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11320 E Lakewood Blvd., #11
Holland, MI 49424
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Arctic drilling creeps forward now, and in 5 years
July 2, 2012
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – In choppy water under blue sky off Bellingham, Wash., a Shell Oil crew on Monday lowered a "capping stack" 200 feet in the water and put it through maneuvers with underwater robots connected by cable to operators on the surface, a test that fulfilled one of the final steps required for permission to drill exploratory wells in Arctic waters.
The capping stack looks like a giant spark plug and is designed to kill an undersea oil well blowout by providing a metal-to-metal seal on a malfunctioning blowout preventer.
Shell is sending the capping stack, skimmers, boom and a containment dome on board a flotilla accompanying drill ships to Alaska's northern shores as part of a spill response plan that has the blessing of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. Shell expects final approvals within weeks and drilling by late this month.
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Womb Mess by PCBs
July 2, 2012
It is not surprising that chemicals may affect biological functions. In a new study, by Andrea Gore of the University of Texas on rats, has shown that PCB-induced brain changes delayed puberty in male offspring and disrupted reproductive cycles in the adult female offspring. Rats and humans are very similar biochemically in the hypothalmus whose functions influence reproduction which is what she studied. In addition, the researchers identified five genes that PCB disrupted. Gore said that all five are critical to the normal hypothalamic control of reproduction.
Natural gas gold rush: Is your state next?
June 27, 2012
The script might not play out exactly the same in each new community touched by the nationwide boom in natural gas and oil drilling, but the changes have a familiar echo:
Trucks. Noise. Cash. Conflict.
Since the late 1990s, American landscapes have become dotted with a small forest of shale gas wells — 13,000 new ones a year, or about 35 a day, according to the American Petroleum Institute. In the past decade, this steady stream of development has become a gusher as nearly half the country has staked claim to these energy riches. In 2000, the USA had 342,000 natural gas wells. By 2010, more than 510,000 were in place — a 49% jump — according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Oil Spill Threatens Siberian River
June 28, 2012
Authorities in the Irkutsk region are scrambling to deal with an oil spill on the Angara River, the second to strike the Siberian waterway in as many months.
A 4-kilometer oil slick was discovered near the right bank of the Siberian waterway late Wednesday evening, local authorities said.
Emergency Situations Ministry officials said Thursday morning that the spill had been contained using booms, and presented no threat to the environment or the local population, Interfax reported.
Federal Court Upholds EPA's Global Warming Rules
June 26, 2012
A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the first-ever regulations aimed at reducing the gases blamed for global warming.
The rules, which were challenged by industry groups and various states, will reduce emissions of six heat-trapping gases from large industrial facilities such as factories and power plants, as well as from automobile tailpipes.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington said that the Environmental Protection Agency was "unambiguously correct" in using existing federal law to address global warming.