Saturday, April 9, 2011

Saudi Has Enough Spare Capacity To Meet Global Demand -Oil Min

Forlorn in the Bayou

Louisiana’s wetlands are resilient and have bounced back before. But no one knows how long this recovery will take.

By Bruce Barcott

Photograph by Joel Sartore

Gulf Spill Dispersants Surprisingly Long-lasting

Dispersant impacts on environment a major concern, expert says.

Photo Gallery: Rescuing the Oil Spill's Animal Victims

Is Another Deepwater Disaster Inevitable?

The largest U.S. oil discoveries in decades lie in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico—one of the most dangerous places to drill on the planet.

Japan Battles to Avert Nuclear Power Plant Disaster

At its epicenter, the earthquake exceeded Fukushima Daiichi’s design strength.

How Is Japan's Nuclear Disaster Different?

Fukushima Daiichi may be no Chernobyl, but it has overshadowed Three Mile Island.

Radiation in Japan Seas: Risk of Animal Death, Mutation?

More radiation from nuclear plant could cause "bizarre mutations."

US energy use chart shows we waste more than half of our energy

Japan Tells ASEAN Its Food Exports are Safe

from VOA News: Top Stories by Angela Dewan

Fracking Insiders Score Big in New Gas Bill, But Americans Not Told the True Costs of Massive Drilling Plan

Fracking Insiders Score Big in New Gas Bill, But Americans Not Told the True Costs of Massive Drilling Plan
Steve Horn, PR Watch: "Corporate insiders peddling the claim that drilling for methane gas will solve America's energy needs just scored big in Washington - and for these insiders fracking for gas is very lucrative business. House Resolution 1380, given the feel-good moniker of the 'New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions Act' or 'NAT GAS Act,' was announced on Wednesday, April 6, in the U. S. House of Representatives. The bill is 24-pages long and rewards the fracking industry with tax credits and products to help 'drive' consumption. The bigger the vehicle, the more tax credits given."
Read the Article

The Clean Energy Revolution Won't be About Clean Energy

The Clean Energy Revolution Won't be About Clean Energy
Keith Harrington, CommonDreams.org: "As the overlords of the current world order, fossil fuel companies do have a lot to fear from a powerful popular uprising. However, the Egyptian case also shows us that when such an uprising comes, it won't be fundamentally about the climate. The revolution against the fossil-fuel barons won't be a clean energy revolution. It will simply be a revolution. This is the first major lesson for environmental movement organizers: when people rise up they rise up because of unbearable socio-economic circumstances - oppressive, corrupt regimes, austerity measures, and aggressive assaults upon their economic and civil rights. They never have and very likely never will rise up en masse over bad environmental policies."
Read the Article

The Details Behind The Saudi Oil Consumption Trend That May Wreak Havoc On Global Supply

from Clusterstock by Jonathan Callahan

World Bank Horning Its Way Into UN Fund for Helping Poor Nations Deal With Climate Change

Report Says Coast Guard Was Unprepared for Spill

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON and JOHN COLLINS RUDOLF

An internal review of the Coast Guard's performance during the BP oil spill cleanup last year said that response operation was dogged from the beginning by significant planning failures.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Seafood PROBLEM Gulf of Mexico BP Oil CONTAMINATION EPA

Canada's Oil Sands on the Verge of a Boom, Again

from Technology Review Feed - Tech Review Top Stories

1 person liked this

High crude prices, cheap natural gas, and U.S. demand boost heavy oil profits—and greenhouse gases.
The new technologies and drilling methods behind the current U.S. shale gas boom may mean cheap natural gas for the foreseeable future. But they are also driving higher profits and expanded development in Canada's controversial oil sands, often labeled "dirty oil" because of the huge volumes of natural gas required to extract and refine the fossil fuel.

SOLAR HIGHWAYS

Japan's Nuclear Melt Down, the Economic Meltdown, and the Gulf Oil Meltdown All Happened for the Same Reason

from Washington's Blog by Washington's Blog

The Demographic Black Swan In Saudi Oil Exports

from Clusterstock by Nate Hagens

This Week's Most Popular News from Penn Energy

This Week's Most Popular News
• Murphy wins BOEMRE approval to drill the ninth deepwater well in the Gulf of Mexico
• ConocoPhillips inks deal with South Hook Gas to bring LNG to the UK
• TAP pipeline, Bosnia's BH-Gas ink cooperation agreement
• Coastal Energy has multi-zone find with Bua Ban well offshore Thailand
• Oilex readies to drill, fracture Cambay tight reservoir well in India
• Yamani: Oil could reach $300/bbl over unrest in Saudi Arabia
• Pemex discovers oil and gas with Pareto-1 on the Gulf Coast
• 16 named storms predicted for 2011 Atlantic hurricane season
• Marathon Oil inks Eagle Ford Shale joint venture agreement with Lucas Energy
• Statoil makes 'significant' oil discovery with Skrugard in the Barents Sea
• Buccaneer Energy to drill Alaska's Cook Inlet
• EIA: Shale gas is a global phenomenon with 6,622 TCF in unconventional resources worldwide
• Subsea problems delay Petrobras' start-up of Cascade-Chinook FPSO in the deepwaters of the Gulf of Mexico
• Five percent of world's natural gas wasted by flaring - report
• Seadrill spins off harsh-environment rig fleet into North Atlantic Drilling

Antarctic and Greenland ice sheet melting accelerating

The Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are melting at an accelerating pace, a new study shows. Rignot et al. present a record of the mass balance of these polar ice sheets using two methods. One method measures ice sheet mass using gravity data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite; the other method calculates ice lost at the ice sheet perimeter using atmospheric climate model data and measurements of ice thickness and ice motion, measured with airborne radio echo sounding and interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data, respectively, from several satellites. The authors reconcile the two methods and find good agreement.
The researchers find that in 2006, these ice sheets were losing mass at a combined rate of about 475 gigatonnes per year, which is equivalent to about 1.3 millimeters per year (0.05 inches per year) of sea level rise. (A gigatonne is one billion metric tons, or more than 2.2 trillion pounds.) Furthermore, the rate of ice loss is accelerating, with a combined total acceleration of about 36 gigatonnes per year. They note that this rate of acceleration is 3 times greater than the acceleration of ice mass loss for mountain glaciers and ice caps. If the trend continues, the “ice sheets will be the dominant contributor to sea level rise in the 21st century,” the authors report.
See related press release.

Source:

Geophysical Research Letters, (GRL) paper 10.1029/2011GL046583, 2011

Title:

"Acceleration of the contribution of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to sea level rise"

Authors:

E. Rignot and I. Velicogna: Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, California, USA; and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA;
M. R. van den Broeke, J. T. M. Lenaerts: Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands;
A. Monaghan: National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA.

New study says 2 degrees Celsius warming may be unavoidable by 2100

Pitting Politics Against Science Is A No-Win Situation

AGU Release No. 11–15
31 March 2011
Updated: 5 April 2011
For Immediate Release

Read Executive Director Christine McEntee's post on the hearing on The Hill's Congress Blog.
WASHINGTON—In response to criticisms during today's House Science, Space and Technology Committee hearing on Climate Change: Examining the Processes Used to Create Science and Policy, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) has issued the following statement, which can be attributed to Michael J. McPhaden, president:
"Despite the fact that there is overwhelming agreement across disciplines within the scientific community that climate change exists and that human activity is the primary driver, what was clear during today's hearing is that the political debate on the subject is far from over. That echoes what we have seen in many of the proposals for FY11 budget cuts, which will, among other things, limit access to data and information, including leveraging international knowledge and research."
"This is particularly concerning, given the impact climate science, and its influence on extreme weather events, can have on global competitiveness, national security, and public health and safety. Allowing political pressure to squelch scientific research will not make climate change and its impacts go away. It will, however, damage the objective knowledge base we need to inform good decisions that protect and enhance the public good."
The American Geophysical Union is a not-for-profit, professional, scientific organization with more than 60,000 members representing over 148 countries. AGU advances the Earth and space sciences through its scholarly publications, conferences, and outreach programs. It is accessible on the Web at www.agu.org.

Contact information

Joan Buhrman: 202-777-7509, jbuhrman@agu.org

US energy dept: Shale adds 40% to global gas supplies

US energy dept: Shale adds 40% to global gas supplies How much shale gas is there outside the US? It sounds like an impossibly large question, but it is one the US Energy Information Administration has attempted to answer in a new report, carried out by Advanced Resources International.

Continue reading: "US energy dept: Shale adds 40% to global gas supplies"

http://link.ft.com/r/G8OTZZ/HDM4BG/RNF1Y5/QFY5XI/S3E6PD/N9/h?a1=2011&a2=4&a3=8

Energy headlines: Expect more oil price rises, says IMF

April 8, 2011 8:28 am by FT Energy Source

- World still to weather higher oil prices – FT
- Crude at $175? Oil traders test the future – FT
- Chevron rekindles old Texas flame – WSJ
- Libya rebels fight to keep oil lifeline open – FT
- Libya’s Ghanem says strikes shut down Sarir oilfield – Bloomberg
- UK regulators warn Transocean on North Sea operations – WSJ
- Quake jolts Japan’s northeastern coast – FT
- Cairn deal hits snag in Indian cabinet – The Times
- Stakes rise over BP’s Rosneft venture – FT
- Fu Chengyu to join Sinopec as chairman from Cnooc – Bloomberg
- Exxon CEO defends XTO purchase – WSJ
- National Grid ‘errors’ caused US scandal – The Telegraph
- Moscow lures Ukraine with cheap gas – FT
- Green energy plans mired in uncertainty, says Miliband – The Times
- GE in fresh renewable energy push – FT
- US falls behind China in wind power – Reuters

GE in fresh renewable energy push

GE in fresh renewable energy push http://link.ft.com/r/H60H77/XTNNSZ/TP3TEW/5CTF8E/6VH5MV/E4/h?a1=2011&a2=4&a3=8

Thursday, April 7, 2011

IEA calls for scrapping $312 bln in fuel subsidies

IEA calls for scrapping $312 bln in fuel subsidies
The International Energy Agency is calling for 312 billion dollars in fuel subsidies to be scrapped in a bid to promote clean energy sources, according to a report presented in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

Seismologists urge creation of earthquake early warning system along Pacific Coast

Seismologists urge creation of earthquake early warning system along Pacific Coast
Following a closed-door summit at UC Berkeley, leading West Coast seismologists recommended in a news conference today (Tuesday, April 5) the establishment of an earthquake early warning system in California, Oregon and Washington.

Ellen Cantarow | Energy Is Ugly

Ellen Cantarow | Energy Is Ugly
Ellen Cantarow, TomDispatch: "For years, 'not in my backyard' has been the battle cry of residents in Cape Cod who stand opposed to an offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound. The giant turbines will forever mar the beauty of the landscape, they say. Energy is ugly. Some forms more so than others, as nuclear near-meltdowns in Japan, the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and deaths in a West Virginia Coal Mine explosion have driven home in the last year. Energy kills plants, plankton, and people. It imperils the environment, poisons the oceans, and is threatening to turn part of Japan, one of the most advanced nations on the planet, into a contaminated zone for decades to come."
Read the Article

Koch Industries, Keystone XL Pipeline ... a BP on the Prairie?

Koch Industries, Keystone XL Pipeline ... a BP on the Prairie?
Jeanine Molloff, Truthout: "As the race to develop domestically produced fuels hits a fevered pitch, especially as a reaction to the tensions in the Middle East, politicians from the president on down are seeking a 'magic pill' that will solve our energy problems. President Obama promised a 'green revolution,' with hints at promising wind and solar energy sources during the campaign, but has now done one of his famous backtracks as he pushes the idea of 'clean coal.' One of the alleged 'clean coal' sources his administration has placed under serious consideration is 'bituminous coal' (aka 'unconventional petroleum deposit'), or simply put ... 'tar sands.' Tar sands are plentiful in the US and Canada, but environmentally treacherous to mine and transport - yet, this is the 'green energy' the Obama administration has leaned toward - with heavy prodding from its most threatening political enemy, Koch Industries - disputed founders of the Tea Party movement."
Read the Article

Rush to Use Crops as Fuel Raises Food Prices and Hunger Fears

Rush to Use Crops as Fuel Raises Food Prices and Hunger Fears
Elisabeth Rosenthal, The New York Times News Service: "The starchy cassava root has long been an important ingredient in everything from tapioca pudding and ice cream to paper and animal feed. But last year, 98 percent of cassava chips exported from Thailand, the world's largest cassava exporter, went to just one place and almost all for one purpose: to China to make biofuel. Driven by new demand, Thai exports of cassava chips have increased nearly fourfold since 2008, and the price of cassava has roughly doubled."
Read the Article

Statoil find puts arctic back on oil map

Statoil find puts arctic back on oil map
Oslo, Norway (UPI) Apr 6, 2011 - Statoil's huge oil find in the Barents Sea puts the arctic on the map in the hunt for fossil fuels. The Norwegian state-owned company last week announced the most significant oil discovery off Norway in the past decade at its Skrugard prospect in the western Barents Sea. Around 108 nautical miles off the Norwegian coast, the field may hold between 250 million barrels and 500 mill ... more

IEA World Energy Outlook 2010

Fossil fuel subsidies were $312 billion in 2009 and were $558 billion in 2008 The Fossil fuel consumption subsidies increase with higher oil prices. If oil subsidies were removed then oil demand would be 4.7 million barrels per day lower in 2020.

China's electricity demand is projected to triple from 2008 to 2035.

China and India will drive world energy demand growth

Global shale gas boosts total recoverable natural gas resources by 40%

A new EIA-sponsored study reported initial assessments of 5,760 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of technically recoverable shale gas resources in 32 foreign countries, compared with 862 Tcf in the United States. Technically recoverable natural gas resources in the assessed basins totaled 5,760 Tcf. Adding the estimated U.S. shale gas technically recoverable resources (862 Tcf) to the assessments in the study gives a total of 6,622 Tcf. For comparison, most current estimates of world technically recoverable natural gas resources include few if any of the resources assessed in this study and total about 16,000 Tcf. Adding identified shale gas resources to current estimates of other gas resources increases total world technically recoverable resources by over 40 percent, to more than 22,000 trillion cubic feet.

In terms of recoverable shale gas resources, China takes the top spot, with an estimated 1,275 Tcf. The US is second, with 862 Tcf, followed by Argentina with 774 Tcf and Mexico with 681 Tcf.

The growing importance of US shale gas resources is also reflected in EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook 2011 (AEO2011) energy projections, with technically recoverable US shale gas resources now estimated at 862 trillion cubic feet. Given a total natural gas resource base of 2,543 trillion cubic feet in the AEO2011 Reference case, shale gas resources constitute 34% of the domestic natural gas resource base represented in the AEO2011 projections and 50% of lower 48 onshore resources. As a result, shale gas is the largest contributor to the projected growth in production, and by 2035 shale gas production accounts for 46% of US natural gas production.

FDA: Eating Fish With Radiation 2400% Above Federal Limits “Poses No Health Risks”

Posted by Alexander Higgins - April 6, 2011 at 3:08 am - Permalink - Source via Alexander Higgins Blog

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The EPA says eating fish caught in Japan, with radiation levels 2400% above Federal limits, does not pose any health risks. First Rainwater at 18,100% above drinking water limits is labeled as testing at levels far below concern. Now radiation in fish 2400% above federal food radiation limits also poses no health risks?
What I would really like know at this point is what levels qualify as “levels of concern”?
I recently posted the Federal Radiation limits for food in water in my article about Japan nuclear radiation being found in California drinking water.

Agency Media Standard

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Drinking water* 4 mrem/yr equivalent to 3 pCi/L (0.1 Bq/L) continuous exposure

Air** 2.1X10^-13 Ci/m3

Food and Drug Administration Food in commerce (derived intervention level)*** 170 Becquerels per kilogram (4,600 pCi/kg)

NRC, DOE, OSHA, National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement (NCRP), and International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Annual occupational exposure limits† 50 mSv (5 rem) for whole body dose 500 mSv (50 rem) for thyroid dose

Source: CDC: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/iodine/standards_regulations.html

Agency	Media	Standard
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	Drinking water*	4 mrem/yr equivalent to 3 pCi/L (0.1 Bq/L) continuous exposure
Air**	2.1X10^-13 Ci/m3
Food and Drug Administration	Food in commerce (derived intervention level)***	170 Becquerels per kilogram (4,600 pCi/kg)
NRC, DOE, OSHA, National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement (NCRP), and International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP)	Annual occupational exposure limits†	50 mSv (5 rem) for whole body dose 500 mSv (50 rem) for thyroid dose

To be clear, the radiation limit for radiation in food is 170 Becquerels per kilogram. Here is screen shot of the FDA limits for radiation published on the CDC website with the food radiation limits highlighted.

FDA Radiation Limits With Food Radiation Limits Highlighted From The CDC

The New York Times reported that radiation levels in fish being caught in Japan are up to 4,080 becquerels of radioactive iodine 131 per kilogram.

Japan Sets Radiation Standards For Fish
…
The small fish caught Friday — before the intentional dumping began — had 4,080 becquerels of iodine 131 per kilogram. The new standards allow up to 2,000 becquerels of iodine 131 per kilogram, the standard used for vegetables in Japan, but it was unclear how the government would enforce the new rules.
The fish also contained cesium 137, which decays much more slowly than iodine 131, at a level of 526 becquerels per kilogram.
“Clearly the fish are consuming highly radioactive food,” said Paul G. Falkowski, a professor of marine, earth and planetary sciences at Rutgers University. But Professor Falkowski emphasized that even those levels were not likely to present health hazards in Japan or elsewhere, since fishing is restricted in Japan and these levels of radiation are not likely to travel far.
Still, experts on radiation in seafood said it was nearly impossible to get a full sense of the scope of the environmental and health risks until the Japanese released information on radiation levels in more species of fish and seaweed and in a greater number of locations. Measurements in the seawater are often not a good indication of how much radiation may be entering the food chain, scientists say.
Fish and seaweed can concentrate radioactive elements as they grow, leading to levels that are higher, sometimes far higher, than in the surrounding water. Seaweed can concentrate iodine 131 10,000-fold over the surrounding water; fish concentrate cesium 137 modestly.
…
Source: The NY Times

4,080 becquerels per kg is clearly 2400% higher than the federal food limits for radiation in food of 170 becquerels per kg.

FDA Says Japanese Fish With Radiation 2400% Higher Than Federal Food Limits Pose No Health Risks

The Feds say that fish with radiation levels 2400% above federal food limits is safe to eat.

U.S. Seeks to Reassure on Contaminated Food
U.S. public-health officials sought Tuesday to reassure consumers about the safety of food in the U.S., including seafood, amid news that fish contaminated with unusually high levels of radioactive materials had been caught in waters 50 miles from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.
No contaminated fish have turned up in the U.S., or in U.S. waters, according to experts from the Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They expressed confidence that even a single fish sufficiently contaminated to pose a risk to human health would be detected by the U.S. monitoring system.
They also dismissed concerns that eating fish contaminated at the levels seen so far in Japan would pose such a risk.
Thomas Frieden, head of the CDC in Atlanta, said he expected continued detection of low levels of radioactive elements in the water, air and food in the U.S. in coming days, but that readings at those levels “do not indicate any level of public health concern.”
…
Source:Wall Street Journal

Back in the real world…

Radiation Experts: Radiation Standards Are Up to 1,000 Higher Than Is Safe for the Human Body

Another strong quake rattles tsunami-ravaged Japan By CARA RUBINSKY

Another strong quake rattles tsunami-ravaged Japan

By CARA RUBINSKY

EPA administrator Lisa Jackson's Misleading Rhetoric

Don't shoot the messenger:

EPA administrator Lisa Jackson's Misleading Rhetoric

Mario Loyola

The Weekly Standard
April 5, 2011 11:30 AM

EPA administrator Lisa Jackson was interviewed for a Time magazine piece, "The Republican War on EPA Begins--But Will They Overreach?" Earlier in the week, I ran my own piece on this topic, "EPA's War on American Industry." War analogies are common in political discourse, but I would argue that my analogy is more apt than Time's, because EPA is actually threatening to cause economic damage on the scale of a major war.

EPA is on defense now because a strong majority in both Houses of Congress wants to strip it of the power to regulate greenhouse gases. With possibly enough Democrats to defeat a filibuster, the Senate vote, which is likely to take place this week, will be very close. In what history will remember as one of her more embarrassing moments, Jackson criticized the congressional effort in the interview accompanying the Time story:

The biggest criticism that I've leveled – and I've done it in my hearing testimony – is that what the current efforts do is overrule scientists on a scientific finding. Congress is essentially passing a law that says, We, a bunch of lawmakers, have decided what the science is on this issue. And that to me is what this Congress could be remembered for, more than anything else. History will forget a lot of the day-to-day, inside the beltway discussions about riders and budget and trying to get rid of or defund the EPA, but I don't think that history will forget the first time that politicians made a law to overrule scientists.

The congressional effort has nothing to do with overruling scientists, and everything to do with reclaiming for Congress the enormous responsibility of balancing the interests at stake here. Scientists are in no position to balance the potential danger of climate change vs. the benefits of regulation vs. the costs to society of that regulation -- they have no constitutional power to do so and in fact they have made no attempt to do so. It is Lisa Jackson's EPA that has arrogated to itself the power to regulate virtually all economic activity in the name of preventing climate change. (This would be a tall order -- the seas have risen about 350 feet since the last ice age).
Lisa Jackson can derisively dismiss that "bunch of lawmakers" all she wants, but if the scientific consensus is that Congress should cede the power to regulate the American economy to the EPA, that's just too bad. The Clean Air Act was intended to regulate emissions of pollutants that pose a direct chemical danger to human health. It was not intended, and is not at all structured, to regulate all economic activity in order to manipulate the relative proportions of gases in the atmosphere we breathe, or to counteract cycles of climate change that are not principally the result of human activity. In another arrestingly unhinged comment, Jaskson told Time that the EPA actions are actually "deregulatory" because EPA is generously exempting (for the moment) medium- and small businesses from EPA's newfound power over America's economic activity. She's referring to the Tailoring Rule, in which EPA brazenly rewrites the Clean Air Act standards on emissions because of the "absurd results" (EPA's term) of regulating greenhouse gases according to the black-letter statutory standards. When an executive branch agency starts rewriting its own enabling statute at will, it can expect congressional opposition.
Suffice to say for now that Jackson is egregiously misleading the American public when she describes the EPA actions as "deregulatory" and nothing more than a "scientific finding." EPA's bid to regulate greenhouse gases is one of the most audacious and dangerous power grabs in the history of administrative agency actions, and it is no wonder that Congress wants to stop it.
Mario Loyola is director of the Center for Tenth Amendment Studies, and an analyst for energy and environment, at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

- The environmental movement has become a belief system unto itself, where claims of “consensus” lead to charges of heresy and apostasy when people challenge the assumptions inherent in anthropogenic global-warming claims. -- Ed Morrissey, Hot Air blog

Fresh quake triggers tsunami warning in Japan

By the CNN Wire Staff

Climate change called security threat

Climate change called security threat
London (UPI) Apr 5, 2011 - Climate change threatens a global health catastrophe and could undermine global political stability and security, a British Medical Journal editorial says. Medical and military leaders, in a joint editorial, warn that climate change "poses an immediate and grave threat, driving ill-health and increasing the risk of conflict, such that each feeds upon the other," a BMJ release reported W ... more

Long-term effect of drought on trees seen

Long-term effect of drought on trees seen
West Lafayette, Ind. (UPI) Apr 5, 2011 - Tree leaves impacted by drought may, in turn, adversely affect the availability of soil nutrients when they fall to the ground, U.S. researchers say. Scientists at Purdue University found that red maple leaves accumulate about twice as much tannin when exposed to hot, drought-like conditions and those tannins, which are a leaf's defense against herbivores and pathogens, can interfere wi ... more

US Senate defeats bid to gut climate efforts

US Senate defeats bid to gut climate efforts
Washington (AFP) April 6, 2011 - The US Senate on Wednesday rejected a bid to strip President Barack Obama of his power to regulate greenhouse gases, a move that could have thrown US efforts against climate change into chaos. The Senate, where Obama's Democratic Party holds a majority, voted 50-50 on a bill to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from setting standards on greenhouse gas emissions blamed for the wo ... more

Climate Change Is Making Our Environment 'Bluer'

Climate Change Is Making Our Environment 'Bluer'
London, UK (SPX) Apr 07, 2011 - The "colour" of our environment is becoming "bluer", a change that could have important implications for animals' risk of becoming extinct, ecologists have found. In a major study involving thousands of data points and published this week in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Animal Ecology, researchers examined how quickly or slowly animal populations and their environment change over ... more

First Consistent Geological Interpretation Of East Africa Rift System

First Consistent Geological Interpretation Of East Africa Rift System
Leicester, UK (SPX) Apr 07, 2011 - Astrium GEO-Information Services has completed a geological interpretation study of the East Africa Rift System (EARS) and the surrounding area that is increasingly becoming an exploration hotspot for the Oil, Gas and Minerals industry. For the first time, these organisations can have access to an 'off-the-shelf' set of integrated data to highlight the hydrocarbon prospectivity and oil see ... more

Japan May Expand Fukushima Evacuation Zone

Japan May Expand Fukushima Evacuation Zone

Japanese authorities said they are considering an expansion of the current twelve-mile evacuation zone around the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant (WSJ), citing the dangers of inhabitants facing prolonged exposure to lower levels of radiation.

Maersk Drilling orders first two ultra-deepwater drillships from Samsung for $1.3B

Maersk Drilling orders first two ultra-deepwater drillships from Samsung for $1.3B
Maersk Drilling has signed a $1.3 billion contract with Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea for the construction of two ultra deepwater drillships able to work in waters up to 12,000 feet deep and drill well more than 40,000 feet.
Full Article

EIA: Shale gas is a global phenomenon with 6,622 TCF in unconventional resources worldwide

EIA: Shale gas is a global phenomenon with 6,622 TCF in unconventional resources worldwide
Initial assessments of 48 shale gas basins in 32 countries suggest that shale gas resources, which have recently provided a major boost to US natural gas production, are also available in other world regions.
Full Article