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Federal solar auction flops in Colorado

by Charlie Smith Posted on October 25, 2013

Federal solar auction flops in Colorado

By

Tee Poole

No one bid to build solar projects in the San Luis Valley this week.

Oh come on, solar industry. You know you want a piece of Colorado.

The rights to build solar projects on 3,705 acres of high-altitude, federally owned desert in Colorado were put up for bid on Thursday. But not a single bidder showed up.

The outcome was a disappointment for U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials. They were conducting the first of many planned solar auctions on public lands in the West.

The officials are describing the auction as a learning experience and say they will try again. The Denver Post reports:

Five companies had filed preliminary applications for the three San Luis Valley parcels, and there were another 27 inquires about the sites, according to Bureau of Land Management officials.

Based on that interest, officials scheduled an auction at the BLM Colorado office in Lakewood for the 3,700 acres of valley land.

“We are going to have to regroup and figure out what didn’t work,” said Maryanne Kurtinaitis, renewable-energy program manager for the BLM in Colorado.

Ken Johnson, a spokesperson for the Solar Energy Industries Association, suggested that the auction was premature.

“To date, BLM has yet to finalize any regional mitigation plans,” Johnson told the newspaper. “Frankly, it’s not smart business to commit to something until you’ve read the fine print.” Solar developers may also have been concerned about securing financing in a time of market uncertainty.


Source
1st auction of solar rights on public lands in Colorado draws no bids, 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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Federal solar auction flops in Colorado

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Readers to papers: Stop publishing letters that deny climate reality

by Fredric6271 Posted on October 15, 2013

Readers to papers: Stop publishing letters that deny climate reality

By

Shutterstock

Newspapers should be truthful. That goes for every single page.

The L.A. Times recently won national attention and praise for spelling out its policy of refusing to publish the claims of climate deniers.

“Letters that have an untrue basis (for example, ones that say there’s no sign humans have caused climate change) do not get printed,” the letters page editor wrote.

Now, readers of other major newspapers are calling on their favored media outlets to adopt the same policy.

Forecast the Facts, a project that aims to improve the quality of coverage of climate change in the press, launched a petition calling on the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal to refuse to print letters that deny basic science.

“The Los Angeles Times has adopted a policy of refusing to publish letters that deny climate change, and you should follow suit,” the petition states. “End climate change denial in your newspaper.”

On Monday, the group told The Hill that it had already gathered 22,000 signatures in less than a day.


Source
Tell newspapers: Don’t publish climate denial, Forecast the Facts
Activists urge papers to follow LA Times on climate letters, The Hill

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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Readers to papers: Stop publishing letters that deny climate reality

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Say goodbye to Yosemite’s largest glacier

by Morona Jill Posted on October 3, 2013

Say goodbye to Yosemite’s largest glacier

By

roger.williams

Park visitors gaze at what remains of the Lyell Glacier.

Hasta la vista, glacier.

The world’s glaciers are withering quickly — researchers say they are contributing to nearly one-third of sea-level rise, despite holding just 1 percent of the planet’s surface ice. And while the glaciers in California’s Yosemite National Park aren’t the largest, they are suffering the same alarming fate as their icy ilk in other parts of the world.

Yosemite’s granite cliffs and valleys were carved during the Ice Age as glaciers expanded. Now these vestigial masses of ice are mostly retreating — and fast. The park employs a full-time glaciologist, Greg Stock, who recently returned from a trek to Lyell Glacier, which is the park’s largest. He told the L.A. Times that it had shrunk visibly since he made the same back-country hike last year:

Lyell has dropped 62% of its mass and lost 120 vertical feet of ice over the last 100 years. “We give it 20 years or so of existence —  then it’ll vanish, leaving behind rocky debris,” Stock said. …

Yosemite’s other glacier, Maclure, is also shrinking, but it remains alive and continues to creep at a rate of about an inch a day.

Lyell, however, hasn’t budged. It is the second largest glacier in the Sierra Nevada and the headwater of the Tuolumne River watershed, but it no longer fits the definition of a glacier because it has ceased moving.

“Lyell Glacier is stagnant — a clear sign it’s dying,” Stock said. “Our research indicates it stopped moving about a decade ago.”

Stock warned that when the glaciers disappear, steady water supplies that feed the park’s meadows and other ecosystems will disappear with them. ”We don’t know what the impacts of that will be on plants and animals that evolved with these ice flows,” he told the newspaper.


Source
Yosemite’s largest ice mass is melting fast, L.A. Times

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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Say goodbye to Yosemite’s largest glacier

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Fracking industry cleanup workers exposed to benzene in Colorado, feds allege

by Volodyslav7uk Posted on July 12, 2013

Fracking industry cleanup workers exposed to benzene in Colorado, feds allege

By John Upton

judylcrook

Parachute Creek

We told you about the drawn-out spill of 241 barrels of natural gas liquids earlier this year at a Williams Energy plant that handles fracked gas in Colorado. It turns out that Parachute Creek and its wildlife weren’t the only things exposed to cancer-causing benzene because of the accident.

The toxic contents of the mess were kept secret from workers sent to excavate it, and the workers were not kitted out with the proper safety equipment.

That’s according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which fined a Williams Energy subsidiary and two other companies a total of $27,000 this week for what it described as “serious violations” related to the cleanup work. From The Denver Post:

As workers began digging for super-concentrated hydrocarbons, the companies “did not inform (them) of the nature, level and degree of exposure likely as a result of participation in such hazardous waste operations,” OSHA documents said.

Workers dug trenches along the pipeline, west of Parachute Creek, to find and remove toxic material, documents said. “This condition potentially exposed employees to benzene and other volatile organic compounds.”

The Glenwood Springs Post Independent has more details, including news of an apparent two-month coverup by Williams Energy. The newspaper reports that the company knew about the leak in January, but failed to report it to the state until March:

The leak is attributed to a blown pressure valve on a pipeline leading from a nearby Williams natural-gas processing plant. Williams officials at the time maintained that the amounts of spilled fluids was not enough to warrant being reporting to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), the state’s oversight agency concerning oil and gas drilling activities.

But by March, the amount of spilled natural gas liquids had expanded and ultimately was estimated to amount to 10,000 gallons of hydrocarbons contaminating nearby soil, groundwater and — in small amounts — the waters of Parachute Creek itself.

In early April, four workers complained to the Post Independent that they had been working at the plume site for Badger Daylighting, a contractor hired for the cleanup, without the proper protective gear and breathing apparatus.

Tell us again what’s so great about this fracking boom?

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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Fracking industry cleanup workers exposed to benzene in Colorado, feds allege

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Rum promoter won’t be allowed to hold shark-killing tournament

by olikellopas Posted on January 11, 2013

Rum promoter won’t be allowed to hold shark-killing tournament

By Philip Bump

A tame shark in the Dominican Republic.

From the Associated Press:

A popular rum promoter is drawing the ire of environmentalists for his plan to hold a shark-hunting tournament in the Dominican Republic similar to one he organized after the release of the movie “Jaws.” …

The newspaper Listin Diario recently quoted [promoter Newton] Rodriguez as saying that the country’s tourism industry suffered and people grew afraid of sharks after the blockbuster hit “Jaws” was released in 1975, leading him to organize a shark hunt a year later.

Well, idiot, first of all they already killed that shark in Jaws (via explosion) so you don’t need to worry about that. Second, a number of shark species are already endangered. Third, some 73 million sharks a year are slaughtered, many to fuel the sketchy trade in shark fins as phony medicinal treatment.

The Dominican Republic’s natural resources minister has happily kiboshed Rodriguez’s plan, though I’m not entirely certain that, in his wisdom, he’d even bother to apply for a permit.

As a public service, we figured we’d let you know the name of the rum Rodriguez promotes. It is: Barcelo. You’ll want to avoid it, given that aficionados clearly run the risk of damage to both the heart and the brain.

Source

Activists slam Dominican shark hunting tournament, Associated Press

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

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