Friday, November 25, 2011

MAN CAMPS: GENDER, LABOR, TEMPORARY WORK: LEGACIES OF FOSSIL ECONOMIES


Published: November 25, 2011
Confronted with the problem of too many jobs and not enough empty beds, North Dakota embraced man camps. But now officials are trying to slow things down.

SPEAKING OF THE END OF SUBURBIA: THE END OF SUBURBIA


Published: November 25, 2011
As demand for housing in walkable neighborhoods rises, we should be investing in carless transit options.

AND


Published: November 25, 2011
Local governments can adopt common-sense strategies to point their corporate residents to a more sustainable path than sprawling office parks, corporate campuses and estates.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

COAL MINER/UNION LEADER: AMERICANS SUPPORT UNION RIGHTS

Coal Miner, Richard Trumka in Esquire

And that was your vision, social change?
"Absolutely."
Not just a better life for the miners?
"Better world. Better life for everybody, every worker. Poor kids oughta be able to go anyplace their brains will take them. Not where Daddy or Mommy's pocketbooks can send them. Everybody oughta have health care, everybody oughta have some retirement security, every American. Every one. Everybody oughta have a decent good job. That's what I believe in, and that's what I fight every day to try to achieve."


Read more: http://www.esquire.com/features/americans-2011/richard-trumka-1211-2#ixzz1epB8ZNty

Sunday, November 20, 2011

FRACKING PENNSYLVANIA: DIVIDING COMMUNITIES


Published: November 17, 2011
In Amwell Township, Pa., the dividing line is between those who are getting rich and those who are paying the price.

Friday, November 18, 2011

SPILL IN BRAZIL? TRANSOCEAN AND CHEVRON SEEP IN DEEPWATER

UPDATE: Chevron unprepared to react -- means that despite regulation and oversight, company working outside of the terms of the contract?  Possible fines starting around 28 million and going up.  Skytruth posts satellite images that suggest Chevron also underestimating the size of the spill.

Oil sheen and seepage offshore -- Chevron plugging the hole (Rigzone)

NAOMI KLEIN: WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON HERE?

Capitalism vs. the Climate | The Nation

Thursday, November 17, 2011

AND THE OIL FLOWS ON...


Published: November 16, 2011
With the timing, and perhaps the future, of the Keystone XL pipeline project now uncertain, alternatives to the hotly contested project have begun emerging.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Corporate Welfare For Energy Companies Means We Paid $24 Billion In Taxes To Them

Corporate Welfare For Energy Companies Means We Paid $24 Billion In Taxes To Them: pTax breaks and subsidies for energy companies have gotten so extreme that dozens of top companies have made billions in profits while having negative taxes, actually receiving taxpayer welfare instead of paying anything to the federal treasury. An analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found dozens of [...]/p

Friday, November 11, 2011

CARBON CAPTURE, I.E. 'CLEAN' COAL: TWO STEPS BACKWARD WITH PUBLIC MONEY?

Coal Project Hits Snag as a Partner Backs Off

Published: November 10, 2011
A power company that was expected to demonstrate a carbon-capture technology has said it cannot take part, leaving the remaining partners at risk of losing $1 billion in federal funds.
"At the same time, the Obama administration has faced consistent obstacles from Republican critics in pursuing tighter regulatory limits on air pollution."

FRACK THE HUNTERS: PRIVATE INTERESTS ON PUBLIC LANDS


Published: November 11, 2011
An area of abundant deer, turkey and bear, known to hunters as “God’s Country,” lies atop vast reserves of natural gas 

Like many hunters, Mr. Volkmar is upset that the State Game Commission is giving over more public land to the gas companies, which is not exactly fulfilling its mission to enhance the hunting experience. The game lands, as he points out, were bought with the proceeds from licenses and fees paid by hunters and trappers.
Carl Roe, the executive director of the game commission, acknowledges that drilling “does look ugly” but said that on most well sites, the agency had no control over drilling-related activities. Although the agency owns 1.4 million acres of game lands, it does not always own the mineral rights beneath them, so their private owners can lease them out to the gas companies — the case with Game Land 59. Where the agency owns the mineral rights, it can and does restrict drilling and construction on certain days during hunting season.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

ON THE OTHER HAND - IS THIS VICTORY? Keystone Rejected. We Won. You Won. Thank you.

BREAKING NEWS: Keystone Rejected. We Won. You Won. Thank you.

KEYSTONE XL & CRUCIAL FOSSIL ISSUES: STALL AND DEMOBILIZE?


U.S. Delays Decision on Pipeline Until After Election (New York Times)



Published: November 10, 2011
The White House on Thursday delayed a decision on the contested $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline for 12 to 18 months while it studies an alternate route.


The move is the latest in a series of administration decisions pushing back thorny environmental matters beyond next November’s presidential election to try to avoid the heat from opposing interests —business lobbies or environmental and health advocates — and to find a political middle ground. Mr. Obama delayed a review of the nation’s smog standard until 2013, pushed back offshore oil lease sales in the Arctic until at least 2015 and blocked issuance of new regulations for coal ash from power plants.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

CHINA'S COAL MINES "DEADLIEST IN THE WORLD"

MORE THAN 40 TRAPPED IN CHINA COAL MINE ACCIDENT



More than 40 coal miners are trapped underground by a gas leak in southwest China less than a week after dozens of miners were pulled out safely from a cave-in at another Chinese coal mine....

The Climate Change Novel: A Faulty Simulator of Environmental Politics

The Climate Change Novel: A Faulty Simulator of Environmental Politics

A review of recent novels on climate change, and insights into the possibilities and limits of our cultural and moral imaginations.

OBAMA OPENS UP MORE OFFSHORE DRILLING

http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?hpf=1&a_id=112486

Monday, November 7, 2011

The Pressure Is On: Thousands Encircle White House, Tell Obama to Reject Keystone Pipeline | Truthout

The Pressure Is On: Thousands Encircle White House, Tell Obama to Reject Keystone Pipeline | Truthout

PHOENIX/ST LOUIS: ETERNALLY UNSUSTAINABLE CITIES?


Published: November 6, 2011
If urban policy makers focus only on those who can afford carbon-reducing technologies, the movement for sustainability may end up exacerbating climate change.

FOSSIL ADDICTION: NEW TECHNOLOGIES OF EXTRACTION NOT THE SOLUTION

"We Found Oil".....  


Cheap Gas is a Trap

KEYSTONE XL: DOES US STILL HAVE RULE OF LAW?

Harold W. Geisel, the senior official in the inspector general’s office, told top agency officials in a memorandum dated Friday that he would open the review “to determine to what extent the department and all other parties involved complied with federal laws and regulations” relating to the pipeline permit process.



Published: November 7, 2011
Improper pressure and conflicts of interest have been alleged in the project, which would carry oil from Canadian tar sands to Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast.

KRUGMAN: FRACKING & COAL DISTORT REAL PRICE OF FOSSILS, GO SOLAR


Published: November 6, 2011
Will our political system delay the energy transformation now within reach?

Sunday, November 6, 2011

OIL LEGACIES: BOKO HARAM ATTACKS IN NIGERIA


Published: November 6, 2011
The United States Embassy instructed its staff to avoid three hotels in Abuja, Nigeria, as the death toll rose from attacks by the Boko Haram in the northeast.
Read closely: democratic process?  corruption?  what cause?