Brrrr. It's cold here in Santa Barbara. Well...California cold...47 degrees. Time to bundle up and catch up with some Environmental News...to USE.
Drilling operations reshape landscape. Atop this hulking castle of shale and splendor, within the hunter's paradise that is the Roan Plateau, the country's craving for energy is leaving a gash. Denver Rocky Mountain News
'The biggest environmental crime in history'. BP, the British oil giant that pledged to move "Beyond Petroleum" by finding cleaner ways to produce fossil fuels, is accused of abandoning its "green sheen" by investing nearly £1.5bn to extract oil from the Canadian wilderness. London Independent
Giuliani firm, utilities team up to fight renewable-energy plan. A lobbying blitz by some of the U.S.'s biggest utility companies is likely to strangle the most potent provision in energy legislation that's making its way through Congress. Bloomberg News.
La Plata straddles oft-explosive divide. In La Plata County in southwest Colorado, methane gas is both a source of wealth and an unpredictable environmental threat. Denver Rocky Mountain News
Western communities seek mining reform. Towns throughout the Rocky Mountain West that oppose mines near water supplies and scenic areas are backing efforts to revamp a federal law regulating hard-rock mining that's changed little since Ulysses S. Grant was president. BusinessWeek
Western states agree to water-sharing pact. Facing the worst drought in a century and the prospect that climate change could yield long-term changes on the Colorado River, federal officials have reached a new pact with the states. New York Times.
Fed up with dioxin, they want out. Residents along the Tittabawasee River fear the contamination that floods from the river every year. And they're fed up with slow progress to clean it up. Detroit Free Press
Troubled tributary. The signs are everywhere: The Choptank is in trouble. This Eastern Shore river, which meanders along farm fields and past picturesque towns on its way to the Chesapeake Bay, recently ranked as the second-most polluted river in the state. Baltimore Sun
L.A.'s water savings are just a drop in the bucket. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's call six months ago for voluntary water conservation in a record dry year has failed to persuade Los Angeles residents and businesses to rein in water use substantially. Los Angeles Times
Climate-ready farming system must be developed for world's poor. Governments of developing countries need to find "creative solutions" and "alternative approaches" to deal with major threats from climate change that could badly affect their agriculture sectors. Jakarta Post
Investors take aim at plastic products. Already under attack from a host of critics, companies that make and sell plastic products are being hammered by a new, unexpected adversary - their shareholders. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Breathing distance. Regional air-pollution officials want cities and counties to stop allowing homes to be built next to busy freeways and roads where harmful pollution from trucks and cars is at its worst. Riverside Press-Enterprise
Paraguay's soya barons. As big landowners cash in on Paraguay’s soya bonanza, it is small farmers that are paying the price. London Guardian
Chile's flourishing fish farms prompt fears for ecosystem. Spurred partly by a U.S. appetite for salmon that has quadrupled in the past decade, the massive growth of the local salmon industry now has some fearing that its best marketing tool -- that fabled Patagonian purity -- isn't quite what it used to be. Washington Post
Expanding tropics 'a threat to millions'. The tropical belt that girdles the Earth is expanding north and south, which could have dire consequences for large regions of the world. London Independent
In Bali, Germany takes dramatic step on climate change. At the United Nations-sponsored climate conference in Bali, Germany is forging ahead and adopting what experts here say is the most comprehensive climate-protection package ever enacted worldwide. Christian Science Monitor.
Gulf to teem with fish in cages if farms okayed. The federal government now wants to fight fire with fire, using the Gulf of Mexico as a vast, offshore fish farming laboratory. St. Petersburg Times
Does it rain less on the weekend? New research indicates that higher industrial activity on weekdays generates more airborne pollution particles, which can seed raindrop formation in the atmosphere. Nature.
Portsmouth officials seek to combat climate change. The need for strong leadership with the intent to combat climate change is the message espoused by the local group Environment New Hampshire. Foster's Daily Democrat
Scientists trying to save Coral Triangle. It‘s here in Kimbe Bay, and in the surrounding triangle of sea stretching from Indonesia up to the Philippines and down to the Solomon Islands, that the strange, beautiful form of life known as coral may someday have to make its last stand. Associated Press via Pierceland Herald
Food, water more important: Heffernan. Climate change negotiators in Bali should be putting more effort into how governments will deal with the effects of global warming on food production and water supplies. Sydney Australian
A hawkeyed addition to Canada's Arctic arsenal. A Canadian satellite is to blast into orbit this week with the explicit goal of monitoring the country's environment and natural resources from space. Toronto Globe and Mail
Grabbing for oil. As reserves of crude oil tighten and gas prices soar, the quest for a backup energy source grows more heated. In NE Alberta, the quest is having huge impacts on people and wildlife. Sacramento Bee
Food shortages in a warmer world? Three new scientific studies find that agriculture could go into steep declines in some regions in the coming decades. Great Lakes Radio Consortium
Pentecostal church joins environmental movement. At Victory Christian Center, the heating and cooling comes from an environmentally friendly geothermal system, but the vocabulary in this Pentecostal building reminds you that this is not your old earth movement. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
With kids in mind, mom pushes environment. Theresa Fall never considered herself an environmentalist. Two children and a movie changed that. Poughkeepsie Journal
Pure water. West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection wants to rewrite rules, making it easier to pollute state streams. Charleston Gazette
State spared a double whammy as power corridor is put on hold. The U.S. Department of Energy has wisely decided to reconsider its decision designating Middle Atlantic states as a "National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor." Harrisburg Patriot-News
And...remember New Orleans and the destruction of Katrina?
Corps levee soils dispute growing. A coalition of environmental and community groups is criticizing the Army Corps of Engineers for its method of identifying the unprecedented amount of borrow needed to build a 100-year level of protection against hurricane-driven surges in New Orleans. New Orleans Times-Picayune
Long desired, streetcar returns to New Orleans. One of the latest signs of restoration progress in New Orleans — more than two years after Hurricane Katrina — is the return of the beloved St. Charles Avenue Streetcar. Morning Edition
Task force will review engineers' studies. Allegations of collusion and improprieties raised by Univ. of Cal.-Berkeley research engineering professor Raymond Seed, related to how the organization participates in engineering studies of national significance, such as the levees and floodwalls failure during Katrina. New Orleans Times-Picayune
Many children struggling after ’05 storms. At least 46,600 children along the Gulf Coast are still struggling with mental health problems and other serious aftereffects of 2005 hurricanes. New York Times
Back to New Orleans, but no home. An ongoing housing shortage, high rents, rising costs of living, and a dearth of federal and state housing assistance have made it difficult for many of the New Orleans' lower-income returnees to find affordable rental housing. Christian Science Monitor.
Brad Pitt plans 150 green homes for Katrina victims in New Orleans. Brad Pitt initiated a fundraising challenge for his project to rebuild homes in the devastated Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood. Christian Science Monitor.
Pitt lends a housing hand to New Orleans. Unveiling a series of designs meant to evoke the neighborhood's rich traditions and at the same time push forward environmental building techniques, Pitt said that the first of planned 150 homes will break ground in March. Variety.
Pitt's star power fuels New Orleans rebuilding. Actor Brad Pitt, who moved with his family to New Orleans a year ago, is spearheading a project to start rebuilding affordable, safe and sustainable homes in areas hit hard by Katrina's flooding. All Things Considered
Critic: Corps tried to thwart inquiry. The leader of an independent research team investigating the New Orleans levee failures has filed an ethics complaint, claiming the trade organization and the Army Corps of Engineers systematically attempted to undermine his group's investigation. New Orleans Times-Picayune
Despite promises, dead zone growing. A decade ago, a team of government experts and environmental researchers banded together to tackle an alarming -- and growing -- disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico. But the dead zone is still growing. New Orleans Times-Picayune
Green Wombat has an interesting story on a car company for the age of climate change....Think Global
....A Norwegian startup, the company was acquired by Ford (F) in 1999 when the automaker faced a California mandate to begin producing electric cars. Ford poured some $150 million into Think to develop an EV for the U.S. market then sold the startup once the regulation was killed. (A few hundred of the first-generation City were available for lease in California -- Google (GOOG) founder Sergey Brin was one owner -- and old-style Thinks can still be spotted on the streets of Oslo.)
Last year Norwegian renewable energy entrepreneur Jan-Olaf Willums and his investment group acquired Think and revived plans to produce a next-generation City with a next-generation business model. The Internet-enabled car will be sold online and seeded through car-sharing services like Zipcar. Buyers will purchase the car but lease the battery as part of a mobility fee that could include insurance and WiFi access. (The City will sell for about $34,000 in Norway and Willums is shooting for a U.S. sticker price of $15,000 to $17,000 plus $100 to $200 a month for the mobility fee.) Willums has raised nearly $80 million from Silicon Valley venture capitalists and European investors to get the production line up and running.