AgClips
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Californians Just Saved $192 Million Thanks to Efficiency and Rooftop Solar
Green Tech Media | Posted onJune 7, 2016 in Energy NewsConsumer investments in distributed energy resources can save all ratepayers money by avoiding expensive grid infrastructure upgrades. Solar advocates have long been making this argument in regulatory proceedings around the country. Today, that vision is becoming a reality.
New Properties Hide Abandoned Oil And Gas Wells
NPR | Posted onJune 7, 2016 in Energy NewsIn many parts of the country, areas that are now full of houses and schools and shopping centers were once oil and gas fields. You wouldn't know it by looking, but hidden underground, there are millions of abandoned wells. New development happening on top of those old wells can create a dangerous situation. In most states, there is no requirement for homeowners to be notified about abandoned oil and gas wells on their properties. In the Canadian province of Alberta, it's a different story.
Judge dismisses lawsuit filed by developer, landowners against Middlesex fracking opponents
Trib Live | Posted onJune 7, 2016 in Energy NewsA Butler County judge has dismissed the second lawsuit a developer and 13 landowners had filed against Middlesex residents and non-profits opposed to fracking, the defendants. Dewey Homes & Investment Properties and other property owners, who collectively hold more than 440 acres of land, originally filed the lawsuit last May against five residents, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and the Clean Air Council.
Supreme Court Holds Wetlands Jurisdictional Determinations Are Appealable
OFW law | Posted onJune 7, 2016 in Agriculture NewsPeat miners, golfers, and landowners with real property containing or adjacent to Waters of the United States will benefit greatly from the Supreme Court’s May 31st decision in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v Hawkes Co. Hawkes resolved whether an approved jurisdictional determination by the Army Corps of Engineers (“Approved JD”) involving wetlands owned by a peat mining company in Minnesota is an appealable final agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”).
Opinion: Make no mistake: The bank lobby wants to kill farm credit
Agri-Pulse | Posted onJune 7, 2016 in Agriculture NewsBecause for years, both the American Bankers Association (ABA) and the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) have been doing everything in their power to undercut Farm Credit in the halls of Congress. And they both have gone on record over the past year advocating that Farm Credit be abolished.
Appalachian coal ash richest in rare earth elements
Science Daily | Posted onJune 7, 2016 in Energy NewsThe first comprehensive study of the content of rare earth elements in coal ashes from the United States shows that coal originating from the Appalachian Mountains has the highest concentrations of scarce elements like neodymium, europium, terbium, dysprosium, yttrium and erbium that are needed for alternative energy and other technologies. The study also reveals how important developing inexpensive, efficient extraction technologies will be to any future recovery program.
How the buffalo survived to become our new national mammal
High Country News | Posted onJune 7, 2016 in Federal NewsThe bald eagle has been the national symbol since 1782, but the Western artist Charlie Russell was right: The buffalo was far more important to the story of the American West. Congress agrees on very little these days, but this May, it successfully passed a bill that was quickly signed by President Obama. The National Bison Legacy Act designates the American bison, most often called the buffalo, as our first national mammal. What’s more, the bill enjoyed the support of a wide array of ranchers, environmentalists, zoos, outdoorsmen and Native Americans.
How the BLM is overhauling land-use planning
High Country News | Posted onJune 7, 2016 in Rural NewsThe Bureau of Land Management is unveiling a new approach to planning how to manage its 245 million acres, one that invites diverse viewpoints much earlier in the multi-year process. Bringing people with different perspectives together is one of the goals of Planning 2.0, the BLM’s proposed new strategy for developing resource management plans, the big-picture blueprints that guide the agency’s on-the-ground decisions. It’s the first time in 33 years that the BLM has overhauled its planning procedures.
Elk, not bison, are spreading Brucellosis near Yellowstone
High Country News | Posted onJune 7, 2016 in Rural NewsSince Wyoming first established its feedgrounds in 1912, thousands of elk have munched taxpayer-funded rations every winter. Conservationists have long warned that the crowding could spread brucellosis, which causes miscarriages. However, since state and federal agencies have long assumed that bison, not elk, transmit the disease to livestock, they’ve focused their attention on the bison, restricting their winter migration out of Yellowstone National Park and culling hundreds each year. Research by the U.S.
While everyone was paying attention to Zika, a much deadlier mosquito-borne virus began to spread
Business Insider | Posted onJune 7, 2016 in Federal NewsWhile the Zika outbreak was dominating the headlines, another mosquito-borne virus has taken hold in Africa: yellow fever. And with the large population of migrant Chinese workers in the affected area, scientists worry the disease could unleash its first outbreak in Asia. The authors of a recent paper called the current situation "unprecedented in history," writing that it is "critical" to assess the risk now and act quickly "so that a global catastrophe can be averted." Yellow fever causes 180,000 cases and 78,000 deaths in Africa per year.