Posted by mhudema on April 23, 2008
April 22, 2008
A new oil pipeline proposed in northern Minnesota is getting resistance from an unusual direction. Opponents say the large pipeline would contribute significantly to global warming — not so much from the oil itself, but for how the oil is extracted in Canada.
Duluth, Minn. — Enbridge Energy plans a 36-inch diameter pipeline running almost 1,000 miles, from Alberta, Canada, to Superior, Wis. Dubbed the Alberta Clipper, this line would cut a diagonal across northern Minnesota.
Some opposition is predictable — from property owners who would lose land to right-of-way, and others concerned about wetlands and oil spills.
But this project is getting lots of flak from people worried about climate change. Janette Brimmer is with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy.
“While there are concerns about the landscape through which the pipeline travels, we’re quite concerned from the policy perspective with what it’s carrying, and where it’s coming from and where it’s going,” Brimmer said. “What it’s carrying is oil that is produced in Alberta, Canada’s tar sands, or sometimes called the oil sands region.”
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: alberta, alberta clipper, climate change, enbridge, environmental justice, global warming, human rights, minnesota, oil sand, oil sands, pipeline, tar sand, tar sands | 2 Comments »
Posted by mhudema on April 23, 2008
Alberta will spend nearly $1.4 billion over the next three years to address climate change and water issues, but critics say the plans accompanying that spending will leave the province playing catchup.
“We will pursue a leading role in responding to climate change through carbon capture and storage, saving energy, and greener energy production,” said Finance Minister Iris Evans.
Program spending will double in 2008-2009 to $403 million, from $183 million. Much of the total spending, however, isn’t in direct program delivery but in research to develop new technologies such as carbon capture storage. The government will put $155 million of that into the climate change technology fund and $300 million over three years into its water strategy. Direct climate change strategies will receive about $30 million in the coming year.
There is nothing in the budget to suggest the government is moving away from its much-criticized plan to slowly phase in carbon emission reductions over the next 42 years, with carbon capture and storage underground starting somewhere around 2015.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: alberta budget, alberta government, brian mason, carbon capture and storage, climate change, environment, global warming, oil sands, stelmach, tar sands | No Comments »
Posted by mhudema on April 23, 2008
Climate expert says he underestimated threat
Wed Apr 16, 2008 4:55pm BST
By Gerard Wynn
LONDON (Reuters) - Climate change expert Nicholas Stern says he under-estimated the threat from global warming in a major report 18 months ago when he compared the economic risk to the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Latest climate science showed global emissions of planet-heating gases were rising faster and upsetting the climate more than previously thought, Stern said in a Reuters interview on Wednesday.
For example, evidence was growing that the planet’s oceans — an important “sink” — were increasingly saturated and couldn’t absorb as much as previously of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2), he said.
“Emissions are growing much faster than we’d thought, the absorptive capacity of the planet is less than we’d thought, the risks of greenhouse gases are potentially bigger than more cautious estimates, and the speed of climate change seems to be faster,” he told Reuters at a conference in London.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: climate change, european union, global warming, greenhouse gas emissions, oil sands, stelmach, stern, tar sands | 1 Comment »
