Greens see red over oil sands pipeline
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Thousands of opponents of a $7 billion pipeline that would boost U.S. dependence on Canadian oil sands plan to get arrested in protests over the next two weeks that they hope will help persuade the Obama administration to kill the project.
The State Department is set to issue a final environmental impact report this month on the Keystone XL pipeline project that would bring oil sands petroleum from Alberta to Texas refineries. The department hopes to make a final decision on the TransCanada Corp line by the end of the year.
Carbon emissions jumped nearly 4 percent in 2010
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Emissions of the main greenhouse gas rebounded nearly 4 percent last year as factories ran harder while the economy recovered and as consumers boost air conditioning during the hot summer, the government said on Thursday.
U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of oil, coal and natural gas, which accounts for about 80 percent of U.S. overall greenhouse gas output, rose 213 million tons, or 3.9 percent, last year, the Energy Information Administration said.
Corrosiveness of oil sands crude an unproven science
CALGARY/WASHINGTON, Aug 2 (Reuters) – A recent series of
oil spills has amplified a debate over the safety of shipping
oil sands-derived crude through pipelines, but there is little
hard evidence that the Canadian oil is more corrosive than
conventional crude, scientists and regulators say.
Environmental groups, led by the New York-based Natural
Resources Defense Council (NRDC), contend that the oil from the
Alberta tar sands, when blended with light hydrocarbons to
allow it to flow, eats away at the insides of long-haul
pipelines because of its high acidity and mineral content.
U.S. aims to slash emissions from oil, gas industry
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued draft rules on Thursday that would cut emissions of health-harming gases emitted during the production of oil and natural gas.
The rules, which were expected, would lower emissions of volatile organic compounds that contribute to smog by nearly 25 percent across the oil and gas industry and by 95 percent from natural gas wells drilled using the controversial technique of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
U.S. regulators delay smog rule for fourth time
WASHINGTON, July 26 (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency said on Tuesday it would again delay issuing
a final limit on smog pollution opposed by manufacturers and
many Republican lawmakers until the Obama administration has
finished reviewing it.
In December, the agency said it would issue the rule by the
end of July.
However, on Tuesday the EPA said the rule is going through
interagency review at the White House Office of Management and
Budget and that it will not issue the rule on Friday as it had
intended.
U.S. on track to decide fate of Canada oil pipe
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The State Department will issue a final environmental report next month on TransCanada Corp’s pipeline that would ship Canadian oil sands crude to Texas refineries, keeping the project on track for a final decision by the end of this year.
The $7 billion line has faced opposition from many lawmakers and environmentalists for greenhouse gas emissions associated with oil sands production, and because the line would run across the one of the world’s largest freshwater resources, the Ogallala Aquifer.
Stern, in center of climate pessimism, hopeful about U.S.
Nicholas Stern, the British economist who warned five years ago that global warming could cost the world’s GDP as much as 20 percent a year by 2050, hasn’t given up on the United States taking action on climate even though he’s down on Washington for not passing a bill that would do just that.
“If you look around the world, of all places to sit and wonder where (climate policy is) going, this is probably the most pessimistic place — this city,” he told a small gathering of reporters at the World Bank’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. late this week.
AEP halts carbon capture plan due climate inaction
NEW YORK (Reuters) – American Electric Power Co Inc on Thursday shelved plans to capture heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions from a coal-burning power plant in West Virginia, citing a lack of action by the U.S. Congress.
The move by Ohio-based AEP is a blow to U.S. efforts to rein in carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants using carbon capture and storage, or CCS, which experts see as the most viable way of limiting emissions from existing plants.
US budget cuts may slow Alaska drilling -official
WASHINGTON, July 12 (Reuters) – The U.S. Interior
Department is concerned potential cuts in the government’s 2012
budget, to take effect this October could slow oil and natural
gas drilling off the Alaskan coast, an official said on
Tuesday.
“The Arctic is an very good example of an area that could
be affected in very significant ways by budget negotiations,”
David Hayes, the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of
Interior told a meeting at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies.
Analysis: Study warns of leak risks of Canada-U.S. oil pipe
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – TransCanada Corp, a company that hopes to build a $7 billion pipeline to take crude from Canada’s oil sands to Texas, has underestimated the number and volume of leaks that could occur on the duct and hurt water supplies, an analysis released on Monday said.
The independent analysis by a water resources engineer at the University of Nebraska was released by the environmental group Friends of the Earth, which has helped mount a fierce campaign hoping to convince the Obama administration to turn down the pipeline in a decision expected later this year.
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