Thursday, February 23, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Monday, December 19, 2011
RUSSIA: ONE-UPPING BP AND MASSEY, 49 LIKELY DEAD
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/world/europe/oil-rig-sinks-in-storm-off-russia-49-missing.html
Oil Rig Sinks Off Russia; 49 Missing
An oil drilling rig that was being towed in a storm sank Sunday off the coast of Sakhalin Island with 67 people on board, most of whom are still missing.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
AND, IN THE US: LAW ON THE SIDE OF INDUSTRY?
Accumulation by dispossession, 21st century American style?
As energy companies and states push to simplify regulations, some local governments are resisting an erosion of their control.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
CRIMINAL CORPORATIONS: INDIVIDUALS FOR SPEECH RIGHTS, WHY NOT THE RULE OF LAW?
Despite its questionable practices, Massey Energy will not be criminally prosecuted for a mine explosion that killed 29 workers in West Virginia
Thursday, December 8, 2011
NAOMI KLEIN VS. ANDREW REVKIN
Or, as one commenter put it, very "big of you [Andrew Revkin] to publish your spanking at the hands of Naomi Klein". True, true.
Naomi Klein’s Inconvenient Climate Conclusions
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
CHINA-US PING-PONG: WHO EMITTED?
China’s conditions for a treaty are unlikely to be met. And conditions by the United States seem to rule out any deal like the one China envisions.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
GULF OIL SPILL: WHERE DO FINES USUALLY GO?
The panel’s final recommendations were similar to those in a draft report it issued in October and are not binding.
COAL MINERS: HOW MUCH IS ONE LIFE WORTH? 29?
A source close the investigation said the parent company of Massey Energy, owner of a West Virginia mine where an explosion in 2010 killed 29 men, would pay to settle a criminal investigation.
In addition to the $46.5 million payout to victims and families, the agreement includes $80 million to bolster safety and infrastructure in all underground mines owned by Alpha and Massey; $48 million to establish a mine health and safety foundation; and about $35 million in fines and fees that Massey owed to the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the branch of the Labor Department that oversees the mining industry."
Monday, December 5, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
TAKE A DEEP BREATH: MORE CARBON IN THE AIR
Global emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by 5.9 percent in 2010, upending the notion that a brief decline during the recession might persist.
GAS & POWER: POLITICIANS FOR SALE IN OK
Representative Dan Boren of Oklahoma is a champion in Washington of an industry that is experiencing a historic boom but also increasing scrutiny.
Friday, December 2, 2011
CLIMATE TALKS: US ROLE QUESTIONED
COP17: Discontent with US grows at climate talks
Leading American environmentalists complained to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday that her negotiators at the UN climate talks risked portraying the US as an obstacle to fighting global warming because of its perceived foot-dragging on key issues.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Friday, November 25, 2011
MAN CAMPS: GENDER, LABOR, TEMPORARY WORK: LEGACIES OF FOSSIL ECONOMIES
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
As demand for housing in walkable neighborhoods rises, we should be investing in carless transit options.
AND
AND
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
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Sunday, November 20, 2011
FRACKING PENNSYLVANIA: DIVIDING COMMUNITIES
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)
Oil sheen and seepage offshore -- Chevron plugging the hole (Rigzone)
Thursday, November 17, 2011
AND THE OIL FLOWS ON...
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
DRILL BABY DRILL -- US ATLANTIC AND ANWR NEXT?
House Natural Resources Committee pushing 'Alaskan Energy for American Jobs Act'
and
Obama opens up survey of off-shore Atlantic for future drilling
and
Obama opens up survey of off-shore Atlantic for future drilling
Tuesday, November 15, 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
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
An area of abundant deer, turkey and bear, known to hunters as “God’s Country,” lies atop vast reserves of natural gas
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
KEYSTONE XL & CRUCIAL FOSSIL ISSUES: STALL AND DEMOBILIZE?
U.S. Delays Decision on Pipeline Until After Election (New York Times)
By JOHN M. BRODER and DAN FROSCH
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.
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