Ill. passes nation's toughest fracking regulations

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) ? Illinois came a giant step closer to approving the nation's strictest regulations for high-volume oil and gas drilling on Friday, as lawmakers approved a measure they hoped would create thousands of jobs in economically depressed areas of southern Illinois.

The Senate passed the legislation 52-3, one day after it was overwhelmingly approved in the other chamber. Gov. Pat Quinn promised to sign it, calling the legislation a "shot in the arm for many communities."

The legislation was crafted with the help of industry and some environmental groups ? an unusual collaboration that has been touted as a potential model for other states.

Legislation sponsor Mike Frerichs, a Champaign Democrat, said stakeholders "sat down for hundreds and thousands of hours" to hammer out the issue.

"These are tough regulations that are going to protect and preserve our most valuable resources in our state," he told floor members. "We are going to increase home produced energy in our state in one of the most environmentally friendly ways possible."

While proponents have said hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," would generate tens of thousands of jobs, opponents have been pushing for a two-year moratorium to allow more time to examine health and environmental impact. They are worried fracking could cause pollution and deplete water resources.

"This bill was written by industry and parties that have a vested interest," said Annette McMichael, a property owner in Johnson County who belongs to a coalition that opposes fracking. "We have no say in our own water. ... We are totally helpless."

Despite the numerous protests by her group, Southern Illinoisans Against Fracturing Our Environment, and others ? one woman was forcibly removed from the House chamber on Thursday after the vote ? there was little opposition to the measure on the floor. Senators on both sides of the aisle praised the compromise.

"This could be a bright economic future for many, many Illinoisans," said Sen. Kirk Dillard, a Hinsdale Republican.

Fracking uses high-pressure mixtures of water, sand or gravel and chemicals are used to crack rock formations deep underground and release oil and natural gas.

Among the provisions in the proposed legislation are requirements that drillers publicly disclose the chemicals they use and that they test water before and after fracking. Companies also would be liable for any water pollution.

Sen. Mattie Hunter, who was among the few who voted against the legislation, said in a statement that the state should "halt fracking practices and allow for a task force to complete concrete, comprehensive evaluation of this highly controversial industry moving further." The Chicago Democrat had introduced a measure that would put a temporary ban on the practice.

Sen. Sue Rezin, a Morris Republican described the legislation as having "the highest environmental regulations in the entire country."

Energy companies are eyeing the New Albany shale formation in southern Illinois, where they believe there are significant oil reserves 5,000 feet or more below the surface.

While the measure passed easily in both chambers, the road there wasn't easy. An amendment requiring energy companies to hire a state-licensed water well driller delayed the vote for more than a month before industry and unions reached a compromise that gives drillers a break on extraction taxes if at least half of their employees are from Illinois.

Two bills proposing a moratorium were offered, but neither gained traction.

Opponents say the regulatory legislation would leave Illinois communities with no control over the practice.

But others felt it was the best the state could do. State Sen. Don Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat said it was "about as good of a regulatory bill as we could offer."

"God willing," Harmon said, "it's good enough."

__

The bill is SB1715.

Online: http://www.ilga.gov

__

Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ill-passes-nations-toughest-fracking-regulations-013716732.html

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Apple seen withstanding Galaxy S4 onslaught as iPhone sales ?remain resilient?

Fossilized sediment from New Jersey's salt marshes contains evidence of a migrating coast line. For some 2,000 years, up until the dawn of our modern warming era around 1900, the sea level off of what's now New Jersey was rising by about one to two millimeters a year, with the coast itself imperceptibly creeping inland. Today, the sea level is rising by three to five millimeters a year.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apple-seen-withstanding-galaxy-s4-onslaught-iphone-sales-174050880.html

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U.S., Germany tell Russia not to hurt Syria peace effort

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Germany warned Russia on Friday that arming President Bashar al-Assad's forces could jeopardize international efforts to bring Syria's warring parties together for peace talks.

Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking after talks with his German counterpart, Guido Westerwelle, said Russian plans to send a sophisticated air defense system to Assad also put Israel's security at risk.

Despite their differences, the United States and Russia are trying to convene an international conference next month to end a 26-month-old conflict that has killed more than 80,000 people and threatens to ignite wider Middle Eastern confrontations.

Russia has said it would fulfill an order for the S-300 long range surface-to-air missiles to Syria as a deterrent against foreign military intervention.

But Westerwelle told Russia that the missile shipment "is totally wrong" and called on Assad to "stop the violence and come to the negotiating table".

"It is very important that this Geneva 2 conference gets a realistic chance, and therefore, we ask and urge everyone not to spoil this conference," Westerwelle said, adding, "No one knows if this conference will become a success but it is the wrong message which has been sent by Russia to the world and to the region by delivering S-300 or other weapons."

Kerry, who has traveled throughout the Middle East in recent weeks gathering support for the peace talks, said he was convinced that Syria's opposition would attend the meeting despite threats to boycott it.

He said opposition talks in Istanbul had made progress in broadening their leadership. The delegates in Istanbul have agreed to add 14 named members of a liberal bloc led by veteran figure Michel Kilo to the 60-member assembly of the Syrian National Coalition, the closest body that Assad's foes have to an overall civilian leadership.

"If everybody is serious, and we are, and the Russians have said they are, the best chance to save Syria, the best chance to be able to protect minorities and stop the killing ... is through a peaceful resolution that comes about in an organized way," Kerry said.

(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Jim Loney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-germany-tell-russia-not-hurt-syria-peace-151221203.html

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Venture capitalists blurring green energy's red lines | Energy | News ...

It?s the kind of development that would leave environmentalists curled up in the fetal position: solar technology, funded by clean tech venture capitalists, being used to extract oil from aging wells. In the Middle East.

Instead of the perceived epic battle between renewables and fossil fuels, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are discovering practical ways for traditional and alternative energy sectors to converge, collaborate and co-exist.

And its starkest example is California-based Glasspoint Solar Inc., backed by clean tech fund Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, which began working on old oilfields initially in California, and is now in Oman this month.

?We need to stop thinking about clean tech as a separate industry where a few tree-huggers are willing to pay a premium for a grid,? said Wal van Lierop, co-founder and CEO of Vancouver-based Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital. ?This is all about clean tech breaking through in the core business of very large companies.?

Mr. van Lierop?s $145-million fund was ranked among the world?s most active clean energy funds last year by Cleantech Group?s i3 Platform. But the fund is stretching the traditional boundaries of clean tech, which often ring-fenced itself from the oil and gas industry.

We need to stop thinking about clean tech as a separate industry where a few tree-huggers are willing to pay a premium for a grid

Not Chrysalix ? it even has an office in Calgary, and is funding Axine Water Technologies Inc., which hopes to solve Canadian oil and gas companies? wastewater issues via energy-efficient solutions.

Chrysalix?s occasional forays into fossil fuels could be because Mr. van Lierop was once the vice-president of a natural gas company in Canada or that the fund?s backers includes Royal Dutch Shell Plc. and Saudi petrochemicals giant Sabic Corp.

But the fund is certainly not alone in blurring the lines between traditional and renewable energy sources.

Private equity investors, who were previously insignificant players in U.S. oil and gas sector, poured about US$32-billion last year, from under US$10-billion for much of the past decade, according to management consultants PWC.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the world?s most active clean deal maker, has a stake in Chesapeake-backed Sundrop Fuels, which combines biomass with hydrogen from natural gas to create fuel, and in Luca Technologies Inc., which uses biotechnology to produce natural gas from hydrocarbon deposits.

Draper Fisher Jurvetson, another major clean tech investor, is an investor in Massachusetts-based CoalTek Inc., which claims to provide cleaner coal. Chyrsalix?s sister fund in Asia also features a coal company in its portfolio.

Khosla Ventures? ?sustainable? portfolio includes stakes in GreatPoint Energy, tasked with converting coal and other carbon-based feedstocks into pipeline quality natural gas, and Ciris Energy, which uses biotechnology to turn coal into natural gas.

Braemer Energy Ventures, another active clean tech VC, has investments in an Alberta-based company that offers bitumen-upgrading technology, apart from investments in Ciris and CoalTek.

?The lines are blurring?. There are those who say this is a justifiable thing to do because these fossil fields are a legitimate bridge fuel,? said Stephen Munro, a policy and international analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

?That?s the ideological fig leaf on the part of those who used to confine their investment to zero or low-carbon and now include oil and gas.?

There is also the need to make money.

?I don?t think that any of the large funds worldwide that have put money in clean tech has made significant money,? Mr. van?Lierop said.

The global clean tech sector saw US$40.6-billion in the first quarter of 2013, its weakest quarter since 2009, but Bloomberg?s Mr. Munro says the costs per unit of alternative energy have also fallen dramatically in recent years, which could skew the figures.

North American private sector and venture capitalists? changing perception is partially driven by the U.S. government?s ?all-of-the-above? energy policy, which happily juggles an oil-and-gas renaissance with focus on alternative energies.

Ernst Moinz, the newly inducted U.S. Energy Secretary, is seen as a supporter of nuclear energy and considers it an important part of the U.S. energy mix, which includes fracking-induced natural gas and renewables.

?We cannot be purists here,? Mr. van?Lierop said. ?I am very concerned about the environment. But I am also concerned about economic and social implications of the world that is developing over the next 20 years.?

Clean-tech growth and innovation is occurring ? but in traditional, larger companies.

?The reality is, oil and gas are here to stay. And if we can make them cleaner, I will give the world a significantly larger opportunity than if I invest in smart-metres in San Diego,??Mr. van?Lierop said.

Chrysalix will be visiting investors over the summer to raise anywhere between $150-million and $250-million. All said and done, the fund expects to generate three times the investment over a 10-year period.

The smart VC money is on to something. Bloomberg New Energy Finance data shows that even as overall investments fell, new venture capital and private equity investments in clean energy picked up to reach US$1.3-billion in the first quarter of 2013, compared to US$1.1-billion over the past few quarters.

Indeed, the clean tech industry is hardly doomed despite the high-profile collapses of flagship companies like Solyndra LLC and battery company A123 Systems Inc.

?A battery company going for an IPO ? are you kidding me? If that battery was doing wonderful things, players like Siemens, ABB and Panasonic would have bought it a long time ago.?

?We have seen in the past five years an arms race between large multinationals to pick up the best clean tech companies. And the ones that did an IPO were probably not good enough to be acquired.?

Despite technological advances that have re-enenergised the oil and gas industry in North America, the sector is not exactly off the hook.

Mr. van?Lierop recounts two separate, recent conversations with California Public Employees? Retirement System and California State teachers? Retirement ? two of California?s and the world?s largest pensions funds ? concerned about backing ?stranded assets? in traditional energy infrastructure such as pipelines, LNG plants and power plants.

?They said, ?We are getting very concerned about financing marginal projects in the traditional energy area, because in the next 20 years, way before the financing period ends, either through regulation or through innovation we may have to take a loss.??

The volatility is here to stay and so is the increasing convergence between clean tech and traditional energy.

?What we see is a phenomenal opportunity in clean tech ? in the traditional industries; be it all oil and gas, mining and forestry. As long as we can do it in a capital-light way,? Mr. van Lierop said.

Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2013/05/30/venture-capitalists-blurring-green-energys-red-lines/

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Land-based carbon offsets: False hope? Forest and soil carbon is important, but does not offset fossil fuel emissions

May 30, 2013 ? Leading world climate change experts have thrown cold water on the idea that planting trees can offset carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels.

Professor Brendan Mackey of Griffith University Climate Change Response Program is the lead author of an international study involving researchers from Australia and the U.K. Their findings are reported in "Untangling the confusion around land carbon science and climate change mitigation policy," published in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change.

"While protecting and restoring natural forests is part of the solution, the reality is that for all practical purposes fossil fuel CO2 emissions are irreversible," Professor Mackey said.

The findings highlight the urgent need for policy-makers worldwide to re-think the issue as many decision-makers, national and internationally, assume that fossil fuel emissions can be offset through sequestering carbon by planting trees and other land management practices.

"There is a danger in believing that land carbon sinks can solve the problem of atmospheric carbon emissions because this legitimises the ongoing use of fossil fuels," Professor Mackey said.

The study found that protecting natural forests avoids emissions that would otherwise result from logging and land clearing while also conserving biodiversity. Restoring degraded ecosystems or planting new forests helps store some of the carbon dioxide that was emitted from past land use activities.

"These land management actions should be rewarded as they are an important part of the solution," Professor Mackay said.

"However, no amount of reafforestation or growing of new trees will ultimately off-set continuing CO2 emissions due to environmental constraints on plant growth and the large amounts of remaining fossil fuel reserves.

"Unfortunately there is no option but to cut fossil fuel emissions deeply as about a third of the CO2 stays in the atmosphere for 2 to 20 millennia."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/Z3g2c_0BCBA/130530095020.htm

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James Lipton defends one-time 'pimp' job

Celebs

Randee Dawn TODAY contributor

22 hours ago

So, as many people learned for the first time Wednesday, the venerable host of the long-running "Inside the Actors Studio" was, for about a year, a pimp in post-WWII Paris.

OK, so maybe not a "pimp," per se. James Lipton sat down with Matt Lauer on Thursday to talk the semantics of prostitution-related jobs -- and about "Studio," which aired its 250th episode Wednesday night.

"A 'pimp' is an American word," he said. Instead, he noted, in France the term is 'mec,' and "the difference between a pimp and a 'mec' is profound," he added.

As he explained, "A pimp exploits and often abuses his women. And it's just the reverse with a 'mec.' A 'mec' works for his women."

Also, he noted, at the time he was "very young," it was just after the war and employment was virtually impossible to come by -- for French and foreigners alike. He wanted to stay in France, and this was how he made that happen -- legally, as prostitution was regulated in the country.

Lauer seemed genuinely shocked, claiming he'd never heard this in all the 20 years they'd been friends. Lipton reminded him that he'd talked all about it in his memoir, "Inside 'Inside,'" which published in 2007. "I'm shocked, shocked that everyone is shocked, shocked!" he laughed.

But it wasn't all about the old days -- Lipton talked about one of the greatest moments he'd ever had on "Studio," which was when Bradley Cooper sat down with him for an interview. "I was his dean, he was my student," said Lipton. "He was the first of our graduated students to come back and sit next to me on my show and the two of us burst into tears and we had to stop (filming) before we could continue."

The man loves his work.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/james-lipton-defends-one-time-pimp-job-france-6C10128770

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Michigan Tracks Cattle From Birth To Plate

When you pick up a cut of beef at the store, would you like to know that animal's life history? The technology to do this does exist ? at least in Michigan, where the state requires all cattle to carry electronic ear tags. It's the only state that requires such tags.

Michigan's cattle-tracking system was forced on farmers because of a crisis. Fifteen years ago, cattle in the part of the state, started catching tuberculosis from wild deer.

Whenever a steer was discovered with the disease, health officials swooped in to find out what other farms the animal had passed through, what other cattle it had met along the way. Because those animals might also be carrying the disease It was a mad scramble through farmers' records.

Steve Halstead, Michigan's state veterinarian, says those papers sometimes were a mess.

"Farmers are busy," Halstead says. "They move animals every day. They know what they're doing, but they don't always write it down."

The confusion cost Michigan's farmers real money. Until they could prove that their cattle hadn't been exposed to TB, they were banned from out-of-state markets.

So three years ago, the state of Michigan ordered cattle farmers to put special electronic tags on their animals.

Today, whenever a steer or cow leaves a farm in Michigan, or goes to a slaughterhouse, it passes by a tag reader, and its ID number goes to a central computer that keeps track of every animal's location.

So what happens if it ever shows up sick?

"We can track that animal all the way back, well, through every herd it's been in, through any sale yard, back to the farm of origin," Halstead says.

Michigan adopted this system despite some opposition from farmers in 2007.

Around the same time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed a national system just like this. The USDA said it would help control not just TB but also scarier diseases, like foot and mouth or mad cow disease.

But ranchers like Debbie Davis, in South-Central Texas, fought it off ? calling it expensive; unnecessary.

"We felt like it was an invasion of privacy," she says. "It was a way for the government to monitor the number of animals we owned, watch our business practices, monitor our movements, and being independent Texans, we weren't interested in that."

The USDA dropped the requirement for electronic ID tags nationwide.

Now, though, some farmers are thinking those ID tags might have a good side. Maybe an animal that's been tracked its whole life will be worth more when it's sold.

"There's a large number of people that would like to know where their food comes from; just understand that better," says Daniel Buskirk, an expert on the beef industry at Michigan State University.

He's using the university's own herd of cattle to experiment with ways to track those animals, and then make the information available to shoppers in the store.

"This is one way that we can hopefully, kind of connect the story of how this food is being produced with the consumers who are consuming it," Buskirk says.

Last year, when 72 of the university's steers went to the slaughterhouse, Buskirk set up a system that transferred the identity of each animal from its electronic ID tag to a new set of tags ? little square bar codes.

Those bar codes were pinned to the carcass. And as butchers went to work on it, cutting it into smaller pieces, they used a little hand-held device to scan that first bar code, and print new ones, for each new cut of meat. In this case, the meat just went to the university's food service, not a grocery store.

Graduate student Tristan Foster shows how the system works. "This is the final label that we had actually put on the boxes of beef."

It goes on, two pounds of chuck, for example.

"Then if you have a smartphone," Fosters says, "I can scan that two-dimensional bar code, and it will give information about the origin of that beef."

It even showed an aerial picture of the farm but it could show almost anything.

"What goes on at the farm, how the animals might be cared for, how they might be fed," Foster says.

It depends on what consumers actually want to know about the meat they buy, and what the meat producers are willing to reveal.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/05/31/187327856/michigan-tracks-cattle-from-birth-to-plate?ft=1&f=1007

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