• News Feed: Earthquakes force Ohio to shut down fracking well - WKSU News

    Updated: 2011-12-30 23:52:40
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  • Happy New Year: Regulations Kill Enterprise, Stifle Joy

    Updated: 2011-12-30 20:47:21
    An analogy: If lengthy Rose Bowl float rulebook is a barrier to parade entry, how much worse are federal regs that make it hard to start a business? READ MORE...

  • Global Warming Alarmists Peddle False Science

    Updated: 2011-12-30 20:40:52
    Many 'climate scientists' need a fifth grade science lesson READ MORE...

  • News Feed: Fracking fears spur review of oilpatch regulations - Vancouver Sun

    Updated: 2011-12-30 18:41:00
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  • News Feed: Last desperate plea to stop Fracking in New York State - Examiner.com

    Updated: 2011-12-30 16:59:45
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  • Friday’s top of the scroll: A battle over water rights: National Ski Areas Association to sue U.S. Forest Service over water rights issue

    Updated: 2011-12-30 16:13:56
    From ESPN: “Ski resorts are feuding with their Forest Service landlord over a water rights clause in updated ski area permitting regulations that keeps water rights tied to the land, not the resort operator. After intense lobbying — which included stern letters from a host of congressman and senators — last week the Forest Service [...]

  • Legislative debate to revolve around fiscal crisis

    Updated: 2011-12-30 16:05:56
    From the Visalia Times-Delta: “California’s budget deficit appears more manageable than in past years, but the state’s ongoing fiscal crisis will continue to dominate debate over other matters in the Legislature during the coming session. Whether to delay a vote on an $11 billion water bond, approve online poker, reform public employee pensions, keep state [...]

  • California’s Delta ecosystem is healthier, for now

    Updated: 2011-12-30 16:02:55
    From the New York Times Green blog: “The ecosystem of the delta where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers meet has been in the legal equivalent of an intensive care unit for four years. But just before Christmas, an upbeat report came in, showing that a year of copious rain and snow had significantly improved.the [...]

  • Irrigation water concerns cloud prosperous almond industry

    Updated: 2011-12-30 15:57:44
    From the Western Farm Press: “Mark Turmon was raised on his family’s Thompson seedless raisin vineyard in Fresno County near Caruthers, Calif., and like many of his peers moved down a different farming path in adulthood to California almonds. Turmon today grows 1,600 acres of almonds on the West Side of the San Joaquin Valley [...]

  • The Moral Liberal: Do fish have more rights than people?

    Updated: 2011-12-30 15:50:36
    From The Moral Liberal, this commentary: “Is an obscure fish more important than California farmers who need water? The Ninth Circuit sided with the “delta smelt,” a fish lacking in any commercial value which typically grows to only 2 to 3 inches in length. Water is scarce in parts of California, but water distribution has [...]

  • For Tomorrow blog: Understanding the Endangered Species Act: Purpose and limitations

    Updated: 2011-12-30 15:46:44
    From For Tomorrow, a blog: “Is it enough to rescue vanishing species? The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is crucial piece of legislation that safeguards the survival of many species, but the act does have limitations. An understanding of these limitations is paramount in the fight to save endangered species. The current endangered species act, passed [...]

  • Dan Bacher: State’s first snow survey follows record water export year

    Updated: 2011-12-30 15:42:44
    From Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org: “The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced on December 28 that it will conduct the first snow survey of the winter in the Sierra Nevada on January 3, 2012. The announcement comes after an infamous year when the Brown and Obama administrations exported record amounts of water to subsidized [...]

  • Coho count jumps in Scott River

    Updated: 2011-12-30 15:38:43
    From the Capital Press: “A state survey has shown imperiled coho salmon populations in the Scott River in far Northern California may be making a comeback. At least 340 adult coho were documented as of Dec. 8 at a state Department of Fish and Game-operated video weir — a significant increase from the 62 fish [...]

  • Perfect blend? Santa Nella looks for right mix of well, surface water

    Updated: 2011-12-30 15:36:35
    From Westside Connect: “Increased production from a refurbished well has some members of the Santa Nella County Water District Board of Directors questioning whether too much ground water is being blended with imported surface water and degrading quality as a result. The issue came to the forefront at the December board meeting when directors were [...]

  • Regional approach directed at consumers to foster climate-appropriate landscaping in Southern California’s Inland Empire

    Updated: 2011-12-30 15:32:35
    From the Water Efficiency Journal: “California’s latest efforts to dramatically improve the efficiency of water use in new and existing urban irrigated landscapes intensified in 2004 when legislation created the Landscape Task Force. The Governor and legislature received a comprehensive set of recommendations to educate Californians and help transition from awareness to action. Five years [...]

  • Otay water contracts tied to board chairman: General manager awards them, without bids, up to $50,000, a practice he calls standard

    Updated: 2011-12-30 15:23:54
    From the San Diego Union-Tribune: “The general manager of the Otay Water District approved more than $200,000 in no-bid contracts this year to associates of the board’s chairman, Jaime Bonilla. Three of the contracts involved a desalination plant planned in Baja California that Otay officials hope will be a key source of future water. One [...]

  • Tribes could turn the tables on water control

    Updated: 2011-12-30 15:21:01
    From The Range blog at High Country News: “It seems like every week there’s another article about the future of western water—how much we’ll have, where it will come from, and who will get it. Since it’s key to our sustainability and growth, it’s something we ought to be talking about. But there’s a key [...]

  • News Feed: India Ponders Developing Extensive Fracking Industry - OilPrice.com

    Updated: 2011-12-30 14:44:22
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  • News Feed: Moratorium on fracking needed - Township Journal

    Updated: 2011-12-30 13:08:20
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  • News Feed: Fracking Ban Threats Seen Hollow in Calfrac Bonds: Canada Credit - Bloomberg

    Updated: 2011-12-30 12:52:19
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  • News Feed: Fracking ban threats seen hollow in Calfrac bonds: Canada credit - Vancouver Sun

    Updated: 2011-12-30 12:28:27
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  • Obama Administration Seeks Advice from Discredited Wall Street Exec

    Updated: 2011-12-30 02:54:10
    A prime example of cronyism and the Ruling Political Elite at work READ MORE...

  • Rick Santorum’s Surge Continues

    Updated: 2011-12-30 00:14:12
    With each new supporter comes a victory for Founding Father values READ MORE...

  • In 2012, Ignore the ‘Fact-Checkers’

    Updated: 2011-12-30 00:09:17
    Much of the media are actually press agents for the Ruling Elite. READ MORE...

  • Government Encourages Prosperity … for Itself

    Updated: 2011-12-29 19:38:32
    Members of Congress are the top 0.0001 percent. READ MORE...

  • Thursday’s top of the scroll: Low snow totals could translate into less water

    Updated: 2011-12-29 07:55:56
    From the Ventura County Star: “This time last year, precipitation records were being broken as skiers in the Sierra Nevada were enjoying foot upon foot of snow and water managers were celebrating rising reservoirs. This year, not so much. Mammoth Mountain, which had 209 inches of snow in December 2010, has had 2 inches this [...]

  • Department of Water Resources schedules first 2011 snow survey for January 3

    Updated: 2011-12-29 07:52:09
    From the Department of Water Resources: The Department of Water Resources (DWR) will conduct this winter’s first snow survey on January 3. One center of attention will be the manual survey scheduled for 11 a.m. off Highway 50 near Echo Summit. This and other manual and electronic surveys up and down the state will determine [...]

  • Western Weather Blog: The interesting December stats

    Updated: 2011-12-29 07:48:17
    From the Accu-Weather Western Weather Blog: “This is my last post of the year. After today I have a wonderful and needed 5 days off. I will be back in the helm here on Tuesday, January 3, 2012. I thought I would use this last post of the year to show you some very interesting [...]

  • Hastings, GOP target Endangered Species Act

    Updated: 2011-12-29 07:45:25
    From McClatchy News: “The gray wolf hit a major milestone on Dec. 21, when the Obama administration said the wolf’s population in the Great Lakes region had grown to the point where the animals no longer required federal protection. With more than 4,000 gray wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, Secretary of the Interior Ken [...]

  • Delta National Park blog: Democracy – win, lose or draw

    Updated: 2011-12-29 07:43:00
    From the Delta National Park blog: “I’ve been angling to get a clear description of Why the “fortress Delta” solution was not the most cost effective way of ensuring the co-equal goals. You know, the Delta ecosystem stabilization/improvement goal and south of Delta water supply stabilization/reliability goal. Nothing like a three-hour layover to find the [...]

  • Commentary: Protect our groundwater now; Powerful Southern California interests want to make use of it

    Updated: 2011-12-29 07:40:40
    From the Chico News & Review, this commentary by Nora Todenhagen of AquAlliance: “It rained last year; it may rain this year, but the health of the Tuscan and other Northern California aquifers depends not only on rain, but also on the actions of the state and federal governments driven by powerful corporate farmers and [...]

  • Snow Goose Festival celebrates Sacramento Valley Wildlife

    Updated: 2011-12-29 07:38:53
    From the CalRice blog: “This year marks the 13th Annual Snow Goose Festival, and we have an exciting, action-packed four days to honor this jewel of the Sacramento Valley. Thousands will flock to the Chico area for this celebration of local and migratory waterfowl in the Northern Sacramento Valley. We have planned more than 70 [...]

  • Folsom Lake is deceivingly dry

    Updated: 2011-12-29 07:37:47
    From the Sacramento Bee: “Folsom Lake looks low this time of year. The dry month may be partly to blame. But, in reality, the lake is only slightly lower than it was this time last year, and holds 88 percent of its average capacity for December. … “ Continue reading from the Sacramento Bee by [...]

  • Rebuilding the historic Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System

    Updated: 2011-12-29 07:36:55
    From Trenchless Technology: “When you think of San Francisco, most people think about the Gold Rush, earthquakes, the Golden Gate Bridge and the tech boom of Silicon Valley. However, we often take for granted the people — visionaries, local leaders and engineers — who put the San Francisco Bay Area on the map. These people [...]

  • Santa Clara Valley Water District to save $7.7 million through new contracts

    Updated: 2011-12-29 07:33:37
    From the Morgan Hill Times: “In an effort to cut costs and bring more efficiency to the agency, the Santa Clara Valley Water District approved new agreements with three employee unions that will save $7.7 million over the life of the contracts. Tuesday, the SCVWD board of directors unanimously approved the contracts with the Engineers [...]

  • Monterey County: Bring on Plan B: What’s next in the ongoing desal drama?

    Updated: 2011-12-29 07:32:29
    From the Monterey County Weekly, this commentary: “Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip.
 Wondering how, for the love of God, two taxpayer-funded public agencies and one savvy private water company could have so badly botched the formation of a plan to take salt out of water and pipe it to Monterey Peninsula homes and businesses? [...]

  • Livingston gets rid of water rate consultant

    Updated: 2011-12-29 07:31:33
    From the Merced Sun-Star: “The city’s most recent water rate study had a hiccup recently, as officials decided to fire the consultant on the project because of poor performance. However, a consultant at the company said performance wasn’t the issue — the city parted ways with his organization because of mere politics. City officials have [...]

  • Imperial Valley’s unique combination of solar and geothermal resources make it a hotbed of renewable energy activity, and controversy

    Updated: 2011-12-29 07:26:25
    From Clean Technica: “Stretching 50 miles from southeastern California’s Salton Sea across the border with Mexico to the Gulf of California, the Imperial Valley is an area of unique desert beauty, one that lies almost entirely below sea level. The area is also somewhat rare in its combination of geothermal and solar energy resources. The [...]

  • Yuma farmland powered by billions of gallons of water

    Updated: 2011-12-29 07:24:05
    From the Yuma Sun: “More than 50,000 acres of farmland span across the Yuma Valley and require somewhere in the neighborhood of 370,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water per year to be delivered by the Yuma County Water Users’ Association (YCWUA). Manager Tom Davis noted that one acre-foot of water converts to be about 326,000 [...]

  • Las Vegas: Sloan Channel issue ‘bugs’ nearby homeowners

    Updated: 2011-12-29 07:23:04
    From the Las Vegas Sun: “First came the stench. Now it’s the gnats and midges. Water released into the Sloan Channel from the new wastewater treatment plant in North Las Vegas is making life a little more difficult for those who live near the concrete-lined channel. Fungus gnats and chronomid midges, both of which live [...]

  • ‘Flyboard’ water jet pack takes to the air at Lake Las Vegas

    Updated: 2011-12-29 07:22:19
    Now here’s a story that’s just a few days late … I’d have put this on my Christmas list for sure! From the Las Vegas Sun: “With a quick squeeze of the throttle, Franky Zapata shot out across Lake Las Vegas Wednesday afternoon and began dipping and diving as he floated as high as 20 [...]

  • Want a Tax Break? Buy a Government-Subsidized, Plug-in Car

    Updated: 2011-12-28 23:34:40
    Chevy Volt already costs taxpayers $250,000 for every vehicle sold READ MORE...

  • Wednesday’s top of the scroll: Snow drought in the West

    Updated: 2011-12-28 15:29:53
    From the Accu-Weather Western Weather Blog: “A lack of storms for the month of December for the Sierra and even places like Utah and Colorado has meant lower than normal snowpack. In the case of the Sierra it has been an especially snow less December, and when comparing it to last year by this time [...]

  • Nature story of the year: monster snowpack

    Updated: 2011-12-28 15:26:42
    From the Fresno Bee’s News Blog: “The nature story of the year was easy to call this year: Monster storms battered California and left a huge snowpack. Yosemite National Park had double its average snowpack by late April. Fresno had its seventh highest rain total on record. But with the good, came the sad. In [...]

  • Tom Philp: 2011: For water, a replenishing year

    Updated: 2011-12-28 15:24:08
    From Tom Philp at the City Brights blog: “In water, many statistics dwell on averages– average rainfall, average outflow to the ocean, average diversions/deliveries. In most years, however, there is little that is “average” about California water. True to form, 2011 will go down as go down as yet another perfectly abnormal California year. But [...]

  • Sacramento sanitation district listening to residents on fee-hike plan, says commentary

    Updated: 2011-12-28 15:10:15
    From the Sacramento Bee, this commentary by Stan Dean, the district engineer for the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District: “The Bee’s recent coverage and editorial regarding the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District’s current study of wastewater rates and fees point to concerns about how our region’s future wastewater treatment rates and fees are set, and [...]

  • Cadiz project is designed with environmental protection and state-of-the-art groundwater monitoring in mind, says commentary

    Updated: 2011-12-28 15:07:19
    From the San Bernardino Sun, this commentary by Winston H. Hickox, the former Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency and former Special Assistant to the Gov. Jerry Brown for Environmental Affairs: “For the past several years the state of California has worked to ensure that water supplies are available to meet demand. This effort [...]

  • Klamath dams: Siskiyou County’s comments in

    Updated: 2011-12-28 14:55:37
    From the Siskiyou Daily News: “Siskiyou County recently submitted its comments for the Department of Interior’s (DOI) Draft Environmental Impact Statement/Report (EIS/EIR) for Klamath Facilities Removal, as the Dec. 30 deadline for submissions approaches. In addition to county government, the cities of Yreka, Dorris, Etna, Montague and Weed along with the town of Fort Jones [...]

  • Glenn County’s Water Advisory Committee shifts to groundwater management

    Updated: 2011-12-28 14:53:17
    From the Willows Journal: “Glenn County’s Water Advisory Committee is changing its focus from developing groundwater monitoring plans to groundwater management. It also is thinking of shrinking the size of the committee from 20 to 13 members to streamline it and doing strategic planning as a group. Adding one supervisor to chair a technical subcommittee [...]

  • 60 years after leaving, porpoises again play in San Francisco Bay

    Updated: 2011-12-28 14:50:39
    From National Public Radio (NPR): “Something that has been missing from San Francisco Bay since World War II appears to be making a comeback: Harbor porpoises are showing up in growing numbers, and researchers are trying to understand why they’re returning. The walkway across the Golden Gate Bridge is almost always packed with people taking [...]

  • San Francisco: ‘Human error’ led to water main break

    Updated: 2011-12-28 14:48:36
    From the Bay-Citizen: “San Francisco acknowledged Tuesday that its faulty design was responsible for a water main break that flooded homes and damaged cars in South San Francisco last month. The agency said it failed to ask a contractor to install welds or similar restraints needed at a joint when it installed the new water [...]

  • Santa Clara Valley Water District tightens its belt with new contracts

    Updated: 2011-12-28 14:45:50
    From the Silicon Valley Mercury News: “Attempting to trim costs as it faces major expenses and an upcoming request to voters for more money, the board of Silicon Valley’s largest water provider on Tuesday approved new contracts that cut benefits and limit pay increases for hundreds of its union employees. The board of the Santa [...]

  • Mono-Logue blog: Big strides towards a 21st century aqueduct

    Updated: 2011-12-28 14:40:19
    From the Mono-Logue blog: “Here in the office we call it the Collaborative Aqueduct Modernization & Management Plan, or CAMMP for short. But when we say things like, “Geoff, Lisa, and Morgan are CAMMP-ing,” it’s not what it sounds like. CAMMP is a State Water Board mandated series of facilitated meetings embarked upon by the [...]

  • Inyo County: DWP, volunteers continue assault on Buckley tules

    Updated: 2011-12-28 14:34:33
    From the Inyo Register: “In an effort to rehabilitate the Buckley Ponds area east of Bishop, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is teaming up with a group of local volunteers to clear away huge growths of tules. According to Bishop resident Dick Noles, who is heading up the volunteer effort, the LADWP [...]

  • Schumer’s In-Law Nominated for Judgeship

    Updated: 2011-12-27 21:43:13
    A blatant example of Ruling Political Elite cronyism? READ MORE...

  • Americans Give President A $4,113,000 Vacation

    Updated: 2011-12-27 21:36:03
    A serene trip to Hawaii courtesy of the taxpayers. READ MORE...

  • Energy Prices Soared in 2011

    Updated: 2011-12-22 18:38:00
    Other lowlights for the year include Obama's offshore drilling plan and the attack on fracking.

  • Clean Air: The EPA Finally Tackles Mercury Pollution

    Updated: 2011-12-22 10:00:56
    At the start of the fall, greens were not happy with President Obama. There was lingering disappointment about the failure of climate legislation a year before—a failure that many environmentalists blamed on insufficient action from the White House. That was bad enough, but at the beginning of September Obama shocked many of his environmental allies [...]

  • Earth & Energy: Yet another Colorado city catches oil & gas moratorium fever

    Updated: 2011-12-21 23:52:24
    Another day, another city council vote to vote to impose moratoriums on oil and gas operations in towns surrounding the Denver metro area – this time, Longmont. The Longmont City Council on Tuesday by a 7-0 vote approved a 120-day moratorium on the city’s acceptance or review of any “land use applications, permits or any other applications” regarding oil and gas operations within the city limits, city spokesman Rigo Leal said. Longmont’s move follows Monday’s vote by the Commerce City city council to postpone for 30 days a final decision to impose a six-month moratorium on oil and gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing — or “fracking” — within city limits...

  • Your Voice for Conservation

    Updated: 2011-12-21 18:04:58
    The 2012 Idaho Legislative session is right around the corner! We continue to be your voice for conservation at the Idaho Statehouse.

  • More confusion

    Updated: 2011-12-16 20:36:26
    Louise Basinese, Wall Street Daily. The confusion about refinery product exports is getting brutal. http://www.wallstreetdaily.com/2011/12/16/peak-oil/

  • Concentrations

    Updated: 2011-12-15 13:48:14
    http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Colorado-tightens-fracking-rules-2401144.php That’s cool, it’s nice to know what goes in. More important — what comes out, and what do they do with it.

  • Shale gas: ponzilicious?

    Updated: 2011-12-15 04:07:03
    “The Questionable Economics of Shale Gas,” by Chris Nelder, Dec. 14, 2011.

  • Historical perspective on the Bakken Boom

    Updated: 2011-12-13 00:59:06
    This is an excellent article by Derik Andreoli, looking at the historical big picture of American extraction booms. The Oil Drum | The Bakken Boom – A Modern-Day Gold Rush.

  • Lying or confused, part 2

    Updated: 2011-12-11 06:26:59
    http://www.statecollege.com/news/columns/daniel-nestlerode-as-us-becomes-a-net-energy-exporter-greenenergy-push-on-last-legs-951653/ From statecollege.com, Dec. 4, 2011. …very quietly, I guess. The author Dan Nestlerode is apparently the Director of Research at his firm. Ouch Dan!

  • Natural gas prices

    Updated: 2011-12-08 22:26:29
    BP STATISTICAL REVIEW OF WORLD ENERGY, NAT. GAS PRICES Notice how the price in the US is about half the average German import price for 2010.

  • Debunking the Myth That America Is Running Out of Energy

    Updated: 2011-12-08 05:57:00
    United States is actually rich in coal, oil, and natural gas.

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