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Fight over frac-sand mining heads to the polls

by FletaQYMGpzy Posted on December 17, 2013

Fight over frac-sand mining heads to the polls

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Glenwood City, Wis., is home to just 1,200 people, but on Tuesday the voices of the town’s residents will reverberate statewide. They’ll be casting ballots dealing with one of Wisconsin’s fastest-growing environmental threats: mining for sand that’s used by the fracking industry.

Mayor John Larson is among the members of the city council who want to redraw the city’s borders, annexing silica-rich farmland into city limits and allowing a Texan company, Vista Sand, to mine it. Larson believes a frac-sand mine could help solve the city’s economic woes. “We have a beautiful little town,” Larson told The Dunn County News. “But we educate our kids, then watch them move away because there are no jobs.”

Larson refused to put the annexation and mine proposal up for a citywide referendum, opting instead to negotiate with mine company officials during closed-door meetings. That sparked a lot of anger among townsfolk worried about the air pollution, heavy truck traffic, noise, and water contamination that so often accompany frac-sand mining.

So Glenwood City residents started a recall campaign against Larson and two of his pro-mine colleagues on the city council. More than half of the city’s voters signed a petition triggering a recall election scheduled for Tuesday.

“The location of this mine would be a half mile from my home, but, more importantly, a half mile from our K-12 school and … our nursing home,” resident Deanna Schone told Grist. She helped gather the signatures that triggered the recall election, and her husband is running to replace a council member. “The population’s interest and opinion has been ignored by our representatives,” she said.


Source
Voters to Speak on Frac Sand; Recall Election Tuesday in Glenwood, WIvoices.org
City’s frac sand mine battle spurs recalls, The Dunn County News

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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Fight over frac-sand mining heads to the polls

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America’s new cars are more fuel-efficient than ever before

by RickPaceuorrp Posted on December 13, 2013

America’s new cars are more fuel-efficient than ever before

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The 1990s-style thirst for power that gave rise to America’s fleet of gas-guzzling SUVs is being replaced by a hunger for fuel-efficient cars, helping auto manufacturers in 2012 beat their previous record for overall gas mileage.

The average model-year 2012 vehicle got 23.6 miles per gallon, according to a new report from the EPA. OK, that’s still pretty lame — but it’s 1.2 mpg better than the previous year, the second-largest annual increase in history.

EPAClick to embiggen.

“More consumers value fuel economy than in the past,” Christopher Grundler, director of the EPA’s office of Transportation and Air Quality, told the AP.

The average new car last year had 222 horsepower. That’s a helluva lot of horses, but nonetheless a reduction of eight relative to 2011, according to the report. That helped improve overall mileage, as did a 150-pound reduction in the weight of the average car.

Here are more report highlights from EPA:

Fuel economy has now increased in seven of the last eight years. …

The large fuel economy improvement in model year 2012 is consistent with longer-term trends. … While EPA does not yet have final data for model year 2013, preliminary projections are that fuel economy will rise by 0.4 mpg, and carbon dioxide emissions will decrease by 6 grams per mile in 2013.

EPA … attributes much of the recent improvement to the rapid adoption of more efficient technologies such as gasoline direct injection engines, turbochargers, and advanced transmissions.

Consumers have many more high fuel economy choices due to these and other technologies, such as hybrid, diesel, electric, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Consumers can choose from five times more car models with a combined city/highway fuel economy of 30 mpg or more, and from twice as many SUVs that achieve 25 mpg or more, compared to just five years ago.

Nearly every major automaker produced vehicles in 2012 that were more efficient than its models from the year before. Mazda now has the most efficient fleet, while Chrysler is the biggest laggard.

EPA


Source
Fuel Economy of New Vehicles Sets Record High / Fuel Economy Gains to Continue Under President Obama’s Clean Car Programs, EPA
Cars, trucks hit record gas mileage last year, The Associated Press

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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Dallas — yes, Dallas — bans fracking in most of the city

by Lubao2pzs Posted on December 12, 2013

Dallas — yes, Dallas — bans fracking in most of the city

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The growing wave of local fracking bans is sweeping into Texas, where the state’s third largest city has put a near-total kibosh on the practice.

The Dallas City Council adopted new rules on Wednesday that bar hydraulic fracturing within 1,500 feet of a home, school, church, or well. Dallas is now the largest of five Texan cities and towns that have imposed local restrictions on fracking. The city, which sits at the edge of the gas-rich Barnett Shale area, had previously imposed a safety buffer of 300 feet and banned fracking in parks and flood plains.

Because Dallas contains more than a half million homes, the new rule effectively outlaws fracking through most of the city. “[W]e might as well save a lot of paper and write a one-line ordinance that says there will be no gas drilling in the city of Dallas,” quipped a council member who voted against the new rules. “That would be a much easier ordinance to have.”

A gas company representative agreed: “You just can’t drill under these conditions,” he said. Naturally, industry folks are warning that economic woe will ravage Dallas in the wake of the vote.

The Dallas Morning News points out that drilling in the city seemed inevitable in 2007:

Six years later, the city still has no wells because of changing market conditions and disputes among drillers, the city and drilling opponents.

Drilling in the Barnett Shale has cooled off, and companies have shipped most well rigs elsewhere. But that could change if gas prices rise — an economic possibility that underscored the questions before the council.

While drillers cry foul, environmentalists are praising the council’s vote. “The ordinance that passed today was not perfect,” said Zach Trahan of the Texas Campaign for the Environment. “It has weaknesses. But it’s a huge, huge step in the right direction and we’re very pleased the mayor and council voted to approve the ordinance.”

J.R. Ewing must be rolling in his grave. But it’s not like the old days anymore — and awesome hairstyles aside, that’s a good thing:


Source
Dallas Council Passes Gas Drilling Ordinance With Restrictions, CBS
Dallas OKs gas drilling rules that are among nation’s tightest, The Dallas Morning News
Dallas City Council Approves More Restrictive Gas Drilling Ordinance, StateImpact

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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Dallas — yes, Dallas — bans fracking in most of the city

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Is global warming stoking an Arctic cold war?

by MWITeddyzlcxpgq Posted on December 12, 2013

Is global warming stoking an Arctic cold war?

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Sergey Kamshylin

Militarization and geopolitical maneuvering is heating up in the Arctic as once-frozen tundras melt into the sea, unearthing a bonanza of oil fields and shipping routes.

Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin this week ordered his military brass to pay “particular attention to the deployment of infrastructure and military units in the Arctic.” He said Russia would open two new Arctic airbases and noted that a long-deserted Russian airbase on the Novosibirsk Islands was recently reopened.

That followed the November announcement by U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel of the Pentagon’s first-ever Arctic military strategy.

Putin’s orders were widely seen as a direct response to new efforts by Canada to claim the seabed beneath the North Pole as its own territory. The South Pole is divided among seven countries like the center of pre-sliced frozen pizza; but the United Nations doesn’t consider that any country currently controls the North Pole. From the BBC:

The submission [to the U.N.] will further assert that Canada owns the Lomonosov Ridge, an undersea mountain range between Ellesmere Island, Canada’s most northern landmass, and Russia’s inhospitable east Siberian coast. Russia insists that it is the ridge’s true owner. In 2007 Russian scientists carried out a mission to the region and came back claiming the shelf for the Russian Federation. Divers even planted a flag on the seabed.

All this international posturing must surely have left the mood dour in Santa Claus’s North Pole-based toy factory. On the flip side, if he is blown to smithereens as “collateral damage” during a new cold war, the Western world might finally be weaned off its addiction to late-December materialism.


Source
Putin orders Russian military to boost Arctic presence, BBC

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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Is global warming stoking an Arctic cold war?

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Turns out those old-fashioned ways of farming were actually pretty smart

by BiancaEmmer Posted on December 10, 2013

Turns out those old-fashioned ways of farming were actually pretty smart

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This worked better in the olden days when fish hung out here too.

Remember those things humans did for thousands of years to feed themselves before we came up with all kinds of newfangled methods? We might want to go back to doing those old-school things.

The United Nations recently formed the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, a 115-country group that’s trying to bring down skyrocketing rates of species extinction. During meetings in Turkey this week, the group is discussing a strategy that it thinks could help protect biodiversity: a return to indigenous systems of farming and managing land.

One example of a traditional farming technique that the group hopes to resuscitate: the ancient Chinese practice of rearing fish in rice paddies. Adding fish to a paddy helps manage insect pests without the need for pesticides, provides natural fertilizer for the crop, feeds birds and other wildlife, and produces a sustainable meat supply for farming families.

Other examples mentioned by the group include fishing restrictions imposed by Pacific Island communities and traditional crop rotations practiced everywhere from Tanzania to Thailand.

“Indigenous and local knowledge … has played a key role in arresting biodiversity loss and conserving biodiversity,” the group’s chair, Zakri Abdul Hamid, told Reuters.

Traditional farming techniques can also help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That’s why IPBES officials are hopeful that efforts to resurrect them will be kick-started with the assistance of funds from the sale of carbon credits.


Source
Ancient farming seen curbing extinctions of animals, plants, Reuters

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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Earthquakes shake Texas town on Thanksgiving, and fracking might be to blame

by Una6lnto Posted on November 29, 2013

Earthquakes shake Texas town on Thanksgiving, and fracking might be to blame

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Residents of a rural northern Texas area were awoken early on Thanksgiving by not one but two earthquakes. Such quakes have become alarmingly normal during the past month, and fracking practices could be to blame.

From CBS Dallas / Fort Worth:

North Texas has been feeling a string of earthquakes — more than a dozen — over the past few weeks. Most have been centered around Azle, with the most recent [previous] one being on Tuesday morning. All of those quakes have registered between 2.0 and 3.6 in magnitude. Those who live in the small town have grown concerned.

Azle leaders have called on state officials to have geologists investigate the cause of these quakes. “The citizens are concerned,” said Azle Assistant City Manager Lawrence Bryant at a city council meeting. “They should be.”

“If it’s a man-made cause, it would be nice to know,” Bryant added.

By “man-made,” Bryant means fracking-industry-made. Frackers pump their polluted wastewater deep into the ground, a practice well known as a cause of temblors. A wastewater injection well was shut down near Youngstown, Ohio, in late 2011 after it triggered more than 100 earthquakes of growing intensity in just a year.

University of Texas earthquake researcher Cliff Frolich says the recent Texas flurry could be the result of wastewater injection. From KHOU:

“I’d say it certainly looks very possible that the earthquakes are related to injection wells,” [Frolich] said in an interview from Austin.

Frolich notes, however, that thousands of such wells have operated in Texas for decades, with no quakes anywhere near them. He adds that there are probably a thousand unknown faults beneath Texas.

Azle mayor Alan Brundrett says it’s important to determine whether this latest series of quakes are man-made.

“What could it cause, down the road?” he asked. “What if a 5.0 happens and people’s houses start falling in on them?”

Brundrett has installed an earthquake alert app on his smartphone. It shows a dozen minor quakes near his town since November 5.

The growing problem of earthquakes in America is not just limited to Ohio and Texas. The following U.S. Geological Survey graph shows how the number of earthquakes with a magnitude of at least three has spiked as fracking has become widespread. “USGS scientists have found that at some locations the increase in seismicity coincides with the injection of wastewater in deep disposal wells,” the agency notes.

USGS

Click to embiggen.


Source
2 More Earthquakes Rattle North Texas, CBS
Man-Made Earthquakes Update, USGS
Mayor of small North Texas town uneasy as earthquakes continue, KHOU

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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Earthquakes shake Texas town on Thanksgiving, and fracking might be to blame

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Obama admin is going to be awfully busy with new environmental regulations

by Silvester Mongan Posted on November 29, 2013

Obama admin is going to be awfully busy with new environmental regulations

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Looks like federal environmental officials might be headed for some all-nighters in the coming months.

Hundreds of planned new regulations were outlined by the White House just before Thanksgiving, including many proposed environmental rules that could help the country clean up its act and fight climate change.

No fewer than seven reporters for E&E Publishing scoured the latest biannual Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, published Wednesday, and here is a sampling of the environmental regulatory efforts that they say are in the works:

EPA

U.S. EPA has a full plate with more than 140 items on the docket, including its high-profile regulations tightening carbon dioxide emissions from both new and existing power plants. The rule for future power plants — proposed earlier this fall — does not have a finalization date listed but is expected to be done next year. …

Interior

The agency, which oversees energy development, wildlife protections and recreation on roughly one-fifth of the nation’s land and nearly all of its oceans, is still working on rules governing hydraulic fracturing, Arctic drilling, oil shale management and endangered species, among hundreds of others.

High-profile actions include the finalization of the Bureau of Land Management’s sweeping hydraulic fracturing regulations, targeted for May 2014. …

DOE

The Department of Energy will maintain its renewed focus on energy efficiency requirements for various consumer and industrial appliances, according to its agenda. Among the 82 activities listed on the agenda are new or updated rulemakings covering a variety of products, including residential boilers, vending machines and commercial ice makers. …

DOT

The agenda also lists a series of forthcoming hazardous material regulations required by the surface transportation bill signed into law in 2012. MAP-21 requires the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to set new benchmarks for the evaluation and approval of special permits for the transportation of chemicals and other hazardous materials.

The agency will also consider stricter safety rules for the transportation of hazardous material by rail and regulatory changes that cover liquids transported in onshore pipelines.

That’s just a small snapshot of what the reporters found. You can scour the upcoming regulations for yourself. But we recommend you just head right over to the exhaustive summary put together by the E&E folks.


Source
White House releases agenda for hundreds of new rules, E&E Publishing

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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World Bank says no to nuclear as it lays out universal energy plan

by Charlie Carin Posted on November 28, 2013

World Bank says no to nuclear as it lays out universal energy plan

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The leaders of the United Nations and World Bank have hatched a plan to make sure everybody in the world has access to electricity by 2030. It would involve a huge ramp-up in electricity generation, including continued growth in renewables, and vast improvements in energy efficiency. It would also require hundreds of billions a year in investments.

But not all energy sources are welcome. “We don’t do nuclear energy,” World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in announcing a push for financing for the plan. (The World Bank doesn’t do much coal anymore either.)

The Sustainable Energy for All initiative is a joint effort by the U.N. and World Bank. From a World Bank press release:

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim [on Wednesday] announced a concerted effort by governments, international agencies, civil society and private sector to mobilize financing to deliver universal access to modern energy services such as lighting, clean cooking solutions and power for productive purposes in developing countries, as well as scaled-up energy efficiency, especially in the world’s highest-energy consuming countries.

Agence France-Presse reports on the no-nukes angle:

“The World Bank Group does not engage in providing support for nuclear power. We think that this is an extremely difficult conversation that every country is continuing to have[,” Kim said.]

“And because we are really not in that business our focus is on finding ways of working in hydro electric power, in geo-thermal, in solar, in wind,” he said.

“We are really focusing on increasing investment in those modalities and we don’t do nuclear energy.”

That decision could frustrate a handful of leading climate scientists, including James Hansen, who recently called for more investment in nuclear power to help fight global warming. But it will please many other environmentalists, who point to the risks and high costs of nuclear power.

Raising the $600 billion to $800 billion a year that Kim said would be needed to light up the developing world, however, could prove as challenging as building a perfectly safe nuclear power plant.


Source
World Bank says no money for nuclear power, Agence France-Presse
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim Outline Plans to Mobilize Financing for Sustainable Energy for All, World Bank

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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Phillips 66 kills hundreds of birds in Texas, gets fined by feds

by AmberPkk Posted on November 28, 2013

Phillips 66 kills hundreds of birds in Texas, gets fined by feds

By

Larry Meade

Less than a week after announcing $1 million in penalties for Duke Energy for failing to protect birds from its wind turbines in Wyoming, the feds have announced a similar settlement involving bird deaths caused by a much dirtier energy source.

Last year, hundreds of migratory birds made the mistake of stopping at a 22-acre brine water pond in Hutchinson County, Texas. It was not the nourishing stopover they were expecting. The water in the brine pond, maintained by Phillips 66, was poisonous. About 260 birds were killed, mostly teal, a type of duck. The Amarillo Globe-News reports:

Company officials reported the incident to wildlife officials in August 2012 and began taking steps to keep migratory birds from the pond, according to information from the company’s compliance settlement.

Phillips … established an emergency treatment center for injured birds at the Borger facility, installed bird deterrent devices and contracted with another firm to keep birds away from the pond with a boat and air horns, federal authorities said.

Under terms of the agreement announced Wednesday, Phillips has agreed to make a $200,000 donation to the South Plains Wildlife Center, pay $10,000 in restitution and pay a $50,000 fine. The company also agreed to pay $38,820 to Texas Parks and Wildlife for the value of the birds.

In exchange for the company’s mitigation efforts, authorities will not prosecute Phillips under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act or other federal laws if the company continues to comply with terms of the agreement.

Each year, an estimated 500,000 to 1 million birds are killed in oil-industry pits and wastewater disposal facilities, according to a 2011 study. “The pits attract aquatic migratory birds, such as ducks and grebes, as well as hawks, owls, songbirds, bats, insects, small mammals, and big game,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports.

It’s nice to know the feds are keeping their eye on dirty energy sources as well as clean ones as they enforce the country’s environmental laws.


Source
Phillips to pay $300K settlement for bird deaths, Amarillo Globe-News

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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Phillips 66 kills hundreds of birds in Texas, gets fined by feds

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Tossed in space: NASA plans to farm greens on the moon

by Norman87Pdk Posted on November 27, 2013

Tossed in space: NASA plans to farm greens on the moon

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Someday astronauts visiting the moon could toddle out of their space shuttle, harvest basil from their lunar garden, and sprinkle it over their 3D-printed space pizza.

NASA hopes to begin growing radishes, basil, and other plants on the moon in 2015. A two-pound “greenhouse” is planned to be delivered there using an uncrewed Google Lunar X-Prize mission. From New Scientist:

The aim is to find out if the crews of moon bases will be able to grow some of their own greens, a capability that has proved psychologically comforting to research crews isolated in Antarctica and on the International Space Station, NASA says.

Factors that could confound lunar plant growth include the virtual absence of an atmosphere and high levels of solar and cosmic radiation that bombard the moon’s surface. So the space agency is developing a sealed canister with five days’ worth of air, in which seeds can germinate on nutrient-infused filter paper. The idea is that water will be released on touchdown and sunshine will do the rest.

And NASA isn’t hoping to take just agriculture to new heights — it is working to bring food production into space as well, using 3D printing. From the agency’s website:

As NASA ventures farther into space, whether redirecting an asteroid or sending astronauts to Mars, the agency will need to make improvements in life support systems, including how to feed the crew during those long deep space missions.

NASA recognizes in-space and additive manufacturing offers the potential for new mission opportunities, whether “printing” food, tools or entire spacecraft. Additive manufacturing offers opportunities to get the best fit, form and delivery systems of materials for deep space travel.

If NASA can figure out how to grow some space grapes to make moon wine to accompany the herb-enhanced printed pizza, we’ll be up there quicker than you can say Stanley Kubrick.


Source
3D Printing: Food in Space, NASA
Lunar thyme lords: can NASA bloom the moon?, New Scientist

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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Tossed in space: NASA plans to farm greens on the moon

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