Source of 30-mile oil spill in Gulf puzzles officials
Emulsified oil, oil mousse and tar balls from an unknown source were washing up on beaches from Grand Isle to West Timbalier Island along the Gulf of Mexico, a stretch of about 30 miles, and it was still heading west Monday afternoon, a Louisiana official said. The state is testing the material to see if it matches oil from last April’s BP Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Oil spill response workers under the direction of the U.S. Coast Guard and state officials were scrambling to block more of the material from coming ashore. ES&H Corp. has been hired to oversee the cleanup.
“We are working with our state and local partners to mitigate any further environmental impact while continuing to facilitate the safe movement of marine traffic to the fullest extent possible,” Capt. Jonathan Burton, the federal on-scene coordinator for the response, said in a news release late Monday.
“To avoid delays in resource availability and delivery, we have taken a forward leaning approach and authorized ES&H to procure whatever additional boom and resources they need,” Burton said.
The news release said that when all areas where the material has washed ashore are combined, about a half-mile of shoreline was affected.
Workers have deployed about 10,000 feet of containment and sorbent boom to prevent damage to environmentally sensitive areas; two MARKO skimmers are being moved to the area and another two are available; and two barge boats and two drum skimmers are at the scene.
Opposition rises to increased nuclear power use
The nuclear plant crisis that resulted from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan has prompted a spike in opposition in the U.S. to increased use of nuclear power, much like the rise in opposition to increased offshore oil drilling following the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that was set off last April by the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform.
But almost a year later, according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted March 17-20, support for more offshore oil drilling has rebounded.
Fifty-two percent of those surveyed by Pew following the drama at Japan’s nuclear plants said they opposed increased use of nuclear power compared to 39 percent who supported it. That’s a turnaround from February 2010, when 52 percent favored increased use of nuclear power and 41 percent were opposed.
Eight ways $100 a barrel oil may affect you
In recent weeks, the price of a barrel of oil has stayed at about $100 a barrel, and gasoline prices have been edging closer to $4 a gallon. The costs are apparently due to events half a world away, in the Middle East. Even though plenty of oil is around, there is fear of further disruptions, and consumers, business people, and politicians have all been making adjustments. Here are eight ways that higher energy prices are starting to affect America.
1. Airplane travel: More costly, yes, but also crowded
If you’re at a computer trying to make plane reservations for the summer, you had better hold on to your seat: The prices might make you hit the ceiling.
Airlines have hiked fares six times since the beginning of the year because of the soaring price of jet fuel, says Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com.
Anyone flying to Europe this summer can expect to pay $1,400 to $1,800 round trip for a coach ticket. That cost includes about $400 for a fuel surcharge and another $120 in taxes and fees.
Interior Department OKs first new deepwater oil and gas exploration plan since disaster
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement Director Michael Bromwich announced Monday that, for the first time since the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the bureau has approved a deepwater oil and gas exploration plan, submitted by Shell Offshore Inc., following the completion of a site-specific environmental assessment.
As explained by Salazar and Bromwich, an exploration plan describes all exploration activities planned by the operator for a specific lease or leases, including the timing of these activities, information concerning drilling vessels, the location of each planned well, and other relevant information that needs to meet important safety standards. Once a plan is approved, additional new applications for permits to drill can be issued.
According to BOEMRE, Shell’s plan supplements its original exploration plan for the same lease in the company’s Auger field, which was approved in 1985. This plan would allow for the Shell to seek permits to drill three exploratory wells in about 2,950 water depth, 130 miles off the coast of Louisiana.
Based on its review, BOEMRE said it found no evidence that the proposed action would significantly affect the quality of the human environment, meaning that an environmental impact statement was not required. That allowed BOEMRE to issue a “finding of no significant impact,” enabling the supplemental exploration plan to be approved.”
Start-ups are devising kites to turn wind power into a cheap source of power
Kites of all shapes and sizes will take to the breeze Sunday, filling the airspace around the Washington Monument. The capital’s annual kite festival will feature recreational fliers as well as competitions to determine the best homemade kites, the kite with the top aerial dance moves and the champion of Rokkaku-style kite-fighting.
Elsewhere, a different kind of kite contest is already in progress, and start-ups around the world are racing to win. The goal: to create a self-piloting kite, or something like one, that flies day and night and generates energy from the wind. The prize: potential riches, and renewable energy that proponents say will be cheaper, safer and more plentiful than fossil fuels or nuclear power.
As any kite-flier knows, getting a kite off the ground can involve some effort. But once aloft, a kite can fly seemingly forever. That’s because winds even a hundred feet or so above the ground are stronger and steadier than those close to the surface.
In the jet streams, which flow about six miles above the Earth, winds often exceed 100 mph. Those powerful air currents contain about 100 times as much energy as the world now uses, according to experts.
Poor countries pledge to help curb climate change
Mongolia says it will erect solar power plants in the frigid Gobi desert. The Central African Republic says it will expand its forests to cover a quarter of its territory. Mexico promises to slash carbon emissions by 30 percent by the end of the decade.
Costa Rica and the Maldives aim to become carbon neutral and even chaotic Afghanistan is promising to take action on climate change.
The pledges from dozens of developing countries, compiled by the United Nations and released Monday, are voluntary, and many made them conditional on financial and technical help from the industrial world.
But the list helps bring into focus demands by wealthy countries that everybody reduce greenhouse gases to fight global warming. Scientists say carbon dioxide from industrial processes trap the Earth’s heat, causing climates to change in ways that could alter agriculture, raise sea levels and contribute to more extreme weather.
Top ten U.S. and China collaborations in cleantech
A number of the cleantech efforts between the United States and China reflect the need for cooperation on issues surrounding climate change and clean energy as it is a major factor in the relations of these two countries. Although there are still issues to resolve in many of the collaborations, it is believed that if the United States and China can continue in their cleantech collaborations, that it will show the world that two major players on the international platform are serious about combating the challenge of climate change, and it will also encourage other countries to create alliances. Through collaboration, the two largest greenhouse gas emitters will be able to create technologies required to combat climate change. Not only that, but tangible benefits will be developed, not just for the United States and China, but the world as a whole.
1) United States – China Ten Year Framework for Cooperation on Energy and Environment was established in 2008, and it “facilitates the exchange of information and best practices to foster innovation and develop solutions to the pressing environment and energy challenges both countries face.” It also led to the creation of “EcoPartnerships” – a way to encourage both United States and Chinese stakeholders to strengthen their commitment to sustainable economic development within the local level.
2) United States – China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC) has its main headquarters in both countries. It will facilitate research and development of technology by a team of leading scientists and engineers in the clean technology industry. The research center receives both private and public funding which is split evenly for each country. The initial research priorities of the United States – China Clean Energy Research Center includes building energy efficiency, clean vehicles, and clean coal, which includes carbon capture and storage. It was founded in 2009 by United States President Barak Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao. The goal of the research center is to “build a foundation of knowledge, technologies, human capabilities, and relationships in mutually beneficial areas that will position the United States and China for a future with very low energy intensity and highly efficient multi-family residential and commercial buildings.”
Texas Republicans vow to fight EPA in Congress
Republican lawmakers representing Texas in Congress say they will fight attempts by the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce tougher rules.
U.S. Representatives Joe Barton and John Carter accused the EPA of being too tough on Texas following a meeting with state leaders. They said recent steps by the agency to reduce the state’s regulatory powers are a clear case of federal overreach. They vowed to introduce legislation to stop the EPA from enforcing stricter pollution rules.
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
America’s atomic time bomb
The lambs were without eyes or mouths without the world. Some legs were grown together grotesque, others had no legs. Many were stillbirths. Alone in a night died 31 pups.
At the same time found himself in a field a dead, stiff cow with their legs in the wind. Nearby pulled the Yakama Indian salmon with three eyes from the deep blue river. Trout were covered with cancerous tumors.
And then the babies were sick.
The Allisons are long dead, the horror continues. Documented in the tell-all book “Atomic Harvest” (“Atomic Harvest”) of 1993, their history is thousands of horror stories that occurred within the U.S. Hanford plutonium factory – and the people there to this day deeply unsettling. http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/technik/0,1518,752346,00.html&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhjrTHrMpaNnhoeQhXGXHY1S7bt0EQ
Atlantic Oil Spill Threatens Endangered Penguins
Thousands of endangered penguins have been coated with oil after a cargo ship ran aground and broke up on a remote British South Atlantic territory, officials and conservationists said Tuesday.
The shipwreck also threatens the lobster fishery that provides a livelihood to one of the world’s most isolated communities.
The Malta-registered MS Olivia was grounded on Nightingale Island in the Tristan da Cunha chain last week. The ship had been traveling from Brazil to Singapore and contained 1,500 metric tons (1,650 tons) of crude oil and a cargo of 60,000 metric tons (66,000 tons) of soya beans.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=134760219
In this image made available by Britain’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds on Tuesday March 22, 2011 shows three oiled rock hopper penguins on the island chain of Tristan da Cunha. Thousands of endangered penguins have been coated with oil after a cargo ship ran aground and broke up on a remote British South Atlantic territory, officials and conservationists said Tuesday. The shipwreck also threatens the lobster fishery that provides a livelihood to one of the world’s most isolated communities.
Experiences of extreme weather events increase climate change concern
A new study has found that direct experience of extreme weather events increases concern about climate change and willingness to engage in energy-saving behaviour.
The research by Cardiff and Nottingham Universities found that members of the public are more prepared to take personal action and reduce their energy use when they perceive their local area has a greater vulnerability to flooding. http://www.sify.com/news/experiences-of-extreme-weather-events-increase-climate-change-concern-news-international-ldwqOiidaie.html
Stern calls for “industrial revolution” to tackle climate change
Lord Nicholas Stern delivered a public lecture at the School on “The Low-Carbon Industrial Revolution” “This isn’t a small probability of something uncomfortable, it’s a high probability of something catastrophic”, Stern said, adding climate change has the potential to cause mass migration and “extended global conflict”.
“High carbon growth is not a serious option”, he argued, as “business as usual will create a situation so horrible that it will halt and reverse human development”.
Stern called for an “industrial revolution”, while condemning sceptics’ arguments as “logically, obviously flawed”. http://thebeaveronline.co.uk/2011/03/22/stern-calls-for-“industrial-revolution”-to-tackle-climate-change/
Didn’t I hear about a study(!) where they told us about a bacteria that had magically eaten up ALL the BP oil plumes??!! Ohh .. perhaps I was ‘Disinformed’.
Political heat on the rise over climate denial: PM accused of drawing parallels with Holocaust THE Liberal Party has accused Julia Gillard of drawing parallels between climate change and the Holocaust after she branded Tony Abbott a “climate change denier”.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/climate/politial-heat-rises-over-climate-denial-with-pm-accused-of-drawing-parallels-with-holocaust/story-e6frg6xf-1226026163930
If you deny the science behind climate change you put the entire human species at risk, not just millions of jews.
“When you stop denying the climate science, we’ll stop calling you a denier. That’s the fact of the matter,” he told parliament.
The bitter clash is a sign of the growing acrimony over the carbon tax plan, which is firming as a fight to the political death between Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott.
Earlier, Ms Gillard accused the Opposition Leader of deliberately appealing to climate change sceptics.
—
Mr Abbott told the Liberal partyroom not to undermine the Coalition’s position on climate change by questioning mainstream science.
This was despite his own declaration last week that carbon dioxide was not a proven “environmental villain” and that climate science wasn’t settled.
—
OMG!
What is climate change? – Met Office climate change guide
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHbxSYDqTR8&feature=channel_video_title
The Earth’s climate has changed many times in response to natural factors. But over the course of the last century we have seen an unusual rise in the average global temperature that can not be explained by natural causes alone. Here we explain what aspects of our climate are changing and what may be causing these changes? More information can be found online at
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate-change/guide
‘A big one’: Davenport, Iowa, braces for record flood
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Volunteers in Davenport are filling thousands of sandbags, workers are rushing to protect the city’s signature minor league baseball park, and the mayor is warning residents of one neighborhood to be ready to evacuate if necessary as the city braces for a potentially historic flood.
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/floods/2011-03-22-iowa-floods_N.htm
Prokaryotes @ 44,
“OMG!” – you’re not wrong.
It is like a mini-me version of USA’s GOP. The scariest thing is that Tony Abbott came within a bee’s dick of winning the election last year.
The article you linked to mentioned one of his sidekicks, Julie Bishop. Last week she was running a poll on her website asking people if they were in favour of Gillard’s proposed carbon tax. A regular poster here, Sou, provided a link to her poll, stating that at the time, 68% were “strongly in favour” of the tax.
At the time I added my vote, 77% were strongly in favour. I took another look the next day, only to find that the poll and all references to it had been systematically removed from her website – replaced by a poll regarding the construction of a sports stadium.
Not satisfied, I sent her an email asking why the poll had vanished and what was it’s outcome, to which she replied,
“Dear Vic unfortunately the poll has been targeted vested interest groups determined to manipulate the result. The poll was up for weeks and was running as strongly opposed about 58 per cent. Overnight many hundreds suddenly voted to strongly support. After the media coverage it was targeted by many hundreds strongly opposed. It was 50:50 this morning. I change polls regularly but given the obvious manipulation it no longer serves its purpose. Regards Julie”
Of course local media coverage of the incident was completely nonexistent.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20928043.300-how-not-to-change-a-climate-sceptics-mind.html?full=true&print=true
Yet people’s views do change if the right person is offering the evidence. Kahan investigated attitudes for and against giving the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to schoolgirls to prevent cervical cancer – another divisive issue. After he presented people with both sides of the argument, he found that 70 per cent of egalitarian-communitarians thought it was safe, compared with 56 per cent of hierarchical-individualists.
When the “pro” argument was presented as coming from an expert painted as being in the egalitarian-communitarian camp, and the “anti” view came from a hierarchical-individualist, the split widened to 71 versus 47 per cent. But strikingly, swapping the experts around caused a big shift: 61 per cent of hierarchical-individualists then rated the vaccine as safe, compared to 58 per cent of egalitarian-communitarians. In short, evidence from someone you identify with sways your view.
In practice, it is hard to find experts who will give “unexpected” testimony. But when the evidence was presented by experts with a variety of backgrounds, views were not so starkly polarised, with 65 per cent of egalitarian-communitarians and 54 per cent of hierarchical-individualists agreeing that the vaccine is safe.
So who might be best placed to change Republicans’ minds over the EPA bill? Maybe specialists from the insurance industry, which is factoring climate change into its calculations, the military, or religious environmentalists.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110322115230.htm
Carbon Capture and Storage: Carbon Dioxide Pressure Dissipates in Underground Reservoirs
ScienceDaily (Mar. 22, 2011) — The debate surrounding carbon capture and storage intensifies as scientists from the Earth Sciences Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) examine the capacity for storing carbon dioxide underground, in a study published in the new journal Greenhouse Gases: Science & Technology.
[I'm always a little leery of new journals.]
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/71403/title/News_in_Brief_EarthEnvironment_
(scroll down)
Bottoms up in the Arctic
One-quarter of the places containing frozen methane on the Arctic Ocean’s seafloor may warm substantially in the coming century, a new study suggests. Using computer simulations of the Arctic’s future, German and French researchers found that the greatest warming will occur in shallow regions where warm water enters from the Atlantic. If these areas start to warm up, heat-trapping methane could bubble to the surface and add to the effects of global warming, the scientists report in an upcoming Geophysical Research Letters. —Alexandra Witze
Prokaryotes #7, the attack on Gillard, clearly co-ordinated by the Opposition (which is dominated by the crudest denialism) and the Murdoch lie factory, ‘The Fundament’ (The Fundamental Orifice of the Nation) aka ‘The Australian’ the propaganda centre of rabid denialism in this country, was pretty predictable. The ‘denialist’ tag is not just 100% true, as they deny every ecological problem, sans evidence, sans rational argument, but the analogy with the Nazi crimes is apt, if insufficient. Whereas denialists of the Nazi crimes besmirch the memories of millions long dead and hence beyond our help, and the feelings of the survivors and relatives, and of decent humanity who wish such crimes never to recur, the denialists of the unfolding anthropogenic climate destabilisation holocaust are condemning still living humans, and those unborn, to premature death, suffering and misery in numbers that far outweigh those of the victims of Nazism. And the true, apt and morally correct label annoys the denialists so much (although much is faked, of course)that it is delicious to watch their screeching and capering. The next phase, knowing ‘The Fundament’ well, is that Gillard will be accused of ‘anti-semitism’ because of this usage.
Today is a day of shame for Australia.
As I write, prime minister Julia Gillard’s proposal for the introduction of a carbon tax is being shouted down on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra and several other capital cities across the country. Leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott has enlisted the help of several talk back radio shock jocks, who have for weeks been flooding the airwaves with calls for a “people’s revolt”.
Well, the revolting people are there now, perhaps 3000 of them mostly bussed in from Sydney. It appears from news footage that the average age of the protestors would be 60-70, perhaps more a reflection of talk-back radio’s listenership than anything else.
They are spitting their bile and waving their placards that bare the oh-so predictable slogans.
“Stick the tax up your Ass !”
“Ditch the Witch !”
“Ju-Liar !”
And there on the podium in all his glory stands Tony Abbott. With his chest puffed out and a large smirkish grin across his face as he tries to quell the chants of “Tony! Tony! Tony! …”
“It’s important to have an intelligent response. Not a stupid one”
He says to the chanting mob wearing cardboard cut-out masks of Jullia Gillard’s face with a long Pinocchio-like nose.
Excuse me while I go and vomit.
A global energy war looms
As you can see, demand in China, India and other emerging markets soars, but there is also quite considerable growth from advanced economies too. The big picture is that with an additional one billion cars on the road, demand for oil would grow 110pc to more than 190 million barrels per day. Total demand for energy would rise by a similar order of magnitude, doubling the amount of carbon in the atmosphere to more than three and a half times the amount climate change scientists think would keep temperatures at safe levels.
It scarcely needs saying that regardless of the environmental consequences, energy industries would struggle to cope, and more likely would find it impossible. We may or may not already be perilously close to peak oil – or maximum productive capacity – but nobody believes the industry could produce double what it does at the moment, however clever it becomes in tapping previously uncommercial or inaccessible reserves.
If something can’t happen, then it won’t, so is all that forecast growth in the developing world just a question of wishful thinking that will soon be dashed by the constraints of finite energy? Not necessarily, says HSBC’s economics team. The world can still accommodate high growth, but only if there is a collective change in behaviour, including much greater energy efficiency, a big change in the energy mix, and urgent development of carbon capture technologies so as to limit the damage of fossil fuel usage.
As I’ve written on several occassions before, the big prize here is the US, where per capita use of oil is far higher than anywhere else in the world. If this consumption were reduced to European levels, as is perfectly possible without damage to living standards, it would remove a demand source equal to Saudi Arabia’s entire current output of oil.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jeremywarner/100009856/a-global-energy-war-looms/
U.S. halts imports from Japan nuclear zone
The United States became the first nation to block produce from ally Japan’s radiation zone, saying it will halt milk, vegetable and fruit imports from areas near the tsunami-smashed nuclear plant because of contamination fears. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/23/us-japan-quake-idUSTRE72A0SS20110323
Though i bought some japanese algae’s i never ate before, and probably never again.
TIL that in Germany, the city weighs your garbage and charges you $4 per kilogram (!) As a result, people recycle and compost almost *everything*. You need a permit to throw out furniture (once per year, max). When Germans come here, they are often shocked by our wastefulness. http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/g8wu2/til_that_in_germany_the_city_weighs_your_garbage/
Lol, for all the energy related news about germany lately… and still, a long way to go for germany to accomplish a sustainable society.
First Solar expanding PV capacity
3/21/2011
First Solar plans to add 250MW capacity and doubling its total US production capacity to more than 500MW/year.
The $300M investment would begin construction in a few weeks (2Q11) and finish in about a year, with modules slated to ship in 3Q12.
The facility in Mesa is on an old GM vehicle testing site covering 135 acres, will include a 3MW rooftop solar installation and an extensive ground-mounted PV testing facility. There is room for expansion to 10 lines (~625MW) for about a $200M investment, adds Credit Suisse analyst Satya Kumar, bringing the facility to about $0.80/W, which is consistent with the company’s long-term capex/W strategy. The facility will generate more than 500 construction jobs and 600 overall.
“This is thrilling news for Arizona,” said Gov. Jan Brewer, in a statement. The state’s abundant sun and solar power plants — as well as “supportive state and federal policies,” including federal DoE loan guarantees, Arizona’s Competitiveness Package, and support from local stakeholders — “proved instrumental in our decision,” noted First Solar president Bruce Sohn.
http://www.onlinetes.com/renewable-energy-maufacturing-First-Solar-AZ-tes-032111.aspx
Asian Stocks Drop as More Earthquakes Strike Near Nuclear Plant
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-23/asian-stocks-drop-as-more-quakes-strike-near-nuclear-site-plants-closed.html
Joe: You haven’t had much to say about Libya. While I support Obama’s decision it is worth pointing out that this is basically another oil war. It was the oil that bought Gadhafi his weapons & without the oil we would not be nearly as likely to intervene.
[JR: Nah. Yes, oil got him rich, but oil ain't why we intervened. Everyone knows this isn't going to lower oil prices (or have much effect either way in the medium term).]
The Florida Independant news has a story
Today about a Sen. from Tampa who intro-
diced a bill that makes it a felony (1st degree)
to take a photo from a public road of a working
farm?