Tag Archives: business & technology

Here’s why privatizing food inspection might not be the greatest idea

by BenjamingBolton Posted on October 21, 2013

Here’s why privatizing food inspection might not be the greatest idea

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An unlikely killer.

The U.S. government has been getting out of the food-inspection game in recent decades, replaced by a for-profit inspection industry that’s rife with conflicts of interest. The risks of that arrangement became evident with America’s deadliest food-borne disease outbreak in almost a century.

In 2010, Primus Group food auditors visited a Colorado melon farm run by brothers Ryan and Eric Jensen. The company told the farming brothers how to install a new cooling system. In 2011, the inspectors returned and gave the flawed new system, which violated federal guidelines, a “superior” safety report.

Within a year, 33 cantaloupe consumers had died painful deaths after being infected with Listeria monocytogenes, a type of bacteria that was harbored by the brothers’ fruit. Federal investigators concluded that the installation of the new cooling system was a fatal flaw.

After four generations, the brothers’ farm has been sunk by lawsuits filed by victims and their families. Now the Jensens are striking back against the flawed inspection system with a lawsuit of their own. The Denver Post reports:

The lawsuit filed against Primus Group, a food auditing company based in California, is rare — even in an industry in which favorable audits have preceded the most notorious national food outbreaks.

It’s the second time in a month the listeria cantaloupe case has set a precedent in the food safety industry. In September, the Jensen brothers were charged with federal misdemeanors for introducing adulterated food into the market — the first time in two decades food producers were charged with misdemeanor, unintentional acts.

The Jensens are expected to plead guilty in federal court in Denver on Tuesday.

“It sent a pretty big ripple effect in the food industry,” said food safety attorney Bill Marler of Seattle, who is representing dozens of victims in lawsuits against the Jensen brothers. “It’s certainly gotten people’s attention.”

Let’s hope it gets the attention of federal lawmakers and the Obama administration.


Source
Colorado melon farmers sue inspector who gave them “superior” rating, The Denver Post

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Here’s why privatizing food inspection might not be the greatest idea

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Oil and gas train runs off tracks, explodes in Canada — again

by 0dyqe2k7 Posted on October 21, 2013

Oil and gas train runs off tracks, explodes in Canada — again

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Another train loaded with fossil fuels derailed in Canada over the weekend, triggering explosions and fueling a big fire.

Reuters

Firefighters did not bother battling the flames at the accident near Edmonton in Alberta. Instead, they allowed the propane that was leaking from ruptured rail cars to burn itself out. Nobody was hurt, but a nearby town was evacuated. From a weekend Globe and Mail report:

The train belongs to Canadian National Railway Co. It derailed in Gainford, a village about 90 kilometres west of Alberta’s capital, at around 1 a.m. MT Saturday. The train was en route to Vancouver from Edmonton.

Thirteen tanker cars went off the track, according to Louis-Antoine Paquin, a spokesman for CN. Nine of those are pressurized tank cars filled with liquefied petroleum gas in the form of propane, and three of them are on fire.

Four of the derailed tank cars are loaded with oil and have “no indications of any leaks,” he said. Mr. Paquin would not say to whom the shipment belonged.

The accident comes just a few months after a train derailment and explosion in Quebec killed dozens of people and leveled a town. As the North American energy industry booms, more oil and gas are being transported by rail — and that’s leading to more accidents. From Bloomberg:

The [rail] industry is drawing heightened attention after a train carrying oil jumped the tracks and exploded in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, in July, killing 47.

Railroads are facing new rules that may raise costs as energy companies move more oil on trains amid delays in building new pipelines such as TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL. Across the continent, trains are forecast to move as much as 2 million barrels a day by the end of 2014, according to Calgary-based pipeline operator TransCanada.

Canadian National Railway Chief Operating Officer Jim Vena told reporters that his company operates a safe railroad. “But we do have incidents,” he added. And those incidents can be explosive when shipments of fossil fuels are involved.


Source
CN Rail Cars Burning After Yesterday’s Alberta Derailment, Bloomberg
Train derailment, explosions force evacuation of Alberta community, The Globe and Mail

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Oil and gas train runs off tracks, explodes in Canada — again

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BP negligent in Texas refinery leak but absolved of wrongdoing

by celicjusz Posted on October 15, 2013

BP negligent in Texas refinery leak but absolved of wrongdoing

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BP

The Texas City refinery.

Yes, of course BP was negligent when it allowed at least 500,000 pounds of toxic gases to stream out of a refinery in Texas City, Texas, for 40 days in 2010.

So ruled a Texas jury. But that’s where the good news out of a lawsuit that could affect 48,000 refinery neighbors ends. Despite the company’s negligence, a jury concluded that the fumes it released, which contained such cancer-causing chemicals as benzene and nitrogen oxides, caused no harm to its neighbors.

The Houston Chronicle reported that a 12-person jury deliberated for nearly three days before concluding that BP had been negligent but that it was to be absolved of wrongdoing:

“Today’s verdict affirms BP’s view that no one suffered any injury as a result of the flaring of the BP Ultracracker flare during April and May 2010,” BP spokesman Scott Dean said. “Armed with the knowledge gleaned from this case and this important jury verdict, the company will immediately begin to prepare for any additional proceedings involving other plaintiffs.”

Tony Buzbee, the attorney for the three residents who said they were harmed by the release, said he was surprised by the verdict.

“But I respect juries,” Buzbee said. “This was only the first one of the test cases. We learned some things. We will gear up and try another one in a couple of months.”

The three plaintiffs in the case said they fell ill and endured foul odors because of the gas leak. Now they have something new to feel ill about.


Source
Jury absolves BP in gas leak trial, Houston Chronicle

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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For energy efficiency, Americans deserve a big thumbs-up

by rpgf8m1 Posted on October 11, 2013

For energy efficiency, Americans deserve a big thumbs-up

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We’re getting there.

America’s population and economy are both growing, yet its energy appetite is falling. That’s because of substantial energy-efficiency gains made in recent decades.

Those gains are helping the country reduce oil imports, save money on power bills, and move toward meeting a goal set by President Obama of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent between 2005 and 2020.

The news is laid out in a Natural Resources Defense Council report cheerily titled America’s (Amazingly) Good Energy News [PDF]:

[O]ver the past 40 years Americans have found so many innovative ways to save energy that we have more than doubled the economic productivity of the oil that runs our vehicles and the natural gas and electricity that runs almost everything else. Factories and businesses are producing substantially more products and value with less energy. …

[B]ecause increasing efficiency is far less costly than adding other energy resources like fossil fuels, this is saving the nation hundreds of billions of dollars annually, helping U.S. workers and companies compete worldwide, and making our country more energy-secure.

America’s energy use peaked in 2007 and has been falling ever since, the report says. Less energy was used by Americans last year than in 1999, despite 25 percent economic growth in the intervening years.

As shown in the following graph from the report, the “lockstep linkage between economic growth and total energy use” that once was normal in America ended in the 1970s:

NRDCClick to embiggen.

Still, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has made clear, the U.S. and the rest of the world must do much more if we’re going to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius.

But the efficiency news is obviously great, so we’ll pause to celebrate it. Hurrah!


Source
America’s (Amazingly) Good Energy News, NRDC

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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For energy efficiency, Americans deserve a big thumbs-up

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Americans cited for hiking on federal lands, but drillers can keep on drilling

by Myrna Posted on October 11, 2013

Americans cited for hiking on federal lands, but drillers can keep on drilling

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Stuart Seeger

If you are caught sneaking into Grand Canyon National Park, you will be ordered to appear in federal court.

Americans are being cited for entering national parks during the government shutdown and ordered to appear in federal court. But drilling and logging companies are meeting no obstacles when they continue doing business on supposedly shuttered public lands.

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation, thinks that’s pretty unreasonable. Last week he complained about the disparity in a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell:

Despite the federal government shutdown making national parks, monuments, wildlife refuges and many other important sites unavailable to the public, oil and gas drilling and other extraction activities continue on our federal public lands. The lack of oversight of these potentially hazardous activities greatly concerns me, especially because of the scarcity of manpower to respond to emergencies, pollution issues or other rapid response needs.

I am equally concerned about the many businesses that rely on our public lands. Concessionaires that operate facilities within our public parks and other federal lands have been locked out by the shutdown. So have river and trail guides who rely on public lands and waterways to make a living. Small businesses cannot afford to be cut off from their main — in some cases sole — source of income.

And now the congressman has launched an online petition calling for greater equity in how the government treats different kinds of visitors to federal lands:

Our federal lands are being mined, drilled, logged and just about everything else you can name — but because of the Republicans’ reckless and irresponsible shutdown of the federal government, we can’t be there to hike or camp, and our park rangers can’t be there to respond to emergencies. We need to get our priorities straight.

In Utah, at least, hikers will soon be able to get back on the trail. The state has agreed to pay the federal government $1.67 million to cover the costs of reopening five national parks within its borders for 10 days, starting on Saturday. State officials were worried about losing millions in tourist dollars.


Source
Nearly two dozen cited for entering Grand Canyon after budget battle forced park’s closure, Washington Post
Stop mining public lands while visitors are locked out, Credo Mobilize
Grijalva Letter Calls on Interior Sec. Jewell, Agriculture Sec. Vilsack to Halt Extraction on Federal Lands Until Visitors Can Return, Rep. Raul M. Grijalva

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Americans cited for hiking on federal lands, but drillers can keep on drilling

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Huge North Dakota oil spill went unreported by furloughed feds

by e0ebri1z Posted on October 11, 2013

Huge North Dakota oil spill went unreported by furloughed feds

By

SnoShuu

This is what a wheat field looks like when it isn’t covered with thousands of barrels of leaked oil.

A farmer discovered a huge oil spill — several times bigger than the recent Mayflower, Ark., spill – nearly two weeks ago in North Dakota. But because of federal government furloughs, we’re only just learning about it.

More than 20,000 barrels of fracked oil seeped from a ruptured pipeline over 7 acres of remote North Dakota wheat fields, oozing 10 feet into the clay soil and killing crops. Farmer Steven Jensen found the mess on his land on Sept. 29.

The National Response Center, which reports oil and chemical spills, posted an alert about the spill on its website this week. Reuters reports that the agency normally posts such reports within a day, but that its work has been stymied by the government shutdown.

But there’s really nothing to worry about, says Tesoro Logistics, the company responsible for the spill:

There have been no injuries or known impacts to water, wildlife or the surrounding environment as a result of this incident.

Jeez, it’s as if the pipeline spewed oxygen and candy.

Try telling that to Jensen, whose nose led him to a pool of oil while he was out harvesting on his 1,800-acre farm. “It was pretty ugly,” he told Reuters. The nearby crop had “disintegrated, you wouldn’t have known it was a wheat plant.” More from Reuters:

At an estimated 20,600 barrels, it ranks among the biggest U.S. spills in recent years. It is the biggest oil leak on U.S. land since March, when the rupture of an Exxon Mobil pipeline in Mayflower, Arkansas spilled 5,000 to 7,000 barrels of heavy Canadian crude. …

This is the biggest oil spill in North Dakota since 1 million barrels of salt water brine, a by-product of oil production, leaked from a well site in 2006, according to the state Department of Health.

Emergency crews initially lit fire to the oil spill, burning an estimated 750 barrels in an effort to reach the leaking pipeline – despite homes being located a half mile away.

Tesoro says the burst pipeline has been shut down and it’s conducting an internal investigation to try to determine the cause of the accident. A state official’s description of a hole in the pipeline made it sound as though the spill was caused by corrosion. About 1,200 barrels of oil had been recovered by Thursday, meaning at least another 18,000 barrels are still out there in Jensen’s fields.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

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Huge North Dakota oil spill went unreported by furloughed feds

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Old Russian nukes provide 10 percent of U.S. electricity

by Peggy Mason Posted on October 10, 2013

Old Russian nukes provide 10 percent of U.S. electricity

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Thanks for all the cheap power.

Peace-loving opponents of nuclear energy might find themselves a little conflicted over this one.

U.S. nuclear plants have been using uranium from decommissioned Russian warheads to provide an astonishing 10 percent of America’s electricity over the past 15 years. From Agence France-Presse:

Rose Gottemoeller, US under secretary of state for arms control, told a UN committee [that a 1993 arms-reduction] accord was a disarmament success.

Arms control experts call it the “megatons-to-megawatts” deal and hail the accord as a little known but important example of the United States and Russia pressing disarmament. …

Signed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the deal was concluded as the two countries sought ways to get rid of warheads under their 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

But Russia has concluded that it’s been getting a raw deal, so it’s ending the arrangment:

[T]he deal under which 500 tonnes of Russian weapons-grade uranium has been used to light and heat American homes will end next month because Russia believes its former Cold War rival has been getting energy on the cheap. …

The United States tried to extend the accord, but Russia refused saying the price was too low, diplomats said.

The final shipment under the old agreement is due to be sent next month. Under a new contract, the U.S. will get about half as much uranium from Russia as it’s currently receiving, and that uranium will be commercially produced rather than recycled from old warheads.

The tapering off of cheap Russian uranium is bad news for an industry already in the doldrums. The U.S. nuclear industry will also be challenged by a shrinking supply of a type of lithium produced only in Russia and China, according to a new report.


Source
Russian warhead fallout keeps America warm, Agence France-Presse

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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U.S. government is buying up $300-million sugar glut

by KathrynBetts Posted on October 9, 2013

U.S. government is buying up $300-million sugar glut

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“Take your kid to work” day at the USDA’s Washington headquarters.

Trick-or-treaters in waiting take note: The U.S. Department of Agriculture is buying up a stockpile of sugar, spending about $1 per American resident on a sweet bounty that it can barely give away.

That’s because the government has been promoting the planting of more sugar cane and sugar beet crops than the over-sugared country can bear. Meanwhile, the North American Free Trade Agreement has opened an import spigot that has seen Mexican sugar flowing unencumbered into the U.S.

To reduce the financial burden on the agricultural companies that planted all those unsellable, diabetes-inducing crops, the USDA is going on a sugar-buying binge. Bloomberg reports:

Since June, the sugar glut led the U.S. Department of Agriculture to buy sugar to prop up prices, sell it at a loss to biofuels producers and take steps to reduce imports. The efforts have barely dented the surplus.

“The government is still supporting growers to produce more sugar than we actually consume,” Arthur Liming, a Chicago-based futures specialist at Citigroup Inc., said in a telephone interview.

The total cost to the government of subsidizing the sugar industry for this year’s crops may be between $200 million and $300 million, according to Tom Earley, an economist with Agralytica, a food and agriculture consulting firm based in Alexandria, Virginia.

Imagine, just for a second, if it was a kale glut that we had to deal with — instead of life-shortening sugar. Leafy greens party in D.C., y’all!


Source
Government-Built Sugar Surplus May Cost U.S. $300 Million, Bloomberg

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Exxon demolishing homes ruined by its Mayflower spill

by Ilariaujg Posted on October 8, 2013

Exxon demolishing homes ruined by its Mayflower spill

By

Zillow

36 N. Starlite Rd., in happier days.

If you wish to bid Jose Modica and Daneshia Roberts-Modica farewell in the wake of the tar-sands oil spill that wrecked their Mayflower, Ark., neighborhood in the spring, don’t bother sending the flowers to their 36 N. Starlite Rd. address.

The couple bought the four-bedroom house last year for $180,000. Then the oil spill happened, and their family was never allowed to return. So they sold it to Exxon in August for $3,000 less than they had paid.

Let’s call them motivated sellers.

On Monday, Exxon took a bulldozer to the former family home, along with another that used to belong to their neighbors a couple doors down.

Since ruining the neighborhood with its pipeline rupture, Exxon has become something of a local real estate tycoon in Mayflower — specializing in sullied property.

The Log Cabin Democrat reports that the energy giant has purchased five of the 22 homes that were evacuated in the wake of the oil spill — and that it is in talks to purchase more:

The demolition process took 45 minutes to an hour for each home. Crews used Mayflower fire trucks and hoses for dust control.

[Exxon spokesman Aaron] Stryk said it would take about two weeks to remove debris and landscape the area, and all work will be done during typical working hours.

He said the decision to demolish the two homes was a recent one, and was determined to be the most effective and efficient way to remove contaminated soil.

Stryk said he doesn’t have information about the depth of the excavation but said new dirt would be brought in, and the lots would be sodded.

Stryk said the two lots owned by Exxon will remain as “green space.”

Here’s hoping some neighbors can pick up the oil-stained pieces of their lives and actually enjoy that “green space.”


Source
Exxon demolishes Mayflower homes with oil at foundations, Log Cabin Democrat
36 Starlite Rd N, Mayflower, AR 72106, Zillow

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Exxon demolishing homes ruined by its Mayflower spill

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In the renewable energy race, solar power is hot hot hot

by Markianish Posted on September 30, 2013

In the renewable energy race, solar power is hot hot hot

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It’s all good.

Solar power installations are expected to edge out new wind farms this year for the title of fastest-growing clean energy source.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance has projected that photovoltaic plants like this monster that we reported on last week will add 36.7 gigawatts of capacity this year — up 20 percent from last year. New wind farms, meanwhile, will add 35.5 gigawatts. That’s an awesome figure, too, but it’s nearly a quarter less for wind than in 2012. From Bloomberg:

Lower panel costs and government support are accelerating deployment of solar energy even as growth slows in the mature European markets. Wind installations, more than double solar before 2011, are also being slowed by Europe, as well as a lack of clarity on policy in the U.S. and China.

Wind power installations will drop by almost a quarter this year to their lowest level since 2008 because of the policies in these two countries, according to Justin Wu, [Bloomberg New Energy Finance]’s head of wind analysis. China and the U.S. combined represented about 60 percent of the global wind market last year.

What are these policies of which they speak? The biggies are known as renewable energy “production tax credits,” and they expire at the end of every year unless Congress takes action to, well, renew them. That hasn’t happened so far this year, and with Republicans in Congress about to force a government shutdown, it doesn’t look likely. Here’s Bloomberg again:

Neither of the tax-writing committees in the House and Senate have yet to mark up a legislative package to extend the provisions, with time running short before they expire Dec. 31, energy analyst Kevin Book said.

“It’s pretty telling” that “there is still no draft, no amendment has come up for a vote” on the extension, said Book, the managing director of research for ClearView Energy Partners, a Washington-based consulting firm.

“A better than average probability” exists that the expiring tax credits will be allowed to lapse, Book said, though he predicted they would be retroactively reinstated at some point in 2014.

That’s exactly what happened this year, after Congress let the tax credit lapse at the end of 2012 only to renew it in January — and wind energy has attracted significant private funding lately. Still, for the time being, wind power is blowing in the political breezes. Solar, on the other hand, is having its day in the sun.


Source
Annual Solar Installs to Beat Wind for First Time, Bloomberg
Credits to Spur Renewable Energy Sources Seen Set to End, Bloomberg

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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In the renewable energy race, solar power is hot hot hot

Posted in ALPHA, Anchor, ATTRA, Brita, FF, G & F, GE, ONA, PUR, solar, solar panels, solar power, Uncategorized, wind energy, wind power | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on In the renewable energy race, solar power is hot hot hot