GlobalWarmingisReal contributor Anders Hellum-Alexander wraps-up and comments on the climate and environmental news headlines for the past week:
- The effects of climate change are already being felt; reduced fish populations and fish size, reducing global GDP, increased droughts and heat waves.
- Domestic production of natural gas may be inevitable due to the political need for an alternative to Russian Gas – US gas is cheaper, and not from Russia. A good way to best another nation is through economics, specifically low prices, just look at China. The other effect of cheap US gas is that it is crowding out coal. But, some are trying to blame the decline of coal on environmentalists and Obama instead of the low price of natural gas. Its Pure Economics, Baby!
- Shell is taking pause for now, but they are dedicated to drilling for oil in the Arctic.
- Regulators in New York will soon rule on the use of natural gas fracking. Environmentalists are pointing to the failure of the State to keep our environment protected from the current legacy of dirty energy projects. If New York state can not handle the current dirty energy projects then why should they allow a new and controversial technique?
- Chevron got treated really rough in Brazil for a relatively minor spill. If companies drilling in the US got treated like that then maybe we would not have so many oil spills in our history.
- Total (French Oil Company) tried to wiggle itself out of blame for a 1999 oil spill. The French courts clamped down and are maintaining Total’s guiltiness.
- The EU has hit a major milestone in wind capacity, 100 GW.
- Voters in the US want action on climate change. If only one of the two dominant political parties would get out of the way and let the will of the people prevail.
- Jay Inslee of Washington State is a pro-renewable energy politician. Check out this highlight of his work.
- Obama has ordered a Chinese company to sell its ownership of a wind farm for national security concerns. No energy source goes uninfluenced by Politics.
- California leads the nation in the development of renewable energy, and Governor Jerry Brown is maintaining that edge by signing new pro-Renewable Energy bills.
