Monthly Archives: January 2011

Alcoa wants to use melting Arctic ice to produce aluminum

January 31, 2011 – by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor– Reports from Australia indicate that Alcoa is looking to build smelters in the Arctic that would use electricity created by damming the melting ice for hydropower to smelt aluminum from bauxite. … Continue reading

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Why is this woman laughing?

Because as Director of the Indiana Finance Authority, she just screwed Hoosiers by negotiating a contract with Indiana Gasification that will make Hoosiers pay more for syngas gas than they  would have to pay for natural gas for thirty years. … Continue reading

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Illinois Basin is battleground for coal gas

by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor As most of America turns from new coal due to its release of massive amounts of pollution including global warming gases like CO2, the states of Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky are doubling down on a … Continue reading

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NASA Research Finds 2010 Tied for Warmest Year on Record

January 16, 2011- NASA Press Release Global surface temperatures in 2010 tied 2005 as the warmest on record, according to an analysis released Wednesday by researchers at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. The two years … Continue reading

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Land fizzing like soda pop: farmer says CO2 injected underground is leaking

January 15, 2011-by Bob Weber and Jennifer Graham in the Winnipeg Free Press. A Saskatchewan farm couple whose land lies over the world’s largest carbon capture and storage project says greenhouse gases seeping from the soil are killing animals and … Continue reading

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Is Indiana Senate utilities chairman too cozy with coal?

January 13, 2011-by John Russell in the Indianapolis Star. Senate leader’s day job is ripe for conflict of interest, watchdogs say. State Sen. James Merritt and electric utilities bump into each other at nearly every turn. In his re-election campaign … Continue reading

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Bring back the two fingered Peace Sign!

January 5, 2011-by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor. It started mostly with sports car drivers in the middle 1960s sharing pleasantries, but was popularized by the Smothers Brothers with their Comedy Hour and finally became the nearly universal sign of brotherhood … Continue reading

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Crops benefit from wind turbines, wakes may fend off disease

January 5, 2011-by Bill Opalka in Renewables Biz For years the economic benefits of wind turbineson farms have been limited to discussions about lease payments. Now, a new study seems to indicate the presence of spinning blades has the added economic … Continue reading

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Federal Taxpayers spend $245 million to subsidize reclamation at surface mines

January 5, 2011-by Carrie La Seur, president of Plains Justice, an organization similar to Valley Watch but dealing with the northern Plains States. Some spectacular numbers were reported by the Associated Press yesterday. Apparently the U.S. Department of the Interior is … Continue reading

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Thousands Pay Tribute to Judy Bonds: She Has Been to the Mountaintop–and We Must Fight Harder to Save It

Janmuary 4, 2011-by Jeff Biggers in the Huffington Post– She was a tireless, funny, and inspiring orator, and a savvy and brilliant community organizer. She was fearless in the face of threats. As the godmother of the anti-mountaintop removal movement, she gave birth … Continue reading

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Groups Call Government’s Coal Ash Analysis Skewed

January 3, 2011-by John M. Broder in the New York Times The Environmental Protection Agency is planning for the first time to regulate the disposal of coal ash, the potentially hazardous residue of the burning of coal in power plants … Continue reading

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The 8 Minute Epoch: 65 million Years with James Hansen

January 3, 2011- A new video from Peter Sinclair. This video features an eight minute lecture from NASA scientist, James Hansen. [youtube id=”ZGFAWzjO378″ w=”660″ h=”440″]

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Coal’s burnout: Have investors moved on to cleaner energy sources?

January 1, 2011-by Steve Mufson in the Washington Post. “Deutsche Bank predicts coal’s share of electric power generation will tumble further, from 47 percent in 2009 to 34 percent in 2020 and 22 percent in 2030.” The headline news for … Continue reading

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