UNIVERSITY DIVESTMENT: ONE MORE TAKE, Yes, Harvard, the Climate Crisis Is an ‘Extraordinarily Rare Circumstance’ | The Nation

Yes, Harvard, the Climate Crisis Is an ‘Extraordinarily Rare Circumstance’ | The Nation

UNIVERSITY DIVESTMENT FROM FOSSIL FUELS: Tim DeChristopher: There Is No ‘Neutral’ in the Climate Fight | The Nation

Tim DeChristopher: There Is No ‘Neutral’ in the Climate Fight | The Nation

In response to Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard pres., below.

UNIVERSITY DIVESTMENT FROM FOSSIL FUELS? HARVARD PRESIDENT RESPONDS

http://www.harvard.edu/president/fossil-fuels

Dear Members of the Harvard Community,Climate change represents one of the world’s most consequential challenges.  I very much respect the concern and commitment shown by the many members of our community who are working to confront this problem.  I, as well as members of our Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility, have benefited from a number of conversations in recent months with students who advocate divestment from fossil fuel companies.  While I share their belief in the importance of addressing climate change, I do not believe, nor do my colleagues on the Corporation, that university divestment from the fossil fuel industry is warranted or wise. READ MORE....

RE: KEYSTONE XL: RACIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE/PUBLIC HEALTH EFFECTS OF PIPELINES

http://www.ienearth.org/under-siege-by-tar-sands-gulf-coast-draws-the-line/

From Indigenous Environmental Network

Under Siege by Tar Sands, Gulf Coast “Draws The Line”

Sep 2, 2013 by admin

The first time I saw a picture pertaining to tar sands extraction, was on Marty Cobenais’ computer. We were both attending an event in Houston, Texas, and found some time to talk shop.

By this time I knew well of the struggle to stop the Keystone XL – the proposed 2,174 mile long pipeline that would carry toxic bitumen (tar sand oil) from Canada to the Gulf Coast. In fact, just a few months prior I had been one of the 1,252 people arrested in front of the White House in protest of the project which then NASA scientist James Hansen has called “the dirty needle” and “game over” for the planet (Marty had been arrested too, but on different day than I).  READ MORE

RE: KEYSTONE XL DISCUSSION/BU Student Action at TransCanada Offices (March 2013)

GLOBAL: REDD/Carbon Trading: On the question on carbon trading, one set of impacts in Latin America

On REDD, the program to 'Reducing Emissions From Deforestation and Forest Degradation' - and its impacts

Because this Land is Ours: The Rights of Mother Earth vs. Carbon Trading

Continued Support for Keystone XL Pipeline?

If Obama makes a decision based on how things are polling, than chances are he'll ok the Keystone pipeline.  
See recent Pew Research Center Energy Poll, take special note of how they ask the questions:

Continued Support for Keystone XL Pipeline

Here is how that question was phrased (note: oil, oil sands, nothing on emissions from those operations):

Here is the full report, and the full questionnaire. The Pew folks have made some questionable alliances in recent years, some with former oil/gas traders. The founder was an oil-man.  Are these alliances impacting their ability to carry out and report neutral public opinion polls?  This one, from question to presentation, seems to have an agenda.

US: TARSANDS/KEYSTONE: At least billionaires have a voice: The Test of Our Times

US GULF: How much oil did BP spill? How much do they owe?

Why say "amount of oil 'lost'"?   Lost?  Who writes these headlines?  NY Times still hoping for advertising revenue from BP?

New York Times, September 29, 2013
In BP Trial, The Amount Of Oil Lost Is at Issue

The fines against BP hang in the balance, and depend on the level of negligence that is determined and how much oil was spilled.

WE ARE THE NEZ PERCE NATION: Nimiipuu Mega Load Protest

The drums

SAUDI ARABIA: More on how men use free time, cheap gas, boredom

So, Apparently It's Cool to Hang Out of Moving, Tilted Cars in Saudi Arabia Now

WE ARE THE NEZ PERCE NATION: More on the struggle against tar sands truckers in Idaho

New York Times

September 26, 2013

Fight Over Energy Finds a New Front in a Corner of Idaho

The Nez Perce Indians were drawn into the national brawl over the future of energy last month when they tried to stop a load of oil-processing equipment from moving through their lands.

IRAQ: If you are looking for business opportunities...

CHINA: Extending its Oil Consumption Reach Westward

New York Times. September 24, 2013

China Gains New Friends in Its Quest for Energy

A Chinese presence at a vast new oil field in Kazakhstan is another indication that China’s influence has eclipsed even Russia’s across the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.

ARGENTINA: OPPOSITION TO FRACKING SPREADS Las mentiras de las petroleras frackineras

InfoSUR – Las mentiras de las petroleras frackineras

US: LOANS FOR CLEAN ENERGY RENEWED

New York Times, September 20, 2013

U.S. Revives Aid Program for Clean Energy

A controversial federal loan-guarantee program intended to support greener energy technologies will shift to supporting development of cleaner oil and coal technology.

ONE SMALL STEP FORWARD: COAL COMPANIES TRYING TO PUSH US BACK

Administration to Press Ahead With Carbon Limits

The proposed rules are an aggressive move by President Obama to bypass congress on climate change with executive actions.

GERMANY: PUSHING TO POST-CARBON ERA, CONFRONTS CHALLENGES

New York Times

By MELISSA EDDY and STANLEY REED

Published: September 18, 2013 

Germany’s Effort at Clean Energy Proves Complex

Germany’s plan to convert to renewable energy sources is running into problems in execution that are forcing Germans to face the costs of sticking to their principles.

The Marcellus Effect: Colorado Floods Break Pipeline and Engulf Gas Well...

The Marcellus Effect: Colorado Floods Break Pipeline and Engulf Gas Well...: photo by Andy Cross/ the Denver Post The rain pummeling Colorado this past week caused epic flooding. Photos show miles of devastation...

Exclusive: Pipeline Safety Chief Says His Regulatory Process Is 'Kind of Dying' | InsideClimate News

From BG: A year or so ago I argued that there would be more spills coming, precisely because of the way that regulation has been stripped to nothing, and the way that the industry continues to fight any new rules or regulations.  And, now, from the mouth of the industry-friendly regulators themselves:

Exclusive: Pipeline Safety Chief Says His Regulatory Process Is 'Kind of Dying' | InsideClimate News

TAR SANDS: One judge + organized Nez Perce + environmentalists + Nat'l Park Service = good sense

On a back road in Idaho, a significant contest over democracy, oil, and nature unfolds.  The company involved argued that their materiel would actually have environmental benefits in tar sands operations. Even if this were convincing, it would still evade the reasons for restricting transit of these megaloads, in this case on Native and national lands, because of the destruction they wreak on infrastructure. Similar struggles ongoing across Native lands in the Dakotas. –BG

See more on "megaloads" at  Idaho Rivers United and the Nez Perce Tribal Web Site. 

New York Times, September 13, 2013

Judge Blocks Shipment of Oil Equipment Through Idaho Forest

The move came in response to a lawsuit filed by the Nez Perce tribe and an environmental group, which charged that the Forest Service failed to enforce its own rules to protect the environment through the corridor.

COAL: increasing exports was a bad idea anyway

As per our conversation on the threat posed by growing coal consumption over the next 40 years, a global glut, and some significant shifts (esp. in Europe) are calming US coal companies' dreams of exporting US coal abroad.  Conclusion: leave it in the ground, for a long, long time.

U.S. Coal Companies Scale Back Export Goals

American mining companies confront a global coal glut and a price slump, along with persistent environmental opposition.

COAL, Criminality and Massey Energy

As discussed in Global Energy, 2011, the march of justice continues in the case of the Upper Big Branch mine, plodding slowly toward former CEO Blankenship. 29 dead miners due to systematic and illegal evasion of safety regulations, aka 'industrial homicide.' - BG

(New York Times Editorial Board - September 13, 2013.

Mismanagement and Death in a Coal Mine

It is heartening that a former executive with Massey Energy was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/13/opinion/mismanagement-and-death-in-a-coal-mine.html?smid=pl-share

China Update: Baby steps on coal- and oil-linked pollution

weakened by leaving room for regional leaders to implement.

New York Times, September 13, 2013 

China’s Plan to Curb Air Pollution Sets Limits on Coal Use and Vehicles

The plan represents the most concrete response yet to growing criticism for allowing the country’s air, soil and water to degrade to abysmal levels

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/13/world/asia/china-releases-plan-to-reduce-air-pollution.html?smid=pl-share

Remarks by the President on America's Energy Security | The White House

Remarks by the President on America's Energy Security | The White House (transcript)

(March 2011, re: our conversation on the discourse of "energy security")

The legislative past and future of the US Renewable Fuel Standard

The legislative past and future of the US Renewable Fuel Standard

ARGENTINA: CHEVRON INKS DEAL WITH YPF TO EXPAND FRACKING, MAPUCHE AND ALLIES IN RESISTANCE, POLICE DEPLOY VIOLENCE

How multinational firms and 'nationalist' governments come together to expand fracking, despite international covenants on indigenous rights, and how these contracts are backed up by compliant legislators and riot police.

Incendio: Conflicts over Fracking and Shale Gas on Indigenous Territory, Argentina

Wash U: New Climate Change Initiative to be led by Peter Raven | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis

A positive step by the University:

New Climate Change Initiative to be led by Peter Raven | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis

HOW BIG OIL CAPTURES LAW, POLITICIANS, ETC: LOOK AT LOUISIANA

Facing Fire Over Challenge to Louisiana’s Oil Industry

New York Times, Cambell Robertson, Aug 31, 2013

"The reaction was swift. Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, immediately called the suit “nothing but a windfall for a handful of trial lawyers,” prompting local activists to highlight the $1 million he has received in donations from oil and gas interests."  READ MORE

NYT: Ever Hopeful, Not Critical, Hopeful: Silver Lining in China’s Smog as It Puts Focus on Emissions

Silver Lining in China’s Smog as It Puts Focus on Emissions

A plan would swiftly limit the carbon dioxide China produces from fossil fuels, which constitute over a quarter of the world’s total such emissions.

MANKIW on the CARBON TAX: CONSERVATIVE THINKER APPROACHING REASON; NOTE: APPROACHING

A Carbon Tax That America Could Live With

GREGORY MANKIW

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/business/a-carbon-tax-that-america-could-live-with.html?_r=0

"THIS summer, the Obama administration released the President’s Climate Action Plan. It is a grab bag of regulations and policy initiatives aimed at reducing the nation’s carbon emissions, which many scientists believe contribute to global warming.

This got me to thinking: What might I do to reduce my own carbon emissions? Here are some things I came up with. Think of them as Greg Mankiw’s Climate Action Plan."

The Environmental Consequences of Privatizing Mexico’s Oil

http://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/the-environmental-consequences-of-privatizing-mexicos-oil

Environmental contamination in Minatitlán, Veracruz (Amigomodular/Wikimedia Commons)

By Christopher Sellers - September 3, 2013 

  

On August 16, an eight-inch pipeline ruptured at Mexico’s oldest refinery in Minatitlán in the south of Veracruz state. Even as oily wastes poured into the Coatzacoalcos River, stretching out twenty miles by the day’s end, a group of long-time residents meeting in this same city recalled the long, damaging toll that the petrochemical industry has inflicted on the environment and people of this region. But their harrowing past and present have barely registered in the many headlines that Mexican oil was making in this nation’s capital, as well as leading American newspapers. There, for the past few weeks, talk has swirled around the new Mexican president’s proposal to (more or less) privatize the country’s oil industry, for well over half a century run by the Mexican state.

READ MORE

EVENT ON SOLAR AT WASH U: SEPTEMBER 4

MAGEEP / I-CARES Meeting

Date:   Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Time:  4pm

Place: Brauer Hall, Room 12

·        Pizza   • Seminar   • Announcements   • Business

Speaker: 
Dane Glueck, President, Straight Up Solar

"Sun and Bones after Wash U: A Brief Summary of Solar in the St. Louis Region from an Orthopedic Surgeon and Solar Believer”

Brief Bio: Dane serves as President and co-owner of StraightUp Solar (founded in 2006) and President of Missouri Solar Energy Industries Association.  StraightUp Solar has grown from 3 founding members to a team of 26 and has installed over 3 mW of solar in the St. Louis region.  In addition, Dane cares for patients as an orthopedic surgeon and one of the owners of Advanced Bone and Joint in St. Charles County and also serves as Chief of Surgery at Progress West Hospital.  Dane and his wife Dehra met each other at Wash. U. and have been learning together ever since.  They have two fantastic kids, Jadyn and Gavin.

http://mageep.wustl.edu

http://wustl.edu/community/visitors/maps/danforthmap.pdf – (campus map, bldg. 13)

Oil sands pipeline avoids Keystone XL scrutiny : Business

Oil sands pipeline avoids Keystone XL scrutiny : Business

Right nearby....

Another Delay for Keystone XL? | The Nation

Environmental impact studies done by consulting companies with ties to the pipeline builder, TransCanada.

Another Delay for Keystone XL? | The Nation

"This expansion of dirty energy infrastructure warrants the same attention as KXL. It’s time to wind down, not build up, our reliance on fossil fuel, regardless of where it comes from."

Warsaw Climate Change Conference - November 2013

Warsaw Climate Change Conference - November 2013

Appeals court overturns Peabody benefit ruling

Appeals court overturns Peabody benefit ruling

Climate Panel Cites Near Certainty on Warming

Climate Panel Cites Near Certainty on Warming

The panel found that human activity is almost certainly behind most temperature increases in recent decades.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/science/earth/extremely-likely-that-human-activity-is-driving-climate-change-panel-finds.html?smid=pl-share

Republicans recognize climate change, limited solutions, but recognition

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/02/opinion/a-republican-case-for-climate-action.html?smid=pl-share

A Republican Case for Climate Action

The United States must move now on substantive steps to curb climate change, at home and internationally.