Many environmentally related posts appearing at Daily Kos each week don't attract the attention they deserve. To help get more eyeballs, Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue) normally appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
The most recent Saturday Spotlight can be seen here. More than
22,425 environmentally oriented diaries have been rescued for inclusion in this weekly collection since 2006. Inclusion of a diary in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
"Volcanoes" of gas, mud (chemicals?) and water erupt during drilling.—by
Pakalolo: "Steam, mud, gas and water (including possible fracking chemicals) exploded from a well in early April which had been drilled to a depth of 1600 feet. The explosion rocked the commune of Kuman located in SW Albania. The craters were 650 feet from the actual drill site. The terrorized inhabitants of the Kuman commune panicked while tons of clay fell on houses and their land. Walls of some of the houses cracked and large craters appeared throughout the village. Nearly 70 houses were damaged by gas explosions, 35 of them have grave and serious damages, three are uninhabitable, while the others will be assessed by a commission established by the region. Thankfully, no deaths or serious injuries were reported. The image above shows what appears to be a flash flood of fluids from the drill site. A Canadian firm, Bankers Petroleum was responsible for the catastrophe and criminal proceeding against the company have been launched according to the Marinza, Fier Police Directorate."
Fly Like an Eagle, SOAR Like a Hawk: Wind Power and the Fate of the Allegheny Flyway—by
ruby red shoes: "SOAR's activities so far have been centered on penning letters to the editor of the Lewistown Sentinel. They also take local hiking groups up onto the ridges now and then, to look at areas that are either threatened by or already developed for wind power. They keep an eye on things. They evaluate sites, talk to landowners in the planned path of and adjacent to and downhill from wind power installations, and seek cooperation from the companies building the turbines. SOAR would like to stop wind development permanently in our neck of the Allegheny ridges. But where wind power already exists in the Flyway or can't be stopped, they want to see it meet ideal specifications related to protection of wildlife and the local landscape. The group and its issues are about as NIMBY as it gets. Many of us are against fossil fuels: oil, coal, natural gas. Nuclear power? No thank you. There are those against the stupidity of design and land-use in deciding to construct gigantic solar monocultural fields when there are so many new, ingenious ways to keep solar small and decentralized. Burning wood contributes to deforestation and fills the air with smoke. Now we’re against wind power too? We have to use something, right? Who decides these things? A better question is, who decided NIMBY was so bad?"
You can find more rescued green diaries below the orange garden layout.
Climate Chaos
Global Warming: Getting worse—by gregladen: "The slowdown in global warming is not real, but a decades-long slowdown in addressing global warming at the individual, corporate or business, and governmental levels is very real, and very meaningful. There is no doubt that had we started to act aggressively, say, back in the 1980s when any major hurdles for overall understanding of the reality of global warming were overcome, that we would be way ahead of where we are now in the effort to keep the Carbon in the ground by using clean energy. The precipitous drop we’ve seen in photovoltaic costs, increases in battery efficiency and drop in cost, the deployment of wind turbines, and so on, would have had a different history than they have in fact had, and almost certainly all of this would have occurred faster. Over the last 30 or 40 years we have spent considerable effort building new sources of energy, most of which have used fossil Carbon. If even half of that effort was spent on increasing efficiency and developing non fossil Carbon sources, we would not have reached an atmospheric concentration of CO2 of 400ppm in 2015. The effects of greenhouse gas pollution would be less today and we would not be heading so quickly towards certain disaster. Shame on the denialists for causing this to happen."
Reinforcing myths, instead of busting them—by
ClimateDenierRoundup : "For anyone interested in debunking climate change myths, there's a great resource that should be your first read: the Debunking Handbook. It's a short and simple guide on what to do and what not to do when countering misinformation from the masters of myth-busting at Skeptical Science. (For those that want a more advanced course, consider signing up for their MOOC on climate denial.) The main points? Don't repeat the myth, keep the rebuttal simple and work within your audience's worldview. One person who needs to read the handbook is Hannah Devlin, who has a piece in the "Observer Tech Monthly" special on climate change that attempts to confront some big climate change myths. For some reason, Devlin not only repeats the myths, but does so in
ALL CAPS, UNDER BOLD HEADERS. While the following paragraphs attempt to debunk the myth, the reader inevitably walks away with a reinforced memory of the myth, since short simple sentences in
ALL CAPS AND BOLD stand out to the eye and are remembered much more than longwinded and technical paragraph text. By making myths stand out in a way that's generally reserved for the most important (and true) information, it reinforces rather than debunks them. Further, the piece attempts to "explode" some myths on "both sides of the divide," meaning that Devlin unfortunately slips into false balance framing. For example, she discusses the idea that humans face extinction (other animals, yes, humans, not likely) and conflates micro and macro issues by explaining that warming will "be fortuitous for some." Yes, there are a handful of positive outcomes, but those are swamped by the variety and severity of negative consequences."
Deniers acknowledge Soon's wrongdoing… sort of.—by ClimateDenierRoundup : "In a desperate attempt to discredit the new study that finds Obama's EPA regulations will save 3,500 lives, JunkScience has a post (parroted by JoNova) and Monckton a letter to Harvard attempting to equate the researchers' previous research grants with Willie Soon's hidden fossil-fuel-funding. Soon—who was exposed in February for accepting significant fossil-fuel-funding in exchange for producing denier studies and testimony without acknowledging his corporate funding source—has since come under investigation. Adding injury to insult, Soon has also lost his funding from Southern Company. Now, for which 'corporation' are the researchers of this new study on the health impacts of an environmental policy charged with being shills? The EPA. At first glance, the deniers seem to have a point, because here are EPA-funded scientists doing research that resulted in findings that say the EPA's policies are good."
House Republicans launch direct attack on Earth Sciences slashing $300 to $500 million from NASA—by Lefty Coaster: "Republican shills for Big Carbon are launching a direct assault on NASA funding designed to gut any future enhancements to the Earth Sciences capabilities to monitor changing conditions on our planet from orbit using satellites. [...] A passel of anti-science global warming denying GOP representatives have put together a funding authorization bill for NASA that at best cuts more than $300 million from the agency’s current Earth science budget. At worst? More than $500 million. The actual amount of the cut depends on whether some caps enacted in 2011 are removed or not. If they are, then Earth sciences gets $1.45 billion. If not, it gets $1.2 billion. The current FY 2015 budget is $1.773 billion."
Global Warming on steroids—by grgcatfish: "So my biggest worry is what type of world are we leaving to our children and grandchildren and theirs in turn. In 2013 we passed a level of CO2 in our atmosphere that's higher than any level in history. The fossil fuels from tar sand mines is a double dose of bad greenhouse gasses. We lose the sequestration of CO2 in large amounts from the destruction of these old growth forests. Also large amounts of CO2 are being released into our atmosphere that were previously locked into the soil. The bitumen aka tar sand has a high carbon content as well."
Why would this time be worse?—by strawbale: "It is sometimes pointed out in climate discussions that the earth has been much warmer at times in the distant past, so why should we be upset about it getting that hot again? Apparently some obvious differences need to be spelled out. (Sigh.) OK, I will give that a shot. These points are why we humans should be worried, not about "the planet", but about our own survival as a civilized race.[...] The last time the earth was hotter than it is predicted to get this century, genus homo did not exist. Our entire life as a species has been spent in the alternating ice age/interstadial pattern, and our entire civilization has been in this interstadial. (Arguably, we ought to be headed into another ice age but we are making that nearly impossible.)"
Delingpole's Deepwater Disrespect—by ClimateDenierRoundup : "We spend a lot of time talking about James Delingpole, and occasionally it seems like maybe we're picking on him a bit too much (and giving him more attention than he deserves). But then he goes and publishes something so disgusting and disrespectful that our fears are assuaged, and we're again convinced no amount of disdain is sufficient. Case in point, his May 1st Breitbart post, titled, 'Five years on: Why Obama will always cherish the Gulf Oil spill.' Delingpole claims to think (because no one could possibly believe this) that, 'greenies and lefties,' actually, 'love oil disasters because they are the perfect way of dressing up their bitter, chippy, divisive war on capitalism as simple, honest, decent concern about the environment.' He goes on to say, 'the left-liberal media,' plays up the stories because they're, 'the kind of stories absolutely guaranteed to get their readership big in their trousers and hot in their knickers.' According to Delingpole, the fines levied on BP for the pollution are, 'an act of daylight robbery against a company and its shareholders,' by Obama, who Delingpole says is, 'the most aggressively left-wing president in recent memory.'"
Critters & the Great Outdoors
Daily Bucket: How Do You Make Little Spiders?...—by Lenny Flank: "I was a little surprised to find adult Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spiders during one of my walks this week. I don't usually start seeing them until the middle of May. I suspect the unusually warm April we had here supercharged the youngsters and accelerated their growth. But I found a happy couple going about the business of making little spiders ... The female Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spider is one of the largest spiders in Florida. Here she is on her web. Above her on the same web is the male, who is less than one-fifth her size."
Otters: Personal Reminisces and Great Pics—by
Gwennedd: "In many ways I've had a charmed childhood. I grew up in a small village in Wales: Llanrhaeadr Ym Mochnant, and when I turned 10, my parents sent me to boarding school in Ireland. I'd spend the week at the school, and weekends with my grandmother who lived jut outside of Dublin on Howth Head. A beautiful spot. When I was 12 my family moved to Canada, Victoria on Vancouver Island, to be exact. I spent many happy years growing up there and have some very fond and funny memories....some of which I'd like to share with you. It's about otters and how I got to be rather familiar with them. These are river otters, distinct from sea otters by their shorter necks and broader heads. They have better vision than sea otters, and although they can be in the ocean, they require fresh water to clean their fur. When I was 16, my brother, who was then 19, was walking to work one day and saw two river otters in the front window of a pet store in downtown Victoria. He inquired about them from the owners of the store who told him they were Taiwanese river otters and were brother and sister, taken in captivity when very young, just pups. My brother admired them, but wasn't able (or willing) to buy them."
The Daily Bucket - Lake Chabot Herons, Chickadee fledges—by enhydra lutris: "We have finally given up on the Lake Chabot Herons for this nesting season. Though a park employee advised us that they were nesting, we suspect that he just saw some random roosting behavior at the previous nest site. We observed from a variety of observation points multiple times and have seen no evidence of nests or even significant occupation."
Dawn Chorus - Gull ID for fun and profit.—by lineatus: "Okay, actually, no profit to be made from gull ID as far as I know. But if it's possible to tilt the meter from pure aggravation toward fun, that would be something."
The Daily Bucket: Plant/Herptile Interactions—by
matching mole: "Pretty modest diary today but I haven't done one in a while. Other observations include a pair of black-bellied whistling ducks flying over the lake last night (not seen from the yard unfortunately) as well as a leopard frog (removed from the pool) and numerous anoles (including one I can basking on one of our deck chairs)."
The Daily Bucket: Oyster Spraying, NW Coast Doings, and Pileated Woodpecker—by KenBee: "Washington State allows Oyster company to spray imidacloprid on Willapa Bay?!?!?! That's the stuff that is blamed for killing honeybees..it's is labeled not to be used on water, but a Oyster company has appealed to use it to kill native shrimp that hurt the oyster farming ..a practice where they seem to lay the oysters on the bottom. Other operations such as the ones in Humboldt bay they now hang them in nets above the bottom avoiding some of the shrimp problems and the still to be seen with google earth eelgrass bed harms. And that is about all I know about oyster farming practices ... They are going to spray this neurotoxin in Willapa Bay Washington in about 14 days..so you have 13 to complain."
Energy
Three Mile Island: A History of America's Worst Nuclear Accident—by
Lenny Flank: "In 1970, nuclear power was assumed to be the bright future of humanity, providing us with nearly limitless quantities of cheap clean energy for the foreseeable future. Instead, by 1980, nuclear power in the US was dead, and no new plants were being built. Part of the reason was the accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, which remains the worst nuclear accident in the US and the third-worst in the world. On March 28, 1979, the managers at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, located on an island in the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, had a minor but annoying problem."
Emissions Control
Study saying EPA rules will save 3,500 lives should be nailed to door of every naysayer in Congress—by Meteor Blades: "A new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change concludes that the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan proposed rules curbing CO2 emissions at electricity-generating plants will have a powerful side benefit: saving thousands of people from death as a result of respiratory ailments from emissions of soot, sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen and other pollutants. The rules are a major element in the Obama administration's Climate Action Plan to be finalized in mid-summer. They are under serious attack from industry, Republicans and a few Democrats in Congress, and some state governments. Charles Driscoll, a professor of environmental systems engineering at Syracuse who is the lead author of the study, said: 'The bottom line is, the more the standards promote cleaner fuels and energy efficiency, the greater the added health benefits.' Although the number of lives saved varies depending on the scenario, the authors concluded that the strongest version would save 3,500 lives annually. The study also said more than a thousand heart attacks would be prevented. The benefits would be immediate."
Fighting for the Right to Breathe in Detroit and Beyond—by Alisha Winters via Mary Anne Hitt: "We met last year in Pennsylvania at your annual shareholders meeting. You learned my name and shook my hand. I told you about where I live, downriver of Detroit, under the plume of the River Rouge plant, one of DTE [Energy]’s five coal-burning plants. You heard our stories. We took a picture with you. A few months later in July 2014, I wrote your CEO, Gerry Anderson, a letter and invited him to meet with me and my neighbors in River Rouge, so that we might work on plans for our future together. I received a quick reply from his office, which did not acknowledge my invitation. Instead, a representative said DTE was doing what it could to "ensure compliance.' This year, I cannot make it to your annual shareholder meeting May 7, as it is being held in Washington, D.C., a great distance away from my home and family in DTE’s service territory. But I want to call to your attention again the way your company affects my daily life. Because over the past year, DTE’s harmful practices have not changed."
Renewables & Conservation
Elon Musk announces his new Powerwall project—a revolutionary breakthrough or marketing hype?—by 728huey: "[O]ne of the biggest arguments against renewable energy is that these sources cannot be stored or contained like fossil fuels such as coal, oil, or natural gas. In addition, even if solar energy can generate sizable amounts of electricity, what happens when the sun doesn't shine? And what happens if the wind doesn't blow strong enough to propel wind turbines? And how do you generate electricity with renewables at night, when the sun doesn't shine and wind speeds traditionally die down? Some people have taken upon themselves to install deep-cycle battery packs in their green homes, and while they can be used to store renewable energy sources from solar and wind, they are bulky, heavy, and require a lot of space to be used effectively. Enter Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of Tesla Motors. He says he has come up with a solution to store said energy that is not only smaller and more efficient than current batteries but lighter on the carbon footprint and the pocketbook. But is it a green energy dream come true that will revolutionize the energy world as we know it or just really good marketing hype?"
Fracking
Natural Gas Fracking suspected as the source for the persistent Four Corners Methane Plume—by Lefty Coaster: "Gas fracking has be estimated to release much more methane than previous gas industry claims. The worst offender for Methane releases in the US is probably the natural gas field in the Four Corners area. In the region where Utah rubs shoulders with three other states, satellite imagery detected the nation's worst methane hot spot. 'That’s a huge anomaly,' said Andrew Thorpe from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 'But we don’t know exactly where the methane is coming from.' The most obvious suspect is the natural gas industry. It's one of the most productive natural gas fields in the country."
Texas State Senate passes bill to prevent local fracking bans—by Walter Einenkel: "Because it wouldn't be the Lone Star State if there weren't oil and natural gas dripping from the points of the star, Texas legislators are one step closer to stopping local municipalities from making their own decisions: Fraser described the measure as an effort to avoid double regulation of the state's most profitable industry. It would clarify that the state is the ultimate authority when setting policies related to oil and gas exploration. Under the Senate version of HB 40, cities would still exercise limited regulatory authority on above-ground oil and gas exploration activities, including things like fire and emergency response, noise and light pollution or traffic concerns. Ordinances to that effect must be reasonable and can still be preempted by state or federal laws. An ordinance that has been in effect for five years alongside oil and gas production in the area is considered automatically reasonable if it is challenged in court, putting the burden of proof on the plaintiff in such cases. The bill will now head to the Governor's desk where, if signed, it will become law."
Study: Fracking chemicals found in Pennsylvania drinking water—by Jen Hayden: "Mmmm, mmmm! Nothing like a nice, cold glass of chemicals to wet your whistle: An analysis of drinking water sampled from three homes in Bradford County, Pa., revealed traces of a compound commonly found in Marcellus Shale drilling fluids, according to a study published on Monday. The paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, addresses a longstanding question about potential risks to underground drinking water from the drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The authors suggested a chain of events by which the drilling chemical ended up in a homeowner’s water supply."
Fracking PR on Drinking Water Contamination Deconstructed—by grumpynerd: "The Slashdot summary conflates two papers, a review paper in Science which summarizes the state of knowledge about fracking the Marcellus Shale (Vidic et al. 2013), and a study of an individual incident published this month in PNAS in which researcher purport to have found a single instance of minor contamination from a fracking well (Llewellyn et al. 2015). But this is good thing because both papers should be read together. Neither paper is particularly damning or inflammatory, so at first blush it's not immediately obvious why the fracking PR flacks have gone to DEFCON 3 on this. The key is to read the review paper first. This is almost always the best way to start because review papers are supposed to give a full and balanced overview of the current state of scientific knowledge on a topic. TL;DR, I know, but stick with me for a few paragraphs and I think I can make the problem clear."
New Pennsylvania pipeline a potential death knell to trout—by Walter Einenkel: "Over the last decade, Pennsylvania has emerged as a powerhouse when it comes to drilling and pumping and making money off of natural gas—in short, fracking. Both oil and natural gas production had been in decline in the U.S. for decades before hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling techniques allowed companies to plumb deep shale formations that had previously been unreachable. Since then, natural gas production has increased by 20 percent, and it is expected to more than double in areas like Pennsylvania and Ohio over the next ten years. Similarly, oil production, which had been on the decline in the U.S. since the 1980s, shot up by nearly 50 percent between 2008 and 2013. Those shale booms — in Appalachia, North Dakota, and elsewhere — now have pipeline builders playing catch-up. Today, more than 1.5 million miles of natural gas pipeline pass beneath city streets, highways, parkland, and waterways — and more than 100,000 miles of that was added just between 2002 and 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Oil pipelines are booming, too, with 25,000 miles added to a 190,000-mile network in the last decade. Pennsylvania has billion dollar pipeline projects in the works as we speak. With so much money it is not surprising that amnesia has settled in about the ecological fate of some of Pennsylvania's own inhabitants—trout."
Keystone XL & Other Fossil Fuel Transportation
Now This Specific Proposal Is What An Export Pipeline IS - TransCanada's Upland Pipeline Project—by LakeSuperior: "National environmental organizations and Democrats [often motivated by Tom Steyer campaign contributions] have created a mythology about the Keystone XL Pipeline claiming this to be an 'export pipeline' and alleging that crude oil deliveries from the proposed pipeline would go to China or everywhere else other than the United States. Sierra Club sends out fund solicitations showing cartoon graphics of tankers labelled 'China' being loaded by KXL crude and Steyer's NextGen shows dramatic footage in a polished political ad making this claim alleging the crude oil will go to China. Michael Brune goes to a congressional committee and on national television making similar claims alleging that the United States will not receive any benefits from the alleged 'export pipeline.' [...] In order to drive the point home that KXL is not an 'export pipeline,' recent news yields a very clear example demonstrating a proposed border crossing pipeline that actually and legitimately is a USA crude oil export pipeline. This is a clear example of a pipeline project which will need a Presidential Permit for an international border crossing that is clearly an 'export pipeline'—recent news yields this story on TransCanada's proposed Upland Pipeline Project running from North Dakota to Saskatchewan."
Yet another oil train goes off the rails and burns. No injuries reported, but 35 people evacuated—by Meteor Blades: "The Department of Transportation predicted last July that there would be an average over the next decade of 10 major derailments a year of trains carrying crude oil or ethanol. Wednesday morning there was another one, this time in Heimdal, North Dakota, a tiny town about 50 miles east of Minot. It was the fifth such derailment nationwide this year. At least six tank cars caught fire when a BNSF train hauling crude oil from the Bakken formation derailed at about 7:15 AM CT."
DC, State & Local Eco-Politics
Republicans who cut science budgets are not stupid. They're malicious. Goal: official ignorance—by Meteor Blades: "Defunding the scientists and programs dedicated to learning more about what is the only humanly inhabitable planet in many a parsec is not just idiocy. It's meant to bolster the goals and, most importantly, the bottom line of the corporations whose products are the driving force behind the global warming that is steadily making Earth less humanly habitable. If we don't collect data, don't dig into alternatives and don't study impacts, then who's to say we cannot continue business as usual—the oil, coal and gas business, that is? These men and women can set back progress in climate science. They can censor scientific voices just as Rick Scott won't let public employees say "climate change" and North Carolina barred using scientific evidence of sea level rise. But no matter what Exxon and the Koch brothers pay them to vote and to say, these politicians cannot censor global warming itself."
Climate Denying Governors - The Ball is in Your Court!—by walterhpdx: "People know that climate change is a serious issue, and it's something that we need to take our collective heads out of the sand before we end up drowning on that tide-rising beach, and do something about. Well it looks like the Obama Administration has thrown down the gauntlet. While flooding and storms can get even worse due to changing climate, it can lead to some disastrous results. We all know about Hurricane Katrina, and the drought that California is going through right now. But even with all of this, the climate-change deniers in the Congress want to do stupid things, like strip out money from NASA's climate change research. What, do billionaires need another tax break? But what the Obama Administration has done is brilliant. For states that want Federal money to help cope with disasters,they must address just how their state is going to deal with climate change. And if they don't, they don't get any Federal tax dollars."
Agriculture, Food & Gardening
Almond acreage goes up 150,000 acres during record drought!—by Dan Bacher: "California growers continue to expand their almond acreage in the state during the current drought while Governor Jerry Brown has mandated that urban families slash their water usage by 25 percent. California’s 2014 almond acreage is estimated at 1,020,000 acres, up 50,000 acres from the 2013 acreage of 970,000, according to a recent survey conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics Service. That is an increase of 5 percent in one year. At the beginning of our current drought, almond acreage was 870,000 acres, reported the 'On the Public Record' blog."
12 Million forest trees died last year in California and more almond trees got planted—by annieli: "As different as agricultural trees are from the forest, the California drought is devastating to the entire ecosystem with varying effects relative to the state's economy. The areas that will feel the effects are the overlap areas in the various adjacent foothills and of course the indirect yet associated effects on state fire resources as well as other long-term aspects - erosion, construction and lumber. According to an aerial survey conducted last month by the U.S. Forest Service, approximately 12 million forest trees have died in Southern California and the southern Sierra Nevada mountains over the last year. The report credits unusually high temperatures, a diminished snowpack and a severe lack of rainfall with drying up the trees, leaving the region susceptible to forest fires. Of the more than 4.2 million acres surveyed in Southern California, researchers found 164,000 acres with high tree mortality. They found approximately 2 million trees had died over the last year."
You probably don't want to hear this but California is using water left from fracking to water crops—by
VL Baker: "Yes, it's the waste water left over from fracking. The fracking liquid that contains chemicals we don't know about. This is the kind of idiocy posing as one solution to the California man-made water crisis. Although the drought is exacerbated by climate change, the water crisis is occurring due to irresponsible farming practices. Specifically, the 47% of California water which is used for dairy factory farms, livestock production and crops used for animal feed which I wrote about here, here and here. The LA Times has the story:
in California's thirsty farm belt, where pumpjacks nod amid neat rows of crops, it's a proposition that seems to make sense: using treated oil field wastewater to irrigate crops. Oil giant Chevron recycles 21 million gallons of that water each day and sells it to farmers who use it on about 45,000 acres of crops, about 10% of Kern County's farmland. California seems to think it has a good thing going utilizing fracking waste water. California produces nearly 50% of all fruit and vegetables in US. Although there are other areas in US more suited to produce produce than California, California seems reluctant to cede it's production to more suitable areas regardless of the consequences to our food supply."
Some California farmers are using oil wastewater for crops—by Jen Hayden: "From today's who in the hell really thinks this is a good idea file: Oil giant Chevron recycles 21 million gallons of that water each day and sells it to farmers who use it on about 45,000 acres of crops, about 10% of Kern County's farmland. State and local officials praise the 2-decade-old program as a national model for coping with the region's water shortages. As California's four-year drought lingers and authorities scramble to conserve every drop, agricultural officials have said that more companies are seeking permits to begin similar programs. The heightened interest in recycling oil field wastewater has raised concern over the adequacy of safety measures in place to prevent contamination from toxic oil production chemicals. Regulatory agencies, oil producers like Chevron, environmentalists and farmers are all debating whether the process is safe, all while the state looks to expand the program and issue more permits. Isn't this something that should be verified before it could endanger our crops—and our lives?"
Stewart Resnick is on UC Davis Chancellor's Board of Advisors—by Dan Bacher: "A coalition of environmentalists in April slammed Beverly Hills billionaire Stewart Resnick and other corporate agribusiness interests for continuing to plant thousands of acres of new almond trees during the drought while Governor Jerry Brown is mandating that urban families slash water usage by 25 percent. A lot of things about Resnick and his wife, Lynda, who have become media celebrities, particularly for their 'philanthropy,' are well-known. It is well known that the Resnicks have have been instrumental in promoting campaigns to eviscerate Endangered Species Act protections for Central Valley Chinook salmon and Delta smelt populations and to build the fish-killing peripheral tunnels."
Kaua'i official to Syngenta: Don't spray our schools with pesticides banned in your country—by Karen from Maui: "Kaua'i Councilmember (and former Hawai'i state Environmental Quality Chair) Gary Hooser traveled to Switzerland to speak at the Syngenta shareholders meeting. He said [...] I'm also here today to present a petition a petition from thousands of residents of our small island. There's only 60-65 thousand people live where I live and we are very, very concerned about our community and the impacts that Syngenta has in our small community. And that petition is very simple. It asks Syngenta to honor the laws of our community. Withdraw your lawsuit from the courts of Hawai'i. And to give us the same respect as the same protection as you give the people of Switzerland. Right now Syngenta sprays enormous amounts of Atrazine in the fields around homes, schools and hospitals where we live. Atrazine is not allowed to be sprayed in your country."
Transportation & Infrastructure
Sunday Train: Variable Renewables and Dispatchable Demand—by BruceMcF: "Much of the focus on the Sunday Train is on electrification of transport, ranging from 2,000 mile hauls of electrified freight through to hopping on an e-bike to pick up some groceries. And spending this school year mostly living and working in Beijing brings many of the possibilities to life ... from riding the subway to get to the Sanlitun district for Texas BBQ, to seeing an electric freight train passing on a line overhead as the bus we were riding for our school spring outing last Saturday was bogged down in Beijing traffic, to seeing the electric delivery tricycle used by the pizza delivery from Woudaokou for the neighbor down the haul who seems to live in delivered pizza and Indian food. But the efficiency gains of electric traction are only half of the story for sustainable transport, since its not fully sustainable unless that electricity is generated in a sustainable way. And when following online discussion of renewable energy at the Energy Collective, which attracts both advocates for and detractors of investment in renewable energy resources, a perennial source of ammunition for attacks on renewable energy are the challenges of meeting demand for electricity with the harvest of a variable source of energy that is available on its own schedule, and not ours."
How Electric Car Racing Can Compete with Nascar….Vrrroooomm !—by CrashnBurn: "OK, so you’ve bought your ticket and you’re at the Indianapolis 500 of electric car racing anxiously awaiting the start of the race. You’ve got your Teslas, Nissans, Bimmers, Volts, and other cars all participating in the event. You check your watch/phone—yes it’s just about to start any second now. At that moment the flagman walks out to the tarmac, stops, and without warning brings the flag down to start the race! Then …….. crickets. Silence. A void of sound. All is quiet. Boring. But you see that the cars have sprung furiously out of the gate and are already racing round the track. But you don’t hear anything. What? OK, let’s rewind this and see if we can spice things up a bit and make for a far more interesting race! As electric cars make little if any sound, why don’t we add sounds so they do!"
Oceans, Water & Drought
Scientists abandon California snowpack measurement, because–why bother?—by Jen Hayden: "Two years ago, scientists at UCLA predicted there would be significantly less snowfall in California than in decades. Snowpack runoff is critical to California's water supply and with a severe drought already in play, California is in a bad, bay way. In fact, this year's snowfall was so far off the mark, scientists have abandoned their snowpack study: State water officials had planned to make the trek back to the Sierra Nevada to conduct their snowpack measurement Friday. But Thursday they announced they wouldn’t bother. For the second consecutive month, there won’t be any snow to measure. 'This is just another piece of information in a series of increasingly dismal findings,' said Department of Water Resources spokesman Doug Carlson. 'It nails down that the drought is severe—maybe as severe as any in our history.'"
Governor makes three appointments to Department of Water Resources—by Dan Bacher: "On May 1, Governor Jerry Brown announced the following changes in staff positions at the Department of Water Resources following Thursday's release of the revised Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP). The three people appointed to new positions at the Departmen—Richard Stapler, Nancy Vogel and Ed Wilson—are all names well-known to those who follow the water wars and the Governor's campaign to build the twin tunnels under the Delta."
Trash, Pollution & Hazardous Waste
Analysis of Beached Grey Whale in British Columbia for Fukushima Radioisotopes—by MarineChemist: "The purpose of this diary is to report analyses carried out by the InFORM project on muscle and blubber samples from a grey whale (Eschrichtius robustus), that beached near Tofino, BC on April 20, 2015. The diary is the most recent in a series that aims to communicate results of scientific research into the impact of the Fukushima disaster on the environment. With the cooperation of the Ucluelet Aquarium the InFORM project was able to obtain samples of the whales muscle and blubber which were analyzed for the presence of gamma emitting radioisotopes in Health Canada's laboratories in Ottawa, ON Canada. The gamma radiation spectra were dominated by naturally occurring radioisotopes, primarily Potassium-40 (40K half life 1.25 billion years), and after 24 hours of counting no Fukushima derived Cesium-134 (134Cs half life ~ 2 years), a fingerprint of the disaster in the environment could be detected. The unfortunate demise of the grey whale is very unlikely to have been the result of acute or chronic radiation exposure owing to Fukushima derived radionuclides in seawater and the whales food."
Supreme Court Orders Air Pollution Clearup Plan—by Lib Dem FoP: "London and several other British cities have failed to meet EU standards on nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels since 2010, running the risk of fines from Brussels [the EU Commission] and prompting a legal challenge by NGO ClientEarth. On Wednesday, five judges unanimously ruled in the group’s favour and said the next environment secretary must draw up a plan to meet the EU rules by the end of 2015. The main cause of the hotspots is the use of diesel powered vehicles. These have been promoted by successive governments by reduced vehicle and fuel taxes due to the fuel efficiency and the relative lower emissions of carbon dioxide. Unfortunately they produce considerably more nitrogen dioxide which is injurious to human health. New EU emission standards for vehicles have been produced but makers have yet to produce a full range of 'Clean diesel' engines. The iconic London black taxis are all diesel driven as were buses previously."
Duke Energy wants a breather from all of these coal ash lawsuits—by Walter Einenkel: "Duke Energy, most recently known for the Dan River coal ash spill as well as being prosecuted for the Dan River coal ash spill, was back in court trying to stay slightly out of court—for 6 months at least. A Delaware judge is considering Duke Energy's request for a six-month halt of a shareholder lawsuit prompted by a massive coal ash spill in North Carolina while the company tries to resolve related lawsuits and finalize a $102 million settlement of a federal criminal investigation. What's the lawsuit about? The shareholder plaintiffs accuse current and former Duke Energy officers and directors of breaching their fiduciary duties. Specifically, they claim Duke Energy officials knowingly allowed the company to repeatedly violate state and federal environmental laws, exposing it to hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, penalties and cleanup costs."
Miscellany
Huge! Alberta, Canada, home to tar sands, has elected a Premier who will stop pushing Keystone XL—by VL Baker: "NDP Leader Rachel Notley, who ended nearly 44 years of Progressive Conservative rule in Alberta in an extraordinary majority win on Tuesday, has said her government would review the royalties rates paid by oil and gas companies, increase corporate taxes, strengthen environmental rules and halt the practice of spending taxpayer dollars to promote pipeline projects in Washington and elsewhere. The stunning change comes at a time when oil prices are just starting to recover from lows that had sapped billions of dollars of government energy revenues as the sector fell into a downturn. Yesterday's Alberta election is one of the biggest shifts in Canadian political history, with huge implications."