Petrochemicals - US

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'It's A Big One': Iowa Pipeline Leaks Nearly 140,000 Gallons Of Diesel

Sat, 2017-01-28 11:42 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Crews clean up the diesel fuel spill after a pipeline broke in Worth County, Iowa on Wednesday. Chris Zoeller/Mason City Globe Gazette/globegazette.com

npr.org - by Rebecca Hersher - January 26, 2017

An underground pipeline that runs through multiple Midwestern states has leaked an estimated 138,000 gallons of diesel fuel, according to the company that owns it, Magellan Midstream Partners.

Clay Masters of Iowa Public Radio reported diesel leaking from a 12-inch underground pipe was initially spotted in a farm field in north-central Worth County, Iowa, on Wednesday morning. Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Iowa Department of Natural Resources joined representatives of Magellan and other local officials at the site, Masters reported.

"It's a big one — it's significant," Jeff Vansteenburg of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources told the Des Moines Register.

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Hidden Data Suggests Fracking Created Widespread, Systemic Impact in Pennsylvania

Tue, 2017-01-24 07:07 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Annual citizen complaints reported to PA DEP compared to the annual number of new unconventional oil and gas wells. © Public Herald

Trends Show Impacts Are Getting Worse

publicherald.org - by Melissa A. Troutman, Sierra Shamer and Joshua B. Pribanic

After a three-year investigation in Pennsylvania, Public Herald has uncovered evidence of widespread and systemic impacts related to “fracking,” a controversial oil and gas technology.

Ending over a decade of suppression by the state, this evidence is now available to the public for the first time.

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Cuba, United States Sign Oil Spill Deal

Tue, 2017-01-10 07:22 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Cuba, United States sign oil spill deal before Trump inauguration

reuters.com - by Marc Frank - January 10, 2017

Cuba and the United States agreed on Monday to jointly prevent, contain and clean up oil and other toxic spills in the Gulf of Mexico . . .

. . . U.S. Charge d'Affaires Jeffrey DeLaurentis, upon signing the agreement, said it was one of a series of deals to protect the shared marine environment of the two neighboring countries separated by just 90 miles (145 km) of water . . .

. . . Last week a deal was struck to export small amounts of charcoal to the United States and in December Google signed an agreement to place servers on the island to quicken access to its products.

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President Obama Bans Oil Drilling in Large Areas of Atlantic and Arctic Oceans

Wed, 2016-12-21 09:06 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Hundreds of kayaktivists protest drilling in the Arctic and the Port of Seattle being used as a port for the Shell Oil drilling rig Polar Pioneer (Daniella Beccaria/seattlepi.com via Associated Press)

washingtonpost.com - by Darryl Fears and Juliet Eilperin - December 20, 2016

President Obama moved to solidify his environmental legacy Tuesday by withdrawing hundreds of millions of acres of federally owned land in the Arctic and Atlantic Ocean from new offshore oil and gas drilling.

Obama used a little-known law called the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect large portions of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in the Arctic and a string of canyons in the Atlantic stretching from Massachusetts to Virginia. In addition to a five-year moratorium already in place in the Atlantic, removing the canyons from drilling puts much of the eastern seaboard off limits to oil exploration even if companies develop plans to operate around them.

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CLICK HERE - EPA's Study of Hydraulic Fracturing and Its Potential Impact on Drinking Water Resources

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EPA Finds Fracking Can Impact Drinking Water, Shifts Emphasis from Earlier Report to Focus on Risks

Tue, 2016-12-13 06:59 — Kathy Gilbeaux

A high-pressure gas line spanning a canal in an oil field over the Monterey Shale formation near Lost Hills, Calif., in 2014. Credit David McNew/Getty Images

cnbc.com - by Robert Ferris | Tom DiChristopher - December 13, 2016

The Environmental Protection Agency's final report on a five-year study finds hydraulic fracturing can in fact contaminate drinking water in some cases.

The EPA's presentation of the final assessment marks a significant change in the way the report was initially presented in 2015. Energy companies seized on that presentation because it said the EPA found no "widespread, systemic impact" on drinking water supplies.

CLICK HERE - EPA - Executive Summary, Hydraulic Fracturing Study - Final Assessment 2016

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CLICK HERE - Stockholm Resilience Centre - Dealing with Arctic tipping points

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Prepare for 'Surprise' as Global Warming Stokes Arctic Shifts - Scientists

Sun, 2016-11-27 21:06 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy, in the midst of their ICESCAPE mission, retrieves supplies in the Arctic Ocean in this July 12, 2011 NASA handout photo. Kathryn Hansen/NASA via REUTERS/File Photo

"Ultimately, realising resilience in the Arctic will depend on empowering the people of the North to self-organise"

CLICK HERE - Arctic Resilience Report

Thomson Reuters Foundation - by Megan Rowling - November 25, 2016

Unless the world stops burning fossil fuels that are fuelling global warming, irreversible changes in the Arctic could have disastrous effects for the people that live there and for the rest of the planet, researchers warned on Friday.

The Arctic's ecosystems are fundamentally threatened by climate change and other human activities, such as oil and gas extraction, they said in a report for the Arctic Council, an inter-governmental forum working to protect the region's environment.

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Oil demand won't peak before 2040, despite Paris deal: IEA

Sun, 2016-11-20 22:12 — Maeryn Obley

An employee holds a gas pump at a petrol station in Sao Paulo, Brazil, November 8, 2016. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker/File Photo

Image: An employee holds a gas pump at a petrol station in Sao Paulo, Brazil, November 8, 2016. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker/File Photo

reuters.com - November 16th 2016 - Amanda Cooper

The International Energy Agency expects global oil consumption to peak no sooner than 2040, leaving its long-term forecasts for supply and demand unchanged despite the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement entering into force.

The Paris accord to cut harmful emissions seeks to wean the world economy off fossil fuels in the second half of the century in an effort to limit the rise in average world temperatures to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.

But while demand for oil to power passenger cars, for example, may drop, other sectors may offset this fall.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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CLICK HERE - National Geographic - Before the Flood

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Before the Flood

Tue, 2016-11-08 20:35 — Kathy Gilbeaux

nationalgeographic.com - October 30, 2016

From Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Fisher Stevens and Academy Award®-winning actor, environmental activist and U.N. Messenger of Peace Leonardo DiCaprio, Before the Flood presents a riveting account of the dramatic changes now occurring around the world due to climate change, as well as the actions we as individuals and as a society can take to prevent the disruption of life on our planet.

CLICK HERE - YouTube - Before the Flood

CLICK HERE - About the Film - Before the Flood

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Sustainable Development

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CLICK HERE - STUDY - Nature Climate Change - Assessment of the climate commitments and additional mitigation policies of the United States

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The U.S. is On Course to Miss Its Emissions Goals, and One Reason is Methane

Tue, 2016-09-27 11:02 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Chinese President Xi Jinping (center), President Obama (right) and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon shake hands during a joint ratification of the Paris climate change agreement ceremony ahead of the G20 Summit at the West Lake State Guest House in Hangzhou, China on Sept. 3. (EPA/How Hwee Young)

washingtonpost.com - by Chris Mooney - September 26, 2016

In recent months, the key story of international climate policy has been about how quickly countries will join the Paris agreement and cross the legal threshold to bring it into force. And as of now, that seems very close to happening.

As soon as it does, though, the question will shift. People will start asking not about which countries will join the deal and how quickly, but about whether any of these countries are on track to do what they’ve already said they would under the agreement — namely, hit their voluntarily pledged targets to cut their emissions.

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