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Water Agencies to Make Last Push for Water Conservation in Pasadena, Three Neighboring Foothill Communities During Upcoming Shutdown of Regional Water Line, Spanning 8 Days

Posted by admin on February 15th, 2013

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Metropolitan Water District of Southern California:


WHAT:		Local water agency officials serving Pasadena, La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta and Altadena ramp up plans to stretch supplies while a major regional water line is taken out of service, beginning Thursday, Feb. 21. Briefing on the upcoming 8-day shutdown of Metropolitan Water District’s Upper Feeder pipeline and local water supplies, as well as water-saving tips to stretch available supplies during outage.

WHEN:		10 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 19

WHERE:		Front steps of Pasadena City Hall, 100 N. Garfield Ave.(Los Angeles County Thomas Bros. page 565, J-4)

VISUALS:		B-roll of water-saving measures will be made available on DVD.

PARTICIPANTS:		Officials from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, city of Pasadena’s Water and Power, Foothill Municipal Water District; experts on upgrades to the regional water line, local supply updates, and residential water conservation.

BACKGROUND:		Beginning Thursday morning, Feb. 21, Metropolitan will take its Upper Feeder out of service to make necessary around-the-clock upgrades. Work is scheduled to take eight days, cutting off imported water deliveries serving up to 250,000 people.

		For the shutdown, water officials are asking residents in selected communities to suspend outdoor watering and non-essential indoor water use in order to extend local supplies. Affected areas include Pasadena, La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta and Altadena.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a
cooperative of 26 cities and water agencies serving nearly 19 million
people in six counties. The district imports water from
the Colorado River and Northern California to supplement local supplies,
and helps its members to develop increased water conservation,
recycling, storage and other resource-management programs.

Business Wire Environment News

Statement from Global Automakers’ President and CEO Michael J. Stanton on Obama’s Push for Alternative Fuel Vehicles

Posted by admin on March 8th, 2012

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Global Automakers commends President Obama for taking steps to encourage
consumer purchases of various advanced technology clean vehicles through
tax incentives and credits.

Our Association has long believed that the U.S. government should take a
technology and fuel neutral approach to incentivizing alternative fuels,
advanced technology vehicles, and infrastructure to help automobile
manufacturers bring the latest technologies to the marketplace faster.
We feel strongly that the government should not pick winners and losers
by favoring one fuel or technology over another.

Global Automakers’ members’ commitment to developing green technologies
for the U.S. market has resulted in the following achievements:

First hybrid in the U.S. market and 87% of the U.S. hybrid market today
First all-electric, zero-emission mass-market vehicle
First mass-market gasoline-electric hybrid
First fuel cell vehicle certified for consumer use
First natural gas-powered vehicle available for consumer use
First lower-emission LEV, ULEV, SULEV, and near-zero emission AT-PZEV
vehicles

We have consistently supported efforts by the federal government to
require meaningful improvements in fuel economy with reductions in
greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles and light trucks. Our members
continue to invest millions of R&D dollars to reduce the environmental
footprint of their vehicles. You can learn more about their efforts on
our new fuel economy focused website at: www.drivingfueleconomy.com

The Association of Global Automakers represents international motor
vehicle manufacturers, original equipment suppliers, and other
automotive-related trade associations. We work with industry leaders,
legislators, and regulators to create the kind of public policy that
improves vehicle safety, encourages technological innovation, and
protects our planet. Our goal is to foster a competitive environment in
which more vehicles are designed and built to enhance Americans’ quality
of life. For more information, visit www.globalautomakers.org.

Business Wire Environment News

Bay Area Hospitals Aggregate Demand to Push the Market for Certified-Humane, Cage-Free Eggs

Posted by admin on March 1st, 2012

SOURCE: Health Care Without Harm

SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwire – Mar 1, 2012) – A team of San Francisco Bay Area hospitals recently secured a contract for certified-humane, cage-free eggs from Wilcox Farms through U.S. Foodservice, one of the major food distributors serving the health care sector.

The University of California San Francisco Medical Center and John Muir Health are now purchasing 100% of their liquid eggs from Wilcox Farms. (Liquid eggs, which are pre-separated from their shells, are commonly used in institution and restaurant kitchens and constitute the majority of hospital egg purchases.) “At UCSF Medical Center, we use over 66,000 pounds of liquid eggs annually. As a result of switching from conventionally-raised eggs to cage free-eggs, UCSF is saving over 2,000 chickens from living in battery cages every year. This is part of our larger goals in sustainable purchasing,” says Jack Henderson, Associate Director of Nutrition and Food Services.

UCSF Medical Center and John Muir Health achieved this result through the guidance of the San Francisco Bay Area Physicians for Social Responsibility (SF PSR). SF PSR organizes the Bay Area Hospital Leadership Team, whose seven constituent hospitals have signed the Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge which states that healthy food must come from a food system that is economically viable, ecologically sustainable, and socially just. The hospitals share knowledge and pool their purchasing power in order to shift the marketplace toward healthier, sustainably-produced food. Two other members, the San Francisco VA Medical Center and Kaiser Permanente, plan to transition to liquid cage-free eggs this spring.

“We are very pleased that UCSF Medical Center and John Muir Health are leading the sustainability effort by providing their patients and visitors with humanely raised, cage-free eggs and we hope that more hospitals will follow their lead,” says Lucia Sayre, co-director of San Francisco Bay Area Physicians for Social Responsibility. The US Foodservice contract with Wilcox Farms is a significant decision, making cage-free eggs more accessible to other hospitals in California and the Pacific Northwest.

Wilcox Farms is a fourth generation family farm in Washington state. They are committed to converting their operation to 100% organic and cage-free in response to growing demand as well as the company’s desire to sustain the land, community and company for the future. Their cage-free hens are free to run and preen with access to the outdoors and are certified humane by Humane Farm Animal Care.

“In 2006 our family made the decision to convert our hen houses from conventional to cage free and organic. Although we knew it was the right thing to do, it has not always been easy — the process has been extremely intense both with financial and management resources. So when customers like UCSF and John Muir Health choose our products, it validates our decision to transition to cage-free and organic. This is a really positive motivator for our family,” says co-owner Andy Wilcox.

The vast majority of egg-laying hens in the United States are confined in battery cages. On average, each caged hen is afforded less space than a single sheet of letter-sized paper on which to live her entire life. Unable even to spread their wings, caged laying hens are among the most intensively confined animals in agribusiness.

Unlike battery hens, cage-free hens are able to walk, spread their wings and lay their eggs in nests, vital natural behaviors denied to hens confined in cages. These advantages are very significant to the animals involved.

The Humane Society of the United States, which helped inspire the hospitals’ efforts, has long been committed to ending the cruelty of caged-hen egg production. “We’re thrilled with the health care sector taking animal welfare and sustainability seriously in its food procurement,” says Karin Olsson, outreach manager at The Humane Society. “Moving to cage-free eggs lines up with this core commitment.”

As a result of their commitment, the Hospital Leadership Team members are frontrunners in a groundbreaking shift toward cruelty-free animal production inaugurated by California ballot measure Proposition 2, the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act. Passed in 2008, the proposition prohibits the confinement of certain farm animals in a manner that does not allow them to turn around freely, lie down, stand up, and fully extend their limbs. The measure deals with three types of confinement: veal crates, battery cages, and sow gestation crates. The statute will become operative on January 1, 2015.

Cage-free eggs are just one part of a larger sustainability agenda for the San Francisco Bay Area Hospital Leadership Team. Along with over 380 hospitals nationwide, they have signed the Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge developed by Health Care Without Harm, indicating their commitment to providing local, nutritious and sustainably-produced food at their institutions. The San Francisco Bay Area Physicians for Social Responsibility coordinates Health Care Without Harm’s Healthy Food in Health Care program in California.

Health Care Without Harm has an ambitious healthy food agenda, which includes buying fresh food locally and/or buying certified organic food; avoiding food raised with growth hormones and antibiotics; encouraging group purchasing organizations (GPOs) to support healthy food in healthcare; supporting local farmers and farming organizations; introducing farmers’ markets and on-site food box programs; reducing food waste; and establishing an overarching food policy at each health facility. To learn more about Health Care Without Harm’s work on food and other issues related to health care www.healthyfoodinhealthcare.org.

Health Care Without Harm is an international coalition of more than 500 organizations in 53 countries, working to transform the health care industry worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. For more information on HCWH, see www.noharm.org.

Marketwire – Environment

Energy efficiency to push green business near seven billion pound mark

Posted by admin on February 4th, 2012

February 2nd, 2012 by Victoria Painting

The need to reduce energy costs and the consumption of electricity while using natural resources more efficiently are some of the main forces behind the significant growth in green goods spending, a new report has forecasted.

According to Verdantix’s study, UK spending from Britain’s biggest firms on the likes of energy, environment, or green initiatives from 2010 and 2015 is to grow by 12 per cent this year – which leaves the forecast for growth of UK gross domestic product at only 0.6 per cent trailing in its wake.

The study predicts growth across the green goods market and it will apparently soar from £4.3 mn this year to £6.8 bn by 2015 – representing a 16 per cent per year rise. Verdantix looked at green business spending from 421 firms across the UK that have revenues exceeding £750 million and it was found that the biggest spending will go on strategic energy management. From 2010 to 2015, spending will double from £1 bn to £1.98 bn.

Verdantix’s global head of research, Rodolphe d’Arjuzon, commented that strategic energy management is to become to the hottest market while firms look to cut their energy expense anywhere between five and 20 per cent over the next five years. The Verdantix report predicts that areas of the UK green economy to experience the fastest growth will be smart meters, at 23 per cent, and electric vehicles at 22 per cent.

In 2012, both retail and consumer brands are to account for the most spending on green initiatives at £1.5 billion and represents 34 per cent of the total spend.

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Recycling, Green, and Environmental News

Government Delay, Drought Prompts Renewed Push for Protection of Klamath River Chinook Salmon

Posted by admin on February 2nd, 2012

PORTLAND, Ore.— Conservation groups filed a formal notice of intent to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service Wednesday for failing to decide, as legally required, whether upper Klamath River chinook salmon deserve protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. In response to a January 28, 2011 petition from the groups, the Fisheries Service determined in April 2011 that the salmon may warrant protection and began a status review that was supposed to be completed within one year of the petition. The petition review comes at a perilous time for Klamath salmon as fears of a major drought linger.

“Klamath River chinook have suffered severe declines in the face of a century of dam building, logging, hatcheries, massive water withdrawal and pollution,” said Noah Greenwald at the Center for Biological Diversity. “These magnificent fish need Endangered Species Act protection if they’re going to have any chance at survival and recovery. We very much hope protection will be provided in the next 60 days so we won’t have to file suit.”

The groups’ petition requested protection first and foremost for spring-run chinook, once the most abundant run of Klamath chinook but nearing extinction. Biologists now count just 300 to 3,000 wild-spawning spring chinook each year. These fish are marvels of evolution, living most of their lives in the Pacific Ocean to return to the river in spring with enough fat reserves to survive, without eating, until spawning time in early fall. They are prized as one of the best-tasting salmon species and have historically been the most economically important Klamath fish.

“We’ve seen chinook numbers dwindle to the point of crisis and with a looming drought year, we can’t wait any longer to figure out a plan to make sure these fish don’t go extinct,” said Steve Pederey with Oregon Wild.

The Klamath Basin was once the third-largest producer of salmon and steelhead on the West Coast, but now produces fewer and fewer wild fish as a result of dams, habitat degradation and other factors. Overall, at least 300 miles of spawning habitat in the Klamath Basin have been made inaccessible by dams. Because of declines in the overall numbers of returning wild chinook, the petition also asked the Fisheries Service to consider protecting wild fall-run chinook.

“Chinook salmon are essential for sustaining wildlife and cultures in the Klamath Basin,” said Andrew Orahoske of the Environmental Protection Information Center. “These amazing salmon are a vital, life-giving force to river communities and deserve to be protected for future generations.”

River management has exacerbated the chinook’s plight. In fall 2002, Klamath River chinook suffered one of the worst fish kills in Northwest history when as many as 70,000 adult salmon died before spawning. Excessive water withdrawals, primarily from the federally run Klamath Irrigation Project, resulted in low flows and warm water temperatures that allowed disease to develop and spread quickly. Continued low flows and warm temperatures are key drivers of an ongoing disease crisis in the river that has sharply reduced survival of juvenile wild fish on their way to the ocean.

The federal delay in reviewing the Endangered Species Act petition for Klamath chinook comes at a dangerous time. Lower than normal snowpack in the region’s mountains has prompted worries that the water year could be even worse than the drought that precipitated the 2002 fish kill. The petitioners are hopeful that Endangered Species Act protections can help to shield Klamath chinook from the potentially disastrous effects of low river flows.

The Center for Biological Diversity, Oregon Wild, Environmental Protection Information Center and The Larch Company filed the notice of intent.

Contact Info: Noah Greenwald, Center for Biological Diversity, (503) 484-7495

Steve Pederey, Oregon Wild, (503) 283-6343 x 212

Andrew Orahoske, EPIC, (707) 822-7711

Website : Center for Biological Diversity

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ENN Network News – ENN

IUCN expertise in UN push for sustainable energy for all

Posted by admin on January 22nd, 2012

IUCN’s Director General joined United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi this week to outline his Sustainable Energy for All initiative to the media.

IUCN – News

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and DTSC Broaden California’s Push for Safer Consumer Products through Key Alliance (CA)

Posted by admin on January 12th, 2012

Release Date: 01/12/2012
Contact Information: EPA – Margot Perez-Sullivan, (415) 328-1676, [email protected], CA DTSC – Contact: Jim Marxen,
(916) 869-5056, [email protected]

(01/12/12) SAN LEANDRO, CA – Consumers will see added momentum in California’s groundbreaking push for safer alternatives to toxic chemicals in everyday products following the signing of a landmark agreement today by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

This formal agreement outlines principles by which DTSC and U.S. EPA will cooperate to reduce toxic chemicals in consumer products, create new business opportunities in the emerging safer consumer products economy, and reduce the burden on consumers and businesses struggling to identify what’s in the products they buy for their families and customers.

The U.S. EPA is a leader in performing scientific evaluations that lead to safer alternatives. The Agency promotes the research, development and implementation of innovative chemical technologies that accomplish pollution prevention in a scientifically sound and cost-effective manner. To accomplish these goals, the Green Chemistry Program recognizes and supports chemical technologies that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances during the design, manufacture, and use of chemical products and processes.

This agreement will allow DTSC and U.S. EPA to minimize duplication of effort and promote consistency in our methodology, which will ultimately improve environmental protection. The agreement also creates a partnership between the two agencies and sets up a framework to collaborate on Green Chemistry issues so that California’s innovative “Green Chemistry” program can grow.

“This is a major step in protecting Californians from unnecessary chemicals in everyday consumer products,” said DTSC’s Director Debbie Raphael. “The innovative spirit of this partnership also signals that government agencies can pool resources in a challenging fiscal environment to better serve the public,” she said.

“Collaborating with agencies like DTSC allows the tools and research created by the EPA to be put into practice and be used to protect human health and the environment,” said Jared Blumenfeld, U.S. EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest.

The U.S. EPA’s Green Chemistry Program supports fundamental research in the area of environmentally benign chemistry as well as a variety of educational activities, international activities, conferences and meetings, and tool development, all through voluntary partnerships with academia, industry, other government agencies and non-government organizations.

“This partnership will build and harmonize common tools and practices used to conduct alternative assessments to promote safer products,” said Jim Jones, EPA’s acting assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. “These alternative assessments inform and speed the adoption of safer chemicals for use in products, homes, schools, and workplaces, which produce significant environmental and economic benefits.”

DTSC and U.S. EPA signed the agreement in a ceremony at California’s Kaiser Permanente Sidney R. Garfield Health Care Innovation Center in San Leandro. Kaiser Permanente is nationally recognized as an industry leader in safer products, using its purchasing power and a sustainability scorecard to press suppliers for safer chemicals in medical products.

“We spend billions of dollars every year on products. Yet despite that leverage we suffer the same problems that individual consumers face as they try to buy products that don’t contain harmful chemicals,” said Kathy Gerwig, Kaiser Permanente’s vice president for employee safety, health and wellness and environmental stewardship officer. “We want to shift the burden of assessing what is safe from downstream users like us to upstream manufacturers.”

The agreement represents a major advance for Californians looking to buy safer children’s toys, personal care products, household cleaners and other products. By shifting the question of an ingredient’s toxicity to the product development stage, concerns raised by Kaiser Permanente and other consumers can be addressed early on. The approach results in safer ingredients, and provides an opportunity for California industry to once again demonstrate its innovative spirit by making products that meet consumer demand throughout the world.

DTSC’s informal draft Safer Consumer Products Regulations, scheduled to be finalized in 2012, will require manufacturers of selected products sold in California to identify safer alternatives to a potential range of 3,000 chemicals known to be harmful to public health and the environment.

DTSC expects to release its draft Safer Consumer Products Regulations in early 2012 for public comment. The Regulations are a cornerstone of California’s landmark Green Chemistry Initiative signed into law in 2008.

# # #

FOR GENERAL INQUIRIES: Contact the Department of Toxic Substances Control by phone at (800) 728-6942 or visit www.dtsc.ca.gov. To report illegal handling, discharge, or disposal of hazardous waste, call the Waste Alert Hotline at (800) 698-6942.

For an e-media kit please visit: http://www.epa.gov/region9/mediacenter/greenchem

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U.S. EPA News

Lawmakers Push to Rush Presidential Decision on Controversial, Environmentally Destructive Keystone XL Pipeline

Posted by admin on December 6th, 2011

Washington— The House Subcommittee on Energy and Power held a hearing Friday on legislation called the “North American Energy Security Act,” which would require President Barack Obama to issue a permit on the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline within 60 days of the law’s enactment or determine the pipeline is not in the national interest. The legislation comes on the heels of a decision by the State Department to delay the pipeline’s approval to allow for more study of its environmental impacts on our land, air, water and climate.

“Once again congressional Republicans are paying more attention to their deep-pocketed campaign contributors in oil and gas than to the American public, which overwhelmingly opposes more tar-sands development, including the Keystone pipeline,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “If it passes, this law will end careful consideration of the devastating impacts of Keystone, doing terrible damage to representative government as well as to the environment.”

The 1,700-mile pipeline would, every day, transport up to 35 million gallons of oil derived from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, through the middle of the United States to refineries in Texas. In the process it would cross hundreds of streams and rivers and pass through wildlife habitat that would be at an increased risk of disastrous oil spills.

Strip mining of oil from Alberta’s tar sands has already destroyed tens of thousands of acres of boreal forest and polluted hundreds of millions of gallons of water from the Athabasca River, creating toxic ponds so large they can be seen from space. Processing and refinement of tar-sands oil produces two to three times more greenhouse gases per barrel than conventional oil and represents a massive new source of fossil fuels, which leading climate scientist Dr. James Hansen has called “game over” for our ability to avoid climate catastrophe.

If this were not enough, the caustic oil known as bitumen, which would be transported across six states and thousands of water bodies, poses an unacceptable risk of spill. An existing pipeline, Keystone 1, has already leaked 14 times since it went operational in June 2010; one spill dumped 21,000 gallons of tar-sands crude. Another tar-sands pipeline spilled more than a million gallons in the Kalamazoo River.

“From the Alberta tar sands to the Gulf of Mexico, the Keystone XL pipeline would be an environmental disaster,” said Greenwald. “Americans deeply value clean air and water, and we need to be able to trust our leaders to protect our children’s future. Keystone XL should not be approved at all, and clearly it shouldn’t be rushed to approval by cynical politicians making an end run around democracy.”

Contact Info: Noah Greenwald, (503) 484-7495

Website : Center for Biological Diversity

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ENN Network News – ENN

UK secretly helping Canada push oil sands

Posted by admin on November 28th, 2011

Damian Carrington

Greenpeace protesters block the entrance to the Department for Transport over its involvement in UK support for Canada tar sands. Photograph: Sean Dempsey/PA

The UK government has been giving secret support at the very highest levels to Canada‘s campaign against European penalties on its highly polluting tar sands fuel, the Guardian can reveal.

At the same time, the UK government was being lobbied by Shell and BP, which both have major tar sands projects in Alberta, and opened a new consulate in the province to “support British commercial interests“.

At least 15 high-level meetings and frequent communications have taken place since September, with David Cameron discussing the issue with his counterpart Stephen Harper during his visit to Canada, and stating privately that the UK wanted “to work with Canada on finding a way forward”, according to documents released under freedom of information laws.

Charles Hendry, the energy minister, later told the Canadian high commissioner: “We would value continued discussion with you on how we can progress discussions in Brussels,” with Hendry’s official asking the Canadians if they had “any suggestions as to what we might do, given the politics in Brussels”.

Canada’s vast tar sands – also known as oil sands – are the second largest reserve of carbon in the world after Saudi Arabia, although the energy needed to extract oil from the ground means the process results in far more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil drilling, as well as causing the destruction of forests and air and water pollution.

Nasa scientist James Hansen says if the oil sands were exploited as projected it would be “game over for the climate”.

The European proposal is to designate transport fuel from tar sands as resulting in 22% more greenhouse gas emissions than that from conventional fuels. This would make suppliers, who have to reduce the emissions from their fuels by 10% by 2020, very reluctant to include it in their fuel mix. It would also set an unwelcome precedent for Canada by officially labelling fuel from tar sands as dirtier.

The UK and Canada’s shared opposition to the European plan puts the UK in a minority among EU countries and will be deeply embarrassing as a new round of global negotiations on tackling climate change begins in Durban, South Africa on Monday. Chris Huhne, the energy and climate change secretary, claimed on Thursday that the UK was showing “leadership” in the UN negotiations, while Canada’s prime minister has blocked climate laws. The revelations are also the latest blow to Cameron’s claim to be the “greenest government ever”.

The vote to approve the European fuel quality regulations takes place on Friday. In advance of that, William Hague, the foreign secretary, has also given support to Canada, sending an “immediate action” cable in September to the UK’s embassies there asking “to communicate our position and seek Canadian views on what might be acceptable”.

However, the Department for Transport, in which the Liberal Democrat minister Norman Baker has responsibility for tar sands issues, has released only two presentations made to it by Shell, both heavily redacted. The DfT rejected requests to release at least six other relevant documents on the grounds of commercial confidentiality and adverse effect on international relations, as did the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), where Shell also met ministers.

BP has lobbied ministers, too. Its vice president in Europe, Peter Mather, has been, in his own words, “bending the ear” of Baker. Mather also sent a letter in which he wrote: “The regulatory burden would be considerable at a time when the industry is already creaking under the weight of a heavy regulatory regime.”

John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: “The scale of oil industry lobbying exposed in these documents is quite extraordinary. It’s especially worrying that Baker held a secret meeting with Shell about this key European vote on tar sands. But worse still, he’s now covering up what was discussed.”

Colin Baines, toxic fuels campaign manager at the Co-operative, the UK mutual business group which targets tar sands as part of its climate change campaigning, said: “It is very disappointing that the UK government is supporting Canada’s efforts and we hope it has a rethink and puts tackling climate change ahead of Canada’s trade interests when it comes to vote on the European commission’s commonsense proposal.”

The documents were obtained by the Co-operative under environmental information regulations, a type of freedom of information law. They include letters to and from ministers, diplomatic correspondence and notes of meetings.

Baker said: “The government is staying true to its aspiration to be the greenest ever by seeking to secure the best deal it can for the environment from the discussions ongoing in the EU about the fuel quality directive.

“We believe that means tackling all highly polluting crudes equally, not simply oil sands from one particular country. These certainly represent a problem, but so do other crudes, and it makes no environmental sense to ignore these.

“This is not about protecting one particular country – we want to deal with all crudes, not just one type, and in a way that is based on robust and objective data, related to their carbon emissions.”

Like Baker, Canada also argues in the newly revealed documents that it is unfair to single out one nation and that other types of oil can be as dirty as tar sands.

But Baines says these arguments are “myths”, as the European proposal does not name any nation and on average fuel from tar sands is a greater source of carbon by a clear margin, according to a Stanford University study for the European commission.

Furthermore, the European commission proposal allows for changes in the emissions designated for fuel types.

Canadian ministers and diplomats state they support an “overarching ambition” to reduce carbon emissions. But Canada has admitted it will fail to meet its Kyoto protocol target of a 6% cut compared with 1990 levels: in 2009 its emissions were 34% higher.

In September, Lord Sassoon, the UK Treasury minister for commerce, spent two days in the Albertan capital Calgary, a few hundred miles from the vast oil sand pits excavated by 1,500-tonne diggers. The International Energy Agency expects production to treble in the next 20 years. Sassoon met politicians and oil executives to discuss boosting trade with the UK and told reporters that Alberta is “one of the main focuses of British business”. Alberta’s energy minister, Ron Liepert, told Sassoon privately he “was grateful for UK efforts” on the tar sands issue in Europe.

The new British consulate-general in Calgary was announced by Hague on 18 October, the same day as Canadian energy minister Joe Oliver said: “[The British] have been very, very helpful and we’re pleased about that. Many European companies are heavily invested in the oil sands and they also would be concerned.” The new documents and diplomatic sources suggest the Netherlands, Spain and Poland are among those backing the British-Canadian position.

In London, a senior Canadian diplomat, Sushma Gera, told BIS: “Canada will not hesitate to defend her interests,” perhaps via a World Trade Organisation dispute, a possibility also raised by Shell in its presentation to DfT.

Bill McKibben, a leading US environmentalist, who was arrested in August protesting against a major oil sands pipeline called Keystone XL said: “The UK seems to have emerged as Canada’s partner in crime, leaning on Brussels to let this crud across the borders. This will be among the biggest single environmental decisions the Cameron government makes.”

Greenpeace’s Sauven, along with the head of Friends of the Earth, Andy Atkins, and David Nussbaum, leader of WWF-UK, have written to Nick Clegg, deputy prime minister and Lib Dem leader.

The letter says: “We ask you to intervene personally on this, to ensure that your party’s green ambitions are more effectively upheld across Whitehall.”

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Environment news, comment and analysis from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk

Shale gas push ‘would wreck climate targets’

Posted by admin on November 23rd, 2011

Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent

The drilling rig of Cuadrilla Resources searches for shale gas, near Blackpool, Lancashire

Cuadrilla Resources’s shale gas drilling site near Blackpool, Lancashire. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The UK will fail to meet its climate change targets if industry and politicians back controversial new plans to go ahead with widespread drilling for shale gas, according to a report published on Wednesday.

About 2tr cubic feet of natural gas trapped in dense shale rocks is estimated to lie beneath Lancashire according to Cuadrilla Resources, the main shale gas company operating in the UK. Further exploration in Wales, Scotland and other parts of England could add substantially to this total.

But burning it for fuel results in large-scale carbon dioxide emissions, and scientists from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Research, in a report commissioned by the Cooperative Group, warned that exploiting even a minor proportion of this gas would generate so much carbon dioxide that the government’s greenhouse gas emissions targets would be rendered unreachable.

Exploiting even one-fifth of the Lancashire shale gas reserves alone would produce about 15% of the total carbon dioxide that the UK can produce between now and 2050, if government targets are to be adhered to. Those targets state that CO2 emissions are to be cut by 80% by 2050.

Kevin Anderson, professor of energy and climate change at the Tyndall Centre, at the University of Manchester, said: “The government faces a difficult choice – to lead a new and low-carbon energy revolution or stick with high-carbon fossil fuels, forgo its emission targets and relinquish its hard-won international reputation on climate change.”

Proponents of shale gas say it could cut emissions by displacing higher-emitting fossil fuels such as coal, and could increase the UK’s energy security by providing a “home-grown” source of gas, even as the UK’s reserves in the North Sea are rapidly running out. Cuadrilla estimates that shale gas could create about 6,500 jobs in the UK.

However, the industry – with only a few exploratory wells yet drilled – has already struck controversy, as earlier this year two small earthquakes occurred close to the Cuadrilla drilling operations. A subsequent report by Cuadrilla, published earlier in the autumn, found that the drilling operations were probably the cause of the seismic activity, though they said this presented little danger to the inhabitants.

Lobbyists for the gas industry have also seized on the potential of shale gas to argue within Whitehall and Brussels that investing in gas could be cheaper than opting for renewables. The government pledged this summer to make it easier for new gas-fired power stations to be built.

Green campaigners are concerned that not enough is known about the effects of shale gas exploration. Drawing on experiences from the US, where widespread shale gas exploration has ripped up landscapes, they warn of the potential for water contamination, gas leaks, the release of heavy metals and other harmful substances, as well as increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Paul Monaghan, head of social goals at the Cooperative, said: “It is shocking how little scrutiny and thoughtful consideration has been demonstrated by the UK government and its environmental agencies when it comes to shale gas. Not least because, evidence is now emerging which indicates that gas derived from shale may have a significantly greater carbon footprint than previously thought, seriously questioning whether it can play any role in the transition to a low-carbon economy.

“The calls from ‘big gas’ for the abandonment of renewables targets must be rebuffed, and here is the science to do just that.”

Wednesday’s report also found that the amount of investment needed to exploit gas reserves – about £32bn – would be enough to build 2,300 offshore wind turbines, which would produce enough renewable energy to meet government targets. Shale gas exploration also supports fewer jobs than renewable energy generation – hundreds of thousands of jobs could be created in offshore wind, solar power and other green energy, but drilling shale gas wells requires minimal manpower.

Tony Bosworth, energy campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “If ministers give shale gas the green light it could wreck UK climate targets and keep us all in hock to soaring energy bills. The only solution to our broken power system is to develop the nation’s home-grown clean energy supplies and cut energy waste. David Cameron must free us from the shackles of the big energy companies keeping us hooked on dirty fossil fuels – and support clean British energy providers instead.”