Adding to the list of irreparable damages left for a legacy, President Bush and his cronies are now set to open 10,000 acres of public land in eastern Utah, to allow for drilling of natural gas and oil.  The Bureau of Land Management plans to auction off the tracts of land, which border three national parks, conveniently one month before Bush leaves office, making it difficult for the next administration to reverse the plan.  According to the New York Times:

National Park Service officials say that the decision to open lands close to Arches National Park and Dinosaur National Monument and within eyeshot of Canyonlands National Park was made without the kind of consultation that had previously been routine.

This is a lasting impression we can’t afford to let Bush leave behind.

takepart by supporting the National Parks Conservation Association and help protect these natural treasures.

Related:  Inconvenient Truth of the Day

Photo: Arches National Park, NYTimes

While much attention has been paid to our planets limited oil reserves, experts are warning that water may soon eclipse black gold as earth’s most precious commodity.  There is a growing concern that fresh water supplies are falling short, which could lead to disastrous consequences.  A thorough report from the UK Guardian explains:

Global population, economic development and a growing appetite for meat, dairy and fish protein have raised human water demand sixfold in 50 years. Meanwhile, supplies have been diminished in several ways:

Read the rest of this entry »

My dear friend Annie at Growing Chefs posted an awesome piece about oil yesterday. Not the crude kind but that which comes from fruit.  The Italian olive oil industry is the subject of a sustenance scandal: fraud, investigations, arrests and even a gourmet police squad (no really, gourmet police).

The Telegraph reports that oil producers were adding sunflower, soybean and other imported oils from Greece, Spain and Tunisia but selling it as extra-virgin olive oil.  Determined to stop these fraudulent practices, Italy trained 20 officers to distinguish between fake and authentic extra-virgin olive oil.

Earlier in March, police arrested 23 people and confiscated 85 farms after an investigation and in April another 40 people were arrested and 25,000 liters of suspect olive oil was seized.

Perhaps when the people were arrested they said: You are in contempt of the culinary courts!

Read the rest of this entry »

Two Thirds of the Triumvirate Share a Handshake and a Smile

Russia, Iran and Qatar today announced they were forming a “big gas troika” for natural gas production similar to OPEC for oil. Just when it looked like falling oil prices might slow the roll toward alternative energy, another pressing reason pops up like a whack-a-mole game.

Natural gas is already a huge source of energy around the globe, with widespread usage of the greenhouse gas emitting fuel for home heating and electrical power generation. Recently it has even been seriously proposed by T. Boone Pickens for his own Pickens Plan as an alternative fuel source to power automobiles in the United States. However, as this recent announcement coming specifically from Iran and Russia (I don’t want to pick on little Qatar) clearly illustrates, increasing the usage of Natural Gas around the globe in place of oil will put us in the familiar and unenviable position of being beholden to some of the more troubling governments on Earth to satisfy our energy demands.

Read the rest of this entry »

Alternative energy sources like wind power may be under threat because of the credit freeze and sudden drops in the price of oil and gas, according to the New York Times.   Despite both presidential candidates talk of increasing the use of green energy, advocates are worried that the changeover might not be so smooth and that clean power could lose support.   Companies are having a hard time raising money for projects because of high initial costs, but hopefully investors will see that the long term financial and environmental benefits of wind and solar power far out weigh the ugly costs of fossil fuels.

takepart by thanking your legislator for extending Wind Energy Tax Credits and urge them to continue to support Clean Energy.

Related:

Inconvenient Truth of the Day

Green Policies Are Good For The Economy, Too!

Don’t Let Falling Oil Prices Slow the Push For Alternative Energy

It’s easy to run around convincing people of the need for alternative energy sources when they’re being forced to pay over $4.00 for a gallon of gasoline.   But now that oil prices have nosedived to about $74.00 per barrel, just slightly more than half their record all time high of $145 per barrel reached earlier this year, the job of pushing for alternative energy becomes all the more challenging.

The facts remain the same.   Regardless of what you’re paying at the gas pump, the emissions spewing out of the tailpipe of your vehicle are speeding Global Warming and destroying the environment as we know it on this planet.   And if environmentalism isn’t your thing, keep in mind that the money from your gasoline purchases is still going straight into the bank accounts of some of the most repressive governments on the face of this earth.   They may not be getting a flush as quickly as they were at peak prices, but that’s still money that could be staying here in America to pay for energy resources like wind, solar and tidal that are readily available every day across this country.

Read the rest of this entry »

Democrats have decided to let a 26-year-old ban coastal oil drilling expire, conceding to opposition from President Bush and the pressures of high gas prices.   Considered a Republican victory, the move leaves the decisions of offshore drilling in the hands of the next administration.

takepart by telling Congress to say no to offshore drilling.

Related:
Inconvenient Truth of the Day

The light at the end of a very dark tunnel this year for Republicans has been their call to lift the offshore drilling ban.   Mired in the most unpopular Presidential administration in modern history and dogged by outright failures of leadership including the Iraq War, the sinking economy, Katrina, Guantanamo etc. etc. prospects for the GOP looked very, very dim this year unless they found some way, somehow to reinvent themselves.   As luck would have it, that way turned out to be not much of a stretch at all, as Congressional Republicans took back to their familiar tactic of misleading rather than leading the American public over the need to lift the offshore oil drilling ban currently in place in light of record gas prices.

The facts are the facts, despite the spin and bluster that has been floating around.   As noted by Robert Kauffman of the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies at Boston University in a recent interview with National Public Radio, nobody knows how much oil is available in the portions of the continental shelf covered by the drilling ban until they start drilling but the optimistic projections have the number at 19 billion barrels, or slightly over two years worth at present domestic consumption rates.   What we do know for certain however is that in the best of all possible worlds - if drilling started today - not a drop of oil would come out of these areas until at least five years and it would take a decade for full production to come online.

Read the rest of this entry »

The price of oil fell to a five month low today on relaxed fears over the damage inflicted by Hurricane Gustav to offshore drilling and Gulf Coast refineries.   The price per barrel of crude oil went as low as $105 in early morning trading before rebounding somewhat in the afternoon to around $110.

The news is tinged with mixed blessings from my perspective.   Obviously, everyone who drives likes cheaper gasoline prices at the pump, which will surely follow the downward trend of crude oil prices.   However, with cheaper gas, the urgency for alternative, renewable energy development will be that much less as the public tries its hardest to forget the exorbitant, record sums paid over this past summer for a mere tank of fuel.   On the other hand though, cheaper oil in today’s economy - although this won’t always be the case - helps to prop up the sagging US Dollar which now sits at one of its highest levels versus the Euro in many months as crude spirals downward.   Having cut out plans for a vacation to Spain last year over currency doubts, this development certainly makes the traveler in me that much happier.  

Read the rest of this entry »

No, seriously:

Because during the same period one year ago, Exxon netted $138 billion.

takepart by tracking a U.S. bill on renewable energies.