President rejects Keystone XL pipeline

roman November 12, 2015

Posted Nov. 6, 2015 / Posted by: Kate Colwell

WASHINGTON, D.C. — After seven years of intense public campaigning on the Keystone XL, a pipeline that would have bisected the United States carrying the world’s dirtiest oil, President Obama has denied Canadian oil company TransCanada a presidential permit for construction. The president cited the pipeline’s projected contribution to climate change in deeming it not in the national interest.

Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica issued the following statement:

This is an extraordinary moment for grassroots activism and the fight against fossil fuels. For seven years, people from around the United States campaigned together to transform a previously routine decision to approve a pipeline into a leadership test on climate change. With this decision, President Obama has taken leadership in significantly slowing the expansion of the tar sands industry. We have not only succeeded in stopping the Keystone XL pipeline, we’ve awakened a grassroots climate movement. The battle to move beyond fossil fuels continues, and Friends of the Earth thanks President Obama for taking a strong step in the right direction.

Clean Futures, Climate, Mining, Old_Notes

Germany on track to replace nukes with renewables

roman November 12, 2015

Contrary to claims made by pro-nuclear advocates, germany is managing its nuclear shutdown quite well.

Amory Lovins explains why in an article which appeared in Forbes

Before the March 2011 Fukushima disaster, both Germany and Japan were nearly 30% nuclear-powered. In the next four months, Germany restored, and sped up by a year, the nuclear phaseout schedule originally agreed with industry in 2001–02. With the concurrence of all political parties, 41% of Germany’s nuclear power capacity—eight units of 17, including five similar to those at Fukushima and seven from the 1970s—got promptly shut down, with the rest to follow during 2015–22.

[…] the output lost when those eight reactors closed in 2011 was entirely replaced in the same year—59% by the 2011 growth of renewables, 6% by more-efficient use, and 36% by temporarily reduced electricity exports. Through 2012, Germany’s loss of 2010 nuclear output was 94% offset by renewable growth; through 2013, 108%. At this rate, renewable growth would replace Germany’s entire pre-Fukushima nuclear output by 2016.

Amory Lovins, “How Opposite Energy Policies Turned The Fukushima Disaster Into A Loss For Japan And A Win For Germany”

Old_Notes

TPP details released by NZ parliament

roman November 12, 2015

The New Zealand government, which signed on to the TPP, put the contents of the agreement on its website last Thursday, saying it would continue to undergo legal review.

The Australian Free Trade and Investment Network has been sceptical of the ISDS clause, and of the TPP more broadly.

“The general ‘safeguards’ in the text [regarding ISDS] are qualified, and similar to those in other recent agreements which have not prevented cases against health and environmental laws,” coordinator of the network, Patricia Ranald, said. “They do not address the fundamental flaws of an unfair international tribunal system which has no independent judiciary, no precedents and no appeals.”

Old_Notes