Under pressure from state lawmakers and environmentalists, Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration released draft regulations for hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” the controversial drilling process driving the nation’s oil and gas boom. [Los Angeles Times]
An industry group representing oil and gas companies has sued a city in Colorado that outlawed hydraulic fracturing, saying voters had no right to ban the drilling practice. [New York Times]
Even in winter, the severe drought that plagued a great swath of the nation’s agricultural and ranching states this summer is taking a punishing toll on the nation’s economy, with the Mississippi River barging industry the latest sector to fall victim. [Christian Science Monitor]
Australia’s climate change adviser recommended sticking with the government’s 2020 renewable energy target to give investors confidence in the industry. [Bloomberg]
With the global total of climate-disrupting emissions likely to come in at around 52 gigatonnes (billion metric tonnes) this year, we’re already at the edge, according to new research. [Guardian]
German utilities say this year’s share of renewable energies in the country’s electricity production is forecast to rise some 15 percent on the year, largely on the back of a continuing solar-power boom. [Associated Press]
The prospect of a new U.S. secretary of state favoring tougher carbon policy should not worsen the odds of the Keystone XL oil pipeline being approved, the chief executive of TransCanada Corp, the contentious project’s proponent, said on Monday. [Reuters]
Britain set out a 5-year plan on Tuesday to unlock the solar and biomass investment needed to achieve the country’s 2020 green energy targets. [Reuters]
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
Tipping Points in Earth Climate System (2012 Arctic Methane Special) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG36sWOrm1k
Dec. 18, 2012 — Brine water that flows back from gas wells in the Marcellus Shale region after hydraulic fracturing is many times more salty than seawater, with high contents of various elements, including radium and barium. The chemistry is consistent with brines formed during the Paleozoic era, a study by an undergraduate student and two professors in Penn State’s Department of Geosciences found.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121218203537.htm
Stratigraphically, the Marcellus is the lowest unit of the Devonian age Hamilton Group, and is divided into several sub-units. Although black shale is the dominant lithology, it also contains lighter shales and interbedded limestone layers due to sea level variation during its deposition almost 400 million years ago.[6] The black shale was deposited in relatively deep water devoid of oxygen, and is only sparsely fossiliferous. Most fossils are contained in the limestone members, and the fossil record in these layers provides important paleontological insights on faunal turnovers.
Wiki -
The Marcellus natural gas is some of the oldest carbon we will ever burn .
So it is heavily polluted, unfit for consumption or use in agriculture and a terrific waste disposal problem. How can it be so? The fracking businessmen said everything was OK, and the nay-sayers nought but lying ‘watermelons’. My faith in humanity has suffered a grievous blow.
Climate Change Is Killing the Economy: Here’s What Can Be Done to Stop It http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhyjD8Tv22g
What’s Redd and will it help tackle climate change? http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/dec/19/what-is-redd-climate-change-deforestation
Impact of climate change on California’s electricity infrastructure could be costly http://phys.org/news/2012-12-impact-climate-california-electricity-infrastructure.html
Sen. Boxer firms up plans for weekly ‘climate change clearinghouse’ Senate Democrats — and any interested Republicans — will huddle weekly on climate change in the next Congress in an “open forum” to help craft and support legislation, the plan’s architect said.
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) told The Hill on Tuesday that the “climate change clearinghouse” will also focus on working with the Obama administration and keeping members of abreast of the latest science.
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/273539-sen-boxer-firms-up-senate-climate-change-clearinghouse-plan
Another View: Facts don’t support rhetoric of climate change deniers
Sea levels are rising, glaciers are melting and the trend will continue unless we take action. http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/facts-dont-support-rhetoric-of-climate-change-deniers_2012-12-19.html
claims that the British Meteorological Office reported last October that there “has been absolutely no net change (in global temperatures) in the succeeding 16 years (since 1996).” Mr. Harmon’s source is a misleading story from the British tabloid Daily Mail. That story was thoroughly refuted by the British Meteorological Office. An excellent summary of the article and its refutation was posted on Oct. 15 at minnesota.publicradio.org. http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/facts-dont-support-rhetoric-of-climate-change-deniers_2012-12-19.html
Additional energy and climate headlines are posted at http://www.marcaccicomms.com/news/energy-and-environment-news-roundup-12-19-12/
Louisiana senator wary of federal carbon tax proposal
BATON ROUGE — With Congress debating tax cuts and overseeing part of the recovery for areas affected by Hurricane Sandy, the proposition of a national carbon tax has resurfaced. http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20121217/articles/121219668
Wind energy giants team up to test 8MW turbine design
Danish wind operator DONG Energy and wind turbine manufacturer Vestas have entered into a cooperation agreement that will see them work together – testing Vestas’ V164-8.0 MW offshore wind turbine at Østerild test centre in Denmark. http://www.renewableenergyfocus.com/view/29938/wind-energy-giants-team-up-to-test-8mw-turbine-design/
Virginia’s Renewable Energy Policy Under Review
“The biggest problem is that the law was intended to spur the development of new renewable energy in Virginia, and instead, the companies are able to fulfill the goals and get the associated financial benefits without actually investing in any new energy,” Kemler says. http://wamu.org/news/12/12/18/virginias_renewable_energy_policy_under_review
Germany to Propose Renewable-Energy Subsidy Changes in March
Germany, Europe’s biggest power market, plans to propose changes to its clean-energy subsidy system in March to reduce the cost of building wind farms and solar parks as it shutters nuclear reactors. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-19/germany-to-propose-renewable-energy-subsidy-changes-in-march.html
In the Ruhr fight utility a bizarre struggle for the construction of perhaps the last coal-fired power plants in Germany. Eons new block in this case dates threatens to be an investment ruin. The group running out of time. http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.manager-magazin.de%2Funternehmen%2Fenergie%2F0%2C2828%2C873359%2C00.html&act=url
Metro Vancouver storm surge a climate-change preview, expert says http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbz9UeVIuko&feature=youtu.be
A revolutionary drilling system leads to the retrieval of additional ice for evidence of abrupt climate change from the Antarctic Ice Sheet.
Deep within ice sheets in the Polar Regions is an archive of evidence about the climate of the past. Ice cores drilled in the past have yielded amazing scientific discoveries, for example that climate can change abruptly in less than ten years, and that the CO2 in the atmosphere now is higher than evidence from the last 800,000 years.
http://engineering.dartmouth.edu/news/innovations-in-ice-drilling-enable-abrupt-climate-change-discoveries/
Pine beetle infestation increases the summertime temperatures of some Canadian forests by 1 degree Celsius—about the same impact as a forest fire—according to new findings published Sunday (November 25) in Nature Geoscience. The beetle populations, spurred into profusion by global warming, appear to be contributing to a temperature feedback loop, though it remains unclear how much the insects may affect weather patterns.
The results reinforce the conclusion that ecological disturbances like beetle infestations can have significant ecological impacts, said Allan Carroll, an insect ecologist at the University of British Columbia who did not participate in the research.
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/33447/title/Beetles-Warm-BC-Forests/
The current mountain pine beetle outbreaks are serving as an important parable in illustrating how the delicate balance of a stable climate can be easily disrupted by what seem like relatively modest changes,” said Maness. She hopes that her research can inform planning to counter future, as yet unforeseen, impacts of climate change. “No one predicted that there would be this army of rice grain-sized beetles that would destroy the BC forest industry and change regional climate in the process.”
Climate 2013: Perspectives of 8 Scientists https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWDWYgc496M
NOAA explorers discover deepwater gas seeps off U.S. Atlantic coast
Advanced sonar technology is key to discovery and mapping
December 19, 2012 http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2012/20121219_gas_seeps.html
Congressional Negotiators Drop Biofuel Restrictions in U.S. Defense Bill
by Robert F. Service on 19 December 2012, 4:25 PM
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/12/congressional-negotiators-drop-b.html?ref=hp