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Friday, May 9, 2008
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From The Rocky Mountain News: "President Bush gave final approval for a Platte River recovery plan on Thursday when he signed a massive natural resources bill into law [S. 2739: Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008]. The recovery plan, backed by Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar, of Colorado, and their counterparts from Nebraska, is meant to protect endangered or threatened species while allowing continued water use and development along the river. It sets aside $157 mdillion as the federal share of implementing the agreement, first signed by the governors of Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming with the Interior Department in 2006."
More coverage from The Grand Island Independent. From the article:
Following a decade old struggle to address Platte River problems with endangered and threatened species, President Bush on Thursday signed into law legislation to implement the federal share of the Platte River recovery implementation plan. The plan is part of the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008, which was sponsored by Nebraska U.S. Sens. Ben Nelson and Chuck Hagel...
The bill authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to proceed with the program and includes $157 million to carry it out. The cost will be shared 50/50 by the states and federal government. Through the program the states will provide benefits for the endangered and threatened species as well as land, water, and scientific monitoring and research to evaluate benefits of the program. Now that the bill has been signed into law, Ron Bishop, manager of the Central Platte Natural Resources District, said the next step is to "start building projects...That will open them up to start acquiring the land and water that they need," Bishop said. Two of the big goals of the recovery plan are to increase flows in the Platte River and create new habitat to benefit the four endangered and threatened species the program is designed to protect. The species are the endangered interior least tern, whooping crane, pallid sturgeon and the threatened piping plover...
The plan proposes to acquire 10,000 acres of new habitat. The proposed area is between Lexington and Chapman, which is within the Central Platte NRD. Bishop said once that land is acquired, the project will still pay property taxes on the land to lessen the impact on local governments and school districts. The plan also proposes to acquire between 130,000 to 150,000 acre feet of water. Bishop said they have already lined up 80,000 acre feet of water, which will be needed to accomplish the goal of increasing river flows to benefit the threatened and endangered species.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
Category: Colorado Water
6:01:00 AM 
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From The Boulder Daily Camera: "Federal legislation [s. 1116] to explore putting groundwater pumped out during oil and gas production to use was signed into law Thursday. The bill signed by President Bush directs the Interior Department to assess the feasibility of recovering and cleaning up the millions of gallons of water that are reinjected into the ground or disposed of during oil and gas development. The water's fate has become contentious as natural gas development has increased in the Rockies. Large volumes of water are pumped out during coal-bed methane production. Pumping groundwater relieves the pressure that traps the gas in the coal seams. 'Every day, 2 million gallons of produced water are wasted in this nation, unfit for any use,' said Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Denver, one of the bill's sponsors. New Mexico Sens. Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat, and Pete Domenici, a Republican, and Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., were the other sponsors."
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
Category: Colorado Water
5:57:06 AM
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Thursday, May 8, 2008
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USGS: "USGS is providing Landsat satellite imagery to aid rescue and recovery efforts in Myanmar in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis's landfall on May 3. International emergency response teams are using the Landsat images to assess the extent of flood damage caused by the cyclone in the affected region. The first maps of the area derived from the Landsat satellite were provided to waiting agencies within hours of the initial request. The USGS provides Landsat imagery to other participating agencies under an agreement known as the International Charter Space and Major Disasters (Space Charter)."
Category: Climate Change News
5:49:14 PM
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Politco has a nifty Superdelegate chart. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
And from Politics West: "Three Dem superdelegates in Colorado's congressional delegation remain uncommitted after the latest primaries in N.C. and Indiana. Rep. John Salazar, Sen. Ken Salazar and Rep. Mark Udall have said they want to wait until after the final primary on June 3 to name their picks, according to Denver Post reporter Anne Mulkern."
Don Surber: "In the end, the next president will not be judged by the color of his skin or the Loony Tunes he has met over the years. He will be chosen by the content of his character."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
5:47:14 PM
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Mt. Princeton Geothermal LLC briefed Chaffee County residents on potential plans to tap geothermal energy to produce electricity on Monday, according to The Mountain Mail. From the article:
About 80 people, including residents and investment bankers, attended a presentation Monday about generating electric power in Chaffee County using geothermal energy. Mt. Princeton Geothermal LLC personnel want to use new technology to access abundant geothermal resources in the area...
The process pumps naturally heated water to the surface where it is used to heat fluid that in turn drives a turbine generating electricity. The spring water is returned to the ground. "The size and scope of the facility depends on the reservoir of hot water we find," [Fred Henderson III, local property owner and chief scientist for the company] said. "We are thinking a 10 megawatt facility is a reasonable objective."[...]
Henderson continued, "This is a nonconsumptive resource. We can go to extreme depth to get water with little or no impact to existing water." Mount Princeton Hot Springs, a partner in the venture, is considering installation of one of the generating units for its use. As a first step, Colorado School of Mines students will conduct geophysical surveys. "This is completely non-invasive research," Henderson said. "They will produce useful data for water studies of the area." The group, based at Deer Valley Ranch, will be in the Buena Vista area beginning May 11, and will remain about two weeks. Questions and inquiries may be addressed to Henderson at hendcos@msn.com.
Category: Climate Change News
6:51:29 AM
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Wednesday, May 7, 2008
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Dave Winer: "There's no doubt now, Obama is going to be the Democratic nominee, and very likely the next President. I doubt if McCain has the sense of entitlement that HRC had but he's going to run on experience, and we don't want experience, we want intelligence, honesty and change."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
6:15:59 PM
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NASA: "The first cyclone of the 2008 season in the northern Indian Ocean was a devastating one for Burma. According to reports from Accuweather.com, Cyclone Nargis made landfall with sustained winds of 130 mph and gusts of 150-160 mph, which is the equivalent of a strong Category 3 or minimal Category 4 hurricane. News reports stated that several thousand people have been killed, and thousands more were missing as of May 5."
Click through to see their photos of the destruction.
Category: Climate Change News
6:10:09 PM
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Andrew Sullivan: "Black conservatives and Obama."
Andrew Sullivan "Here's what now seems obvious: African-American voters killed the Clinton candidacy. It is a fitting end to the Clintons' campaign and an almost Shakespearean coda to their career."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
5:45:29 PM
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Oliver Willis: "John McCain has been the nominee of his party for over a month now. He has no active opposition, no figure on his side of the aisle contesting him for leadership of the Republican party and the conservative movement. And yet, Republicans are still voting against him. In Indiana McCain pulled in 77% of the vote, and he made an even worse showing with 73% in North Carolina. Even more troubling for McCain is that Huckabee is the leading protest vote. That's the religious right vote, the anti-choice crowd and the bedrock of President Bush's re-election victory."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
5:42:38 PM
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Juan Cole: "Barack Obama pulled closer to clinching the nomination last night, widening his lead over Hillary Clinton in voted delegates and in the popular vote. He overwhelmingly took Indianapolis and narrowed her earlier lead to only 2%, about 20,000 votes out of the hundreds of thousands cast. Obama even got 35% of working class whites in Indiana, which suggests that while Clinton is stronger with that constituency, Obama has an appeal there as well. He is clearly raising far more money than she, so voters are voting for him with their pocketbooks."
Click through for a roundup of yesterday's elections from Cole.
Our blog friend Ed from North Carolina said last night in email, "I'm happy to be in an Obama county in an Obama state."
TalkLeft: "What Clinton should do: Whatever she feels is right. She has earned that. My own view is she should run her campaign against John McCain. She will win West Virginia and Kentucky by huge margins. She might even challenge Obama in Oregon. What she should not do, imo, is run against Barack Obama. If there is a path to the nomination for her, and I doubt there is, it won't come from attacking Obama now."
Oliver Willis: "Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee for President: You know it. I know it. Obama knows it. And maybe even Clinton knows it. Now the superdelegates need to ratify the results of the primaries and on to the general election and the (knock on wood) exile of the Republican party and the conservative movement from our government."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
6:46:50 AM
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Tuesday, May 6, 2008
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World Meterological Organization: "More than 22 000 people are now reported to have died in this disaster and some 41 000 are missing, according to state media. Hundreds of thousands of people are thought to be without clean water and shelter, with some areas still cut off. A tidal wave engendered by the cyclone flattened the low-lying Irrawaddy Delta region and is reported to have caused more deaths than the cyclone itself."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
6:18:29 PM
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Elevated Voices: "Are you a candidate to be a delegate to the Democratic National Convention? If so, you have just been invited to an event featuring DNC Chair Howard Dean. CDP Chair Pat Waak invites all Candidates for Delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention to a mid-day reception with DNC Chair Governor Howard Dean.
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
6:09:58 PM
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Political Wire: "With two weeks until Kentucky's primary, a new SurveyUSA poll shows Sen. Hillary Clinton way ahead of Sen. Barack Obama, 62% to 28%, effectively unchanged from previous polls."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
6:06:49 PM
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Environment News Network: "Greenpeace and more than 100 other environmental groups denounced projects for burying industrial greenhouse gases on Monday, exposing splits in the green movement about whether such schemes can slow global warming. Many governments and some environmental organizations such as the WWF want companies to capture heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the exhausts of power plants and factories and then entomb them in porous rocks as one way to curb climate change. But Greenpeace issued a 44-page report about the technology entitled "False Hope" [pdf]. "Carbon capture and storage is a scam. It is the ultimate coal industry pipe dream," said Emily Rochon, climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace International and author of the report."
Coyote Gulch hopes they're wrong.
Category: Climate Change News
5:40:41 PM
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Monday, May 5, 2008
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Politics West: "Tent State University today notified Re-create '68, the chief local protest group organizing for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, that it is severing ties because of R-68's image and its oftentimes heated rhetoric, reports Chuck Plunkett. 'We don't feel that Re-create 68 is working well with the anti-war left,' said Adam Jung of Tent State University."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
6:09:27 PM
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Political Wire: "A new SurveyUSA poll in North Carolina finds Sen. Barack Obama edging Sen. Hillary Clinton, 50% to 45%."
Political Wire: "A new Public Policy Polling survey in Indiana shows Sen. Hillary Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama by five points, 51% to 46%."
Political Wire: "A new Rasmussen Reports survey in West Virginia shows Sen. Hillary Clinton crushing Sen. Barack Obama, 56% to 27% with 17% undecided. The West Virginia primary will be held next week on May 13."
Political Wire: "A new SurveyUSA poll in Indiana finds Sen. Hillary Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama, 54% to 42%."
Political Wire: "A new Public Policy Polling survey in North Carolina finds Sen. Barack Obama beating Sen. Hillary Clinton by ten points, 53% to 43%."
Political Wire: "According to the latest American Research Group survey in North Carolina, Sen. Barack Obama leads Sen. Hillary Clinton, 50% to 42%."
Political Wire: "According to a new American Research Group survey in Indiana, Sen. Hillary Clinton leads Barack Obama, 53% to 45%."
Political Wire: "A new Suffolk University poll in Indiana finds Sen. Hillary Clinton leads Sen. Barack Obama, 49% to 43%, among likely voters."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
6:05:16 PM
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Colorado Confidential: "A U.S. District Court judge has ordered the city of Denver and the Secret Service agency to respond within 10 days to an American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado lawsuit over security plans during the Democratic National Convention in August. The ACLU is seeking information pertaining to where parade routes will be located, the number of times parades will be permitted and procedures connected to demonstration zones adjacent to the Pepsi Center, where the convention will be held. The ACLU filed its lawsuit Friday morning on behalf of 12 groups who are planning to hold parades and demonstrations during the convention. That afternoon, District Judge Marcia S. Krieger gave the city and federal officials 10 business days to respond. Judge Krieger has not yet set a court date, which would be the next step in the process."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
6:47:12 AM
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Political Wire: "Sen. Barack Obama 'appears to have rebounded from some of the damage caused by the controversy surrounding his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright,' according to the latest CBS News/New York Times poll...'Among Democratic primary voters (those who have voted or plan to vote in a Democratic primary) Obama's lead over Clinton has increased -- he now leads Clinton by twelve points, 50% to 38%. That's up from his eight point lead in the poll released just a few days ago.'"
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
6:38:18 AM
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Sunday, May 4, 2008
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Political Wire: "According to the latest Zogby tracking polls, Sen. Barack Obama holds a nine point lead over Sen. Hillary Clinton in North Carolina, 48% to 39%, and has now edged ahead of Clinton by two points in Indiana, 43% to 41%."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
8:23:43 AM
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Political Wire: "Sen. Barack Obama 'won the Democratic caucuses on Guam by seven votes over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, less than 0.2 percent of the vote in a spirited election that required an overnight hand count of the ballots,' the Associated Press reports. 'The result means the candidates will split the four pledged delegate votes for the Democratic national convention.'"
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
8:22:39 AM
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Having enough water and electricity to produce the kerogen from oil shale are big question marks for those that see it as a replacement for the cheap oil the world has squandered over the last few decades. Here's an update on the water piece from The Denver Post. From the article:
In its quest to melt oil out of western Colorado's shale, Royal Dutch Shell has been buying up land and water rights in anticipation of what is likely to be a thirsty new industry. Some officials, however, worry that the demands of the oil-shale industry could drain every drop of the region's remaining water. "On the upper end, we're looking at potentially several hundred thousand acre-feet of water -- more than people think is commonly available to develop in the Colorado River," said Dan Birch, deputy general manager for the Colorado River Water Conservation District.
Shell and other energy companies have amassed tens of thousands of acres of cropland, ranches and open space -- including a state wildlife area -- to gain water that would be needed to power the oil-shale process. "We've been acquiring land and associated water rights for a long time," Shell spokesman Tracy Boyd said. "We're just situating ourselves so that when the time comes, we'll have the resources we need." In the past year, Shell has:
- Bought a property near Mack that included rights for water in the Colorado River and a 30,000 acre-foot reservoir.
- Bought a ranch from Texas oil tycoon Oscar Wyatt that holds water rights from the 1800s.
- Completed a land swap with the Colorado Division of Wildlife for water along Piceance Creek in the heart of the shale formation, in the northwestern part of the state.
Boyd declined to detail how much water and land the company has acquired, and state and local government officials say they don't maintain complete ownership records...
"The net water requirements ... were something in the neighborhood of 200,000 to 300,000 acre-feet annually," [Bart Miller, water-program director for conservation group Western Resource Advocates] said. "To put that in context, that's the consumption of about 2.5 million people." Energy companies will probably tap into previously unused water rights that will force longtime ranchers and even Front Range municipalities to cut back, said Birch of the Colorado River district...
At its experimental Mahogany project near Rifle -- one of five oil-shale research-and-development efforts taking place on federal land -- Shell is taking a novel approach by heating steel rods 2,000 feet underground to more than 700 degrees to extract oil from the rock. The company also is establishing an underground "freeze wall" around the site, using a refrigerant in buried pipes to freeze water in the ground and create a barrier of ice that keeps water from infiltrating the site or chemical contaminants from leaving. For now, Boyd said, most of the water is being leased back to the ranchers for traditional uses. Major production, he said, is at least a decade down the road.
Still, environmentalists question whether there is enough water and energy to make oil shale viable. "I'm pretty skeptical," said Elise Jones, executive director of the Colorado Environmental Coalition. "Oil companies have been working on trying to find this holy grail for decades and decades and decades and still haven't," she said. "Then you look at just some of the potential impacts to water and climate and the incredible energy that might be required, and the costs may be too great."
More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here.
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
7:34:22 AM
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Saturday, May 3, 2008
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TalkLeft: "t has been reported that unofficial initial results have Obama winning the Guam caucus by 7 votes, 2264-2257. I assume a recount may be in order though the delegate split is set. I doubt a 7 vote differential is going to sway the Guam superdelegates."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
6:40:43 PM
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Here's an article about a prospecting for uranium in Weld County around Keota from The Greeley Tribune. They write:
A ghost town in northern Colorado could prove to be the battleground for another fight over uranium mining as a Grand Junction-based company prepares to launch its own campaign to extract the resource. According to Weld County records, Geovic Mining Corp. has signed mining leases with nearly 130 landowners near Keota in the past year in preparation to mine uranium...
Former Unocal employees who are now employed by Geovic first established there was uranium in the area in the 1970s, according to a 2007 earnings report released in early April. Exploratory drilling will be done to affirm the presence of the uranium before other studies are done, according to the earnings report...
In the report, officials indicated that the uranium deposits are in roll-front formations of sandstone 120-600 feet below the surface. That is similar to the Canadian-firm Powertech Uranium Corporation's uranium mine proposal for a mine near Nunn. Lilias Jarding, an outspoken opponent of that mine said Geovic's plan to mine is one of six proposed uranium mining operations in northern Colorado. It's been difficult for the public to find out anything about the projects, however, because Colorado law keeps nearly every aspect of a proposed mining operation secret, Jarding said. "Nobody knows about these exploration permits until they decide to tell somebody," Jarding said...
House Bill 1161 would require companies such as Powertech and Geovic to clean groundwater at their sites to pre-mining quality after a company finishes mining the radioactive material.
A second bill -- Senate Bill 228 [Concerning Increase Public Disclosure of the Contents of a Notice of Intent to Conduct Mining Operations (pdf)] -- would make prospecting for minerals a matter of public record while protecting the proprietary rights of mineral owners. That bill passed the state Senate on Monday and now heads to the House for consideration before the legislature adjourns next week.
More coverage of SB 08-228 from The Crested Butte News. They write:
A state bill designed to shed more light on the mining industry's prospecting activities in Colorado has passed the State Senate and is now before the Colorado House of Representatives. Senate Bill 228 would give the public access to information that's provided by mining companies to the State Department of Natural Resources when the companies file notices about prospecting, which is among the first steps in developing a mine.
Senator Gail Schwartz (D-Snowmass Village), who represents Gunnison County, is sponsoring the bill, along with Representative Kathleen Curry (D-Gunnison). Schwartz says the bill "came directly out of the concerns we heard from the Crested Butte community...I really want to compliment the community on how active they've been on this issue." Currently in Colorado, companies' prospecting information submitted to the state is held secret -- to the point that even an application that had been filed could not be released to the public. Senate Bill 228 would allow the public access to some information while still protecting items considered proprietary, such as the mineral deposit's location, size and nature and other information. Schwartz says it's a positive step forward. "This bill provides a level of transparency for the public where it is often not found," Schwartz says. "People deserve to know what's happening in their communities."[...]
Local environmental group High Country Citizens' Alliance (HCCA) is also supportive of the bill. In a press release, HCCA mineral resource director Bob Salter said, "If passed SB 228 would allow for public comment and specific environmental impact evaluation of exploratory and prospecting activities that sometimes result in adverse effects to land and water resources."
More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here.
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
10:12:00 AM
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From The Environment News Service: " Kansas will not have two new coal-fired power plants at Holcomb in the western part of the state. Late Thursday night, the Kansas House narrowly sustained the third veto of a bill to allow the plants by Governor Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat. The vote in the House was 80-45, four votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override the governor's veto. Closely watched as an indicator of the mood of the Midwest on coal power, the battle between the governor and the Republican controlled Statehouse over Sunflower Electric's bid to expand its Holcomb Generating Station has absorbed much of this legislative session."
Category: Climate Change News
9:17:11 AM
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Lake Baikal, the earth's largest fresh water lake, is warming due to human induced climate change and the ecology is changing, according to The Environmental News Services. From the article:
The rising temperature of the world's largest lake - Lake Baikal in Siberia - shows that this icy region of Russia is changing due to global warming, Russian and American scientists have discovered. This lake was expected to be among those most resistant to climate change, due to its huge volume and unique water circulation, but long-term data collection reveals that warming is taking place. In their paper, the scientists detail the effects of climate change on Lake Baikal - from warming of its vast waters to reorganization of its microscopic food web - drawing on 60 years of research...
The data on Lake Baikal reveal "significant warming of surface waters and long-term changes in the food web of the world's largest, most ancient lake," write the researchers in their paper. "The conclusions shown here for this enormous body of freshwater result from careful and repeated sampling over six decades," said Henry Gholz, program director for the National Science Foundation's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis based at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He said, "Thanks to the dedication of local scientists, who were also keen observers, coupled with modern synthetic approaches, we can now visualize and appreciate the far-reaching changes occurring in this lake...Warming of this isolated but enormous lake is a clear signal that climate change has affected even the most remote corners of our planet," said study co-author ecologist Stephanie Hampton, who serves as deputy director of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.
Lake Baikal contains 20 percent of the world's fresh water, and it is large enough to hold all the water in North America's Great Lakes. It is the world's deepest lake as well as its oldest. At 25 million years old, it predates the emergence of humans. In 1996, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, declared Lake Baikal a World Heritage site because of its biological diversity. At least 2,500 plant and animal species inhabit the lake. Most of these species, including the freshwater seal, are found nowhere else in the world.
Category: Climate Change News
9:13:13 AM
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From The Denver Post: "Conservationists are shifting the debate over oil and gas development across the West from the preservation of a single species here or there to the potential impacts that development could have on entire landscapes due to climate change...The climate change argument has spread from Montana and the Dakotas down to Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, and BLM officials acknowledged Thursday it's likely here to stay...The region sold every one of the parcels it offered during the April lease sale, but Herrell said the leases haven't been signed since the agency is still reviewing a protest filed by conservation group WildEarth Guardians. The group targeted all of the parcels, saying they should not have been offered since the agency's management plans don't address climate change as a potential result of greenhouse gas emissions from more oil and gas development. The protest also claims the agency skirted federal environmental laws by not considering new information about climate change from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the New Mexico Climate Change Advisory Group or other federal scientists."
Category: Climate Change News
9:01:26 AM
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© Copyright 2008 John Orr.
Last update: 5/9/08; 6:43:47 AM.
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