Tag Archives: business & technology

Former Interior Secretary Babbitt calls for one acre of conservation for every acre of oil exploration

by mirorita02 Posted on February 6, 2013

Former Interior Secretary Babbitt calls for one acre of conservation for every acre of oil exploration

By Philip Bump

Bruce Babbitt looks like this.

Since all anyone is talking about today is the secretary of the interior, let’s check in on Bruce Babbitt, who served in that position under President Clinton. What does he think about the state of the world, etc.? Any thoughts on the use of public land for oil exploration versus conserving it for the future, and perhaps any suggestions on how those uses should be balanced, ratio-wise?

From online internet website Politico.com:

Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt pressed President Barack Obama on Tuesday to set aside an acre of public land for conservation for every acre that is leased for oil and gas development. …

Over the past four years, he said, industry has leased more than 6 million acres compared with the 2.6 million acres that have been permanently protected. “In the Obama era, land conservation is again falling behind,” he said. “This lopsided public-land administration in favor of the oil and gas industry shouldn’t continue.”

Alright. Sounds like a plan. A brand new plan, for Obama to look at.

Babbitt made a similar plea to Obama when he spoke at the press club in June 2011 on the 105th anniversary of the [Antiquities Act]. During that speech, he mocked “munchkins” at the White House for backing down from what he dubbed an assault from Republicans over the issue.

Oh. Not new. But at least he dropped the weird Wizard of Oz analogy this time.

Still, the issue does have its wicked witches.

Babbitt centered his verbal venom on an oil and gas industry that “will be insulted by the suggestion that the public’s use of public land should be on equal ground with their profits” and “right-wing Republicans in the House [who] will take up Big Oil’s cause and will again call for a fire sale of public lands for corporate use.”

Republicans have been doing this for decades, he said, and Obama should not try to strike deals with them.

Politico then quoted a Republican member of Congress responding exactly as you would expect.

And now you’re up to speed on Mr. Bruce Babbitt, munchkin-hater. We’ll update you again in 2019.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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We’re on the verge of a scary undersea gold rush

by donseoo Posted on February 6, 2013

We’re on the verge of a scary undersea gold rush

By Susie Cagle

Two of the most popular shows on cable television right now are about digging for gold. Exciting! Gold! One of these shows, the Discovery Channel’s Bering Sea Gold, focuses on the human difficulties and dangers of digging for gold under the sea floor off the coast of Alaska.

This pursuit of material mineral riches seems like it might be a bad idea for these individuals, especially that dude with the bloody hand. But when the gold is even deeper under the sea, digging it up could be an even worse idea. And at today’s inflated gold prices, digging up the ocean will be as lucrative as it could be destructive.

National Geographic’s feature story on deep-sea mineral mining sets up a scary proposition for the Solwara 1 site in Papua New Guinea especially, where one company hopes to blaze a path into the deep with new mining technologies that could allow for the scooping up of billions if not trillions of dollars worth of deep-sea minerals.

[A] fledgling deep-sea mining industry faces a host of challenges before it can claim the precious minerals, from the need for new mining technology and serious capital to the concerns of conservationists, fishers, and coastal residents.

The roadblocks are coming into view in the coastal waters of Papua New Guinea, where the seafloor contains copper, zinc, and gold deposits worth hundreds of millions of dollars and where one company, Nautilus Minerals, hopes to launch the world’s first deep-sea mining operation …

Samantha Smith, Nautilus’s vice president for corporate social responsibility, says that ocean floor mining is safer, cleaner, and more environmentally friendly than its terrestrial counterpart.

“There are no mountains that need to be removed to get to the ore body,” she says. “There’s a potential to have a lot less waste … No people need to be displaced. Shouldn’t we as a society consider such an option?”

But mining a mile below the sea’s surface, where pressure is 160 times greater than on land and where temperatures swing from below freezing to hundreds of degrees above boiling, is trickier and more expensive than mining on terra firma.

It’s trickier in part because the same undersea hydrothermal vent spots that are so full of gold and other fancy mineral deposits are also full of awesome sea creatures like seven-foot-long tubeworms and giant snails.

Conservationists also say they want to know more about the vent ecosystems and how they will be mined.

“The whole world is new to the concept of deep-sea mining,” says Helen Rosenbaum, coordinator of the Deep Sea Mining Campaign, a small activist group in Australia that campaigns against mining the Solwara 1 site.

“This is going to be the world’s first exploitation of these kinds of deep resources. The impacts are not known, and we need to apply precautionary principles,” she says. “If we knew what the impacts were going to be, we could engage in a broad-based debate.” …

A report released in November 2012 by the Deep Sea Mining Campaign ties exploratory pre-mining activities and equipment testing by Nautilus to “cloudy water, dead tuna, and a lack of response of sharks to the age-old tradition of shark calling.”

Shark calling is a religious ritual in which Papua New Guineans lure sharks from the deep and catch them by hand.

In the past 10 years, a dozen exploratory permits have been issued to governments around the world for drilling into international waters. Any over/under bets on when this all goes horribly wrong?

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Huge paper company promises to stop being deforesting jerks

by rikkiqlyons Posted on February 5, 2013

Huge paper company promises to stop being deforesting jerks

By Susie Cagle

Over the last 20 years, a third of the forest cover on the Indonesian island of Sumatra — home to endangered tigers and orangutans — was destroyed. The clear-cutting of the rainforest helped make Indonesia the world’s fourth-biggest carbon emitter. And much of it was done in the name of paper — Asia Pulp & Paper, to be exact. But not anymore. From The Washington Post:

Asia Pulp & Paper, the third-largest pulp and paper company in the world, announced Tuesday that it is halting operations in Indonesia’s natural rain forests, a victory for advocates who have been negotiating with the company for the past year.

The Singapore-based company, which controls logging concessions spanning nearly 6.4 million acres in Indonesia, said it also has agreed to protect forested peatland, which stores massive amounts of carbon, and to work with indigenous communities to protect their native land. …

Aida Greenbury, the firm’s managing director for sustainability, said that a coalition of environmentalists, customers and some of the firm’s own employees had pushed for an end to native forest logging.

“We heard very loud and clear what they want us to do,” she said. “It is an investment for the sustainability of our business, not only an investment in the environment and the social impact we’re creating.”

Here’s more from the righteous rabble-rousers at Greenpeace, who worked with the World Wildlife Fund and the Rainforest Action Network to shove APP’s clear-cutters out of the forests:

Today’s victory was an amazing milestone in a 40-country, ten-year campaign. In the U.S., Greenpeace and WWF cut over 75% of APP’s market, largely through persuading Mattel, Hasbro, Lego, K-Mart, Staples, Kroger, and other companies to cancel their contracts with APP or refuse to enter into business with the company. RAN topped it up, persuading Disney to dump APP as well. In total, over 100 companies pulled away from APP. APP struck back, forming front groups to attack Greenpeace and WWF for our work together.

So a deal is great news, right? Well, maybe. As The Washington Post notes, it all depends on APP’s ongoing level of commitment.

Christopher Barr, executive director of the U.S-based forestry research firm Woods and Wayside International, said people should approach “what APP does with a healthy dose of skepticism. They have a history of setting sustainability targets that either get pushed back or don’t get met.”

Barr noted the firm is seeking to build a third pulp mill in Sumatra.

When asked whether she believed the new policy would boost the firm’s chances of getting the permit, Greenbury replied, “We hope so,” but she added that the company was doing it for broader reasons.

“It is our intention to set a new benchmark for the pulp and paper mill industry globally,” she said

By not destroying pristine rainforest and habitat for endangered animals? That would be a new benchmark indeed, APP.

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Walmart’s big push into groceries is not good for small farmers

by sssaa Posted on February 5, 2013

Walmart’s big push into groceries is not good for small farmers

By Susie Cagle

Walmart StoresYes it’s cheap, but …

When you think of Walmart, you probably think of cheap Chinese products and labor. But about two-thirds of the money Walmart spends to stock up its U.S. stores now goes for domestic products. That’s because, over the last decade, Walmart has moved aggressively into the grocery sector, and most of our food items are grown and produced here in the U.S. Ten years ago, groceries made up less than 25 percent of the retail giant’s sales; they now make up 55 percent. From CNN:

Experts say that this shift was no accident. The nation’s largest retailer adapted to fit the needs of its cash-strapped customers in the midst of a slow economic recovery. Shoppers today are more concerned with buying basics like milk and bread than electronics and apparel, many of which are foreign-made, and the retailer is shifting focus to keep up.

“Consumers have been shopping more for ‘needs’ than for ‘wants,’ and that’s why groceries are still the number one thing in their budgets,” said Craig Johnson, president of independent consulting firm Customer Growth Partners. “In return, Wal-Mart has become a needs-oriented store.”

Walmart’s crushing the competition, with higher sales than Kroger, Safeway, and SuperValu grocery chains combined. Its house “Great Value” brand boasts the biggest sales of any food brand in the U.S. To assert its dominance in the grocery sector, Walmart “leverages its scale” so its suppliers can pay lower prices to farmers, as investing site Trefis reports — which is bad news for small farmers across the country. Sure, god made a farmer, but god also made an American profit motive. From NPR’s The Salt blog:

Wal-Mart claims its emphasis on local has saved customers over $1 billion while helping farmers. But Wyatt Fraas, of the Center for Rural Affairs in Lyon, Neb., would like to see those benefits and cost savings broken down.

“Unfortunately, there’s so little definition and transparency about how that happens that we don’t really know if that happens or how that happens,” he said.

Of the eight farms highlighted on Wal-Mart’s locally grown web site, five are very large farms by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s definition, with annual sales in the millions of dollars.

Walmart’s claim that it supports small-scale farmers just doesn’t add up. One of the retail behemoth’s suppliers says that all farms, big or small, “have to modify their operations” if they want to succeed in this new age of Walmart groceries.

But LaDonna Redmond, a senior policy associate with the Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis, says it’s a slippery slope.

“That’s the question: Will it actually benefit [farmers], or will the situation turn out to be one where the benefit really is transferred to Wal-Mart?” Redmond says.

Oh come on, NPR, you don’t need to he-said she-said on this one. We know who benefits: Walmart sold $244 billion of groceries last year.

Finally, there’s this greasy little nugget: While Walmart is claiming a new allegiance to local foods and sustainability, it’s also adding more fast-food franchises to its stores. Take that, small farmers.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

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Another week, another oil tanker hijacking

by BakenKesselring341 Posted on February 4, 2013

Another week, another oil tanker hijacking

By Philip Bump

Last week, we explained why piracy has shifted from Africa’s east coast to its west. In short: higher security near Somalia combined with a new strategy near Nigeria. In at least one hijacking, pirates sought a tanker’s cargo of oil instead of ransoms for crew members.

Or, rather, in at least two hijackings. From the AP:

A French-owned oil tanker missing off Ivory Coast with 17 sailors on board likely has been hijacked, an official with an international piracy watchdog said Monday, in what may be the latest attack by criminal gangs targeting the ships to steal their valuable cargo. Meanwhile, a sailor died in a similar attack Monday near Nigeria’s largest city.

Details remained scarce Monday about the fate of the ship, flagged in Luxembourg. The ship had been reported missing Sunday and officials believe it fell victim to the same pirates operating throughout the Gulf of Guinea, said Noel Choong, a spokesman for the International Maritime Bureau in Malaysia.

usnavy

Pirates surrender to a U.S. Navy vessel near Somalia in 2011.

This is on top of two near misses.

The presumed attack Sunday comes amid a series of escalating attacks in the Gulf of Guinea, which follows the continent’s southward curve from Liberia to Gabon. On Monday, pirates attacked another oil tanker anchored off Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos, shooting one of the crew members, Choong said. The sailor died while in transit to a local hospital, the maritime bureau later said, though offering no other details.

A security detail from the Nigerian navy shot back at the attackers, driving them away, the bureau said. Commodore Kabir Aliyu, a spokesman for Nigeria’s navy, declined to immediately comment about the attack.

In another attack Thursday off Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta, pirates on several small boats assaulted another tanker. In a sign of how violent the attacks have grown, the pirates fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the tanker during the onslaught, which missed the ship, the maritime bureau said. The crew suffered no injuries in the attack and their ship escaped, though it sustained damage from the gunfire, the bureau said.

As we’ve mentioned before, some of the region’s oil is headed for America’s East Coast. When pirates plagued the coast of Somalia, corporations hired security teams and the U.S. Navy got involved. It would be very surprising if similar measures weren’t under discussion at Shell and Chevron at this very minute.

Source

French tanker likely hijacked off Ivory Coast, Associated Press

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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Lawmakers call for end to animal-deafening, oil-finding offshore surveys

by Myrna Posted on February 1, 2013

Lawmakers call for end to animal-deafening, oil-finding offshore surveys

By Philip Bump

When oil companies are trying to figure out where to drill offshore, they drag an array of seismic air guns behind a boat as it sails around the ocean. Submerged air guns fire bursts of air downward to create sound waves that travel to the ocean floor and rebound back up to sensors. Here’s what that looks like from the surface:

Underneath, however, it’s much less entertaining. Arrays contain dozens of guns, each of which produces a burst with tens of thousands of times as much energy as a jet engine, according to Oceana Deputy Vice President Jacqueline Savitz, as reported by FuelFix. Good for getting sonar readings on the ocean floor. Bad for any animals that are swimming in the vicinity.

This is one reason that New Jersey lawmakers wrote a letter to President Obama, asking him to stop seismic surveys on the East Coast. The other reason: Who wants an oil well offshore? From FuelFix:

Noting that the geophysical research is the first step in a long path to offshore oil drilling, [Rep. Frank] Pallone said the administration’s Interior Department should “put a stop to [seismic testing] before we experience a Deepwater Horizon-like disaster in the Atlantic.” …

Although the [Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s]  five-year plan for selling offshore oil and gas leases through 2017 does not include any planned auctions of Atlantic waters, seismic research today could pave the way for future drilling in the region. Data indicating potential big untapped resources could add pressure for future administrations to lease Atlantic tracts and help plan any auctions in the area.

magnera

An offshore rig near Norway.

The Interior Department has done an assessment of wildlife in the area where oil companies would like to shoot off their seismic air guns.

According to the ocean energy bureau, 38 marine mammal species are in the area that could be surveyed, including endangered baleen whales and manatees. The bureau’s draft environmental study concluded that seismic surveys could affect as many as 11,748 bottle nose dolphins, 4,631 short-finned pilot whales and 6,147 short-beaked common dolphins.

On one side: 20,000 dolphins and whales not deafened by bursts of air; innumerable sea animals not coated with oil in a worst-case-scenario spill. On the other: more oil — and profits — for oil companies.

In modern American politics, that’s somehow a toss-up.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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Keystone XL decision unlikely before June — and that’s good news

by donseoo Posted on February 1, 2013

Keystone XL decision unlikely before June — and that’s good news

By Philip Bump

MCLA

Well, Keystone XL protestors, kiss your springs goodbye. Looks like you’ll be fighting TransCanada’s proposal to run a mega-pipe from the Alberta oil sands to Oklahoma until June.

From Reuters:

The Obama administration’s decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline will not be made until at least June, a U.S. official said, which would delay the project for months and frustrate backers of Canada’s oil sands.

“We’re talking the beginning of summer at the earliest,” said the source, who did not want to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the TransCanada Corp project, which has been pending for more than four and a half years. “It’s not weeks until the final decision. It’s months.”

This can actually be considered good news. As we’ve noted multiple times, insufficient distribution outlets for tar-sands oil means that its sale price is plummeting — meaning that developing the oil sands makes less and less economic sense.

The Reuters article says as much:

The delay is painful in Canada which is suffering persistent, discounted prices for its oil because of tight pipeline capacity. The premier of the Western Canadian province of Alberta warned last week that it faced a $6 billion revenue shortfall due to current pipeline constraints.

Canada had another door slammed in its face today by the European Union. From another Reuters article:

Canada’s urgent hunt for buyers for its oil is being thwarted as the European Commission sticks to a plan to label fuel from tar sands deposits as highly polluting, deterring refiners bound by environmental rules. …

Intense pressure from Canada, seeking new markets to compensate for dwindling U.S. buying and discounted sales, has not convinced the EU executive to abandon its proposal to brand tar sands oil as more carbon-intensive than conventional crude. …

EU member states approved legislation in 2009, called the Fuel Quality Directive, with the aim of cutting greenhouse gases from transport fuel sold in Europe by 6 percent by 2020.

That leaves one big market for the oil: Asia. And with the Northern Gateway pipeline — perhaps the only viable route from Alberta to the Pacific — in jeopardy, Asia appears to be hard to reach as well.

It’s not clear why it will take the State Department until June to make up its mind. But with every day that passes, the Keystone XL pipeline makes less and less economic sense.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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Toppled U.K. wind turbines likely an act of sabotage

by aleidasharrington Posted on February 1, 2013

Toppled U.K. wind turbines likely an act of sabotage

By Philip Bump

Yesterday we had a spot of fun, a larf, talking about a wind turbine that fell over in the U.K. (Hence, “spot of fun,” “larf.” Real Americans don’t talk like that.) We noted that it was weird it fell over, because we are professional journalists™ and we notice when things are weird.

Turns out, it was weird. From the Telegraph:

An investigation into the collapse of the first turbine in Bradworthy, Devon, during a 50mph gale last weekend has revealed that bolts are missing from its base.

The turbine was initially thought to have been brought down by the wind, despite being designed to withstand winds of up to 116mph, but the new evidence could suggest a case of foul play, councillors said.

It came as a second, 60ft turbine was spotted “lying crumpled on the ground” just 18 miles away in Cornwall, on a farm owned by the family of a Lib Dem councillor.

“Lib Dem councillor” is British for “farmer,” I think.

kevinzim

A turbine in Devon, looking a bit nervous.

But this is disconcerting! We knew that opponents of wind farms were sometimes a bit unhinged; we knew that they enjoyed broad support among people to whom they’d given $20 — but actually damaging turbines to undermine the industry? Dangerous, stupid, illegal.

And yet it demonstrates another way in which renewable energy trumps (LOL) other energy sources. You take out a wind turbine, it falls over and maybe hits a gopher. Sabotage a nuke plant? More damaging.

According to reports, the police (“bobbies”) are investigating (“munchy-punching”) the crime (“algumitrium”). A criminal (“trumper”) will no doubt soon be sent to prison (“Wales”).

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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CO2 emissions from energy production drop to 1994 levels in the U.S.

by Larissaiyb Posted on February 1, 2013

CO2 emissions from energy production drop to 1994 levels in the U.S.

By Philip Bump

The headline at The Guardian says almost everything you need to know: U.S. carbon emissions fall to lowest levels since 1994.

Carbon dioxide emissions fell by 13% in the past five years, because of new energy-saving technologies and a doubling in the take-up of renewable energy, the report compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance for the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) [PDF] said.

The reduction in climate pollution — even as Congress failed to act on climate change — brings America more than halfway towards Barack Obama’s target of cutting emissions by 17% from 2005 levels over the next decade, the Bloomberg analysts said.

By the end of last year, America’s emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions had fallen 10.7% from the 2005 baselines.

The caveat:  The carbon emissions discussed are those related to energy production. Energy production isn’t all CO2 emission, but it’s a lot of it.

So here’s what that reduction looks like. Since 1974, levels of energy-related carbon emissions have seen two peaks. As indicated above, we’re on a downward trend, something David Roberts explained last year.

BCSE

Click to embiggen.

Over the past few years, individual energy sources have played a fluctuating role in the reduction. In 2009, the collapsing economy meant lower emissions from all sources. That coal figure in 2012 is remarkable.

BCSE

Click to embiggen.

This morning, the U.S. Energy Information Administration released state-by-state data on CO2 emissions through 2010. We put together this map showing net increase or reducton in CO2 emissions by state between 1994 and 2010. The darker brown a state is, the more its emissions rose; the darker green, the more emissions fell. Most states went up. But go Delaware!

The reduction — particularly the shift to renewables — is good news. Tempered with two caveats: This is only the United States. And the rate of decline is still far too low.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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California levies record $1 million fine against Chevron for refinery fire

by hanhuogekennog Posted on February 1, 2013

California levies record $1 million fine against Chevron for refinery fire

By Susie Cagle

Nearly six months after a Chevron refinery erupted in flames in Richmond, Cailf., there’s a tiny bit of charred justice for residents of the San Francisco East Bay area.

In an announcement Wednesday, California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) said it would be fining Chevron $963,200 for the fire — the biggest fine ever levied by the agency, and the biggest fine Cal/OSHA was even legally able to levy.

Cal/OSHA enforces workplace-safety law, and this judgment stemmed directly from 25 violations the agency said Chevron had committed. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The state said 11 of the violations were willful and that Chevron had disregarded known and obvious hazards, a category that carries a fine of $70,000 per instance. Twelve other violations were deemed serious, with fines ranging from $6,000 to $25,000 apiece. The other two violations were minor.

Cal/OSHA found that Chevron officials ignored their own reliability department’s urging in 2002 that they replace the pipe that ultimately failed. Company inspectors told managers that the line was vulnerable to corrosion.

The line had lost more than 80 percent of its thickness to corrosion when it finally ruptured, a separate federal investigation has found. …

The state also found several violations at the refinery that weren’t related to the fire, but which suggest that Chevron’s safety regimen was lax.

Among those were nine makeshift repairs of pipe leaks in which Chevron had tried to fix the problems with clamps, Cal/OSHA said. Such repairs should have been temporary, but “in some cases the clamps remained in place for years, rather than (Chevron) replacing the pipes themselves,” the agency said.

The judgment did not say whether Chevron’s own workers had actually made the situation worse by puncturing another pipe.

In a move that surprised no one, Chevron vowed to appeal the decision, specifically the “willful” characterization.

Chevron wasn’t the only passive-aggressive problem at this party. Cal/OSHA itself was criticized after the fire when it was discovered the agency had not fined a major oil company in 10 years, and had been inspecting refineries in about 50 hours each, compared to 1,000 hours spent on average by federal officials.

As for members of the general public who also suffered from Chevron’s black plumes — about 15,000 of whom sought medical attention at local hospitals — Chevron says it’s paid $10 million to area medical centers in compensation.

It’s a little bit of justice for poor, dirty Richmond, but it’s not likely to quell the unrest there. Two weeks ago, even Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin joined in a demonstration at the refinery protesting Chevron’s comically large money sacks of influence over local politics. The oil giant can build all the community gardens it wants — this town will still remember the time Chevron sent their kids to the hospital with acute respiratory distress, and then tried to buy the city council.

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