NewsTaco

By Adam Schwitters, Burnt Orange Report 

According to seismologist Bill Ellsworth, lead author of a recent USGS study, there has been a “remarkable increase” in earthquakes magnitude 3.0 or greater in the midwest and southern plains in the last few years.  As it turns out, these quakes are “almost certainly” man-made.  The likely cause of cause of all these quakes is a by-product of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) the drilling process by which oil and gas companies shoot a slurry of water, sand, and chemicals into deep shale formations at extremely high pressure to “unlock” the fossil fuels locked within.  Fracking has sparked a natural gas boom of historic proportions causing prices to drop from nearly $15 per million BTU in 2005, to less than $2 today.

It isn’t the drilling itself that is causing these fracking quakes.  Actually, they are caused by the disposal of fracking wastewater.  The process requires a ridiculous amount of water.  A single fracking well pad (which supports up to 16 individual wells) can use over 80 million gallons of water a week!  That water is not cheap to treat and is often injected deep into the earth into supposedly stable sandstone formations.  Here, that water acts as a sort of lubricant, allowing (generally) small faults within the rock to slip, which produces the temblors not normally associated with Dallas or eastern Ohio.

While unsettling, the quakes in Ohio, Texas, and Oklahoma are unlikely to cause significant damage.  The faults in these areas are very small, and the underlying geography is stable.  As fracking moves into less stable geography, however, the earthquake risk could rise significantly.  A geothermal energy project in Basel, Switzerland, which used a process very similar to fracking, caused a 3.4 magnitude earthquake which resulted in some minor damage.  While that quake was not particularly large, a quake on the same fault in 1356 completely destroyed the city.  Swiss citizens were alarmed, and work on the project was halted.  Much, much scarier was the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in western China which killed approximately 70,000 people.  According to Fan Xiao of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau, it is “very likely” that the construction and filling of the Zipingpu dam and reservoir in 2004 led to the disaster.  The dam was positioned on top of a fault line, and the combination of the weight of the lake, and water seeping into the rock probably caused the quake.

Now, drilling companies are moving into fracking California, which possesses the largest shale formation in the US, and, of course, a problematic geologic history.  Hopefully, the release of this study will give pause to drillers eager to explore gas deposits in Los Angeles itself.  We cannot allow fracking drilling companies to cause the “Big One.”

Adam Schwitters is a staff writer for Burnt Orange Report and a writer of other random nonsense including the worlds most important Law & Order SVU blog, www.munchmybenson.com.

[Image courtesy Burnt Orange Report]

By Peter Lehner

Every year when gas prices rise, politicians and pundits like to play the blame game. On Fox & Friends, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal blamed the Obama administration’s “radical environmental ideology” for high gas prices. (The latest Bloomberg poll, however, showed that most Americans do not blame the White House.) The Christian Science Monitor points the finger at India.

It might be reassuring to think that someone out there is responsible for our pain at the pump, but it’s not helpful. Americans need serious solutions that will address the root of the problem, and not a bunch of finger-pointing.

The hard truth is that America does not have the resources to control the long-term price of oil. We have drilled more oil wells than any nation on earth. The number of oil rigs in operation in the U.S. has quadrupled since 2008, and we are producing more oil now than we have in nearly a decade.

And still, gas prices are rising.

Despite what you may hear from the Big Oil lobby and its allies, more drilling doesn’t mean lower gas prices. More drilling means more profits for Big Oil–$7.7 billion for BP in the last quarter alone, $9.4 billion for Exxon Mobil. (Big Oil also enjoys about $4 billion each year in taxpayer subsidies.) More drilling means risking more economic and environmental devastation on our coasts.

Getting more oil from the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline won’t bring down gas prices, either. TransCanada, the company behind the pipeline, has admitted that Keystone XL would increase the price Americans pay for Canadian oil by up to $4 billion a year – an especially steep cost when you consider that digging up tar sands from ancient forests in Canada and burning the oil from it in our cars is more carbon-intensive than any other fossil fuel source. It would raise gasoline prices in the Midwest by cutting out Midwestern refineries. Canada wants Keystone XL in order to get access to overseas markets, not to sell more oil to us.

If Canadian companies wanted to deliver more oil to the United States, they could use existing pipelines. They’re running half-empty.

So how do we avoid paying through the nose at the pump? By loosening the ties that bind us to oil and gas. By breaking our dependence on oil, a resource whose price and availability, as any economist will tell you, we cannot control. By creating choices that give Americans true freedom of energy.

New fuel efficiency standards are an important step toward that freedom. The administration’s decision to increase new car mileage standards to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 will save the average driver $4,400 over the life of the vehicle. That’s money in our pockets, not Big Oil’s.

Smart investments in transit and infrastructure will give more people alternatives to paying at the pump, while at the same time easing traffic on congested roads. High-tech buses, light rail systems, safe sidewalks and bike paths, as well sustainable fuels, all give people more ways to get where they need to go, without being dependent on gasoline.

Experts say we can blame unrest in the Middle East and increasing global demand for driving up the price of oil. We cannot control global oil supply, but we can reduce our need for oil. This year, Americans are ready for a clean energy plan that will break us out of gas price gridlock: better cars, better fuels, and more transportation options.

[Photo By marsmet524]

By Rocky Kistner

As Congressional Republicans and Big Oil allies in Washington try to resuscitate the massive Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, people on the frontlines have opened a new campaign to stop the massive $7 billion project. In Texas, landowners are locking arms to fight would-be pipeline builder TransCanada over eminent domain cases that may determine where the 1700-mile project will be built.

On Friday, protesters gathered in Paris, TX, and in Austin to voice their support for Lamar County farm manager Julia Trigg Crawford, who runs a 600-acre farm that grows corn, soybeans and wheat along the Red River near Paris, TX. More than 50 protesters traveled from nearby counties to wave flags and signs on the Lamar County courthouse steps, shouting slogans like “Don’t mess with Texas” and “This is what democracy looks like.”

The raucous protest included an unusual mix of tea party supporters, independents, Democrats, Republicans and even Occupy Dallas protesters. They were all there to support Crawford’s eminent domain court fight with TransCanada, which wants to run the Keystone XL pipeline through her property.

David Daniel, a landowner near Winnsboro, TX, has been fighting TransCanada for four years over their plans to run the pipeline though his wooded, spring-fed land near Winnsboro, TX. Daniel says he learned about the plan only after the company had already come on to his land and staked out its pipeline route, a route he says will threaten natural springs that communities depend on for drinking water.

“The more people find out about the safety risks and that the oil will be exported, the more they are opposed. People in Texas are used to oil pipelines, but this one is different. It’s more toxic and more dangerous and threatens our groundwater. A lot of people feel they’ve been lied to.”

Daniel, who helps run a Keystone XL pipeline opposition group called Stop Tarsands Oil Pipelines, says local landowners are not going to give up, even though they are vastly outspend by TransCanada and its oil industry supporters.

From the looks of those who attended the rally on Friday, TransCanada has a big fight ahead with some angry folks in the Lone Star state. You don’t mess with Texas without getting one.

[Photo By tarsandsaction; Video By NRDCflix]

Cuba has been in a state of nearly perpetual poverty since 1992. It’s greatest ally — the Soviet Union — dissolved over the Christmas season of 1991, leaving the island state without it’s largest trading partner. Twenty years on, the red island might have found a natural blessing in the form of oil deposits off the coast. However, not all are happy with this discovery, for environmental and political reasons.

That said, the validity of these concerns need to be weighed. Some are afraid the oil would allow for the Communist government to be propped up for decades to come, something of  a stimulus package that could bolster the economy. Others fear a Cuban oil spill taking place off of the coast of Florida, given the tragedy of Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico.

That said, all of this screaming over Cuba’s new riches is absurd. Fidel Castro and Raúl Castro are old men, both of whom might very well die within our decade – the younger Castro is a youthful 80 years old. Not only that, a lot of the old guard in the party, men and women who remembered la revolución and fought in it, are also old and dying. This very similar situation happened in the Soviet Union after Leonid Brezhnev died — there’s a reason nobody remembers Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko before Mikhail Gorbachev took power in the nation. All three of these men died one after another in rapid succession, paving the way for Gorbachev, who did not have the struggles of WWII and the Russian Revolution — and Gorbachev changed things.

The idea that this oil rig will give the Castro regime or even the Communist party a revitalization is unrealistic. It will take a Deng Xiaopeng, or an iron fist, to maintain the status quo for the Communist party.

Second, and most importantly, the fears of Deepwater Horizon, part two. Nobody can afford another repeat of the Deepwater Horizon accident. Hundreds of thousand of lives were ruined, economies suffered, businesses closed, and ways of life ended. The ocean became a toxic soup which still continues to throw up the occasional tar ball — a harsh reminder of the toll that comes with petroleum energy. However, Deepwater 2, if it happened at this Cuban well, would not be dealt with by the United States government (Unless the Cubans requested help from us; given our previous stances toward the country, the odds of this are minute). We wouldn’t be able to do a thing until it entered American territorial waters. Even then, the ecology would be badly hammered by that point.

That said, if nature is the primary concern here (which it isn’t), there are rigs in American territories that spoil our natural wilderness, fracking in the north east, and attempts to mine the Grand Canyon for uranium, as well as attempts to “drill baby drill” in protected Alaskan wilderness. These issues, within our sovereign borders, must be taken care of. If we’re so concerned to protect Cuba’s coast, why not our own wildlife preserves, or the beautiful parks which draw millions of tourists to revel in awe at the views?

Let’s preserve our natural heritage before we scream about things we can’t prevent. Cuba will likely drill, and there is little short of bombing the place that we can do to stop it.

[Photo By IISG]

By Adrianna Quintero

Ever since Cuba’s intent to drill within 70 miles of Florida’s coast has become known, concerned Floridians have been reeling with how to protect our treasured Florida Keys. For many Floridians, this is a very charged issue. It’s no secret that having Cuba drill for oil is itself a hugely political issue– exiles and many others outraged at Cuba potentially developing significant oil resources. Add to that the fact that a spill in the area would seriously endanger one of the country’s most sensitive ecosystems, (and an economic engine for Florida tourism) and you have a firestorm.

This would not be the first time that oil could generate a windfall for a dictator. We have been enriching unstable governments for years due to our deadly addiction to oil. But so far, our consumptive dependence on oil has only prompted us to deal with threats to our national energy security from our oil “dealer’s” threats to increase prices, block the Strait of Hormuz, and manipulate markets knowing we’re at their mercy. In this case, the oil producer is also a neighbor and the risk to the iconic Florida Keys has truly brought the threat home.

The Keys are known as the recreational fishing and scuba diving capital of the world. Extensive coral reefs on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in Florida are home to some of the world’s most diverse ecosystems, mangroves, sea grass, coral reefs and marine life and the related tourism it generates is no small sum. In 2010, Florida welcomed 82.3 million visitors who spent more than $62.7 billion; and the industry provided employment to nearly a million residents. Each year, Florida generates more than $37.3 billion and 452,811 jobs to Florida’s economy on fisheries, wildlife, and activities carried out in its waters.

We all suffered through the tragic disaster of BP’s Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. There was no global precedent to guide the emergency response at such depth and no one could have imagined the economic and environmental consequences that recklessly drilling 5,500 feet deep would cause. Now, this drilling platform, the Scarabeo 9 is poised to drill deeper yet, and the plan in the event of a spill or explosion, is completely out of our hands. This is the price of our oil dependence and precisely why we need to stop drilling pristine places.

We need great political will to pave the way towards a clean energy future and sometimes fear can be a great motivator. In this case, fear that Cuban oil development would result in Cuba becoming an oil producing country or causing a spill that would pollute our beloved backyard has motivated some who generally don’t recognize the environmental toll of drilling, to speak out against it. It has also resulted in a bipartisan group of legislators including Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio to introduce a bill in the Senate (S. 1836), and David Rivera (R-FL) along with a group of 16 bipartisan co-sponsors to do the same in the House (H.R. 3393) calling for penalties on oil spills– without limitations.

The risks of drilling are real and not limited to drilling done by countries who we don’t play well with. Yes, the dangers of a spill in Cuba are real and out of our hands, but even where U.S. drilling is concerned, the president’s National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling concluded the oil industry lacked the kind of safety culture that could prevent another disaster. And even here, the government lacks the authority and resources necessary to police the industry. We cannot waste another opportunity to take measures to ensure the safety and well being of our communities by holding polluters and policy makers accountable.

Let’s not wait for the next disaster. We must make an effort to wean ourselves from oil now or continue to face big risks and deal with situations like these where dictators are all too ready to become the next “oil dealer” eager to feed our dirty oil addiction.

It’s time to call on our leaders in Congress to protect special places from drilling, protect our oceans, adopt adequate penalties, and most importantly, to support a swift transition to a clean and vibrant energy future.

[Photo By  psmithson]

By Roberto R. Calderón

So here we are again visiting the subject of the developing oil and gas field by intensive fracking technologies in a wide swath of South Texas counties. The Eagle Ford Shale is an oil and gas field that carries over into northeastern Mexico and its states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Nuevo León, but which most of the Texas or U.S.-based maps available online do not show. All things end at the border, as if the world’s economy were organized that way.  The reality is far different. 

Touted as perhaps Texas’ largest oil (and gas) discovery on record by boosters, the Eagle Ford Shale has been attracting serious international economic investment. In San Antonio alone Halliburton is set to spend $50 million on a 400,000 square-foot base and hire 1,100 people. But its worldwide appeal has drawn capital not only from the US, but from large energy companies in Australia, China, India and Korea, for example.

The upside in this story is that thousands of workers — including huge numbers of Mexican American workers — are being employed in a variety of jobs. Former Clinton-era Cabinet member and San Antonio mayor Henry Cisneros sounds ecstatic in a recent report about the prospects of huge investments coming to South San Antonio; and similar views have been expressed by South Texas Democratic Congressman Rubén Hinojosa.

Both politicians are exemplary of the predominant tendency witnessed to date focused strictly on the jobs end of the deal, particularly those for Mexican American workers in their respective areas. They’re banking on public opinion being on their side by making the case: Who can argue with creating jobs amidst the worst economic depression the nation has experienced since the 1930s? If so, then I would argue that labor unions ought to enter the equation if this is to be the case — surely workers would get a better deal.

But, alas, in a right-to-work state, even the most progressive of elected Mexican American federal or state officials avoid the argument.

For the most part the politicians are not talking about the severe public health consequences that growing national evidence indicates accrues with fracking technologies in affected regions. To date, Democratic politicians in Texas have not produced an environmental champion willing to face the array of economic interests behind the exploitation of the Eagle Ford Shale. Such a South Texas champion would stand for protecting the peoples’ health and natural environment above what we all know to be a limited-time-only boom. It will have to be the people once again who rise to their own defense and well-being to lead the way.

By now there are literally hundreds of oil and gas wells that have been drilled or fracked in the Eagle Ford Shale. Many thousands more are yet to be drilled presumably if one believes the hype (read the booster articles promoting the boon). The inevitable downside is the great harm to the environment that fracking is causing, and yet no public officials are publicly concerned about it for the aforementioned reasons related to the argument that jobs trump the environment — and the pesky environmentalists — in the region.

The problem for corporate interests is that many of the environmentalists concerned with fracking the nation over tend to be ordinary local folks who quickly discover the dire consequences that come with the much-touted economic benefits. Typically, it is only the economic benefits that are directly touted by the corporate press and the corporate politicos local, state and federal. Here and there one sees vigilance in the local and regional press, including the work of the Eagle Pass Business Journal, which has critically documented and opposed a hazardous proposed gigantic open pit strip coal mining project in that community (Maverick County). The same applies with the LareDOS: A Journal of the Borderlands, which has and continues to provide the most informative critical press coverage of the Eagle Ford Shales’ negative environmental effects in Webb, La Salle, Zapata, and other adjoining counties. [Editor’s Note: The author has published in both publications and is related to the publisher of the EPBJ.]

The booster and corporate press do not mention that each gas or oil well takes millions of gallons of precious fresh water to bring into development and generates an equally ginormous problem of disposing of the contaminated water used in that very same process. This is water that is often leached or returned to the environment though.  Such contaminated water is heavily laced with unknown cancer-causing chemical cocktails that the industry has successfully resisted revealing by law up until now. In North Texas, in the City of Denton, where the Barnett Shale is being exploited, there was a case a few weeks ago that made the front page of the Denton Record-Chronicle in which workers at a nearby gas well were releasing untold gallons of this contaminated fracking water directly into a local creek. But they were caught in the act. Clearly, they hadn’t expected to be caught. And because of lax-to-non-existing state and federal regulations, what are the consequences for these workers and their corporate employer for having done so?  Never mind that in the North Texas metropolitan region all creeks empty into man-made reservoirs that provide the densely urbanized area’s entire water needs.

The fossil fuel industry’s inordinate lobbying power is expressed legally through millions spent paying for corporate-friendly politicians’ campaigns on both sides of the partisan aisle.  Republican politicians have nonetheless distinguished themselves for wanting to do away with all laws regulating clean air, water, and the environment generally. Their proposals since the November 2010 midterm elections have been utterly crass and constitute class warfare of the worst kind, not witnessed in this country since the Gilded Age in the eyes of many contemporary observers.

Then there’s the pesky problem that Mother Nature is being uncooperative with the billions of dollars being made and invested, as the U.S. and Mexico’s national weather service report. The region is a semi-desert area that receives annually on average about 20 inches and less usually of rainfall. Add a current and lasting extreme drought affecting the region that is the worst in living memory and the problem with the millions of gallons in fresh water used to frack oil and gas in the Eagle Ford Shale is multiplied. As yet, no effective environmental movement has stopped the continued development of the Eagle Ford Shale. And no one is holding their breath thinking local, state and federal politicians will do it either.

Dr. Roberto R. Calderón is Associate Professor of History at the University of North Texas.

[Photo By Bosc d'Anjou]

By Peter Lehner

On Thursday the State Department and the President announced they will conduct a new review of the Keystone XL pipeline. More time is needed to examine the pipeline’s impact on water, our climate, our health and safety. Congratulations Mr. President! As NRDC’s Frances Beinecke wrote on her blog yesterday, this is a major victory for clean energy and citizen action.

We’ll surely here shouts from the oil industry that this decision will hurt jobs. They claim the pipeline could have created up to 20,000 temporary (that’s the key word) jobs. (The State Department says that number is more like 5,000 to 6,000 jobs.) Let’s remember that either way, those figures pale by comparison to the number of jobs that have already been created by the clean car industry alone. More than 150,000 Americans are now working to build cleaner cars, thanks to strong new fuel economy standards.

This is not a projection, but a tally of actual jobs that didn’t exist 10 years ago, making parts and infrastructure for clean vehicles. Just like the thousands of job postings included in Environmental Entrepreneurs weekly Clean Energy Jobs Newsletter are not forecasts, but actual opportunities available right now all around the country. Jobs like these will only continue to grow in number as we expand the clean energy economy and shift our focus away from oil.

There are a multitude of options to reduce the world’s dependence on oil. And as we shift to more stable, sustainable, and safe sources of energy, and use our energy much more efficiently, our economy, and the world’s economies, will be better off.

Consumers will be better off too. America’s dependence on oil accounts for nearly one-third of our entire trade deficit in the latter part of the last decade. Importing fuel-efficient cars from overseas is another big part of that deficit. Between 1994 and 2009, cars and oil accounted for about two-thirds of our trade gap — a breathtaking $4.7 trillion.

Imagine how that transfer of global wealth might have been shifted in our favor if we had learned the lessons from the oil shocks of the 1970s and gotten serious then about building more efficient cars in this country and reducing our reliance on oil.

Many leaders in Washington agree that we need to get serious, now, in order to break the stranglehold of the oil monopoly. Just last week, an influential military think tank, the CNA’s Military Advisory Board, advised Congress to cut America’s oil use by 30 percent in the next decade.

The board, a group of three- and four-star military officers, summarily dismissed the argument that importing oil from Canada or increasing domestic drilling would help protect Americans from oil price shocks, noting that a disruption of supplies anywhere in the world would drive up oil prices.

The unavoidable truth is that America cannot control the price of oil, no matter where it comes from. But achieving the 30 percent reduction in oil that the military advisers call for is entirely within our reach.

President Obama’s new clean car standards—which will cut our oil use by 3.1 million barrels per day by 2030—will help close our trade deficit gap and continue to boost a resurgent Detroit. Increasing the efficiency of our trucks, a project we’ve finally started on, will also help.

We can get there by reforming our transportation system and the shape of our communities. Shipping goods by rail or ship takes a small fraction of the oil – and emits a small fraction of the pollution – of shipping goods by truck. With better planning, rail freight can fit well with our fast-paced economy. And providing people with transportation options, so they don’t need to get in a car to do everything, is what people around the country are asking for. They want to get out of traffic and have a choice to walk, bike, or take transit. We can give them these options, and in the process further reduce our oil dependence and pollution.

We get there by bringing sustainable alternative fuels to market, such as more electric cars, and cars running on fuels other than oil. We can revamp our transportation network to include infrastructure for plug-in vehicles and other fuels.

The President broke a three-decade logjam and made our cars and trucks more efficient. Thursday he showed leadership again by putting the brakes on a project that would have locked us to decades of dirty fuels. Now it is time to move ahead with the many other smart solutions that will reduce our oil dependence and put Americans to work.

[Photo By chesapeakeclimate]

By Peter Lehner

By Susan Casey-Lefkowitz

Once again this weekend, we saw a clear example of how water and oil don’t mix when an Exxon oil pipeline spewed around 40,000 gallons into the wild Yellowstone River in Montana. The mess is likely a wakeup call for officials in Montana. And is yet another reminder for pipeline regulators around the country that we have a problem. It’s been a bad year with spills in Michigan, some big messes in Canada, spills all along first Keystone tar sands oil pipeline in the Great Plains, a spill in downtown Salt Lake City and now in the longest undammed river in the lower 48 states. As these spills take a toll on American waters, landscapes, and communities. I wonder when we will get focused on fixing our faulty infrastructure to stop these messes—and if we can afford to build another mega-pipeline across our most sensitive water resources without fixing the problem.

Montana’s Governor Schweitzer is rightly focused on making sure the cleanup of this spill happens quickly and thoroughly. As a next step Montana should also be questioning the safety of proposed new pipelines such as TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline that would also cross the wild Yellowstone River. Tar sands oil from Canada is more corrosive, more prone to spills, and more difficult to clean up than conventional oil. The Exxon oil pipeline spill is another indicator that we should not be transporting even more dangerous and dirty tar sands oil endangering our precious rivers, agricultural lands, communities and wildlife.

The ExxonMobil pipeline that runs under the Yellowstone River in south central Montana broke late Friday night just west of Billings. The river is running fast and high full of snow melt from the Rockies. Despite the work of cleanup crews, it is feared that oil has travelled far downstream in a region critical for irrigation and important as fish and bird habitat. The Yellowstone River runs into the Missouri River meaning that an oil spill in the Yellowstone can have a wide-reaching impact. News reports show pelicans and turtles that have been oiled.  The lower Yellowstone River is home to the rarest and largest freshwater fish in North America – the pallid sturgeon – and is also home to the endangered Least Tern.

As we saw from the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf, toxins in the oil can take a lethal toll on aquatic life of all kinds. Exposure to these toxins can also cause genetic damage, liver disease, cancer and harm to reproductive and immune systems. Clean up can take a long time. For example, almost at the one year anniversary of a spill of 840,000 gallons of tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, clean efforts are still underway. The full extent of the damage usually takes years to unfold. The herring population collapsed in Prince William Sound, for example, three years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

We don’t yet know the extent of the damage from this oil spill – or what it will mean for the people and wildlife that depend on the river system. What we do know is that this type of pipeline spill is not acceptable. Exxon says that the oil is dissipating. I worry that means that Exxon is not able to capture the oil to clean it up with the river running so high and fast. In the same way, TransCanada has characterized the 12 tar sands oil spills in just the first year of its Keystone One pipeline as “business as usual.” Surely, this is not a time to be granting a permit to an even more likely to leak pipeline such as the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline to cross the Yellowstone River in Montana. This is a time to be re-examining our pipeline safety regulations and assessing the safety risks of new proposed pipelines such as TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline that would carry even more corrosive, likely to spill and difficult to clean up substances such as tar sands from Canada.  To take action, please go to www.stoptar.org and send a letter to Secretary of State Clinton to say no to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

[Photo By jnewland]

The government looks to be heading towards a shutdown without a budget deal before midnight; the sad things is most of the reason is not monetary, but partisan.

Three more people died after another earthquake, 7.1 magnitude, hit Japan yesterday.

Oil prices rose to $112 a barrel, partly because oil fields in Libya have been destroyed.

Overuse of antibiotics has created resistant bacteria that the World Health Organization calls “super superbugs.”

The Dept. of Health and Human Services promised to help alleviate health disparities between whites and minorities.

Unemployment is the lowest it’s been in two years, 8.8%, and workers were added to the economy faster in the past two months than any other time since the recession began.

Oil prices hit a 2 1/2-year high.

The FDA announced the need for more study on the effects of food dye, even as the FDA declined to include warning labels on food about food dye for effects such as worsening hyperactivity disorders in children.

A judge in Wisconsin asserted that the anti-union bill passed by legislators there has not taken effect.

Highway deaths are the lowest they’ve been in 60 years, helped inpart by the use of seat belts, anti-drunk driving efforts and other driving safety efforts.

[Photo By GoTRISI]

President Obama is set to cut U.S. oil imports by 1/3 over the next decade due to unrest in the Middle East and rising prices.

There were 201,000 jobs added to the private sector this month, according to the private company ADP; this is good, but not great growth.

Muslims in the U.S. face increasing discrimination since the 9/11 attacks, according to the Department of Justice.

The Supreme Court seems set to rejection a class action lawsuit brought against Walmart for systematic gender discrimination against women.

Radiation continues to leak in Japan, where 4 of 6 Daiichi reactors are not fixable; sea water shows radiation levels 3,300 times the legal limit.

[Photo By Kedondeng]

People across the country commemorated the 46th anniversary of the Selma, Alabama march known as “Bloody Sunday.”

The GOP is looking into how Muslims are a danger to the U.S., while the White House is trying to promote religious tolerance and the Muslim community as a part of the U.S. culture. I guess they got tired of blaming immigrants for everything?

Libyan rebels and military forces continue to go at it, with the military now advancing on the rebels. Oil has hit $107 a barrel, causing gas and airline prices to rise.

Democrats and Republicans continue to fight over the budget, with the Democrats now rejecting GOP cuts.

Carnival is on in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, check out these pretty photos!

[Photo By Rert16]

Crude oil prices are rising, given the unrest in the Middle East, this will translate to higher gas prices.

Congress is figuring out how to fund government for a while before they come to a final budget agreement; part of it will have lawmakers lose their paychecks in the case of a government shut down.

California’s attorney general is seeking to resume gay marriage in that state.

Libya is still in chaos, with current leader Muammar al-Qaddafi, vowing to fight to “the last man.”

The Pope has taken it upon himself to forgive all the Jews for killing Jesus.

[Photo By Beyond Forgetting]