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Showing posts tagged global warming
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Jul06
U.S. Takes the Gold in CO2 Reductions, Thanks to Shale
Julia Bell
Researcher, Energy In DepthAs the U.S. Olympic team gets set to compete against the best athletes from around the world in London later this month, there’s at least one event for which the U.S.A. appears to have already won the gold. According to a new report from the Paris-based International Energy Agency, the United States has had “the largest reduction [of emissions] of all countries or regions” since 2006, cutting GHGs by a staggering 7.7 percent.
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Jul17
“Truthland” Helps the Rational Middle Understand Natural Gas Development
Frank Andrews – Client Manager, SCE Environmental Group I had the opportunity to see the film “Truthland” when it was shown at the Hilton Hotel in Scranton. It was a good, solid presentation of facts and I especially enjoyed seeing it through Shelly’s eyes. It gave a down to earth look at the issues.
I had to speak up during the panel discussion.
Most people in Northeast and Central Pennsylvania know me. I spent 40 years in broadcasting, from radio to TV, serving as reporter, anchor and news director for the local ABC and CBS stations. I retired from TV news and now work in marketing for SCE Environmental Services in Lake Ariel, PA.
I got to tell you, all of you who are in the midst of the natural gas boom, that you are and will continue to be part of the “media feeding frenzy.” The Marcellus and Utica regions will continue to generate news. The energy companies will be under the microscope and reporters and cameras will at times be as common as a water truck.
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Jul31
The “Science” Behind Generating Headlines
Steve Everley
SpokespersonLast December, EPA released a draft report on water quality in tiny Pavillion, Wyo., which was immediately seized upon by opponents of natural gas development in the United States (and even around the world) as smoking-gun proof that hydraulic fracturing pollutes drinking water. Never mind that the paper hadn’t been peer reviewed, or that within a few months the EPA to backtrack and admit that its testing procedures were inadequate, suspending peer review altogether until new sampling could be completed. Just two months after the release of the draft report, EPA Region 8 administrator Jim Martin told a House panel in no uncertain terms that the agency had not established a “causal link” between hydraulic fracturing and water contamination.
Fast-forward to today. Shale opponents have now seized upon yet another “report” (from Cornell, where else?) that supposedly links poor infant health (specifically low birth weight) to natural gas production. And, once again, the paper has not yet undergone peer review — the very process that helps sort out, at least in theory, legitimate scientific conclusions from simple suppositions or even outright activism. In fact, left unmentioned by the activists cheering the release of the paper is the fact that the author, Elaine Hill, is a graduate student in applied economics and management — hardly a field that one would expect to include complex epidemiological assessments.
