A new United Nations report warns that progress toward prosperity in the world’s poorest regions will be reversed unless rich countries promptly begin curbing emissions linked to global warming while also helping poorer ones leapfrog to energy sources that pollute less than coal and oil.
Read the entire story here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/world/28climate.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
CASPER, Wyo. (AP) – Wyoming coal mines are trying to keep up with the railroads in shipping coal to power plants across the United States, an executive with coal producer Arch Coal Inc. said.
“A couple of years ago, we would’ve probably complained loudly about them, but today they’re doing a pretty good job both east and west,” Steven F. Leer, chairman and chief executive officer of St. Louis-based Arch, said in a recent interview. “Right now, I would suggest the coal industry is trying to keep up with them. Two years ago they were trying to keep up with us.”
Coal mined in the Powder River Basin in northeast Wyoming and southeast Montana is hauled by Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe.
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http://www.starherald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19053934&BRD=484&PAG=461&dept_id=553253&rfi=6
Recommendations of a special panel’s two-year effort to figure out ways to cut state energy consumption and thus do Montana’s part in reducing the emission of greenhouse gases were proudly unveiled by Gov. Brian Schweitzer last week.
The report discussed 54 specific ideas ranging from requiring utilities to include more renewable energy sources to increasing the production of crops that can be converted to biodiesel fuels. But the bottom line, at least for state government and the university system, was to cut energy use by 20 percent by 2010. The plan, said Schweitzer, is for the state to lead by example.
Read the article here: http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/11/25/opinions_top/a041125_01.txt
NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release
November 16, 2007
(Rimbey, AB) Today the City of Calgary called upon Premier Ed Stelmach to suspend Bill 46 pending full public consultation. In a letter addressed to Ed Stelmach and cc’d to Mel Knight and various Calgary MLAs, Mayor Dave Bronconnier expressed his concern over the dubious and contentious Bill. (See attached letter).
The Lavesta Area Group is not surprised the City of Calgary is calling to have the Bill suspended. We have always maintained this is a poorly constructed Bill that limits the rights of citizens to participate in utility hearings and in doing so; the Bill conflicts with the Charter of Rights and the Alberta Bill of Rights.
The Industrial Power Consumers and Cogenerators Association of Alberta (IPCCAA), who are the largest industrial consumers of electricity in the province and pay over 50% of all electrical rates, recently expressed its concerns with certain aspects of Bill 46. Rural landowners are united in their opposition to Bill 46 on the basis it is fundamentally flawed and now the City of Calgary has come out and opposed the Bill. Mr. Stelmach needs to ask himself, except for the foreign owners of some electricity generating companies, does this Bill benefit anyone living in the province Alberta?
Bill 46 is a sham and an embarrassment to the legislative process. It splits an underfunded and understaffed dysfunctional EUB into two underfunded and understaffed dysfunctional regulatory Boards. Other than reducing and eliminating certain rights of the Alberta citizenry, Bill 46 illuminates a contemptuous disregard for the democratic process of an arrogant government, bought and paid for by few foreign owned companies.
Lavesta Area Group enjoins with the City of Calgary and calls upon Premier Ed Stelmach to suspend Bill 46 pending full public consultation.
Read about Bill 46 at ” Groups we Support” on the right hand column of this website – KillBill 46
Despite the fact that many Albertans have never heard of it, provincial Bill 46, the Alberta Utilities Commission Act, impacts the rights of all Albertans by reducing the public’s capacity to participate in corporate projects that will ultimately impact our common natural resources such as air, water and land.
The bill was introduced by the Stelmach Conservatives on the last day of the spring sitting of the legislature and it will be brought forward for second and third readings as early as Nov 5, 2007, when the current session resumes for the fall.
Read the article here: http://www.vueweekly.com/articles/default.aspx?i=7387
November 12, 2007
Oilsands Quest Inc. has found the oil. Now it wants to find a deep-pocketed partner.
Last week, the Calgary-based exploration company released results from an independent evaluation that confirmed what the company had already been saying – that its Axe Lake property in northwestern Saskatchewan contains a substantial in-situ oil sands discovery.
Read the article here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20071112.REDGE12/TPStory/Business
Local environment organizations rarely poke their head above the wall anymore. Many hard working people are appointed to the Alberta government’s infamous multi-stakeholder committees. They’re so busy working on the inside, for whatever change they can get, they rarely talk to the public.
How well does it work? Well, ask the Alberta Wilderness Association. The AWA decided to go back to the public after its five-year fight to save the declining grizzly population met the usual lukewarm response from the Alberta government. Sustainable Resources Minister Ted Morton couldn’t find one new dollar to help save the grizzlies. So AWA decided “we unfortunately conclude the only way to get the government to act on conservation is to engage Albertans on this issue.”
Actually, engaging Albertans is a really great idea, not unfortunate.
Read the article here: http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/opinion/story.html?id=cfa4a0d1-c63a-4338-b746-1a8880f86d19&k=14769
HELENA — Coal-to-liquids technology, touted as a cleaner way to develop the state’s vast coal resources, has drawbacks, including the large quantity of water the facilities need.
Read the article here: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071109/NEWS01/711090317/1002
The Environmental Protection Agency has not decided whether to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants alongside the car and truck emissions it will limit, the agency’s top official said Thursday.
The EPA came under fire from congressional Democrats for moving too slowly in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling in April that carbon dioxide does qualify as a pollutant.
Read the story here:
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/11/09/news/state/39-coalfired.txt
For years, scientists have known that the building blocks in plant matter — not just corn kernels, but also corn stalks, wood chips, straw and even some household garbage — constituted an immense potential resource that could, in theory, help fill the gasoline tanks of America’s cars and trucks.
Read the story here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/business/09fuel.html