submitted by Margery Schab

theolympian.com - June 14, 2014

Over the past decade, a U.S. energy boom has cut oil and natural gas imports, revitalized manufacturing and enriched rural communities. But will the massive increase in oil and natural gas production mar the environment?

We believe that the risks are manageable, but success will depend on rules that limit air and water pollution from unconventional drilling, which the Obama administration is formulating, and on adequate enforcement of those rules. On that front, several reports from the Government Accountability Office, an independent watchdog, show that the administration is not keeping up.

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usresilienceproject.org - October 31, 2011

U.S. Resilience Project (USRP) reports are designed to showcase how public policy can benefit from private-sector best practices in security, business continuity, risk management, and disaster preparedness.

Harness the Power of Intelligent Networks and Social Media

The focus for national preparedness should be on creating situational awareness, enhanced decision-making and rapid response; Platforms like the U.S. Resilience System, that are based upon distributed intelligent social networks and crowd-sourcing, can enable far more agility and adaptability than a highly structured, hierarchical capability with significantly better outcomes at far less cost. Exploiting U.S. leadership in this area has the potential to create significant engagement in preparedness, disaster response, and regional resilience building.

Prepared by the Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute (HSSAI) for the Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate, September 30, 2013
homelandsecurity.org

CLICK HERE - The Resilient Social Network: @OccupySandy #SuperstormSandy (103 page .PDF report)

Acknowledgements

The Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute (HSSAI) would like to acknowledge the numerous individuals from government, the private sector, the not-for-profit sector, and the Occupy Sandy volunteers who generously granted time for interviews.

Particularly, HSSAI would like to thank Dr. Michael McDonald, Megan Fliegelman, Meghan Dunn, and Jill Cornell for providing points of contact and documentation. They greatly assisted the task team in the development of its research and analysis.

HSSAI would further like to acknowledge COL Terry Ebbert, USMC (Ret.), the former director of homeland security for the City of New Orleans and currently a distinguished visiting fellow at HSSAI, for providing a critical review of this case study.

submitted by Margery Schab

Click on the link below for a list of resources: Materials on Radioactivity in Gas and Gas Drilling Waste

http://treichlerlawoffice.com/radiation/index.html

      

Credit: Shutterstock

thinkprogress.org - by Jeff Spross - March 12, 2014

SolarCity and Best Buy have just announced a deal allowing customers to get low-cost and low-hassle solar power for their homes.

It’s what’s called a third party leasing agreement. Rather than purchasing a solar array outright, they lease the system from the provider — SolarCity, in this case.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

CLICK HERE - Best Buy - SolarCity

      

Joe Drake (Abrahm Lustgarten for Propublica)

The energy giant raised the cash it needed to survive by slashing royalties it paid property owners to drill on their land.

propublica.org - by Abrahm Lustgarten - March 13, 2014

At the end of 2011, Chesapeake Energy, one of the nation’s biggest oil and gas companies, was teetering on the brink of failure.

Its legendary chief executive officer, Aubrey McClendon, was being pilloried for questionable deals, its stock price was getting hammered and the company needed to raise billions of dollars quickly.

The money could be borrowed, but only on onerous terms.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

      

“The models that predicted the arrival of radioactive seawater stated that the seawater could come anytime from late March or early April to the end of year . . ."  Photo: KAI VETTER

ecowatch.com - by Harvey Wasserman - June 3, 2014

The corporate media silence on Fukushima has been deafening . . .

Ever more radioactive water continues to pour into the Pacific. . .

Hundreds more tons are backed up on site, with Tepco apologists advocating they be dumped directly into the ocean without decontamination.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Video: Some restaurants produce eight gallons of waste every hour. Thanks to a sustainability plan, Sandwich Me stretched that time...to two years.

 

 

ecowatch.com - Brandon Baker - June 3rd 2014

Quick—how much food, paper and plastic have you thrown in the garbage the past two years?

It’s a question you likely can’t answer, but whatever the amount,  it will certainly exceed the output of Justin Vrany and his Chicago café, Sandwich Me In.

Vrany estimates that an average restaurant dumps eight gallons of trash in a dumpster per hour.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Growing Economy, Falling Emissions

Economic growth has been stronger in nine Northeast states that have a current cap-and-trade program. Carbon emissions in those states have fallen much more quickly than in the rest of the country.

       

The New York Times
Sources: ENE; Energy Information Administration

nytimes.com - by Hannah Fairfield - June 6, 2014

Some critics of the Environmental Protection Agency’s new requirements for power plants argue that forcing emissions reduction will curtail economic growth. But the recent experience of states that already cap carbon emissions reveals that emissions and economic growth are no longer tightly tied together. . .

. . . The nine states already in the program — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont — have substantially reduced their carbon emissions in recent years. At the same time, those states have had stronger economic growth than the rest of the country.

Cutting Emissions
At least 10 states cut emissions from power plants by 30 percent or more between 2005 and 2012.

      

By The New York Times
Source: Georgetown Climate Center

nytimes.com - by JUSTIN GILLIS and MICHAEL WINES - June 6, 2014

The cries of protest have been fierce, warning that President Obama’s plan to cut greenhouse gases from power plants will bring soaring electricity bills and even plunge the nation into blackouts. . .

. . . Yet cuts on the scale Mr. Obama is calling for — a 30 percent reduction in emissions from the nation’s electricity industry by 2030 — have already been accomplished in parts of the country.

At least 10 states cut their emissions by that amount or more between 2005 and 2012, and several other states were well on their way, almost two decades before Mr. Obama’s clock for the nation runs out.

      

Homeless encampments known as "tent cities" are popping up across the country.

money.cnn.com - by Blake Ellis - May 16, 2014

Formed as an alternative to shelters and street-living, these makeshift communities are often set up off of highways, under bridges and in the woods. Some have "mayors" who determine the rules of the camp and who can and can't join, others are a free-for-all. Some are overflowing with trash, old food, human waste and drug paraphernalia, others are relatively clean and drug-free.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

hydrogenfuelnews.com - June 2, 2014

Wastewater represents an untapped energy resource for the US

A great deal of potential energy is wasted in the U.S. due to the country’s sewage system. Wastewater contains approximately 10 times the electrical power that is needed to process it, but the U.S. does not currently focus on converting this wastewater into energy. As much as 3% of the country’s energy is spent on processing wastewater without getting any kind of return in terms of electrical power. Microbial fuel cells may be the solution to this problem, as they can produce electricity through the consumption of waste.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

ALSO SEE INFORMATION IN RELATED ARTICLES BELOW:

      

A dead catfish is evident Wednesday in debris in Clear Creek near Pierce City

joplinglobe.com - by Wally Kennedy - May 28, 2014

‘COMPLETE KILL’

Pierce City, MO. - On May 16, an undisclosed quantity of Alimet, an amino acid compound that Tyson Foods uses as a feed ingredient for its poultry operations in the area, reportedly spilled at Tyson’s feed mill in Aurora.

Tyson workers captured most of the spilled compound and shipped it to its wastewater pre-treatment plant next to Tyson’s poultry-processing plant in Monett. Wastewater from the processing plant is pre-treated before it enters Monett’s municipal waste-treatment plant. Treated water from that plant flows into Clear Creek and is responsible for most of the flow in the creek.

The introduction of the chemical caused “a 100 percent kill” of the bacteria that process the effluent in Monett’s wastewater plant, according to Skip Schaller, utilities superintendent at Monett.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

epa.gov

CLICK HERE - Climate Change Indicators in the United States, 2014 - Third Edition

emergencyemail.org - May 29, 2014

For the second time this month, and now from a second branch of the US Government, citizens are being warned about climate change.  The first warning came earlier this month from the President's office.

Now the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just released the third edition of a report, Climate Change Indicators in the United States.

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submitted by Samuel Bendett

      

Washington Air National Guardsmen methodically make their way through the mud and wreckage left behind by the March 22 mudslide in Oso, Wash. (Photo by Spc. Matthew Sissel/122D PAOC)

By letting citizens live in vulnerable places even after disaster strikes, governments plant the seeds for future disasters.

emergencymgmt.com - by Donald F. Kettl - May 28, 2014

It didn’t take long after the tragedy of the Oso, Wash., March mudslide for everyone to wonder: Should local officials have done more to prevent people from building in harm’s way? . . .

. . . The feds often know a great deal about the risks but don’t have the authority to act. Local governments have the authority to act, especially through zoning requirements, but often don’t have the capacity to collect all the technical information or the will to interfere in local development.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)