Following up on similar measurements taken in December1, a Greenpeace radiation monitoring team checked contamination levels in the centre of Fukushima City, as well as the nearby suburb of Watari, finding several hot spots, including…
Energy
With the onset of global warming, climate scientists are saying that floods are striking at greater severity than ever before. All of the nation’s nuclear plants were designed, built and licensed many years before dam collapse…
Victory in the Senate—No Revival of the Rejected Keystone XL Pipeline
Natural Resources Defense Council
03-08-2012
In a victory for people across the U.S., the Senate defeated an attempt to approve the already rejected Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Backers of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline just do not seem to learn—the country does not want…
Today, Wall Street speculators control nearly 80 percent of this market. Many of those people buying and selling oil in the commodity markets will never use a drop of this oil. They are not airlines or trucking companies who will use…
Right now, 40 percent of the energy used in America goes to heat, cool, and power our buildings. And because much of this energy comes from dirty and dangerous sources like coal, oil, and natural gas, this accounts for…
The two books, however, don’t manage to cover some important aspects of the fracking issue. In fact, the most remarkable work on the subject has been done by Ian Urbina, a New York Times journalist, and by the rebel filmmaker Josh Fox…
In Jharia, in the federal state of Jharkhand, around 600,000 people live in the middle of one of India’s biggest coal mining areas…
SQ is nuclear-speak for “Seismic Qualification.” A seismically qualified nuclear plant won’t melt down if you shake it. A “seismic event” can be an earthquake or a Christmas present from Al Qaeda. You can’t run a nuclear reactor…
The use of fracking expanded in 2005 when Congress exempted it through statutory amendments from complying with decades-old federal environmental laws governing safe drinking water and clean air. This exemption is now commonly known as the Halliburton loophole…
This is the first time that the pipeline has had an up or down vote in the Senate. If we can block Keystone on this vote, we will be in a much stronger position to keep it bottled up in the future…
For TransCanada it is a race against time. It needs to get the pipeline built by about 2015, to try and pre-empt the Northern Gateway pipeline from getting approved. By starting on the southern section it will shorten the…
How could they let this happen? That’s what UNESCO officials want to find out, as they take the extraordinary step of coming to Australia this week to investigate how the government is allowing millions of cubic metres of sea floor…
“The NRC took 10 years to fully implement new security measures in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and now it says it will take at least five years to implement post-Fukushima reforms,” said Edwin Lyman, co-author of…
This developing confrontation between Native peoples—who from their traditions understand that they bear responsibilities as keepers of the Earth—and the huge multinational corporate XL Pipeline complex, could become an international focal point…
Partisan Nit-Picking Ignores Disaster Risks for Thousands of Chemical Facilities
Greenpeace USA
03-07-2012
“Only in Washington, can you hear people say, ‘this program isn’t working,’ so let’s extend it until 2018.” Following a Fox News report on an internal DHS memo, House Republicans held another hearing March 6 on the…
Amidst reports that New York State might green light hydraulic fracturing this year, the Buffalo Common Council passed a resolution on March 6 to support S4220 and A7218, bills that would prohibit fracking and wastewater treatment in New York…
BP Settlement Sells Out Victims—Deal Buries Evidence of Oil Company Willful Negligence
Greg Palast
03-06-2012
I can tell you right now that there is no way, no how, that the $7.8 billion BP says it will spend on this settlement will cover that damage, the lost incomes, homes, businesses and boats, let alone the lost lives—from cancers, fetal deformities, miscarriages, and lung and skin diseases…
When it comes time to sell their homes, people who have leased their land may run into serious problems. Every banker, insurance executive, housing official and mortgage specialist should read this comment very closely….
Northwestern New Mexico at Risk from Bureau of Land Management Fracking Plan
WildEarth Guardians
03-06-2012
For example, the agency did not analyze the air quality impacts of the drilling. Yet recent air pollution inventories show that ground-level ozone forming volatile organic compound emissions are thirty times higher than originally expected…
What might a severe tornado, of the type that struck on March 2, with winds ranging from 75 to 175 mph, mean for a hypothetical commercial-scale centrifuge plant, spinning uranium hexafluoride gas? Neither USEC nor the NRC bothered to conjecture…
But now the plot thickens—In a bizarre move, Shell has decided to preemptively sue a group of environmental groups, including Oceana, to attempt to silence our voices and remove our right to challenge their spill response plan…
Four New Feedstocks Fail to Meet Renewable Fuel Standard for Biofuels
Friends of the Earth
03-06-2012
The original ruling allowed four biofuel feedstocks—camelina oil, energy cane, giant reed and napiergrass—to qualify toward mandates for biofuels consumption set by the Renewable Fuel Standard…
Add your voice to the call to uphold the legal rights of the traditional custodians of the land and stop this reckless project from going ahead. It’s not a matter of if an oil spill would happen, but when…
109 Organizations Speak Out against Obama’s Support for Fracking
Environmental Working Group
03-05-2012
The groups, which represent more than 3 million supporters in 16 states, questioned the president’s statement that the U.S. sits atop a supply of natural gas that “can last America nearly 100 years.” They also disputed the claim…
New Mapping Tool Shows How Severe Nuclear Accident Could Look in U.S.
Natural Resources Defense Council
03-05-2012
In addition to human error and hostile acts, more common occurrences like hurricanes, tornadoes and flooding—all of which took place around the country last year—could cause the same type of power failure in U.S. plants…
It helps with BP’s litigation strategy by boosting the chances of a settlement with the government. And people are now saying that the fact that BP settled for a lower amount with the plantiffs means it will settle for less…
In the meantime, we’ll be celebrating the hard-fought and long-overdue victory in Chicago. When communities come together and demand change, incredible things can happen…
Colorado Conservation Groups Call Out Gov. Hickenlooper for Misleading Oil & Gas Ads
Clean Water Action Colorado
03-02-2012
On Feb. 27, 13 conservation groups delivered a letter to Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) expressing dismay over his claim in an oil and gas industry radio ad that “we have not had one instance of groundwater contamination associated with drilling…
These cumulative emissions will remain in the atmosphere for extended periods due to the long lifetime of CO2, meaning that global mean surface temperatures will increase to a level greater than if we continued to use conventional…
The preliminary results came out in December. They show that drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and oil and gas production are likely responsible for the groundwater contamination. If the preliminary results hold up after peer review…
