This brief diary is intended to solicit comments from people more knowledgeable than I about Australian politics.
Australia has a new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and she's promising to pursue some kind of limits on carbon emissions. This is particularly significant since Australia is a big coal exporter and high per-capita carbon emitter.
More over the fold.
As if the oil companies from Texas – and their allies in the corridors of power - hadn’t done enough harm to our country already (for more, see the late, great Gulf of Mexico), now they are at it once again. This time, it’s Valero and Tesoro, pouring money into a campaign this election season to undo California’s landmark, clean energy and climate law, AB 32. On Tuesday, the oil companies’ proposition was certified for the November ballot. The fight, as they say, is on!
Why should you care? Let us count the ways.
Head meet wall. Just when you think it cannot get more insane, it does. The moratorium that the Potus declared in response to the catastrophe in the GOM, has not halted the off-shore drilling plans by BP in Alaska. In today's NY Times there is a long piece about how the criminally negligent BP is forging ahead with the Liberty Project.
Three miles off Alaska's coast, BP is set to drill 2 miles under the sea and then farther horizontally (6-8 miles) to get to the 100 million barrel reservoir in US waters. Why you may ask hasn't this project been halted along with other off-shore oil-drilling moratoria? Because they gamed the system by building a 31 acre pile of rock and gravel, in 20+ feet of water, so they can call it onshore. BP long ago received the state and federal permits and has only to file it's final application. Plans are to start drilling this fall.
There's more below.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is hosting four public information meetings on the proposed study of the relationship between hydraulic fracturing and its potential impacts on drinking water...The meetings will provide public information about the proposed study scope and design. EPA will solicit public comments on the draft study plan.
The public meetings will be held on:
* July 8 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. CDT at the Hilton Fort Worth in Fort Worth, Texas
* July 13 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. MDT at the Marriot Tech Center’s Rocky Mountain Events Center in Denver, Colo.
* July 22 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. EDT at the Hilton Garden Inn in Canonsburg, Pa.
* August 12 at the Anderson Performing Arts Center at Binghamton University in Binghamton, N.Y. for 3 sessions - 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. EDT
Go below the fold for more essential information.
One of the coolest government sponsored programs on earth is the Solar Decathlon, created by and sponsored by US Department of Energy. Universities from around the world compete in the event with student teams designing and building zero net energy, sustainable homes for the future.
The event is so popular (and so cool) that this year Europe organized a Solar Decathlon - Europe.
Links to US and European events below. Here are the main goals.
Whale sharks, some as large as 40 feet, are the gentlest giants in the ocean and they are threatened mainly by human hunting and by loss of habitat. The oil spill in the Gulf is threatening this majestic animal even further by rendering it's Gulf of Mexico habitat uninhabitable. Here is a brief introduction to the whale shark from the Whale Shark Project:
The Whale shark the biggest fish in the sea and there are only a few whale species larger than it. Thought to reach up to a possible 20 meters and 34 tonnes it seems difficult to believe that Whale Sharks feed on microscopic plankton rarely more than 3 mm in size. The combination of its immense size and characteristic checkerboard pattern makes the Whale Shark almost unmistakable and completely unforgettable.
The Whale Shark Project's site is here
The shark is important to the ecosystem because they are what is called apex predators meaning they are at the top of the ocean food chain. Removal of these predators would have a top down effect on the ocean's ecosystem just as the destruction of coral and algae at the bottom of the ocean has a bottom to top impact. See more below:
The current ROV DIARY: BP Oilpocalypse Liveblog ROV 133.
Rules of the Road
PLEASE visit Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier's diaries to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!
To repeat: please refrain from commenting in this mothership diary, unless you're volunteering for a submersible shift.
UK geothermal project passes milestone
Assisted by a £460,000 grant from the Department of Energy and Climate Change, Newcastle University scientists have created a giant twin borehole central heating system, so the hot water can be raised up from 1,000m down, passed through a heat exchanger and then reinjected, via a second borehole, back in to the rocks 420m down.
Well hot damn. Even the backward former colonials have been doing some stuff like that but not so much. We are more addicted to coal, oil and natural gas so much so that we are filling the oceans with petroleum.
Because the water is twice as salty as seawater, it cannot be discharged into rivers. Pumping it back underground resolves an issue
Very good.
Whatever will those scientists in the land of Sir Isaac Newton think of next?
Boomers, I didn't want to have to do this. I didn't want to have to spend time and room on Daily Kos's rec list (if you so honor me) debunking pure bullshit. But in recent days, the bullshit has gotten wider and wider circulation. I've had to write a form letter to use in replying to emails asking me about bullshit. First, it was the Matt Simmons' bullshit about the seafloor opening in a huge gash, which is where most of the oil was coming from.... and so we should nuke the well (????).
Most recently, I've had to contend with the dougr bullshit from an otherwise wonderful website, The Oil Drum.
Both, doomsday scenarios (as if we needed those right now). Both, bullshit.
Jump the manure heap with me and I'll explain why this is all bullshit and I'll also issue a challenge to anyone in the Oil and Gas industry, or anyone else, to prove otherwise.
So you know about the gulf, right? Of course you do. And it makes you sick.
And you've watched An Inconvenient Truth, and you have decided to align yourself with the remarkably united opinion of scientists that (1) are sane, (2) are honest and (3) have actually worked on climate science. That is to say, you know that human activity has reached the level of having a real effect on the planet.
So you do what you can - recycle, cut back on unnecessary purchases or trips, write to your congressthing.
That's wonderful. And you know it's wonderful. But there's a hole nestled deep in your mind. On one side of it, the ten dollar bill you found that you're pretty sure belonged to the lady up by the corner. On the other, your inability to rush down to Louisiana, save a family of pelicans, throttle Tony Hayward and plug the leak with his ... um, yacht. There has to be something more.
So what to do? Well, in the immortal words of Mickey Rooney: "Hey kids, let's put on a show!"