here is no shortage of messaging from Big Oil trumpeting efforts to green “the Patch,” which is the euphemistic term applied to Alberta’s tar sands mine and melt sites.
They underplay the carbon impacts of what has been termed “the dirtiest oil on the planet” and trot out fancy technologies and plans that have yet to be put into action at industrial scale. And while there is a rosy picture painted for us Stateside, the business pages in Canada tend to lay bare the galling details of tar sands infrastructure pretty openly. There’s a great example of this from the Globe & Mail’s excellent reporter Nathan VanderKlippe.
Jaw-Dropping Shell Filings Undercut Tar Sands Industry Rhetoric On Pollution
Alex Baer: Happy Belated Everyday
Happy belated Earth Day, while we're at it, even though nothing's changed over here either, even after 40-plus years. Oh, sure, there have always been engaging science fairs, well-meaning bazaars, contests using various arts and crafts, and nice ideas we try on as if playing dress-up for an hour or so.
Wish we could take credit for altruism being a standard part of human nature. It's just not so. Instead, we all get back into our fossil-fuel eaters after the Earth Day show, and go roaring away somewhere else.
Halliburton misplaces mystery radioactive device: 'Do not handle'
Somewhere in West Texas is a 7-inch radioactive cylinder that Halliburton would like to find. Anyone who comes across it is advised to keep their distance.
The oil field services company lost track of the device, which is used to assess potential sites for hydraulic fracturing, last Tuesday while trying to transport it from Pecos to a well site near Odessa 130 miles away. A special unit of the Texas National Guard has now stepped in to aid Halliburton in a search for the cylinder, according to Bloomberg.
Members of Congress Who Reauthorized Warrantless Wiretapping Bill Don't Understand What It Does
Congress doesn't really understand what it's doing.
Specifically, the House members who voted 301-118 on Wednesday to reauthorize the vast spying powers in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act (or FISA Amendments Act, and yes, that's really its name) don't seem to understand what they were doing.
The same thing happened in 2008, when Congress first voted to retroactively legalize warrantless wiretapping. Then, as now, supporters of the legislation falsely insisted that it does not collect the communications of American citizens.
Three Palestinian hunger strikers ‘risk death’: Red Cross
Three Palestinians on hunger strike in Israeli detention will die unless authorities find a quick solution, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned Friday.
Samer Barq, Hassan Safadi and Ayman Sharawneh have been on hunger strike for weeks to demand their release from administrative detention without trial, an ICRC spokesman said.
The ICRC said it was “extremely concerned about the deteriorating health” of the men who are on long-term hunger strike.
U.S. orders family, non-essential staff to leave Tunis, Khartoum embassies
Family members and non-essential U.S. staff have been ordered to leave the U.S. embassies in Tunis and Khartoum because of security concerns following a wave of anti-American protests, the U.S. State Department said on Saturday.
Note: This is a breaking story. Updates will follow.
'Fracking' brine: PA gas-well waste full of radium
Radium in one sample of Marcellus shale wastewater, also called brine, that Pennsylvania officials collected in 2009 was 3,609 times more radioactive than a federal safety limit for drinking water. It was 300 times higher than a Nuclear Regulatory Commission limit for industrial discharges to water.
Flood Threat To Nuclear Plants Covered Up By Regulators, NRC Whistleblower Claims
In a letter submitted Friday afternoon to internal investigators at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a whistleblower engineer within the agency accused regulators of deliberately covering up information relating to the vulnerability of U.S. nuclear power facilities that sit downstream from large dams and reservoirs.
The letter also accuses the agency of failing to act to correct these vulnerabilities despite being aware of the risks for years.
Alex Baer: Rationing Logic at the Rationale Centers
At least Paul Ryan adds some balance to the ticket: When Willard is prevaricating, Paul can pick up the mantle of flat-out lying; when Paul is dissembling, Willard can maintain his forked tongue.
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