First step toward fracking ban in L.A. taken by land use panel
A Los Angeles City Council committee took a first step Tuesday toward banning hydraulic fracturing and other disputed practices tied to oil extraction, winning cheers and applause from a packed auditorium.
“Fracking and other unconventional drilling is happening here in Los Angeles, and without the oversight and review to keep our neighborhoods safe,” Councilman Mike Bonin told the Planning and Land Use Management Committee.
Exxon CEO’s lawsuit against water tower fuels public outrage
Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson is at the center of a media firestorm over a lawsuit protesting a water tower near his $5 million horse ranch north of Dallas.
Tillerson, along with 11 other plaintiffs, have taken legal action to block the tower in Bartonville, saying that it violates zoning rules and neighborhood ordinances in place to protect the neighborhood’s comfort.
However, the lawsuit also notes that the tower could supply water for drilling operations — a point that has fueled public outrage and cries of hypocrisy.
Colorado Fracking Rules Could Become National Blueprint
Colorado doesn’t want its natural gas industry to go up in flames, which is why the sector there joined with its environmental counterparts to craft new rules to curb potent methane releases that are linked to climate change.
The state is the first one to regulate such heat-trapping emissions from the development of oil and gas, which make up a healthy share of the economy there. Essentially, Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission polished up a pending proposal that would require producers to install the tools to capture 95 percent of methane gas leaks coming from wells and pipes, while also limiting the volatile organic compounds that lead to smog.
Colorado communities push back as state leaders laud air rules
While Gov. John Hickenlooper, industry leaders and environment advocates praised Colorado’s new statewide air-pollution rules for oil and gas operations, local elected officials and community activists are launching campaigns to buttress local control.
The elected officials, 50 from around the state, have sent a letter urging Hickenlooper and state lawmakers to reinforce local land-use power over oil and gas development.
Judge To Decide Validity Of Broomfield Election On Fracking Ban
A judge will now decide the fate of Broomfield’s fiercely scrutinized election and whether to throw out a fracking ban that passed by just 20 votes.
Lawyers on Tuesday wrapped up closing arguments in the two-day trial that focused on how ballots were counted and handled before and after the election. The trial is the result of a challenge by pro-fracking groups.
US orders tests on ‘explosive’ fracked oil
American regulators have ordered emergency tests on oil extracted from a fracking site in North Dakota, amid fears that it could be dangerously explosive.
The probe follows a series of accidents involving crude oil from the Bakken Shale formation, including one in Quebec last summer, which destroyed a town and claimed 47 lives.
Triple Divide: Interview with Mark Ruffalo on Fracking Documentary
“Triple Divide” is a timely cautionary documentary about the fracking industry in Pennsylvania. Clean water is the star of this film. The toxic impact of the fracking industry is the villain.
The film is a PublicHerald.org production, co-directed by journalists Joshua Pribanic and Melissa Troutman, and it features actor Mark Ruffalo as one of the narrators.
Vladimir Putin just hates fracking—at least, he hates it when other countries do it. As the Russian president told an economic conference last year, in places where companies are fracking to extract natural gas, they turn on the faucet and “black stuff comes out of the tap.” Consider the environment, he begged his audience.
We need a new national policy to protect public lands from oil and gas leasing
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is responsible for the enormous task of administering oil and gas leasing beneath 258 million acres of BLM land, 57 million acres of non-Federal ownership, and 385 million acres managed by other Federal agencies. For many years NRDC has been working to improve the oil and gas policies at the BLM.
Tests underway to determine origin of newest bubbles near sinkhole
State and parish agencies are testing to see whether newly discovered gas bubbles northeast of the Bayou Corne-area sinkhole are tied to the swampland hole, authorities said Tuesday.
The state Office of Conservation and contractor CB&I have taken samples of the gas bubbles to determine their source, the state office said in a statement, though officials acknowledge the bubbles likely are connected to the sinkhole.
BP seeks to halt payments to seafood-industry claimants
A Texas lawyer who is the target of a federal probe into whether he grossly inflated the number of clients he represented in the wake of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill is due in federal court in New Orleans on Wednesday, as BP takes aim at the $2.3 billion deal it brokered to compensate the seafood industry for losses suffered by commercial fishing vessel owners, captains, fishermen and crew members.
Even after BP’s change of heart, claims settlement process rolls on
The strange mix of circumstances surrounding BP’s oil spill claims process have gotten even murkier lately as the British oil giant began buying ads in newspapers decrying the process rife with fraud.
The dispute has largely played out in a Louisiana federal court, lengthening an already complex case involving what has been called the worst environmental disaster in American history. A federal judge approved the class-action settlement to avoid the copious amount of lawsuits that could have been filed. But settling the case, which seemed to be on track, has taken a turn for the worse.
BP employee PAC making Alabama contributions nearly 4 years after oil spill
Nearly four years after the Gulf oil spill, a political action committee associated with BP oil company is contributing to Alabama politicians’ campaigns.
Gulf Of Mexico: Open For Dirty Energy Exploitation Again
It has been nearly four years since BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and neither the dirty energy industry nor politicians in Washington, D.C. have learned anything from that tragedy. Even with new evidence showing that the entire ecosystem in the Gulf has been disrupted as a result of the oil spill, companies are about to receive a massive gift in the form of new oil drilling leases.
Fraud allegations at issue in oil spill hearing
BP’s allegations of fraud against a prominent Texas lawyer are at issue in a federal court hearing.
Wednesday’s hearing involves claims by the oil giant that attorney Mikal Watts falsely claimed to represent thousands of deckhands who lost money in the 2010 Gulf oil spill.
Mississippi River reopens to traffic after weekend oil spill
The Mississippi River reopened to water traffic with restrictions Monday afternoon after a weekend oil spill forced its closure, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Officials had closed a 65-mile stretch of the river and the Port of New Orleans after 31,500 gallons of light crude oil spilled from a barge that ran into a towboat Saturday about 50 miles west over land from New Orleans.
Mississippi Oil Spill Highlights Risk of U.S. Oil Boom
A barge crash that spilled enough oil to temporarily shut a stretch of the Mississippi River highlights the transportation risks of the U.S. energy boom just as regulators respond to several rail accidents involving crude.
A 65-mile portion of the river about 50 miles (80 kilometers) upstream from New Orleans reopened with restrictions yesterday as federal and state officials responded to a Feb. 22 spill, which stalled shipments of goods including grain and chemicals on the nation’s busiest waterway.
Past Time to Close Loophole That Exempts Oil by Rail Companies from Spill Response Planning
In 2013, with the rapid expansion in the use of rail to transport crude oil, we learned that there was a huge increase in the the amount of oil spilled as a result of rail incidents.
Just two weeks ago, a train derailed near Pittsburg and spilled 4,000 gallons. More than 1.15 million gallons of crude spilled from rail cars in 2013. And this does not include the 1.6 million gallons that spilled in July of 2013 in Lac-Megantic in Canada.
Despite ruling, pipeline questions remain
TransCanada continues to negotiate with landowners in the path of the Keystone XL pipeline, even after a judge’s ruling has brought into question its route forward in Nebraska.
“There are a lot of questions up in the air,” Bill Blake, a Lincoln attorney specializing in eminent domain, said Tuesday. “They had approval of a route, but now they don’t. … What is the likelihood the president is going to approve the pipeline when they don’t have a route?”
Feds moved on tank car safety only after Quebec oil train disaster
The rail industry asked the Department of Transportation three years ago to write new regulations for railroad tank cars that were carrying the country’s nascent oil boom.
In the two years that followed, state and local officials and the National Transportation Safety Board also urged the department to take action.
Federal emergency order says oil shipments must meet more stringent shipping rules
Federal regulators issued an emergency order Tuesday requiring more stringent testing of crude oil before shipment by rail to determine how susceptible the cargo is to explosion or fire, a response to a string of train accidents since last summer involving oil from the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana.
The order also would place crude oil under more protective sets of hazardous materials shipping requirements, rather than allowing some shipments to be treated as less dangerous, the Transportation Department said.
Feds ban small number of tank cars carrying crude, rail industry says
The Department of Transportation banned about 3 percent of a fleet of railroad tank cars from carrying flammable crude oil Tuesday, according to the rail industry’s leading advocacy group, leaving tens of thousands more vulnerable cars in service.
Tuesday’s emergency order, issued on the eve of a hearing in Congress Wednesday on rail safety, also requires that crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken region be tested and properly labeled. Regulators have concluded that Bakken crude is more flammable, and that step could help first responders better know the dangers they face in an emergency.
A Student’s Take on Why It’s Imperative to Risk Arrest Protesting Keystone XL Pipeline
On Sunday, March 2, at 22-years-old, I will take part in a nonviolent for civil disobedience campaign along with nearly 500 other college students in our nation’s capital and very will likely be arrested. Why would I and others risk arrest without our degrees yet in hand? Aren’t we worried about jobs and employment? The short answers to those questions are to stop the Keystone XL pipeline and no.
Past Time to Close Loophole That Exempts Oil by Rail Companies from Spill Response Planning
In 2013, with the rapid expansion in the use of rail to transport crude oil, we learned that there was a huge increase in the the amount of oil spilled as a result of rail incidents.
Just two weeks ago, a train derailed near Pittsburg and spilled 4,000 gallons. More than 1.15 million gallons of crude spilled from rail cars in 2013. And this does not include the 1.6 million gallons that spilled in July of 2013 in Lac-Megantic in Canada.
Radiation ‘slightly elevated’ after leak at New Mexico nuclear waste plant
Ten days after a radiation leak was reported at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant outside Carlsbad, New Mexico, tests on samples collected from numerous areas in the plant found “slightly elevated” levels of airborne radioactivity, the U.S. Department of Energy said.
“These concentrations remain well below a level of public or environmental hazard,” the department said Monday in a news release.
Remember That Nuclear Dump Site That ‘Was Never Supposed to Leak’?
A leak at the only underground nuclear waste dump in the United States is now believed to be releasing radiation into the air, the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced Monday, sparking alarm among residents near the southeastern New Mexico site.
“There’s been radioactivity from nuclear waste released on the surface into the environment,” said Don Hancock, Director of the Nuclear Waste Program at the Southwest Research and Information Center, in an interview with Common Dreams. “This was never supposed to happen. That’s a very serious thing. We don’t know yet what caused this release, or how much has been released.”
Bill to Label Cell Phones for Radiation Called ‘Problematic’
Communities Digital News has this article on Hawaii Senate Bill 2571, which would require labels on cell phones warning about radiation. Excerpt:
This legislation is problematic for several reasons. First and foremost, the cell phone’s place as a luxury or status item will mean that people in Hawaii will likely detest mandatory labels that can’t be removed from their phones. In the case of phones where the label is affixed to a removeable battery case, most fashion-conscious people will simply detach the factory case and buy a replacement case. For phones that do not have removeable backs, Hawaii users will either cover them with fashion cases or resort to ordering their cell phones from out-of-state.
Radio frequency (RF) energy is a form of electromagnetic radiation. Cell phones emit radio frequency energy. Tissues nearest to where the phone is held can absorb this energy. A study published in 2011 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed that when people used a cell phone for 50 minutes, brain tissues on the same side of the head as the phone’s antenna metabolized more glucose than did tissues on the opposite side of the brain. The implications of this effect, if any, are unknown.
Japan Mulls Nuclear Revival Not Even 3 Years After Fukushima
If there was one thing that seemed certain in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown in 2011—the worst atomic accident since Chernobyl—it was that nuclear power in Japan and the rest of the world was in major trouble.
Radioactive Isotopes from Fukushima Meltdown Detected near Vancouver
Radiation from Japan’s leaking Fukushima nuclear power plant has reached waters offshore Canada, researchers said today at the annual American Geophysical Union’s Ocean Sciences Meeting in Honolulu.
Two radioactive cesium isotopes, cesium-134 and cesium-137, have been detected offshore of Vancouver, British Columbia, researchers said at a news conference. The detected concentrations are much lower than the Canadian safety limit for cesium levels in drinking water, said John Smith, a research scientist at Canada’s Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
Fukushima radiation could reach Pacific coast by April
Radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster has not yet reached ocean waters along the Pacific coast, but low levels of radioactive cesium from the stricken Japanese power plant could arrive by April, scientists reported Monday.
The report came even as some Internet sites continue claiming that dangerously radioactive ocean water from Fukushima is showing up along California beaches – reports that have been denied by health officials and scientists since they first surfaced more than a month ago.
Fukushima’s Radioactive Ocean Water Arrives At W. Coast
Radiation from Japan’s leaking Fukushima nuclear power plant has reached waters offshore Canada, researchers said today at the annual American Geophysical Union’s Ocean Sciences Meeting in Honolulu.
Two radioactive cesium isotopes, cesium-134 and cesium-137, have been detected offshore of Vancouver, British Columbia, researchers said at a news conference. The detected concentrations are much lower than the Canadian safety limit for cesium levels in drinking water, said John Smith, a research scientist at Canada’s Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
Fukushima radiation in Canadian waters is not a threat, scientists say
Two forms of radioactive cesium from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster have reached the continental shelf off British Columbia, but in concentrations much too low to represent a radiological hazard, according to measurements presented Tuesday at an ocean-science conference in Honolulu.
Keeping voices of Fukushima alive
A special exhibition at a gallery in a suburb outside of Tokyo is focusing on the suffering of people at the hands of man-made disasters.
Marking the third anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, the Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels is displaying some 30 paintings by Mitsuo Seino, who has been inspired by the tragedies in Minamata, Chernobyl and his homeland of Fukushima Prefecture.
