Warren Buffett On The Environment, Businesses Can't Take 'Shortcuts'

April 3, 2012

What's bad for the environment is also bad for the bottom line.

That's what Warren Buffett is arguing in the latest sustainability report from Johns Manville, a building-materials manufacturer owned by Buffett's company Berkshire Hathaway. In a short note toward the beginning of the report, Buffett writes that "taking shortcuts is not the pathway to achieving sustainable competitive advantage, nor is it an avenue toward satisfying customers" -- evidently a reference to the importance of keeping a business green-friendly and compliant with rules.

Read more

Crash spills 30,000 gallons of fuel

April 3, 2012

State officials are trying to determine the environmental threat posed by 30,000 gallons of petroleum product spilled into a ditch Saturday near Plummer, Minn., the result of a rail accident.

A semi-trailer struck a Canadian Pacific Railway train where it crosses U.S. Highway 59 south of town, killing the driver and releasing the petroleum product.

Dan Olson, spokesman for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in Detroit Lakes, said the liquid spilled into a ditch along the highway, spreading about a quarter of a mile.

Pollution Control inspectors tested the liquid Monday to determine the contaminants it contained and in what amount.

Read more

Should Gulf oil spill dispersant, clean-up companies stay in the litigation?

April 3, 2012

The manufacturer of the chemical dispersant used to break-up the oil during the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 and other companies involved in cleaning up the oil have asked U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier to dismiss them from liability for any health claims because they were working on behalf of the U.S. government in responding to the spill and are entitled to immunity. If successful, the move could remove more than a dozen companies from potential liability if people get sick.

But at the same time, the question comes as BP and the committee of plaintiff attorneys steering the litigation have reached an agreement that includes a deal for BP to cover the health bills for clean-up workers and people who live very close to the shore or oiled marshes.

Barbier had entertained such requests last year, but determined that it wasn't the right time for the court to consider those questions. So over the past five months, the parties to the litigation over the BP oil spill have exchanged thousands of pages of documents to get ready to explore that question.

Read more

Thousands of Dolphins Dying in Gulf Waters

April 3, 2012

The dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico are in the midst of a massive die-off. The reasons why remain a complicated and mysterious mix of oil, bacteria, and the unknown.

Normally an average of 74 dolphins are stranded on the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico each year, especially during the spring birthing season. But between February 2010 and April 1, 2012, 714 dolphins and other cetaceans have been reported as washed up on the coast from the Louisiana/Texas border through Franklin County, Florida, reported the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 95 percent of the mammals were dead.

Since many of the dead dolphins sink, decompose or are eaten by scavengers before washing up, NOAA biologists believe that 714 represents only a fraction of the actually death count. NOAA declared the die-off an “Unusual Mortality Event” as per the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.

Although the timing of die-off largely coincides with BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its aftermath, the deaths actually started increasing about two months before the April 20, 2010 explosion which started the months long oil spill.

Read more