peoples.
The Mikisew Cree First Nation and the Frog Lake First Nation, both located in Alberta, will file documents in Federal Court on Tuesday arguing that two omnibus budget bills that reduce federal environmental oversight violate the government’s treaty obligations to protect traditional aboriginal territory. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/first-nations-take-treaty-rights-conflict-to-the- courts/article7013228/
Chesapeake Energy Inquiry Launched By SEC
NEW YORK -- The Securities and Exchange Commission is reviewing a compensation program at Chesapeake Energy Corp. that created potential conflicts of interest for its CEO.
The SEC will review a 19-year-old program that allows McClendon to take personal stakes in the company's oil and natural gas wells. Investors have criticized the program for years, saying it could interfere with the way McClendon runs the company.
Those criticisms came to a head last month when news reports revealed that McClendon took out more than $1 billion in loans to cover his investment in the company's wells. Some of those loans came from a group that was planning to buy Chesapeake assets. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/03/chesapeake-energy-inquiry-sec_n_1475653.html
Potential Canada-EU trade deal raises alarms for Atlantic
Canada's potential free trade deal with Europe should raise alarms that open access to lucrative seafood markets will come at the expense of protections for Atlantic fishery jobs, says a new report. "At stake is the ability of Canadians to pursue public policies that curb domination of the fisheries by large corporations," says the study released Wednesday by the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. "My biggest concern is that Canadian governments and citizens, particularly provincial governments, will lose their ability to regulate the fishery to maximize local benefits," author Scott Sinclair said in an interview. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2013/01/09/nl-fishery-markets-risks-109.html
38 It's time for a better capitalism, one that creates jobs and provides security
When will the neoliberal politicians of the US start to realise that their precious market is not supporting their decision-making? When will they see that it was putting the acquisition of short-term profit before the building of long-term security that got the world economy into the mess it's still in?
When the financial crisis first broke, the left believed it signalled the end of faith in free-market capitalism. The truth is more complex, more difficult and more paradoxical. The financial crisis has instead signalled the end of a period in which capitalists lied to themselves and to everyone who would listen, claiming they were doing what was best for everyone, when really they always did what was best for themselves.
It is time now for capitalism to start doing all the things it claimed to do. Like providing jobs. Like offering a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. Like standing against protectionist monopolies. Like increasing prosperity and raising standards of living for all. Like providing the foundations of long-term stability instead of the conditions for short-lived booms. Capitalism, in the late 20th century, became a monster. Its idols were people who took over other companies, destroying jobs, value, security and fairness as they made profits for themselves and their shareholders. The results are now hideously apparent. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/28/capitalism-financial-crisis-christmas-sales? INTCMP=SRCH
Fossil Fuel Subsidies in the U.S.
What is a fossil fuel subsidy? A fossil fuel subsidy is any government action that lowers the cost of fossil fuel energy production, raises the price received by energy producers or lowers the price paid by energy consumers. There are a lot of activities under this simple definition—tax breaks and giveaways, but also loans at favorable rates, price controls, purchase requirements and a whole lot of other things.
How much money does the U.S. government give oil, gas and coal companies? In the United States, credible estimates of annual fossil fuel subsidies range from $10 billion to $52 billion annually, while even efforts to remove small portions of those subsidies have been defeated in Congress, as shown in the graphic below. http://priceofoil.org/fossil-fuel-subsidies/
Energy Subsidies Black, Not Green
A study released by the Environmental Law Institute, a nonpartisan research and policy organization, shows that the federal government has provided substantially larger subsidies to fossil fuels than to renewables. Subsidies to fossil fuels totaled approximately $72 billion over the seven-year study period http://www.eli.org/pdf/Energy_Subsidies_Black_Not_Green.pdf
39 How big is Canada’s oil subsidy to the U.S.?
Over the last few years, Suncor’s emphasis has shifted from exponential production growth to milking the full value of what it digs out of the ground. Fortunately for Suncor, it processes nearly all of the bitumen it pulls from the oil sands in its own refineries.
On the other hand, CNRL, like most oil sands producers, exports raw bitumen to the United States. In so doing, however, the company also transfers an enormous amount of wealth from its Canadian operations to American refiners in the Midwest.
Investors have certainly noticed what such large crack spreads mean for the bottom line. CNRL, which lacks its own refineries, is forced to sell its raw product at a heavy discount, thereby missing out on those juicy refining margins. Suncor, on the other hand, is able to capture the huge crack spreads through its downstream refining operations. In 2012, CNRL’s stock fell more than 20 per cent, while Suncor’s gained more than 10 per cent. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/how-big-is- canadas-oil-subsidy-to-the-us/article6994747/
Natural gas, oil prices: why the long-term forecasts are wrong
The full cost of producing new oil for the 50 largest publicly traded oil companies in the world is $92 a barrel according to Bernstein Research. While average costs are lower because they include previously discovered conventional oil which is cheaper and easier to produce, the Bernstein report challenges the notion that new technologies will lead to cheaper oil. Those technologies including hydraulic fracturing will make it possible to extract previously uneconomic oil resources--but only at very high and rising costs. In fact, the cost of producing the marginal new barrel of oil has been rising at 14 percent per year since 2001, Bernstein says. http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2013/0114/Natural-gas-oil-prices-why-the-long- term-forecasts-are-wrong
Quebec shale-gas opponents have come under police surveillance
MONTREAL — Quebec shale-gas opponents were surprised to learn the RCMP believes they have the potential to become radicalized and aligned with North American “extremist” groups.
Two reports by the RCMP’s Critical Infrastructure Intelligence Team say companies, organizations and people involved in the shale-gas industry could become targets, La Presse reported Monday after receiving the reports under the Access to Information Act. http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/Quebec+shale+opponents+have+come+under+police+sur veillance/7818434/story.html
40 Unrestricted Natural Gas Exports Could Have Disastrous Effects on U.S. Economy
U.S. News and World Report states: “Unrestricted natural gas exports could have ‘disastrous’ effects on the U.S. economy, energy industry leaders argued Thursday, warning that shipping large amounts of the nation’s newly-abundant resource would result in crippling price hikes for American consumers and manufacturers.”
Those in favor are the very shale companies that are bleeding red all over their balance sheets. Exportation is unequivocally their highest and best hope for containing their losses and having any semblance of normality come back into their corporate plans for unconventional gas. Never mind that they over-produced, over-leveraged and over-hyped their product. Now they are in trouble and need to be rescued. The question is, of course, whether the average American consumer should pay for the mistakes of a few imprudent energy executives? http://ecowatch.org/2013/natural-gas-exports-economy/
Exposing the Oil and Gas Industry’s False Jobs Promise for Shale Gas Development:
How Actual Employment Data Show Minimal Job Creation http://documents.foodandwaterwatch.org/doc/FalseJobsPromise.pdf
Low U.S. natural gas price seen sapping reserves, valuations
SAN FRANCISCO/HOUSTON (Reuters) - When U.S. natural gas producers release their 2012 annual reports in the next several weeks, many companies may have to drastically reduce a key indicator of their financial health: reserves.
Even though U.S. natural gas prices have bounced away from the decade lows of last April, the country's Securities and Exchange Commission requires companies to calculate and report year-end oil and gas reserves using 12-month average prices.
U.S. exploration and production companies likely to see large revisions include Ultra Petroleum Corp (UPL), Cabot Oil and Gas Corp (COG), Southwestern Energy Co (SWN) and Chesapeake Energy Corp (CHK), analysts said. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/low-u-natural-gas-price-060255466.html?l=1
Natural Gas Drilling in Pennsylvania - Violations
Pennsylvania - 3,025 violations on 8,982 active wells (since Jan. 2009). http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/drilling/violations/
2012 Violations per Well in Pennsylvania http://www.fractracker.org/2013/01/2012-violations-per-well-in-pennsylvania/
41 How Alberta Will Fight Fracking Folk Hero Jessica Ernst
Alberta's main oil and gas regulator will argue in an Alberta court this Friday that it owes "no duty of care" to protect groundwater from hydraulic fracturing and that a regulator can violate the basic rights of citizens if it regards them as an "eco-terrorist."
In a court document filed on Dec. 5, 2012 lawyers representing the ERCB argue that a regulator charged to develop oil and gas resources in the public interest owes no duty of care to protect a citizen's groundwater.
Encana, whose CEO Randy Eresman abruptly resigned last week, is no stranger to controversy. The company, which is struggling with debt and an over-reliance on controversial shale gas production, remains the subject of a major U.S. government groundwater study in Pavillion, Wyoming, that has linked hydraulic fracturing to aquifer contamination.
Michigan authorities are also investigating the company for allegedly colluding with Chesapeake Energy to keep land prices low. Encana, the target of a mysterious bombing campaign in northern B.C. in 2008, also received record fines from Colorado's Oil and Gas Commission for contaminating water in 2004. http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/01/16/Ernst-Frack-Update/
B.C. First Nation asks court to block Canada-China deal
Hupacasath First Nation says Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Act guts resource rights
In documents filed with the court in Vancouver, the Hupacasath First Nation said the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Act, or FIPPA, would gut its aboriginal right to resources subject to foreign investment.
Councillor Brenda Sayers said Monday the band is seeking the injunction because Chinese investors would ultimately control major assets such as coal on its 232,000-hectare territory. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/01/22/pol-cp-fppa-china-bc-first-nation.html
Shale gas flow report disappoints investors - Australia
INVESTORS sold off stocks exploring for shale gas in the Cooper Basin on Monday after Beach Energy reported a disappointing flow rate from its Moonta well there.
Late on Friday afternoon Beach reported that the Moonta-1 unconventional vertical well had flowed gas at a maximum controlled rate of 2.6 million square feet per day (MMscfd) and was currently flowing at 1.6 MMscfd.
The disappointing rate fell short of expectations of up to 4 MMscfd, according to Macquarie analyst Kirit Hira, based on Beach's two earlier Cooper Basin shale gas wells Encounter and Holdfast. http://www.smh.com.au/business/shale-gas-flow-report-disappoints-investors-20130121-2d332.html
42 Federal energy outlook: Crude prices soft but propping up shale gas
As the Legislature resumes debate over how to sustain Alaska’s oil industry into the future, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has just come out with a preview of its Annual Energy Outlook Report, which offers economists and policymakers an educated guess at what to expect in energy markets over the coming decades.
Of particular interest to Alaskans: Oil prices are expected to stay low, below $100 a barrel through 2015. After that, the government foresees prices marching steadily higher until a barrel of crude averages $234 (at today's dollar value) by 2040. http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/federal-energy-outlook-crude-prices-soft-propping-shale-gas
Competing in Clean Energy - Pembuna Institute
With more than 700 companies, the clean technology sector has emerged as a major driver of innovation and employment growth in Canada. As this industry grows to a projected $3 trillion by 2020, Canadian clean technology companies have the potential to increase their market share from today’s $9 billion to $60 billion. Yet Canada currently captures just one per cent of the $1 trillion global clean technology industry and places fifth in clean energy inventions, with its companies securing only two per cent of clean energy patents granted in the United States since 2002. http://www.pembina.org/pub/2406
The Report http://pubs.pembina.org/reports/pembina-institute-competing-in-clean-energy.pdf
Oil Guru Destroys All Of The Hype About America's Energy Boom – Arthur Berman
Berman argues the promise of America's shale revolution is "magical thinking." Shale drilling is too expensive and too ephemeral to make a lasting impact.
Below the text under What Few People Realize is a row of small pictures. Click on each one to see charts and graphs. http://www.businessinsider.com/arthur-berman-shale-is-magical-thinking-2013-1#berman-argues-the- promise-of-americas-shale-revolution-is-magical-thinking-shale-drilling-is-too-expensive-and-too- ephemeral-to-make-a-lasting-impact-1
World’s Cheapest Oil Crimps Alberta Budget With Price Gap
Alberta, Canada’s wealthiest province, will issue more debt and dip into savings to overcome reduced revenue tied to the price gap between the oil it produces and world crude prices.
Alberta will probably borrow more this year, taking advantage of the province’s AAA rating and low interest rates, Finance Minister Doug Horner said in a Jan. 18 interview. The province will also tap its sustainability fund to help offset lower revenue from the world’s cheapest oil, he said.
43 Western Canada Select traded $42.50 a barrel less than U.S. crude on Dec. 14, the most since Bloomberg began keeping records. Canadian companies are forgoing about C$2.5 billion a month because of the lower prices, according to an estimate by Houston-based investment bank PPHB Securities LP. The differential is costing the Canadian economy C$27 billion a year, Horner said. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-21/world-s-cheapest-oil-crimps-alberta-budget-with-price- gap.html
'Bitumen bubble' could mean $6B shortfall in energy revenue
EDMONTON -- Alberta Premier Alison Redford, in her first TV address, warned Thursday of tough fiscal times and multibillion-dollar revenue shortfalls due to the "bitumen bubble."
She said the bubble -- the difference between the benchmark price for oil in North America versus Alberta's oilsands bitumen -- has grown so wide it will take a $1-billion bite out of this year's budget and $6 billion the next. http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/bitumen-bubble-could-mean-6b-shortfall-in-energy-revenue-redford- 1.1128911 http://commoncauses.ca/sites/default/files/documents/CC%20-%20Maude%20Report.pdf
Talisman plans job cuts as pain persists
Layoffs are looming for Talisman Energy Inc. as the underperforming company chops costs amid a broader push to boost profitability.
Talisman plans to slash its general and administrative (G&A) costs by “at least 20 per cent over all,” Helen Wesley, the company’s executive vice-president of corporate services, told the CIBC Whistler Institutional Investor Conference Thursday. “And that’s a combination of both people and indirect costs.” http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/talisman- prepares-for-job-cuts-in-bid-to-reduce-costs/article7767304/
Booms and Busts: The Impact of West Virginia’s Energy Economy
In the past, West Virginia counties with a concentration in mining saw their economic performance dramatically decline after an energy development boom.
Today, their economies are weaker than the rest of the state, and they are ill-positioned to compete and grow.
It is uncertain whether today’s energy boom, led by natural gas extraction, will bring the prosperity to West Virginia that it promises.
44 While the potential revenues from this boom seem to be an attractive source of economic growth for communities, history shows that natural resource booms inevitably lead to busts. http://www.damascuscitizensforsustainability.org/2013/01/booms-and-busts-the-impact-of-west- virginias-energy-economy/
The Report http://www.damascuscitizensforsustainability.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/BoomsBusts072111.pdf
45 Regulations
Rulemaking for oil and gas drilling faces resistance from Boulder County fracking foes
As the nine members of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission prepare for a high-stakes debate next week over new rules for drilling in the state, anti-fracking activists from Boulder County are crying foul over what they see as an already-flawed process.
Concern largely revolves around a proposal released earlier this week from commission staff members that would bump up the buffer between well sites and buildings from 150 feet in rural areas and 350 feet in urban areas to a flat 500 feet anywhere. Within 1,000 feet of a building, oil and gas operators would have to notify neighbors and employ "enhanced mitigation" measures to cut down on dust, noise, odor and lighting. http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-county-news/ci_22300679/rulemaking-oil-and-gas-drilling-faces- resistance-from
No Fracking Problem : Fracking Waste Broker Company Masquerades as Approved Processor Provincial “Regulator” Provides Cover
Even in gung-ho frack everything Pennsylvannia with its tens of thousands of fracked wells, at least the pollution from the billions of litres of fluid wastes is treated as a serious issue.
In Nova Scotia we have yet to hear whether the Environment Department has any idea what became of the first 4 million plus litres that were disposed of somewhere, by somebody. From the author’s investigations, indications are that Atlantic Industrial Services was not the disposal contractor; but they have handled all fracking wastes since that time. A fair bit of this has made the news, from bringing New Brunswick wastes to Nova Scotia, to the currently proposed processing for radioactive material found in the Kennetcook frack waste ponds. But there is more than meets the eye. http://halifax.mediacoop.ca/story/no-fracking-problem-fracking-waste-broker-company/15458
EPA's Fracking Study May Dodge Water Contamination Frequency Issue
PITTSBURGH (AP) — An ongoing U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study on natural gas drilling and its potential for groundwater contamination has gotten tentative praise so far from both industry and environmental groups.
"In its inability to find a single company willing to test water quality before and after drilling and fracking, the EPA is being thwarted in perhaps the most important part of its study of fracking's impacts," Earthworks said in a statement. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/06/epa-fracking-study-water-contamination_n_2420786.html? 1357494022&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009
46 Shale Gas Uncertainty: How an Industry Talking Point Misses the Mark
“We now face four more years of regulatory uncertainty,” said Randy Alpert, an official with Consol energy told gathered shale gas executives. Penny Seipel, Vice President of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association hit a similar note the very next day. “Unfortunately, we have had quite a bit of uncertainty regarding our fiscal situation,” she said as she described proposed regulation and taxation of drilling companies in her state.
The EPA is in the midst of conducting a major study on fracking’s impacts on the nation’s drinking water supplies, which will probably determine the fate of new restrictions on the environmental impact of drilling companies. Its final report is due in 2014. The SEC is investigating several companies over information never disclosed to their investors and demanding more information about how shale wells production projections are created. http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/01/05/shale-gas-uncertainty-how-industry-talking-point-misses-mark
The Fracking DEC Gets Sued - New York
The DEC has known for some time that they were going to be sued over their comic opera mishandling of the fracking regulations. And now, Team Slottje have laid out the why and how of that. As Paul Gallay of Riverkeeper, a former DEC employee, neatly summarized at the Assembly hearing yesterday, the DEC’s mismanagement of the proposed fracking regulations has been the worst procedural mess in the agency’s history.
The DEC’s Jekyl & Hyde approach to fracking regulations is fundamentally flawed because the DEC is a house divided – part environmental agency – as evidenced in the environmental regulatory overlay, the dSGEIS (which we do not have as a reference) and part minerals management agency, whose lack of concern for landowners, the general public or the environment is evidenced by the proposed drilling regulations, which are the absolute worst in North America. http://blog.shaleshockmedia.org/2013/01/11/the-fracking-dec-gets-sued-now/
More Americans Want Tough Fracking Regulations
A recent Bloomberg National Poll found that 66 percent of Americans want more government oversight of fracking--a big increase over the last three months. Some people completely oppose fracking, but even those who don't want tough rules and enforcement. Bloomberg quotes a Virginia resident as saying: "“I’m a big proponent of natural gas, but I still need to be sure that we are not damaging our water supply.” Many Americans share this view.
Another poll by ORCInternational for the Civil Society Institute and Environmental Working Group found that 94 percent of Americans want to balance new energy production with protecting clean water and air--including 92 percent of Republicans. And they found that 79 percent of Americans are concerned about fracking "as it relates to water quality" and that 80 percent of Americans think we "should get the facts first about health and environmental risks before the potential damage is done by energy production" -- including 67 percent of Republicans. http://theenergycollective.com/amymall/170271/new-polling-results-more-americans-all-stripes-want- tough-fracking-regulations
47 'Intimidation, Threats, and Lawyers': The Great American Gas Fracking 'Land Grab'
In a special report, The casualties of Chesapeake's "land grab" across America, a review of official state records by Reuters shows that since January 2005, the Texas agency in charge of granting waivers under a land regulation statute—known as Rule 37—"rejected just five of Chesapeake's 1,628 requests" to access land without the owners permission.
The exemptions granted by the state "effectively secured [Chesapeake's] ability to drain the gas" from private properties without royalties or other payments. https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/10/02-0 http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/02/us-chesapeake-landgrab-substory- idUSBRE8910E920121002
MDE: All drilling permits have been withdrawn - Maryland
All gas drilling permit requests for Maryland have been withdrawn and drilling activity shifted away from dry gas states like Maryland, which are not as lucrative as drilling in states with wet gas, which contains other saleable compounds, according to the MDE.
A state moratorium bill, to be introduced by Delegate Heather Mizeur in the House of Delegates and others in the Senate, would prevent fracking from occurring in Maryland until the state completes the series of 14 studies laid out in Gov. Martin O’Malley’s executive order on gas drilling, which also established the commission. http://times-news.com/local/x503830128/MDE-All-drilling-permits-have-been-withdrawn
So who is in charge of fracking wastewater, anyway? Pennsylvania
With new evidence pointing to potentially dangerous levels of radiation in fracking wastewater, questions arise over just who regulates this stuff.
The short answer: No one, really. http://www.timesonline.com/news/local_news/so-who-is-in-charge-of-fracking-wastewater- anyway/article_35fec56b-a13d-57ea-88d1-705a2c577129.html
48 Environment and Climate Change
Methane contributes to accelerated warming in the Arctic
Above combination image featured earlier in the post Striking increase of methane in the Arctic. The images were produced by Dr. Leonid Yurganov, Senior Research Scientist, JCET, UMBC, who presented his findings at the AGU Fall Meeting 2012. The image below gives an update for 2012, showing an image with methane levels at 600 hPa. http://arctic-news.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/methane-contributes-to-accelerated-warming-in-the- arctic.html
EcoWatch TV Featuring New Fracking Documentary Filmmakers Joshua Pribanic and Melissa Troutman
Through personal stories, experts and public documents, Triple Divide tells a cautionary tale about the consequences of fracking, including contamination of water, air and land; intimidation and harassment of citizens; loss of property, investments and standard of living; weak and under enforced state regulations; decay of public trust; illness; fragmentation of Pennsylvania’s last stands of core forest; and lack of protection over basic human rights. http://ecowatch.org/2012/ecowatch-tv-fracking-doc/ http://vimeo.com/publicherald/thejudys
Do The Math - 350.org, Bill McKibben
It’s simple math: we can burn less than 565 more gigatons of carbon dioxide and stay below 2°C of warming — anything more than that risks catastrophe for life on earth. The only problem? Fossil fuel corporations now have 2,795 gigatons in their reserves, five times the safe amount. http://math.350.org/
Go Fossil Free
Let’s Divest From Fossil Fuels! http://gofossilfree.org/
The Gloves are Off in the Youth Climate Change Fight
The Indigenous-led movement that is inspiring people around the globe comes after a year of political awakening across Canada -- a year that saw historic mobilizations from the Quebec student movement to Defend Our Coast.
That's why the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition is taking a leap of faith and leaving charitable status behind. The decision to move away from charitable status was made because, frankly, we need to take
49 the gloves off when it comes to fighting climate change. We are up against the most powerful and wealthiest industry on the planet, one which spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each day to keep business as usual on track, and to keep the planet warming.
"You can have a healthy fossil-fuel industry or a healthy planet, you can't have both," 350.org founder Bill McKibben said to a packed room at PowerShift Canada before heading out on the Do The Math roadshow across the United States. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/cameron-fenton/campus-clean-energy-movement_b_2397585.html? just_reloaded=1
Pitting the environment against the economy is bad business, bad politics
But in reality, the environment vs. economy argument is based on a false dichotomy. When it comes to the environment and economy, there is no either-or; without one, you can’t have the other. A healthy environment supports a sustainable economy and vice-versa. And according to a recent public opinion poll, you don’t have to be an economist or an environmentalist to agree.
Eighty-five per cent of Canadians believe diverse and abundant populations of wildlife play a crucial role in supporting the country’s economy and health, according to a national poll conducted by Ipsos Reid for Ecojustice, Nature Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Federation. http://www.ipolitics.ca/2012/12/31/pitting-the-environment-against-the-economyis-bad-business-bad- politics/
Idle No More: Hints of a Global Super-Movement http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-devaney/idle-no-more-the-beauty-o_b_2393053.html
Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tH5Er9y4A4U
One Million Climate Jobs - UK
On Saturday 12 May, the Climate Jobs Caravan tour of Britain started, with two caravans setting off simultaneously from London and Edinburgh. Based on the Million Climate Jobs report, produced with the assistance of the CWU, PCS, TSSA & UCU trade unions, the Caravan highlighted how creating climate jobs can help us tackle the twin crises of the ecomony and climate change. Read about the events in all the different towns and cities we visited here. http://www.campaigncc.org/greenjobs
The Report http://www.climate-change-jobs.org/sites/default/files/1MillionClimateJobs_2010.PDF
50 Shale Gas: How Hard on the Landscape? - Big players, big aims
By any honest measure the industry is a formidable land disturber. Both EnCana and Chesapeake Energy, two large shale gas players, have assembled separate land bases equal in size to the state of West Virginia for shale gas drilling alone.
Both companies are now actively fragmenting these geographies with multi-well pads every two miles by one mile.
Each multi-pad well site looks and performs like a busy factory site serviced by a fleet of hundreds of trucks for over a year. The site must also import vast volumes of water, chemicals and sand often quarried thousands of kilometres away.
A shale gas frack factory may also include wastewater ponds, the venting or flaring of methane and associated toxic gases, heavy road construction as well as extensive pipeline building.
At one EnCana multi-well site in northern B.C., the company consumed more resources than a small city: it injected 417 million gallons of water along with nearly 80,000 tons of sand as well as eight million gallons of fracking chemicals. http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/01/08/Shale-Gas-Hard-On-Landscape/
What if Mother Nature had rights? She does in Ecuador - David Suzuki
In some of the poorest countries of Latin America, one can find a refreshing (and radical) departure from the conventional economic thinking entrenched in Canada and around the world.
It’s not often that people look to countries such as Ecuador or Bolivia as examples that might have something to teach Canada. And yet, when it comes to finding new forms of economic development that pay serious attention to the environment, this is exactly the case. And at a time when Canada’s oil sands production continues to grow despite climate science predicting even more alarming consequences, it’s high time we had a look at what’s going on in the Andes. As part of a documentary production for The Nature of Things, that’s exactly what I did. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/what-if-mother-nature-had-rights-she-does-in- ecuador/article7039202/
Agreement entitles Whanganui River to legal identity
The Whanganui River will become an legal entity and have a legal voice under a preliminary agreement signed between Whanganui River iwi and the Crown tonight.
This is the first time a river has been given a legal identity.
A spokesman for the Minister of Treaty Negotiations said Whanganui River will be recognised as a person when it comes to the law - "in the same way a company is, which will give it rights and interests". http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10830586
51 Norway to Launch the World's First Electric Ferry; Will Take Only 10 Minutes to Recharge
The world’s first electric ferry will operate across the Sognefjord fjord in Norway starting in 2015. With the capacity to carry 360 passengers and 120 cars, the ferry will run on batteries that take just 10 minutes to recharge between trips. The design was developed in collaboration between Siemens and Norwegian shipyard Fjellstrand. After winning a competition organized by Norway’s Ministry of Transport, the project was picked up by shipping company Norlend, who have been granted the license to operate the electric-powered car ferry on the route until 2025. http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2IOouF/inhabitat.com/norway-to-launch-worlds-first-electric-car-ferry- will-take-only-10-minutes-to-recharge/
Heat, Flood or Icy Cold, Extreme Weather Rages Worldwide
WORCESTER, England — Britons may remember 2012 as the year the weather spun off its rails in a chaotic concoction of drought, deluge and flooding, but the unpredictability of it all turns out to have been all too predictable: Around the world, extreme has become the new commonplace.
Especially lately. China is enduring its coldest winter in nearly 30 years. Brazil is in the grip of a dreadful heat spell. Eastern Russia is so freezing — minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and counting — that the traffic lights recently stopped working in the city of Yakutsk.
“Each year we have extreme weather, but it’s unusual to have so many extreme events around the world at once,” said Omar Baddour, chief of the data management applications division at the World Meteorological Organization, in Geneva. “The heat wave in Australia; the flooding in the U.K., and most recently the flooding and extensive snowstorm in the Middle East — it’s already a big year in terms of extreme weather calamity.” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/science/earth/extreme-weather-grows-in-frequency-and-intensity- around-world.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=1&
Canada at 150: Suzuki sees a nation facing ‘an apocalyptic period’
David Suzuki would like to be cheerful about Canada’s 150th birthday in less than five years. But Canada’s best-known environmentalist says the reality is that a “great country” is moving backwards.
“Sorry I can’t be more celebratory,” Suzuki, an award-winning geneticist and television broadcaster, said in an interview with Postmedia News. “I happen to think that we are in an apocalyptic period and if you look at the history of what Canadians have done, it doesn’t look good.” The evidence suggests the entire country is at serious risk, both environmentally and economically, from the rapid warming in the Earth’s lower atmosphere, says Suzuki.
“At a time when we ought to reflect back on where the country has come from and where we seem to be going, we’re seeing a total failure of leadership in terms of dealing with real long-term consequences,” said Suzuki. “We’re starting an experiment now with the country that will reverberate literally for centuries and we’re doing absolutely nothing to try to reduce the risk by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.” http://o.canada.com/2013/01/11/canada-at-150-suzuki-sees-a-nation-facing-an-apocalyptic-period/
52 Global food crisis will worsen as heatwaves damage crops, research finds
Harvests will fall dramatically during severe heatwaves, predicted to become many times more likely in coming decades
New research, which used corn growing in France as an example, predicts losses of up to 12% for maize yields in the next 20 years. A second, longer-term study published on Sunday indicates that, without action against climate change, wheat and soybean harvests will fall by up to 30% by 2050 as the world warms. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/13/global-food-crisis-heatwaves-crops
Bill Moyers and Anthony Leiserowitz on Making People Care About Climate Change http://billmoyers.com/segment/anthony-leiserowitz-on-making-people-care-about-climate-change/
It's Already Too Late to Stop Climate Change
Even as climate policy is debated in Doha, it's becoming increasingly clear that the first devastating effects of global warming cannot be prevented.
A scientific study published Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change concluded that the world’s rapid increase in fossil fuel emissions now makes a global average temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius all but inevitable. A report released last week by the U.N. Environment Program concluded that given the rapid projected increase in pollution from burning coal, oil, and gas around the world, nations’ current pledges to cut carbon emissions won’t be enough to stave off that 2-degree rise sometime before the end of the century. http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/it-s-already-too-late-to-stop-climate-change-20121129
The Nature of Things, The Tar Sands - David Suzuki http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/video.html?ID=1769597772
Let's stand up for our right to a healthy environment - David Suzuki
Public health worker Beatriz Mendoza was living near the Riachuelo River in Buenos Aires, Argentina, when she started losing feeling in her fingers and toes. Her neighbours were also experiencing health issues — including skin rashes, cancers and birth defects — clearly linked to pollution in the heavily industrialized area. The Matanza-Riachuelo basin is one of the most contaminated waterways in Latin America.
In 2004, Mendoza and other residents sued the national, provincial and municipal governments and 44 corporations. And they won. Environmental lawyer David R. Boyd describes the case in his book, The Right to a Healthy Environment: Revitalizing Canada's Constitution. He writes that the lawsuit led Argentina's government to establish a new river basin authority and put in place clean-up, restoration and regional environmental health plans.
53 The government has since increased the number of environmental inspectors in the region from three to 250, and created 139 sampling points for monitoring water, air and soil quality. Three new water treatment plants have been built, providing clean water to millions of people; 11 sewage-treatment plants have been built or expanded, also serving millions; 169 garbage dumps have been closed; and 484 polluting industrial facilities have been shut down. http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/science-matters/2013/01/lets-stand-up-for-our-right-to-a-healthy- environment/
Fractured Land: BC Fracking Documentary Stirs Canadian Energy Debate
Far from the province's coastal cities, there's a remote part of northeastern British Columbia that most city dwellers don't know is responsible for generating a significant portion of Metro Vancouver's power. It's near where Caleb Behn lives, and an area he's willing to fight for.
"Fractured Land" focuses on Behn, the grandson of chiefs, the son of a residential school survivor and a law school graduate. He's smart and speaks with strong determination. Behn can transition seamlessly from hunting and traditionally preparing a moose head in Fort Nelson to slipping into a three-piece suit to article at a Vancouver law firm.
"It's really interesting to see the change in Caleb; like a big exhale expelling all the tension, stress from the contemporary world; reconnecting with his land, his people," Gillis described of filming Behn home in his ancestral territory.
"My whole world and existence is tied to the land," Behn said. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/01/18/fractured-land-bc-fracking-documentary_n_2501118.html
Weekend Environmental Must-Reads – January 19-20, 2013
Links to a number of fracking reports http://www.stuarthsmith.com/weekend-environmental-must-reads-january-19-20-2013/
Obama Advisers Halt Shell's Arctic Oil Exploration
The entire future of Shell's drilling plans in the Arctic was put in doubt on Friday after two of Barack Obama's most trusted advisers called for a permanent halt to oil exploration. In a piece for Bloomberg news, Carol Browner, who was Obama's climate adviser during his first two years in office, and John Podesta, who headed his 2009 transition team, said they now believed there was no safe way to drill for oil in the Arctic.
Their opinions come at a critical time for Shell, which has invested six years and nearly $5bn trying to gain access to the vast undersea reserves of oil and natural gas in the Arctic ocean. http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/15626-obama-advisers-halt-shells-arctic-oil- exploration
54 Idle No More -- Think Occupy, But With Deep Deep Roots - Bill McKibben
Much of this uprising began when Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper rammed through Parliament an omnibus bill gutting environmental reviews and protections. He had no choice if he wanted to keep developing Canada's tar sands, because there's no possible way to mine and pipe that sludgy crude without fouling lakes and rivers.
But there's a stumbling block they hadn't counted on, and that was the resurgent power of the Aboriginal Nations. Some Canadian tribes have signed treaties with the Crown, and others haven't, but none have ceded their lands, and all of them feel their inherent rights are endangered by Harper's power grab. They are, legally and morally, all that stand in the way of Canada's total exploitation of its vast energy and mineral resources, including the tar sands, the world's second largest pool of carbon. NASA's James Hansen has explained that burning that bitumen on top of everything else we're combusting will mean it's "game over for the climate." Which means, in turn, that Canada's First Nations are in some sense standing guard over the planet. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-mckibben/idle-no-more--think-occup_b_2448552.html
Billionaires secretly fund attacks on climate science
A secretive funding organisation in the United States that guarantees anonymity for its billionaire donors has emerged as a major operator in the climate "counter movement" to undermine the science of global warming, The Independent has learnt.
The Donors Trust, along with its sister group Donors Capital Fund, based in Alexandria, Virginia, is funnelling millions of dollars into the effort to cast doubt on climate change without revealing the identities of its wealthy backers or that they have links to the fossil fuel industry.
However, an audit trail reveals that Donors is being indirectly supported by the American billionaire Charles Koch who, with his brother David, jointly owns a majority stake in Koch Industries, a large oil, gas and chemicals conglomerate based in Kansas. http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-billionaires-secretly-fund-attacks- on-climate-science-8466312.html
How the 'Kochtopus' stifled green debate http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/how-the-kochtopus-stifled-green-debate- 8466316.html
Top climate scientist denounces billionaires over funding for climate-sceptic organisations
A climate scientist who has been subjected to a vitriolic hate campaign has denounced the way that American billionaires have been able to secretly finance the climate-sceptic organisations that have attacked him.
Today, The Independent revealed that Charles Koch has channelled millions of dollars to climate- sceptic organisations though an elaborate network of financial intermediaries. He and his wife, Liz, are
55 directors of the Knowledge and Progress Fund which gives money to the Donors Trust, which then passes on the funds to climate sceptic organisations. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/top-climate-scientist-denounces-billionaires-over-funding- for-climatesceptic-organisations-8467665.html
Poll: Europeans overwhelmingly favour renewables over shale gas
The vast majority of Europeans believe investment in renewable energy should be prioritised over the next 30 years, compared to alternative energy sources including shale gas, nuclear and carbon capture and storage (CCS) plants.
That is just one of the findings of a major survey of over 25,500 citizens of EU member states carried out to inform the European Commission's comprehensive review of EU air policy, which found that despite a campaign by industry to promote shale gas as a cost effective and lower carbon alternative to coal, just nine per cent of Europeans believe unconventional fossil fuels such as shale gas should be prioritised.
The poll also revealed strong public mandate for attempts to crack down on air pollution. Around nine out of 10 respondents said they regard respiratory and cardiovascular diseases as a "serious problem" and 72 per cent said public authorities are not doing enough to promote good air quality. http://m.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2236205/poll-europeans-overwhelmingly-favour-renewables-over- shale-gas?wt.mc_ev=click&WT.tsrc=Email&utm_term&utm_content=Poll %25253A+Europeans+overwhelmingly+favour+renewables+over+shale+gas&utm_campaign=Busines sGreen+Daily+News+150113&utm_source=Business+Green+Daily&utm_medium=Email
Point of No Return - The massive climate threats we must avoid
The world is quickly reaching a Point of No Return for preventing the worst impacts of climate change. With total disregard for this unfolding global disaster, the fossil fuel industry is planning 14 massive coal, oil and gas projects that would produce as much new carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2020 as the entire US, and delay action on climate change for more than a decade.
Burning the coal, oil and gas from the 14 massive projects discussed in this report would significantly push emissions over what climate scientists have identified as the "carbon budget", the amount of additional CO2 that must not be exceeded in order to keep climate change from spiralling out of control. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Point-of-No-Return/? accept=77a6cc292944523fd4e9047f290d80c9 http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/climate-change/impacts/Point-of-No-Return/? utm_source=fscebook&utm_medium=blog&utm_term=012213_0501&utm_campaign=Climate
The Report http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publications/climate/2013/PointOfNoRetur n.pdf
56 Rivers and lakes be damned: why Bill C-45 concerns us all
Fredericton – The Harper government has fundamentally changed the way the federal government involves itself in environmental oversight; essentially downloading responsibility to provinces and the courts.
Bill C-45, passed last December, and Bill C-38, passed last June, radically undermines the protection of Canada’s rivers, lakes and streams, removes protections for fish habitat and repeals thousands of environmental assessments.
Krysten Tully of the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, a member of the international Waterkeeper Alliance, sums it up: “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.” http://nbmediacoop.org/2013/01/29/rivers-and-lakes-be-damned-why-bill-c-45-concerns-us-all/
57 Government, Meetings, News, and Letters
Shale gas talk to heat up in new year
Talk surrounding shale gas development should ramp up early in the new year in New Brunswick.
A blueprint for natural gas development is expected to be announced in the next few months.
He also says shale gas development could also lead to the LNG facility in Saint John being used as an export facility as well as importing. http://www.news919.com/2013/01/02/shale-gas-talk-to-heat-up-in-new-year/
SWN gas exploration head leaves province
SWN Resources Canada’s public relations representative, Tracey Stephenson, confirmed the company’s general manager for New Brunswick operations, Tom Alexander, got a new posting within the company and has returned to Houston, Texas.
She said, however, SWN is no less dedicated to painting a picture of hydrocarbon potentials in the province through exploratory work.
“We’re definitely still open,” Stephenson said of SWN’s Moncton office.
Time runs out on SWN licenses in March 2013, but in an earlier interview Northrup said the province has the authority to grant an extension, especially given the company’s efforts were stalled by the province. SWN has invested $24 million in its New Brunswick exploration program, which is $23 million shy of its commitment. http://www.ocean-resources.com/industry-news.asp?newsid=12397
Running government like a business has been a dismal failure - Donald Savoie
There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that politicians have gained the upper hand in shaping policies. Evidence-based policy-making has lost currency, as has the policy advisory role of senior public servants. But there’s also plenty of evidence to suggest that management reform measures have failed.
It’s not too much of an exaggeration to write that the policy advisory role of public servants in Anglo- American democracies has been turned on its head. Multiple sources of information and evidence- based policy advice no longer matter as they once did.
Public servants of yesteryear would emphasize proper data-gathering procedures and produce analyses with predictive power. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/running-government-like-a-business-has-been-a-dismal- failure/article6968196/
58 The Smoking Gun: Who was the real author of the 2012 omnibus bills?
Kudos to Greenpeace Canada for finding something of a smoking gun exposing the role of the oil and gas industry in the gutting of Canada’s environmental laws. Greenpeace has released a letter from the Energy Framework Initiative (EFI), representing every major oil and gas industry association, asking that the government undertake a major overhaul of six critical environmental statutes that inconvenienced the industry. Five of the statutes have since been replaced or seen major amendments through the dismantling of our country’s environmental safety net s in omnibus bills C-38 and C-45, and further amendments are expected in the near future.
In their letter to the Ministers (obtained by Greenpeace under Access to Information legislation), they wrote:
“[W]e believe that the basic approach embodied in existing legislation is out-dated. At the heart of most existing legislation is a philosophy of prohibiting harm; 'environmental' legislation is almost entirely focused on preventing bad things from happening rather than enabling responsible outcomes. This results in a position of adversarial prohibition, rather than enabling collaborative conservation to achieve agreed common goals.”
The oil industry associations explicitly identified the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, the Species at Risk Act, [the Fisheries Act], the National Energy Board Act, the Migratory Birds Convention Act and the Navigable Waters Protection Act as part of this “out-dated” approach (for more on their preferred approach, see this earlier blog). http://wcel.org/resources/environmental-law-alert/smoking-gun-who-was-real-author-2012-omnibus- bills#.UPdOz5Oi8rg.twitter
The industry's letter http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/Global/canada/pr/2013/01/ATIP_Industry_letter_on_enviro_regs_to _Oliver_and_Kent.pdf
Future of budget watchdog uncertain as Page's term ends
The first day he took office as Canada's first budget watchdog Kevin Page knew he was effectively deep-sixing his 27-year-long career as a public servant.
He believed that if he was going to establish an effective, independent Parliamentary Budget Office, it would mean becoming a prickly and persistent thorn in the side of Stephen Harper's freshly elected government. There would be no welcome mat for him in the public service once his five-year term ends in March.
"I'm unemployed in two months."
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has been more direct, scoffing at his reports, accusing him of being partisan, and on one occasion, dismissing him as "unbelievable, unreliable and incredible." http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/01/22/pol-cp-page-pbo-term-ending.html
59 Mulcair to PM: extend Kevin Page's term in PBO http://www.ndp.ca/news/mulcair-to-pm-extend-kevin-pages-term-pbo
CSIS: China? Controls Canadian Politicians - CBC, The National - Nov 17, 2012? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43fk6BCr7hM&feature=player_embedded
Deficit elimination goal won't be met in 2 years
The Progressive Conservative government will not balance the provincial budget before the next election, Finance Minister Blaine Higgs said on Thursday night.
Premier David Alward had committed to bringing the province’s books back into balance during the 2010 election and had reaffirmed that promise as recently as last March’s budget.
But that commitment was left out of November’s throne speech as the province’s fiscal situation continued to deteriorate in the fall.
The provincial government is continuing to forecast slow economic growth and a series of one-time expenditures is forcing the government to abandon its balanced budget pledge. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2013/01/25/nb-higgs-budget-deficit-641.html
Parliament’s looming energy debate has high stakes for Harper, Mulcair and Trudeau
This will be the sitting of Parliament during which resource and energy politics come to utterly dominate the national conversation. Barring war or natural disaster, this will hold true from now through the next federal election in 2015.
Trudeau has zeroed in repeatedly on resource economics – whether by disavowing his father’s reviled National Energy Program in Calgary, or by backing a Chinese state-owned corporate takeover of oil and gas producer Nexen Inc. The point is to present himself as pro-free-enterprise, and thus a viable alternative, for conservative Ontarians, to Stephen Harper.
So in this sitting, as Mulcair begins his two-year pre-campaign, he will flesh out his thinking on how Western bitumen and other resource wealth can be profitably extracted from the ground and shipped to market, without unduly harming the environment, taking care to express this in a way that does not set Albertans’ – and by extension, Ontarians’ – teeth on edge. http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/01/27/michael-den-tandt-parliaments-looming-energy-debate- has-high-stakes-for-harper-mulcair-and-trudeau/
New Brunswick pushes cross-country pipeline as 'game changer'
60 In an interview, Mr. Alward expressed enthusiasm for the proposed TransCanada pipeline project that would bring western oil to eastern Canadian refineries, and perhaps allow for crude exports from the deep-water port of Saint John.
“This is something that is potentially a game-changer for New Brunswick, but more importantly than just New Brunswick, for all of Canada,” Mr. Alward said.
TransCanada’s president for energy operations, Alex Pourbaix, said eastern Canada is a logical market for growing North American oil supplies, though the refineries would mainly process light oil rather than diluted bitumen from the oil sands. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/new-brunswick-premier-pushes-for-5-billion-cross- country-pipeline/article7901308/
Common Causes - Progressive Forces Acting Together to Build a Better Society Written by Maude Barlow for The Council of Canadians
Although by no means an exhaustive list, our concerns can be broken into five major policy areas.
SOCIAL JUSTICE: Stephen Harper is systematically dismantling the social security net in a way that will have hugely negative long-term ramifications.
THE ENVIRONMENT: Stephen Harper is systematically wiping out decades of environmental protections and laws in order to promote unbridled resource extraction. No other government in the history of Canada has declared war on the environment in this way.
HUMAN RIGHTS: Through a wide variety of initiatives, policies and positions at both national and international levels, Canada’s traditional reputation as a human rights leader has eroded precipitously under Stephen Harper. The speed at which decades of human rights leadership has come undone has been dizzying.
FOREIGN POLICY: Stephen Harper has moved Canada’s foreign policy sharply to the right, embracing a more militaristic role for Canada’s armed services, putting trade before human rights and using aid to promote the interests of Canada’s infamous mining industry abroad.
DEMOCRACY: No government in Canadian history has so abused the rules of Parliament, or shown such contempt for transparency as the government of Stephen Harper. No other government has ever gone after civil society dissent in such an aggressive and threatening way. Indeed, the whole notion of democracy is at stake in this struggle. http://commoncauses.ca/sites/default/files/documents/CC%20-%20Maude%20Report.pdf
61 New Brunswick News
Southwestern Energy Announces Capital Program And Guidance For 2013
HOUSTON, Dec. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE: SWN) today announced its total capital investment program in 2013 is planned to be approximately $2.0 billion, compared to approximately $2.1 billion in 2012, consisting of approximately $1.8 billion for its exploration and production segment, $160 million for its midstream segment and $40 million for corporate purposes.
*Note, There is no mention of New Brunswick http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/news-sources/? date=20121218&archive=prnews&slug=DA31903
How Fracking Could Ruin New Brunswick - Hassan Arif
Fracking is a new and unproven technology. There are serious risks to air and water quality from the chemicals pumped underground as part of the fracking process, and the storage of wastewater associated with the process. The risks of this process have been highlighted by the Cleary Report, by concerned citizens in this province, and by experts such as Anthony Ingraffea of Cornell University. In places where fracking is already occurring -- such as in Pennsylvania -- there have been issues with contaminated water supplies and well leaks. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/hassan-arif/fracking-new-brunswick_b_2231071.html
Crude Oil (Lots of It) Moving Through Maine on Rails! Who Woulda Thunk It!
Lacking pipelines to do so, this oil must move by rail. The last weekend in May saw a train of around 100 tank cars move up through Maine from MA on the Pan Am lines. This moved through Portland, Waterville, Bangor etc until it got onto NBSR tracks at Mattawaumkeag. NBSR is owned by Irving! Just this past weekend another "oil train" reputed to be 104 cars, moved across Maine on the old Canadian Pacific line from Quebec to Vanceboro and into NB. There are fewer restrictions on this line, NBS has dramatically udgraded its track in the past three years, and movement went as expected. This train passed through Maine this weekend! http://www.asmainegoes.com/content/crude-oil-lots-it-moving-through-maine-rails-who-woulda-thunk-it
The Myth of the Competitive Challenge: The Irving Oil Refinery Strike, 1994-96, and the Canadian Petroleum Industry Noam Chomsky
The masters have long sought to contain popular struggles to expand the range of meaningful democracy and human rights, but now perceive that they can do better. They feel, perhaps rightly, that they can dismantle the social contract that has been in some measure achieved, rolling back the threat posed by the "great beast" that keeps trying "to plunder the rich." The architects of policy can move on to establish a utopia of the masters based on the values of greed and power, in which privilege is enhanced by state power and the general population lack rights apart from what they can salvage on a
62 (highly flexible) labor market. They are also free to starve or to enter the rapidly expanding workhouse prisons. http://cognet.mit.edu/library/books/chomsky/celebration/essays/Steuter.html
Canada’s first centre dedicated to swimmable, drinkable, fishable water to open in Saint John, NB
Canada’s waterways will have a stronger voice in 2013, with the creation of a new water-oriented arts and education facility in the nation’s oldest city. Inspired by the work of Waterkeepers and other grassroots, community-oriented organizations, the centre will promote swimmable, drinkable, fishable water through community-building, information sharing, research, and leadership development.
“We have amazing individuals from all walks of life working to protect their local waterways right across the country. We also have a passionate, supportive arts community that help our culture imagine new, better, brighter ways of life,” says Waterkeeper Mark Mattson. “The only way Canadians can enjoy clean water in the future is if citizens, artists, scientists, educators, and leaders have an opportunity to come together and explore their potential as a community. This centre can help make that happen.” http://www.conservationcouncil.ca/News/news01141302.aspx
63 Maritime News
Inverness council holding public hearings on fracking bylaw
SYDNEY — Council in Inverness County could get an earful when a proposed bylaw banning fracking for oil and gas goes to public hearings next week.
Councillor Dwayne MacDonald, who opposes fracking but has some misgivings about the bylaw as currently written, hopes so, as council deals with what he calls a very tough issue.
MacDonald believes Inverness County council does have the jurisdiction to ban fracking in a bylaw that is based on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms rather than any land-use regulations. http://www.capebretonpost.com/News/Local/2013-01-15/article-3157390/Inverness-council-holding- public-hearings-on-fracking-bylaw/1
Public hearing on fracking ban held - Cape Breton
St. Joseph du Moine — The first public hearing into a proposed bylaw that would ban a controversial method to extract oil and gas deposits was held in this small community in northern Inverness County on Monday.
“We’re talking about a huge water supply and right now fresh water is getting to be a commodity that may be getting pretty scarce in the very near future.”
Lake Ainslie is the largest freshwater lake in Nova Scotia. Residents living around the lake have fears that if fracking was ever introduced in the area it could contaminate groundwater and other areas of the environment.
First Nations communities have also organized protests against oil and gas exploration in Cape Breton, and, in particular, the Petroworth project.
Inverness County Warden Duart MacAulay said the bylaw isn’t meant to send a signal to business that the municipality is anti-development. It’s a bylaw meant to protect “human rights,” he said. http://www.capebretonpost.com/News/Local/2013-01-21/article-3161126/Public-hearing-on-fracking- ban-held/1
Inverness residents voice fracking ban support
Residents of Inverness County in Cape Breton spoke out overwhelmingly in favour of a bylaw that will ban hydraulic fracturing in the county at a public meeting on Monday night.
About 50 people turned out for the meeting, held by the council in the Municipality of the County of Inverness. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2013/01/22/ns-fracking-meeting.html
64 Move to ban fracking would not supersede N.S. law: minister
HALIFAX -- Any municipal move in Nova Scotia to ban hydraulic fracturing for gas and oil would not supersede provincial authority over mineral rights, a cabinet minister said Tuesday.
Inverness Warden Duart MacAulay wouldn't address MacDonell's comments directly, but he said the county's legal staff worked to craft a bylaw using human rights provisions in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/move-to-ban-fracking-would-not-supersede-n-s-law-minister-1.1124763
65 Canadian News
Canada’s Spy Groups Divulge Secret Intelligence to Energy Companies
TORONTO—The Canadian government has been orchestrating briefings that provide energy companies with classified intelligence from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the RCMP and other agencies, raising concerns that federal officials are spying on environmentalists and First Nations in order to provide information to the businesses they criticize.
The secret-level briefings have taken place twice a year since 2005, and are detailed in documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, and in publicly-available government files. http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/4640
Harper forces the press to pledge allegiance
Finally, CBC/Radio-Canada adopted a new code of ethics on April 2, 2012, to introduce guidelines for standards of integrity and professional conduct for its staff. This new code is a serious threat to the independence of the public broadcaster and its staff. Section 1.2 of the code states that CBC/Radio- Canada staff must loyally carry out the decisions of their leaders and support ministers in their accountability to Parliament and Canadians. And there is obviously no exception for the opposition.
The Conservative government and the new CBC/Radio-Canada code of ethics violate the principles of independence and impartiality that are so closely associated with the profession of journalism, and are a serious threat to the preservation of Canadian democracy, where freedom of the press is a fundamental value enshrined in our Constitution. http://www.eurekablog.ca/?p=1305
Canada ranked worst of G7 nations in fighting bribery, corruption
In a report to be released Tuesday, the group singled out Canada as the only G7 country that has been stuck at the bottom of bribery-fighting rankings since TI began issuing its reports in 2005.
The poor rating places Canada in the embarrassing company of countries like Greece, Hungary, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia – although New Zealand and Australia are also among the 21 countries in the bottom rung. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canada-ranked-worst-of-g7-nations-in-fighting-bribery- corruption/article592312/
Why is Stephen Harper afraid to look this woman in the eye?
In a democracy, the political leadership is responsible to the people. In an oligarchy, it is responsible to the few — the elite who own most of the assets and wield the real power.
66 In Canada, those are the people who wanted the Nexen deal, who want the Northern Gateway pipeline, and who want Canadians to believe that what’s good for corporate CEOs is good for them. In an oligarchy, there are a lot of people who simply don’t matter. http://www.ipolitics.ca/2012/12/23/why-is-stephen-harper-afraid-to-look-this-woman-in-the-eye/
Moment of Truth As Harper Preps For Meeting With First Nations
The current PM’s preferred method is to deal with native “leaders” in the posh, official backwaters of Ottawa — bureaucracy-to-bureaucracy. Nation-to-Nation exists only in nightmare form for Stephen Harper. After all, that notion implies equality. The PM prefers a venue where he gets to play with his own dice, a place far from the bad water, poor schools and third-world housing of reserve life.
Whether it’s Canada’s natives or its health ministers, Stephen Harper’s preferred place for his opponents is under his thumb. He has replaced the alternating current of democracy with the direct current of oligarchy. Ordinary people remain as invisible to him now as they have been since 2006. http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/01/07/moment-truth-harper-preps-meeting-first-nations
Federal Court grants rights to Métis, non-status Indians
Off-reserve aboriginals are 'Indians' and entitled to same Constitutional rights, Tuesday ruling says
The federal government's responsibilities for aboriginal peoples just got a whole lot bigger.
After more than 13 years of legal wrangling, the Federal Court ruled on Tuesday that Métis and non- status Indians are indeed "Indians" under a section of the Constitution Act, and fall under federal jurisdiction.
The decision helps to clarify the relationship between Ottawa and the more than 600,000 aboriginal people who are not affiliated with specific reserves. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/01/08/pol-cp-metis-indians-federal-court-challenge.html
Attawapiskat handed victory by Federal Court
Judicial review says a 3rd-party manager was 'unreasonable' fix to housing crisis
The Federal Court said today in a judicial review that it was "unreasonable" for the federal government to appoint a third-party manager in Attawapiskat last fall as the Ontario community was dealing with a housing crisis.
The judgment said that at no time did officials from Duncan's department raise any concerns about the community's management, prior to Marion's appointment, and no evidence was given to show mismanagement or improper spending. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/08/01/pol-attawapiskat-court-ruling.html
67 Energy industry letter suggested environmental law changes
A letter obtained by Greenpeace through access to information laws and passed on to the CBC reveals the oil and gas industry was granted its request that the federal government change a series of environmental laws to advance "both economic growth and environmental performance."
Within 10 months of the request, the industry had almost everything it wanted.
"The purpose of our letter is to express our shared views on the near-term opportunities before the government to address regulatory reform for major energy industries in Canada," wrote the EFI.
On Jan. 9, 2012 (less than one month after the letter was written), Oliver wrote an open letter accusing environmentalists and other "radical groups" of undermining the Canadian economy. http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2013/01/09/pol-oil-gas-industry-letter-to-government-on- environmental-laws.html
PSAC wants Bill C-45 opened up to public debate
Once again, the Conservative government is pushing through hundreds of pages of major legislative changes without consulting Canadians.
PSAC has major concerns with the latest budget implementation bill, C-45. Our concerns echo the criticism being expressed by the opposition parties, environmental, scientific and Aboriginal groups. We join the call for Bill C-45 to be split into parts and debated separately.
Many of these legislative changes will have a drastic impact on Canadians and should not be rushed through Parliament without time for careful consideration, public scrutiny and debate. http://www.psac-afpc.com/news/2012/issues/20121030-e.shtml
Links to many news articles - 2012 Best Of - Week 87 - Dec 25-Jan 1 http://24percentmajority.blogspot.ca/2013/01/2012-best-of-week-87-dec-25-jan-1.html
Federal lawyer suspended after suing his own department
A federal lawyer is challenging his own department in court over internal policy that he says allows the government to cut corners, leaving open the possibility that legislation is enacted that infringes Canadians’ Charter rights.
The statement of claim outlines an internal government policy that if an argument can be made for legislation — even if it’s 95 per cent likely to be found inconsistent with the Charter, Bill of Rights of departmental act — no advice be given to the minister that would say the legislation contravenes the law.
Instead of making sure potential laws and regulations don’t infringe on rights, Schmidt said the department is instead asking if there is an argument to be made that they don’t.
68 This approach, which he said has been happening since 1993, is a shortcut that puts the onus on Canadians to argue Charter infringements, rather than the government doing its due diligence, he said. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1316062--federal-lawyer-suspended-after-suing-his-own- department#.UPvZqM8PJUI.facebook
Canada vs. Norway: The Petro Path Not Taken
Momentum is building across Canada on the need to develop a sustainable national energy strategy.
On this front, Canada and Alberta, its main petro-province, has much to learn from another major petroleum producing and exporting country, Norway. http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/commentary/canada-vs-norway-petro-path-not-taken
Kevin Page, Budget Watchdog, Accuses Government Of Breaking Law With Budget Secrecy
In a June 18 letter to the Clerk of the Privy Council Wayne Wouters, Page says he has obtained a legal opinion that confirms his right to request and receive information about the effects of $5.2 billion in cuts.
"Whether legal action will be taken going forward will depend on a myriad of factors, not the least of which is whether the information is provided or valid legal grounds are advanced by the Clerk or deputy heads for failing to provide the information," Page told The Huffington Post Canada in an email. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/06/18/kevin-page-budget-legal-opinion_n_1605674.html
Government broke the law when dismantling Wheat Board
A Federal Court judge has declared that Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz broke the law when he introduced a bill to remove the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly without consulting the CWB or holding a Prairie farm plebiscite on the issue.
Bill C-18 is now before the Senate.
The court ruling was posted on the Federal Court website Wednesday afternoon. http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/12/07/government-broke-the-law-when-dismantling-wheat-board- federal-court/
MP Elizabeth May accuses Harper of breaking law over Kyoto http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/12/13/pol-may-kyoto.html
69 Former Auditor-General Sheila Fraser says $50-million G8 fund approved by the harper government may have been illegal. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tories-misled-parliament-on-g8-spending-auditor- general/article579822/?page=all
The Harper government says election financing charges against four top Conservative Party officials are an "administrative" matter, an "accounting dispute" and a "debate."The office of the federal Director of Public Prosecutions has another phrase: "illegal activity." http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tory-election-allegations-illegal-not-administrative- prosecutor-says/article1924161/?service=mobile
This isn't a story about "dirty tricks," it's about election fraud. This isn't "stupid," it's illegal. This isn't "folly," it was a deliberate, systematic, strategic, targeted campaign to steal the election. This isn't "voter suppression," it's stealing democracy. We should not treat this as some petty misdemeanor. This is a grave threat to our very basic freedom. This is a threat to our democracy. This is corruption. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/jim-harris/robocalls-scandal_b_1305397.html
Canada’s governing Conservative party has admitted to illegal campaign advertising tactics in the 2006 campaign that brought Stephen Harper to power. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1084776--tories-plead-guilty-in-campaign-financing- case
Senior staffer Bruce Carson disclosed criminal record to Stephen Harper: lawyer "Bruce Carson was convicted on five counts of fraud — three more than previously known — and received court-ordered psychiatric treatment before becoming one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's closest advisers." http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/968462--senior-staffer-bruce-carson-disclosed- criminal-record-to-pmo-lawyer
MP Joyce Murray says Liberal-Green co-operation could be a 'game changer'
OTTAWA - Liberal leadership hopeful Joyce Murray says electoral co-operation with the Greens could be a "game-changer" that ensures the defeat of the Harper Conservatives -- even if New Democrats refuse to go along.
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has flatly rejected any kind of collaboration with the Liberals, whom he deems untrustworthy.
But Murray thinks Mulcair could still change his mind, persuaded by the many New Democrats -- including House leader Nathan Cullen -- who support co-operation. http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/mp-joyce-murray-says-liberal-green-co-operation-could-be-a-game- changer-1.1131400
70 Other News
Bolivia: Evo Morales' "Manifesto of the Island of the Sun"
Once again it is time for the peoples of the world, social movements, and all those who have been marginalized, discriminated against or humiliated to unite, organize, mobilize, become aware and rise up as in the times of the ‘Pachakuti’. The world has been plunged into a global crisis (...). This age of capitalism and unbridled consumerism, this age where man thinks himself superior to Mother Earth and makes her the object of his ruthless domination and predation has come to an end."
"On the one hand there is ever more capitalism, ever more privatization, commodification, irrational exploitation and destruction of natural resources, and increasing protection for businesses and private profits. http://truth-out.org/news/item/13643-bolivia-evo-morales-manifesto-of-the-island-of-the-sun
This fracking fantasy is the delusion of fossil fuel addiction
Shale gas may possibly offset the decline in the UK's North Sea supplies. But David Cameron and George Osborne's dreams of an energy revolution are a dangerous hallucination
There was a seismic shale gas announcement this week but it was not Ed Davey's decision to allow exploration to resume in the UK after the pause caused by the small earthquakes in Lancashire. The truly shocking event was to learn that prime minister David Cameron has inhaled the hallucinogenic fumes of fracking hype and become intoxicated.
On Tuesday, he told MPs: "It may be that this gas revolution is really quite transformative and there is going to be a lot more gas and the price won't be as expensive. If we ignored it completely, you could be giving your economy much higher energy prices than is necessary."
This is nothing more than the delusion of addiction. Like all addictions, our fossil fuel craving tempts us to ignore inconvenient truths that threaten our next fix. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2012/dec/13/shale-gas-fracking-davey
Portugal warns EU-IMF troika to back off on austerity demands
Portugal's president has ordered a legal inquiry into the country’s austerity policies and threatened a showdown with creditors over the draconian terms of its EU-IMF bail-out.
Portugal’s jobless rate has risen from 13.7pc to 16.3pc over the past year, reaching 39pc for youth
"Fiscal austerity is leading to declining output and lower tax revenue. We must stop this vicious circle,” he said, cautioning the Troika that there would be no way out of the crisis until policy was set in the interests of the “Portuguese people” as well as foreign creditors. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9776701/Portugal-warns-EU-IMF-troika-to-back-off- on-austerity-demands.html
71 Oil and gas lawyers want residents banned from talking at rule hearing
Oil and gas industry lobbyists are maneuvering to block Coloradans who live near drill sites from talking about their experiences during a rule-making hearing next week.
Colorado Oil and Gas Association and Colorado Petroleum Association legal motions argue that state laws and procedural rules bar state commissioners from hearing written or oral testimony from the residents because it would be improper, "abusive and harassing" or irrelevant. http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22314105
Druid perspectives on nature, culture, and the future of industrial society
A great many of the comforting rationalizations that have played so large a role in justifying a continued reliance on the unsustainable are wearing very thin. Consider the claims, retailed by the media at ever- increasing volume these days, that recent upturns in the rate of domestic petroleum production in the US offer a conclusive disproof to the idea of peak oil, and herald the arrival of a new age of cheap abundant fuel. Courtesy of Jim Kunstler’s latest blog post, I’d like to offer a chart of US petroleum production, from 1920 to now, that puts those claims in perspective.
See the tiny little uptick in production over there on the far right? That’s the allegedly immense rise in petroleum production that drives all the rhetoric. If that blip doesn’t look like a worldchanging event to you, dear reader, you’re getting the message. It isn’t a worldchanging event; it’s the predictable and, by the way, repeatedly predicted result of the rise in oil prices from around $30 a barrel to between three and four times that, following the 2008 spike and crash. http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.ca/2013/01/into-unknown-country.html
Exports of American Natural Gas May Fall Short of High Hopes
Countries around the world are importing drilling expertise and equipment in hopes of cracking open their own gas reserves through the same techniques of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling that unleashed shale gas production in the United States. Demand for American gas — which would be shipped in a condensed form called liquefied natural gas, or L.N.G. — could easily taper off by the time the new export terminals really get going, some energy specialists say. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/05/business/energy-environment/exports-of-us-gas-may-fall-short-of- high-hopes.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130105&_r=1&
Bans and Rules Muddy Prospects for Gas Drilling
In three decades of drilling, John C. Holko said, his oil and gas business has never faced such a hostile environment.
Years after he negotiated leases for gas drilling in upstate New York, strict rules on hydraulic fracturing that state environmental officials proposed threaten to put 20 percent of that land off limits, he estimated. And local drilling bans adopted by town boards could put him out of business altogether, he said.
72 “Why should I put money in the ground if any one of the towns can say no at the next town meeting?” said Mr. Holko, the president of Lenape Resources in western New York. “The issue of home rule is the demise of the industry.” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/04/nyregion/bans-and-new-rules-make-gas-drillings-future-uncertain- in-new-york.html?emc=eta1
The battle for Bald Mountain - Mine in Maine
Bald Mountain is where the state's largest landowner, J.D. Irving Ltd. of New Brunswick, wants to mine for gold, silver and other deposits, under mining rules the Department of Environmental Protection is updating with help from a private contractor. North Jackson Co., of Marquette, Mich., has indicated it will submit revised versions of the state's 20-year-old mining rules to the DEP early this year.
"Do we want to starve to death along clean rivers?" asked Ayotte, who still -- a year after the bill's introduction -- carries in his briefcase a copy of L.D. 1853 -- An Act to Improve Environmental Oversight and Streamline Permitting for Mining in Maine.
"What decisions do you make?" he asked. "We are up here struggling for jobs; we're hemorrhaging 10,000 people per decade" in residents who leave Aroostook County. http://www.pressherald.com/news/the-battle-for_2013-01-07.html
Is Fracking Safe? Debate on Controversial Natural Gas Drilling Technique, New York
New research by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Colorado say methane — a potent greenhouse gas — may be escaping from gas sites at much higher rates than previously thought.
To dive into this firestorm of debate, today we host a debate with two supporters of fracking and two opponents. We are joined by Kate Hudson, Watershed Program director at Riverkeeper, New York’s clean water advocate; Phelim McAleer, a filmmaker who produced a pro-fracking documentary called "FrackNation"; Daniel Simmons, director of state of regulatory affairs at the Institute for Energy Research; and Mayor Matt Ryan of Binghamton, New York, who is a former professor of environmental law and outspoken opponent of fracking. http://www.nationofchange.org/fracking-safe-debate-controversial-natural-gas-drilling-technique-ny- moratorium-may-expire-135748981
Bakken Oil Tankers on The Hudson River
For several months long trains of rail cars full of crude oil can be seen inching along, or stopped altogether, beside I-787 in downtown Albany NY. Other tankers fill the rail yards off I-90 not far from the SUNY campus.
73 All are waiting to offload into the tank farm at the Port of Albany for transfer onto barges for transport down the Hudson River to the New York harbor, and from there to Philadelphia and other East Coast refineries. There is simply so much oil pouring through Albany these days that the limited number of holding tanks, and the relatively small size of the river-going tankers, can just barely manage it.
According to an October 27 article by Brian Nearing in the Albany Times Union, neither the state Department of Environmental Conservation nor the Coast Guard have seen a need to update plans for containing any possible oil spill resulting from the increased traffic. And these kind of shipments are unprecedented in this area, according to port manager Richard Hendrick, who said,” “I am not aware that a drop of crude was ever shipped out of the port until the Bakken oil showed up this year.” http://my.firedoglake.com/valatius/2013/01/05/bakken-oil-tankers-on-the-hudson-river/
Cumulative effect of sand mines creates issue
ST. CHARLES — Environmental assessment worksheets for two silica sand mines proposed for south of St. Charles raise some questions, but no red flags, the director of the Winona County Planning and Environmental Services Department says.
But what worries Jason Gilman is the cumulative effect of possibly several more mines within a few miles of those two.
"There doesn't necessarily appear to be a single issue that really raises grave concern," Gilman said of the first two projects to submit worksheets. But when you add in other proposed mines in Winona and Fillmore counties, "it's a different animal." http://www.postbulletin.com/news/stories/display.php?id=1520099
I Was a Paid Internet Shill: How Shadowy Groups Manipulate Internet Opinion and Debate
The type of propaganda strategy described in the article below occurs across a wide range of topics and is employed by various corporate, political, and governmental groups to promote a variety of agendas. It is called astroturfing, and it is far more common than most would imagine. http://consciouslifenews.com/paid-internet-shill-shadowy-groups-manipulate-internet-opinion- debate/1147073/
Astroturfing: what is it and why does it matter?
Astroturfing is the attempt to create an impression of widespread grassroots support for a policy, individual, or product, where little such support exists. Multiple online identities and fake pressure groups are used to mislead the public into believing that the position of the astroturfer is the commonly held view.
New forms of software enable any organisation with the funds and the know-how to conduct astroturfing on a far bigger scale than even the Kremlin could hope for. As reported by the Guardian, some big companies now use sophisticated "persona management software" to create armies of virtual astroturfers, complete with fake IP addresses, non-political interests and online histories. Authentic-
74 looking profiles are generated automatically and developed for months or years before being brought into use for a political or corporate campaign. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/08/what-is-astroturfing
Proposed Legislation Would Block Bank Execs From Regulating Banks
Four years after the financial crisis, and two years after "financial reform," top bank executives are still allowed to serve on the boards of regional Federal Reserve banks—institutions that are partially responsible for regulating the financial industry.
If liberal Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has his way, all that may soon change.
Sanders announced Wednesday that he will reintroduce legislation to forbid financial industry executives like Dimon from sitting on any of the 12 regional Fed boards of directors.
"The Fed has got to become a more democratic institution that is responsive to the needs of the middle class, not just Wall Street CEOs." Sanders said. http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/01/bernie-sanders-federal-reserve-board-jamie-dimon
Poll: White House, Congressional Leadership on Clean Energy, Water is High Priority for Bipartisan Majority of Americans
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2013 -- Public Has Major Concerns About Expanded Shale Gas Fracking for Exporting to Other Nations;
"Clean Water First" is Clear Choice When Public Weighs Options for More U.S. Energy Production.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Americans are not opposed to more domestic energy production, but they are unwilling to achieve it by sacrificing clean water, increased energy efficiency, and expanded wind and solar power in the process, according to a major new ORC International survey conducted for the nonprofit Civil Society Institute (CSI) and Environmental Working Group (EWG). http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/11/5107533/poll-white-house-congressional.html
Industry Consultants Warn Frackers: Do Not Underestimate the Global Anti-Fracking Movement
A report recently released by the international consulting group Control Risks warns the oil and gas industry that it has underestimated the "sophistication, reach and influence" of the global anti-fracking movement. The report contends the opposition is not simply a spotty, not-in-my-backyard phenomenon "masquerading as environmentalism," but a diverse and well-organized coalition that is unlikely to be swayed by the industry's well-funded public relation campaigns.
The Control Risks report advises the industry to quell the opposition by reforming its practices. Instead of flatly denying any wrongdoing and accusing reported fracking victims of spreading "fear" and "hysteria," fracking companies should acknowledge the negative impacts of drilling and the grievances
75 of those impacted, like residents who believe their water supplies have been contaminated. Frackers also should put more resources toward protecting the environment and disclose the chemicals they pump into the ground during drilling, the report said. Activists in the US have fought for such disclosure for years. http://truth-out.org/news/item/13839-consultants-warn-frackers-do-not-underestimate-the-global-anti- fracking-movement#.UPB0yXFCd_0.facebook
Promised Land and the Illusion of Choice
I went to see Promised Land to see if Hollywood could make a movie about natural gas drilling and rural life, and get it right. It's hard to get everything about energy and farms and an iconic American landscape into one film, but Promised Land mostly did.
Like several of the characters in Promised Land, I 'm a fifth generation landowner and the daughter of a dairy farmer. We leased our land for gas drilling almost five years ago, and over the summer, they drilled, fracked, and flared the first wells underneath our farm. Over the last five years, we've watched jobs grow and crime rates rise, truck traffic increase and burning wells light up the night sky.
Like several of the characters in Promised Land, I 'm a fifth generation landowner and the daughter of a dairy farmer. We leased our land for gas drilling almost five years ago, and over the summer, they drilled, fracked, and flared the first wells underneath our farm. Over the last five years, we've watched jobs grow and crime rates rise, truck traffic increase and burning wells light up the night sky. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ann-green/fracking-promised-land_b_2472145.html
An Oil Town Where Men Are Many, and Women Are Hounded - WILLISTON, N.D.
This has complicated life for women in the region as well.
Many said they felt unsafe. Several said they could not even shop at the local Walmart without men following them through the store. Girls’ night out usually becomes an exercise in fending off obnoxious, overzealous suitors who often flaunt their newfound wealth.
“So many people look at you like you’re a piece of meat,” said Megan Dye, 28, a nearly lifelong Williston resident. “It’s disgusting. It’s gross.”
Prosecutors and the police note an increase in crimes against women, including domestic and sexual assaults. “There are people arriving in North Dakota every day from other places around the country who do not respect the people or laws of North Dakota,” said Ariston E. Johnson, the deputy state’s attorney in neighboring McKenzie County, in an e-mail. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/us/16women.html?_r=0
Man found dead near natural gas pad site
Sheriff’s Sgt. Larry Kish said the man was unloading condensate — a natural gas liquid — from the tank of his truck into a holding tank when something went wrong.
76 He was found near a spillover of condensate, which investigators say they believe killed the man. http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20130117-man-found-dead-near-natural- gas-pad-site.ece
The Debunking Handbook: now freely available for download
The Debunking Handbook, a guide to debunking misinformation, is now freely available to download. Although there is a great deal of psychological research on misinformation, there's no summary of the literature that offers practical guidelines on the most effective ways of reducing the influence of myths. The Debunking Handbook boils the research down into a short, simple summary, intended as a guide for communicators in all areas (not just climate) who encounter misinformation. http://www.skepticalscience.com/Debunking-Handbook-now-freely-available-download.html http://www.skepticalscience.com/docs/Debunking_Handbook.pdf
Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, Susan Sarandon & Arun Gandhi meet families affected by Fracking
Pictures and discussion about problems re Fracking. Contains a lot of links to other information. http://imaginepeace.com/archives/19274
Foul smell complaints in Kent and Sussex after gas leak
A cloud of foul-smelling but harmless gas has leaked out of a factory in north-western France, drifting across the Channel and prompting complaints from Paris to south-eastern England. The leak is blamed on a chemical factory in Rouen, and many residents compared the odour to diesel fumes. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21141351
Debate - For and Against: Fracking - The Institution of Engineering and Technology
For Nick Grealy, Director at No Hot Air Nick Grealy is director of the energy consultancy No Hot Air, specialising in public perception and acceptance issues of shale energy worldwide.
Against Ian Ratcliffe, Campaigner with Frack Off Ian Ratcliffe is a campaigner with the anti-fracking environmental pressure group Frack Off. http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2013/01/debate.cfm
77 Fracking and Farmland - Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association
The Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) has launched new webpages, Fracking and Farmland: Stories from the Field, that provide the personal stories of farmers concerned about Ohio’s booming fracking industry and illustrations of how oil and gas extraction could impact Ohio’s food producers. http://ecowatch.org/2013/fracking-and-farmland/
Pennsylvania Fracking: A History Of Shale Gas Drilling, As Told By The People Who Live There
The Huffington Post's own reporting, conducted on the ground in Pennsylvania and through email correspondence with residents of the state, has turned up a wide range of opinions. To coincide with Lynne Peeples's feature on the subject, we asked HuffPost readers who live in Pennsylvania what their experience with the natural gas industry has been like -- particularly if they were ever approached about leasing their land for drilling purposes. We heard from people who leased their land and are glad they did; people who leased and later regretted it; and people who never signed a lease, despite being courted by industry reps. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/25/pennsylvania-fracking_n_2440227.html
Corporate power: exposing the global 1%
In these infographics, the Transnational Institute offers a visual insight into who dominates our planet at a time of economic and ecological crisis.
Did you know that less than 1% of the world’s transnational corporations, mostly banks, control the share of 40% of global businesses? Did you know that 0.001% of the world’s population (corresponding to roughly one pixel on your computer screen) controls assets worth $14.6 trillion — or over 20% of global annual GDP? In its State of Power 2013 report, the Transnational Institute breaks down the concentration of wealth and power of the world’s plutocracy into a series of powerful infographics. http://roarmag.org/2013/01/corporate-power-transnational-institute-report/
THE GLOBAL ANTI-FRACKING MOVEMENT – What it wants, how it operates and what’s next?
The attached PDF document (see end of post) constitutes the most thorough attempt at analysing the fractivist movement across the whole world, and makes very interesting reading.It is published by London-based company ‘Control Risks’.
As such they are clearly not our friends, but allies of the industry. I am not sure that it is always true that friends of our enemies are necessarily our enemies; and in this case their comprehensive global review can possibly be more useful to us than the industry. http://bridgendgreens.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/the-global-anti-fracking-movement-what-it-wants- how-it-operate-s-and-what-%C2%92s-next/
78 The Surprising Connection Between Food and Fracking
As more and more of the US natural gas supply comes from fracking, more and more of the nitrogen fertilizer farmers use will come from fracked natural gas. If Big Ag becomes hooked on cheap fracked gas to meet its fertilizer needs, then the fossil fuel industry will have gained a powerful ally in its effort to steamroll regulation and fight back opposition to fracking projects.
Low input prices plus elevated prices for the final product—mean a potential profit bonanza for companies that use cheap US natural gas to make pricy N fertilizer for the booming US market. http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2013/01/foodfracking-connection-youve-never-thought-about
We the People 2.0 - The 2nd American Revolution
Why We are Making This Film
I directed, wrote and produced The 11th Hour with Leonardo DiCaprio, and in the process of creating that film, I interviewed 72 experts in all fields of environmental and scientific research to determine how bad the environmental crisis was. This process started in 2004 and the film came out in 2007. What I found was that the crisis was worse than any of us know, and that the stability of the very life-support systems of the earth - those systems that we all depend on, are in jeopardy. The fact that this reality doesn't drive all aspects of political decision-making and penetrate into our daily lives is mind blowing. We still are at much of the destructive behavior that must change if we are to survive. http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/324241
Can a Small Community Throw a Monkey Wrench into the Global Fracking Machine?
While New Yorkers anxiously await Governor Andrew Cuomo’s decision on whether to lift the state’s de facto moratorium on high-volume slick-water horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” Woodstock, the iconic counter-culture capital of the world, has become the first municipality to call for legislation to make fracking a Class C felony.
Decisions made in Albany and in towns like Woodstock will likely determine whether fracking goes full steam ahead everywhere, or whether its momentum can be slowed or even stopped. New York, after all, has a rich history of environmental activism and democratic movements, and anti-fracking activism has spread like wildfire over the last couple of years. New York is also home to abundant supplies of clean freshwater, an essential resource that is in crisis globally and that could be endangered by the practice. http://pacificfreepress.com/opinion/12323-fracking-blowback-woodstock-s-public-law-1.html
79 Water
BIG OIL TELLS BIG LIES ABOUT FRACKING
In a recent guest column in the Southern Illinoisan, I argued that: Water for Oil is a Fool’s Trade. Kyna Legner, identified as “field director for Illinois Energy in Depth (EID)” responded with a column calling for: “Facts not fear, needed in fracking debate”.
I agree. That’s why I presented explicit facts in my column, showing that the industry will have to use up to a trillion gallons of fresh potable (“sweet”) water to frack the entire shale region of Southern Illinois. Ms. Legner did not refute any of those facts – 3 million gallons of water per frack, 10 fracks per well, 16 wells per square mile, and more than 2000 square miles of shale in Southern Illinois. That multiplies out to roughly 1 trillion gallons of water required.
Nor did Ms. Legner refute that this water will come back up as toxic waste, saturated with salts, volatile organic chemicals, heavy metals, and radioactive materials (notably radium and radon) absorbed from the shale, as well as perhaps a billion gallons of proprietary toxic chemicals added by the industry.
Because Southern Illinois generally lacks underground aquifers of sweet water, the fracking industry will have to draw from the region’s surface water. One trillion gallons will empty our largest lakes: Rend Lake 18 times, Crab Orchard 50 times, Lake of Egypt 80 times, Cedar Lake 140 times. http://www.dontfractureillinois.net/big-oil-tells-big-lies-about-fracking/
Message from Mexico: U.S. Is Polluting Water It May Someday Need to Drink
Mexico City plans to draw drinking water from a mile-deep aquifer, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. The Mexican effort challenges a key tenet of U.S. clean water policy: that water far underground can be intentionally polluted because it will never be used.
As ProPublica has reported in an ongoing investigation about America's management of its underground water, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued more than 1,500 permits for companies to pollute such aquifers in some of the driest regions. Frequently, the reason was that the water lies too deep to be worth protecting. But Mexico City's plans to tap its newly discovered aquifer suggest that America is poisoning wells it might need in the future. http://www.propublica.org/article/message-from-mexico-u.s.-is-polluting-water-it-may-someday-need-to- drink
DRINKING WATER Safeguards Are Not Preventing Contamination From Injected Oil and Gas Wastes July 1989
Report to the Chairman, Environment, - Energy, and Natural Resources Subcommittee, Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives
80 The full extent to which Class II wells have caused drinking water contamination is unknown, largely because the method for detecting contamination - installing underground monitors can itself create a conduit for contamination and is therefore not widely used.
Among the 23 known contamination cases, most resulted from cracks in the injection wells or from injection directly into drinking water; these cases were discovered, for the most part, as a result of required pressure testing and file reviews.
However, in more than a third of the known cases, drinking water became contaminated when injected brines traveled up into improperly plugged abandoned wells in the vicinity of the injection wells and entered drinking water through cracks in these old wells.
Since all but one of these injection wells were already operating at the time the program took effect, searches for and plugging of improperly plugged wells in the vicinity of the injection wells were not required.
Contamination was not discovered, for the most part, until water supplies became too salty to drink or crops were ruined. http://www.gao.gov/assets/150/147952.pdf
Energy's Latest Battleground: Fracking For Uranium - Texas
In 1958 Union Carbide took the first whack at developing an underground mine there but abandoned efforts because of high levels of hydrogen sulfide gas. Union Carbide tried again in 1967, using what were brand-new in situ recovery techniques and drilling thousands of holes. But instead of using oxygenated water to dissolve the uranium, the company injected ammonia, which reacted poorly to clay in the earth. Recovery rates were disappointing; in 1980 Union Carbide sold Palangana to Chevron. http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2013/01/23/fracking-for-uranium/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2013/01/23/fracking-for-uranium/2/
Do We Have Enough Water to Frack Our Way to Energy Independence?
Alberta's oil sands mines require more than 3 barrels of water to produce a barrel of bitumen. With daily output of 1.5 million barrels, the oil sands is one thirsty customer. Fortunately for Big Oil, northern Alberta is blessed with the mighty Athabasca River.
Unlike northern Alberta, there isn't a whole lot of water flowing through Texas these days. Last summer, companies were forced to truck in water from as far away as 75 miles in order to drill their wells.
Producers in Pennsylvania are running into similar problem trying to drill into the region's Marcellus formation. State water authorities have cut off companies from drawing water from at least two major rivers. A shortage of water forced one producer, Breitling Oil and Gas, to shutter production from more than 10 percent of its wells. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-rubin/fracking-shale-water_b_2522940.html
81 The Myth of Purifying Fracking Water in Saudi America: The Competition Between Food, Drink and Energy Needs
Sustained droughts and skyrocketing demand underscore the critical need to re-evaluate public policy to address the growing competition among farmers, residents and the energy industry for scarce water resources.
1- Not a Sane Water Policy - Texas 2 - Farmers Lose to Frackers - Colorado 3 - Investor-Owned Water Companies Join Forces With Frackers 4 - A New $9 Billion Market With Little Experience or Regulation - Pennsylvania http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/14113-the-myth-of-purifying-fracking-water-in-saudi-america-the- competition-between-food-drink-and-energy#.UQkQJzsTxpY.facebook
82 Oil and Pipelines
SHELL OIL SHIP RUNS AGROUND IN ALASKA
Drill ship carrying about 155,000 gallons of fuel, drifted in stormy weather before being driven on to rocks
A large drill ship belonging to the oil company Shell has run aground off Alaska after drifting in stormy weather, company and government officials said.The ship, the Kulluk, broke away from one of its tow lines on Monday afternoon and was driven, within hours, on to rocks just off Kodiak Island, where it grounded at about 9pm Alaska time, officials said. http://www.facebook.com/groups/132079906855023/
Is bitumen oil? Moving from tar sands to sensible solutions
A judge in Texas did something very interesting recently. He approved an injunction to temporarily stall the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, because the bitumen from Alberta to be pumped through that pipeline does not meet the definition of “oil”.
“Tar sands” is a useful term in the sense that it highlights the difference between traditional oil and unconventional oil. As was recognized by the Texas courts, tar-sands oil is different. Not only is it harder and more expensive to extract, it is also low grade "sour" crude.
This means it’s high in sulphur, making the refining process even dirtier. Extracting and “upgrading” bitumen requires massive amounts of water and natural gas, and to make it transportable it must be diluted with natural-gas byproducts. http://www.straight.com/news/ben-west-bitumen-oil-moving-tar-sands-sensible-solutions
Yet another study finds gulf spill 'cleanup' chemicals useless
Just days after the publication of a study finding that chemical dispersants meant to clean up the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico actually made the oil more toxic, a study in Environmental Science & Technology reveals that the dispersants failed even at their primary goal: preventing oil from reaching the ocean surface.
The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Miami, Columbia University, Colorado School of Mines and SUNY at Stony Brook. http://www.naturalnews.com/038563_gulf_spill_chemicals_toxicity.html http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121204145828.htm
83 Exxon Mobil proceeds with $14 billion Canada oil field
CALGARY: Exxon Mobil Corp said on Friday it is moving ahead with the next major oil project in the North Atlantic, the $14 billion Hebron development off the Newfoundland coast, boosting its already- large investments in Canada's most oil-rich regions.
Exxon Mobil, the biggest US oil major, said it will produce 150,000 barrels of oil a day at Hebron using a massive concrete gravity-base structure like the one employed at the nearby Hibernia project, which has been operating in the iceberg-prone region since the late 1990s.
First production of the project's heavy crude is scheduled for 2017. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/exxon-mobil-proceeds-with-14-billion- canada-oil-field/articleshow/17895574.cms?intenttarget=no
Map Reveals How Poorly Equipped Shell Would Be To Handle An Oil Spill In The Arctic
Now that people are coming to grips with the kind of emergencies that could take place in the remote region, it’s helpful to revisit an important resource put together last year by my colleagues on the oceans team at the Center for American Progress. They documented roads, airports, disaster response staging areas, coast guard stations, and everything else needed to respond to an oil spill in the Arctic. They then compared that infrastructure to the Gulf Coast, where response crews dealt with a massive well blowout in 2010 that spewed 5 million barrels of oil into ocean — a crisis that lasted three months, even with an all-out emergency response.
So what would happen if there’s a major blowout in Arctic waters? Here’s a stunning visual representation of just how little is available for response. (Click to enlarge). An explanation follows below. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/01/08/1410401/look-map-reveals-how-poorly-equipped-shell- would-be-handle-an-oil-spill-in-the-arctic/
Pipeline company sues to block opponents
A company that is building more than 20 miles of natural gas pipeline in Northeast Pennsylvania is asking U.S. District Court to block an attempt by environmental groups to disrupt the project.
Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. LLC argued in a complaint filed this week that the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board is pre-empted by federal law from taking action on appeals by the Delaware River Network and the Responsible Drilling Alliance that could delay construction.
In December, the environmental organizations filed an appeal and two petitions with the Environmental Hearing Board, challenging project permits issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The EHB is scheduled to conduct a hearing on the requests beginning Monday. http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/pipeline-company-sues-to-block-opponents-1.1426928? localLinksEnabled=false&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twitterfeed&utm_campaign=shalegastt
84 Petronas taps TransCanada for pipeline
Buttressing Canada’s position in the global race to export liquefied natural gas, TransCanada Corp. announced Wednesday that it plans to build a $5-billion pipeline to transport B.C. shale gas to the West Coast and onward to lucrative Asian markets.
The deal will see TransCanada build and operate a link to deliver natural gas to Lelu Island near Prince Rupert where Progress Energy Canada Ltd. – now a subsidiary of Malaysian state-owned firm Petronas – plans to build the massive Pacific Northwest LNG export facility. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/petronas- taps-transcanada-for-pipeline/article7095270/
Let’s build a Canadian oil pipeline from coast to coast - Frank McKenna
Although the ripple effect of oil-sands development across this country is well documented, a national pipeline, subject to a thorough environmental and regulatory review, would put the issue beyond dispute. The burning platform for the West and for Canada is obvious. We sell almost all of our oil to one customer, the U.S. and we are paying a bitter price for the lack of competition for our resources.
But we also need market diversification. This would require pipeline access to the West Coast and the East Coast. The former is more difficult for a variety of reasons. However, East Coast access is particularly promising. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/lets-build-a-canadian-oil-pipeline-from-coast-to- coast/article4299451/
Bill McKibben on Idle No More
Alberta's tar sands continue to be hailed as the "dirtiest energy on earth," the most environmentally destructive project we've ever seen. NASA's James Hansen explains that burning this bitumen guarantees "game over for the climate." Which means, to McKibben, "Canada's First Nations are in some sense standing guard over the planet." As he explains:
But there's a stumbling block they hadn't counted on, and that was the resurgent power of the Aboriginal Nations. Some Canadian tribes have signed treaties with the Crown, and others haven't, but none have ceded their lands, and all of them feel their inherent rights are endangered by Harper's power grab. They are, legally and morally, all that stand in the way of Canada's total exploitation of its vast energy and mineral resources, including the tar sands, the world's second largest pool of carbon. NASA's James Hansen has explained that burning that bitumen on top of everything else we're combusting will mean it's "game over for the climate." Which means, in turn, that Canada's First Nations are in some sense standing guard over the planet. https://www.adbusters.org/blogs/bill-mckibben-idle-no-more.html
85 Petroleum Coke: The Coal Hiding in the Tar Sands
It is a well established fact that full exploitation of the tar sands is a grave threat to the climate. Emissions from tar sands extraction and upgrading are between 3.2 and 4.5 times higher than the equivalent emissions from conventional oil produced in North America.On a lifecycle basis, the average gallon of tar sands bitumen derived fuel has between 14 and 37 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than the average gallon of fuel from conventional oil.
But as bad as these impacts already are, existing analyses of the impacts of tar sands fail to account for a byproduct of the process that is a major source of climate change causing carbon emissions: petroleum coke – known as petcoke. Petcoke is the coal hiding in North America’s tar sands oil boom. http://priceofoil.org/2013/01/17/petroleum-coke-the-coal-hiding-in-the-tar-sands/
TEDX - Garth Lenz: The true cost of oil
What does environmental devastation actually look like? At TEDxVictoria, photographer Garth Lenz shares shocking photos of the Alberta Tar Sands mining project -- and the beautiful (and vital) ecosystems under threat. http://www.ted.com/talks/garth_lenz_images_of_beauty_and_devastation.html
Nebraska governor approves Keystone pipeline
Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman notified President Obama on Tuesday that he has approved the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline to traverse his state, a crucial step toward reviving the project one year after it was delayed by the Obama administration.
The move puts the onus back on the Obama administration — the project must be approved by the State Department to move forward — to decide the fate of the 1,700-mile pipeline that has pitted GOP lawmakers against environmentalists. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/22/nebraska-governor-keystone-pipeline/1855323/
'Protect the Sacred' gathering of Indigenous Nations to draft new treaty opposing pipelines
Nations from all across Canada and the United States will meet in unprecedented numbers to reaffirm 150-year-old peace treaty and sign new document to protect the environment and declare solidarity against oil sands development and pipelines. http://www.vancouverobserver.com/politics/coalition-north-american-first-nations-gathers-draft-new- treaty-oppose-pipelines
86 Sierra Club to Engage in Civil Disobedience for First Time in Organization’s History to Stop Tar Sands
Next month, the Sierra Club will officially participate in an act of peaceful civil resistance. We’ll be following in the hallowed footsteps of Thoreau, who first articulated the principles of civil disobedience 44 years before John Muir founded the Sierra Club.
For civil disobedience to be justified, something must be so wrong that it compels the strongest defensible protest. Such a protest, if rendered thoughtfully and peacefully, is in fact a profound act of patriotism. http://ecowatch.org/2013/civil-disobedience-stop-tar-sands/
"Portland, January 26" | Montreal-Portland Pipeline Rally
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine, Portland Mayor Michael Brennan, and Unity College President Stephen Mulkey take the stage at the rally against the Montreal-Portland tar sands pipeline in Portland Maine. January 26, 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6yaKsJfVZU
87 Earthquakes
Texas is Shaking Again: 3.0 Quake Strikes Near DFW Airport
A 3.0 magnitude earthquake struck Fort Worth near the DFW airport tonight, according to the US Geological Survey. At 10:16 pm, the quake hit five miles Northwest of Irving, just off the President George Bush Turnpike. Its epicenter was ten miles below the surface.
The area where the quake occured was seismically quiet until a few years ago. That’s when the oil and gas industry began using deep underground wells to dispose of fluids from the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,”
And an earlier study by scientists at Southern Methodist University (SMU) and UT found links between disposal wells near the DFW airport and induced earthquakes for a series of quakes in 2008 and 2009. The study specifically looked at two injection wells in the area that were built in 2008. http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2013/01/22/texas-is-shaking-again-3-0-quake-strikes-near-airport/
Study http://smu.edu/newsinfo/pdf-files/earthquake-study-10march2010.pdf
88 Miscellaneous
Digging into the practice of fracking
Ramsay Adams, who runs the environmental group Catskill Mountain Keeper, describes the problems: "You've got spills, you've got aquifer pollution. Fracking is a very industrial process that uses chemicals that are toxic, carcinogenic, endocrine-disrupting."
As it turns out, fracking is just a tiny bit controversial.
In Matt Damon's new movie, "Promised Land," the fracking company is the bad guy. As you'd guess, the gas industry says that the dangers are overblown.
Said Stark, "Bottom line, 99 percent of it is water and sand. We use a biocide, a hand sanitizer, to make certain that we don't send living microorganisms down into the shale. We can't afford to have corrosion taking place, so we add an anti-corroded agent. The last thing we're talking about adding is what we refer to as a surfactant. Funny name, but it's really hand soap."
Actually, according to the EPA, the chemicals are slightly scarier than hand soap - chemicals like benzene, toluene, xylene, diesel, hydrochloric acid, glycols. "These are things that you don't want in people's drinking water, and you don't want sloshing around the environment," said Jackson. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-57561263/digging-into-the-practice-of-fracking/
89 Video Links
Triple Divide http://vimeo.com/publicherald/thejudys
Canada's indigenous movement gains momentum http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO7kVQGeTas&feature=youtu.be
Idle No More: Hints of a Global Super-Movement http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tH5Er9y4A4U
Gas Plant Explosion https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152362045915377&set=vb.677370376&type=2&theater
Segment 1 from List of the Harmed by fracking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjAuIAjMe_o
Shell Arctic Oil Drill Rig Incident Sheds Doubt on Unconventional Oil Extraction - CBC The National http://vimeo.com/56743341
"FROM THE FRONTLINES" Carol French, Bradford Co, PA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBfeyBzsjD0&feature=player_embedded
CTV Confirms Government(s) employing Internet Trolls, Shills & PR Agents to 'correct misinformation' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpVUYGcgtjw&feature=player_embedded
Fracking Hollenbeck Gas Site on Franklin Forks Rd., Franklin Forks, Pa.; Susquehanna County, Pa. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPE2RU5099U&feature=player_embedded
90 Safe Responsible Fracking is a Myth 30 second commercial submission for the Artists Against Fracking #dontfrackny. Produced by Scott Cannon of the Gas Drilling Awareness http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo6uSW47QpQ&feature=player_embedded
Aamjiwnaang Diesel Spill January 3 2013 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlW3zQRVACk&feature=share
There's No Tomorrow - Post Carbon Institute's take on the oil story http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=VOMWzjrRiBg
TEDX — Chemicals in Natural Gas Operations http://www.endocrinedisruption.com/chemicals.videoplayer.php http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXHI2jSg5pM
Letter to the President About Chemicals Disrupting our Bodies: Theo Colborn, TDEX https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2r2Rx8VRq48
The Tar Sands Come to Ontario http://vimeo.com/56842880
The fight against fracking, Aussie-style! Brad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umHQbFA5mfM&feature=share
Jessica Ernst 16x9 - Untested Science: Fracking natural gas controversy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEHz8SSfFJs&feature=player_embedded
Shale gas report - Quebec 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=e1mLy72yElc
91 UN Slams Canada for discriminatory practices. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42CiV8K4aNg
Idle No More. - Dr. Priscilla Settee and Sheelah McLean
A discussion by Priscilla Settee and Sheelah McLean about where Idle No More came from, what its goals are as a movement and where it is going. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWnk1GWsGMs
Pennsylvanians Opposed to Fracking Speak Out to Gov. Corbett http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7VhDXNEEVCs
AFN Press Conference, CBC News, January 10, 2013 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUHBbvXDAvw&feature=player_embedded
25 minute film on Coal Bed Methane development in Australia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amyJVu34G3w&feature=youtube_gdata_player
40 minutes with Dr. Tony Ingraffea. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n5YGu0vDg4
Howard Zinn - You Can't Be Neutral On A Moving Train
Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nXiPrT-abE&feature=player_embedded
Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIKxUhwrLic&feature=youtu.be
Stephen Harper CEO of the Transnational Corporation AKA Canada http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBM7Y6NTMZY&feature=player_embedded
“Be... Without Water? The Sequel” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvG4hj90Jhc&feature=youtu.be
92 GlobalAtlas - Discover the Global Atlas vision, partnerships and achievements http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZMfqQcYYyc
Five Years Into Fracking Boom, One Pa. Town At A Turning Point - National Public Radio http://www.npr.org/2013/01/14/169363299/five-years-into-fracking-boom-one-pa-town-at-a-turning-point
FROM THE FRONTLINES welcomes David Bohlander, Wyalusing, Bradford County, PA From The Moncton Free Press http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5DS5Z9h1Fc&feature=player_embedded
"FROM THE FRONTLINES", John Trallo http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=EEyFHzZH30U&feature=share&list=PL2t64kun0Wt5p_MgVxIlH1DJIc24w9jTv
Fractured Land Documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMyL_QtRfEI&feature=player_embedded
PSE board members Adam Law, MD and Tony Ingraffea, PhD, PE discuss the spatial intensity of hydraulic fracturing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ml9r-0qY8s&feature=youtu.be
VIDEO: VOC Emissions Found at Barnett Shale Compressor Station http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ROaoKCK0GS4
The Psychopathic Corporation -- A Clinical Diagnosis (PCLR), by Dr. Robert Hare http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmUXp_zE14E&feature=player_embedded
TEDX - Garth Lenz: The true cost of oil - Video only. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84zIj_EdQdM
Jessica Ernst - Jessica Ernst, The Consequences of Fracking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU6DJE9h6uc&feature=player_embedded
93 "FROM THE FRONTLINES", Bill Gorby & Randy Moyer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_AO60_gV10&feature=player_embedded
CSIS: China? Controls Canadian Politicians - CBC, The National - Nov 17, 2012? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43fk6BCr7hM&feature=player_embedded
Gashole the movie http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/gashole/
The world at night - NASA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3YYwIsMHzw&feature=player_embedded
Dr. Ingraffea on Fracking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSWmXpEkEPg&feature=player_embedded
Groundswell Rising Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cpCz0QPMso
Jessica Ernst, The Consequences of Fracking in Michigan May 21, 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU6DJE9h6uc
16x9: Untested Science: Fracking natural gas controversy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEHz8SSfFJs
Fracking Ground Zero Tour - Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIAimnmOBUM
Fracking Ground Zero Tour - Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NfNPVdi8VGU
94 Americans Chained by Illusion | Brainwash Update http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLCwOeBQvK4&feature=player_embedded
Wilma Subra & Health Effects of Gas Drilling http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9SEBpVJRwU&feature=player_embedded
BBC Interview with Prof Noam Chomsky from 2003. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5GqdM35z1Y&feature=player_embedded
Tar Sands Climate Threat http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TkgOmuIumjk
"Portland, January 26" | Montreal-Portland Pipeline Rally http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6yaKsJfVZU
TAKE BACK THE LAND - from Sustainable Man http://vimeo.com/45003651
We the People 2.0 - The 2nd American Revolution http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/324241
Iceland president: Let banks go bankrupt http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CTljJA_0Y6Y
95