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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Hey, fracking industry: you didn't build that, either!; Chevron caught cheating in SF refinery fire; Texas police Taser pipeline protesters; PLUS: BACONPOCALYPSE --- this time, global warming has gone too far! ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.
IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Why is solar cheaper in Germany than the US?; Carbon tax could half deficit in 10 years; Obama must break 'climate silence'; EPA regs create $5 in benefits for every $1 in costs; Gov. Brown signs 'human right to water' bill; '100m to die' from global warming?; If US oil production is at all-time high, yet so are gas prices; Total Oil chief warns against drilling in Arctic ... PLUS: Obama vs. Romney: Stark contrast on the environment ... and much, MUCH more! ...
STORIES DISCUSSED IN TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...
- TX Police Taser Keystone Pipeline Protesters:
- TransCanada Turns Sadistic in Texas: Keystone XL Protestors Tased and Pepper Sprayed (Bill McKibben, Huffington Post):
A plain-clothes police officer was among the aggressive officers to implement torture tactics. He put [Benjamin] Franklin in a chokehold cutting off his breathing, and bent him over backwards in an attempt to make him pass out. Franklin reports difficulty swallowing because of bruises sustained to his esophagus.
...
After the pepper spray didn't work the police again conferred with TransCanada employees before sending someone back to the police car to bring a taser. Franklin and Bebe were each tased for one second. Then Franklin was tased for 5 entire seconds. He described the pain as immense and almost physically unbearable.
- Keystone XL: 8 Blockaders Start Indefinite Tree Sit to Stop Keystone XL Pipeline Construction (EcoWatch):
This morning eight people climbed 80 feet into trees in the path of Keystone XL construction, and pledged not to come down until the pipeline is stopped for good. Construction cannot proceed until tree-sitters descend as TransCanada clear-cuts through hundreds of trees to make way for the toxic tar sands pipeline.
- These Two Texans Were Tasered, Choked and Pepper Sprayed for Protesting the Keystone XL (Treehugger)
- Judge Allows Trans-Canada to Take Crawford Land for Keystone Pipeline (Ft. Worth Weekly):
What triggered the direct, nonviolent protest was a 15 word decision-following a six-month court proceeding-by Lamar County Court Judge Bill Harris sent by iPhone that will allow TransCanada to take 50-foot swath of an East Texas ranch by eminent domain. If it stands, the decision will also allow TransCanada to take any other private land they need for their pipeline by eminent domain.
- Chevron Refinery Fire: EPA Finds Secret Bypass Equipment Gave False Readings:
- Criminal investigation at Chevron refinery (SF Gate):
Federal authorities have opened a criminal investigation of Chevron after discovering that the company detoured pollutants around monitoring equipment at its Richmond refinery for four years and burned them off into the atmosphere, in possible violation of a federal court order, The Chronicle has learned.
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Air quality officials say Chevron fashioned a pipe inside its refinery that routed hydrocarbon gases around monitoring equipment and allowed them to be burned off without officials knowing about it. Some of the gases escaped into the air, but because the company didn't record them, investigators have no way of being certain of the level of pollution exposure to thousands of people who live downwind from the plant.
- Confirmed: Fracking Chemicals in Wyoming Water Supply:
- Hey, Frackers: You Didn't Build That!:
- Decades of Federal Dollars Helped Fuel Gas Boom (AP):
It sounds like a free-market success story: a natural gas boom created by drilling company innovation, delivering a vast new source of cheap energy without the government subsidies that solar and wind power demand.
...
But those who helped pioneer the technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, recall a different path. Over three decades, from the shale fields of Texas and Wyoming to the Marcellus in the Northeast, the federal government contributed more than $100 million in research to develop fracking, and billions more in tax breaks.
- Safety Rules for Fracking Disposal Wells Often Ignored (Pro Publica):
The growing number of wells used to dispose of wastewater from fracking are subject to lax oversight.
- Bacon-Pocalypse Now [Not Really]:
'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...
- Why is rooftop solar cheaper in Germany than in the U.S.? (Grist)
- U.S. carbon tax could halve deficit in 10 years: report (Reuters) [emphasis added]:
Imposing a $20 per metric ton carbon tax in the U.S. could reduce the country's budget deficit by 50 percent over the next 10 years, a report by the Congressional Research Service said on Tuesday.
- If Obama Wants To Be Re-Elected, He Needs To Break His Climate Silence (Climate Progress):
- EPA rules create $5 of good for each $1 they cost (Grist):
Research released yesterday by the (admittedly left-leaning) Economic Policy Institute argues that the economic impacts of the Obama administration’s (modest) efforts to reduce pollution uniformly produce much more economic benefit than cost. Specifically: for $26 billion in cost associated with pollution reduction, the country sees $144 billion in benefit — a return of $5.50 on every dollar spent.
- CA Gov. Brown Signs Human Right to Water Bill (IndyBay News):
By signing this bill into law, California becomes the first state in the nation to declare safe, clean, affordable and accessible water a human right.
- Explaining the ’100 million to die from climate change’ claim (Grist) [emphasis added]:
- UN: Can energy for all be a reality by 2030? (Guardian UK):
Ban Ki-moon is confident the UN initiative to promote sustainable energy can lead to universal access.
- Weather helping U.S. wildfires stay alive (UPI):
Some 35 large wildfires blistered parts of the Western United States Wednesday, weather forecasters said, away from the thunderstorms soaking parts of the East.
- U.S. Oil Production Is At Highest Level Since 1997; Yet Gas Prices Remain 'Stubbornly High' (Climate Progress):
So domestic oil production is higher than when George W. Bush was ever in office. What has that done to gasoline prices? They’re still hovering at historic highs. Here's why...
- TOTAL Chief Warns Against Arctic Drilling (Reuters):
Energy companies should not drill for crude oil in Arctic waters because the environmental risks are too high, Total SA Chief Executive Officer Christophe de Margerie said in the Financial Times on Wednesday.
- Living with PBB: Michigan Chemical plant dumped poisons, impacting town for years (Detroit Free Press):
Michigan Chemical closed as a result of the catastrophe in 1977, but only after dumping tons of PBB, as well as the now-banned pesticide DDT and other toxins, at the site and at the nearby Gratiot County Landfill.Today, the plant's environmental footprint remains: DDT in dead birds; PBB in the Pine River; pCBSA, a by-product of DDT, in the drinking water.
- Obama vs. Romney: A StarkContrast on the Environment: (Yale 360):
As the U.S. presidential campaign enters its final phase, Yale Environment 360 compares the sharply divergent views of President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on the environment and energy.
- Freaked-out climate scientists urge other freaked-out climate scientists to speak up, fight Man (Grist) [emphasis added]:
- Republican Meteorologist to Mitt Romney: My Top Ten Reasons for Republicans to Accept Reality on the Climate (Huffington Post Green)
Essential Climate Science Findings:
or
Clive said on 9/27/2012 @ 3:39 pm PT...
Interesting article re fracking contamination. This is quite a "hot potato" here in Queensland at the moment. Be interesting to see if any precedents are set and companies can be made to "fess up"!
Dredd said on 9/28/2012 @ 6:31 am PT...
The piece "Explaining the ’100 million to die from climate change’ claim (Grist)" should be called >Explaining Away the ongoing disaster happening NOW.
The one statistic that has been with the global warming induced climate change saga all along has been consistent underestimation of the current impact of the global reality.
The close second to that has been to call the consistent underestimations overestimations.
The denial beat goes on drummed up by fear.
molly said on 9/28/2012 @ 7:00 am PT...
Some problems with carbon tax as they now exist in New England.
http://citizenpowerallia...eet-cap-and-trade-fraud/