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Greenhouse Pollution from Midwest Refineries May Soar 40%
Michael Hawthorne, Chicago Tribune
Global-warming pollution from Midwest oil refineries is expected to soar by as much as 40 percent during the next decade, a dramatic increase that runs counter to regional and national efforts to curb heat-trapping gases.
Expansion plans at the BP refinery in Whiting would boost the facility’s greenhouse-gas emissions to 5.8 million tons a year, the company told the Tribune. That would be equivalent to adding 320,000 cars to the nation’s highways.
While greenhouse gases from the tailpipes of cars get the most attention, the refineries that keep cars and trucks running also contribute to global warming. Fuel must be burned to make gasoline from oil, generating carbon-dioxide pollution.
The huge increases in greenhouse gases are a largely hidden consequence of an industrywide trend to buy more Canadian crude. Vast reserves of tar-soaked clay and sand lying under the swampy forests of northern Alberta are seen as a profitable and reliable source of oil, but the heavy petroleum requires more energy to process.
Other oil companies declined to discuss projected increases in global-warming pollution, but researchers have calculated that refining the Canadian petroleum produces 15 percent to 40 percent more carbon dioxide emissions than conventional oil.
With no greenhouse-gas regulations in place, the companies face no costs for the extra pollution they will churn into the atmosphere.
(12 February 2008)
Drilling Rush in Rockies Raises Health, Safety Concerns
Bette Hileman, Chemical & Engineering News
THE NATION’S EFFORTS to enhance natural gas production and increase energy independence might bring with them new threats. There are growing complaints that gas drilling, particularly in the Rocky Mountain region, is contaminating water supplies with chemicals and endangering human health.
Some environmental and citizens groups claim that exemptions in federal law are responsible for allowing gas operations to contaminate water and air. To remedy this, they are working for changes in federal, state, and municipal regulations. They have succeeded to a degree on the state and local level. And Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform, is considering legislation that would end some of the gas industry’s exemptions from federal environmental laws.
(11 February 2008)
Shell VP, Exploration: ‘No More Easy Oil’
Rigzone
Shell Europe’s vice president of exploration, Tom Botts, will review some hard truths at Subsea 08 when he gives his keynote address to 200 representatives from the global subsea sector.
Speaking at the major subsea oil and gas event, which kicks off Feb. 12 at the AECC, Mr Botts will focus on the global future of an industry which was developed in Aberdeen.
“There is no more easy oil,” Botts will warn, “and the subsea industry is critical to unlocking more oil to meet world supply.”
…Organised by Subsea UK, the event is set to be bigger and better than previous shows. Chief executive of Subsea UK, David Pridden, says: “We are looking forward to hearing some thought-provoking presentations and participating in some stimulating debate. Tom Botts is right when he says there is no more easy oil. It is getting tougher and tougher to extract and the future unquestionably lies with subsea.
(12 February 2008)
Southeast Asia’s Looming Nuclear Power Industry
Geoffrey C. Gunn, Japan Focus
The 2005-07 spike in petroleum prices topping out at $100 a barrel has prodded economic planners across the globe to reconsider their energy options in an age of growing concern over global warming and carbon emissions. The Southeast Asian economies, themselves beneficiaries of an oil and gas export bonanza through the 1970s-1990s, also find themselves in an energy crunch as once ample reserves run down and the search is on for new and cleaner energy supplies.
Notably, regional leaders at the 13th ASEAN Summit meeting held in Singapore in November 2007 issued a statement promoting civilian nuclear power, alongside renewable and alternative energy sources. ASEAN–which in 1971 endorsed a nuclear-free zone concept–also sought to ensure that plutonium did not fall into the wrong hands through the creation of a “regional nuclear safety regime.” In response, environmental activists across the region cited concerns over nuclear power, citing safety and unstable regional geologies concerns. [1] Undoubtedly they were taking a cue from Japan’s recent nuclear disaster. [2] Singapore, host of the ASEAN summit meeting, made known its concerns.
East and Southeast Asia is the only region of the globe where nuclear power generation is presently growing significantly. According to the Nuclear Issues Briefing Paper, the region boasts 109 operational nuclear power plants, with 18 more under construction and around 110 in the planning stage
(11 February 2008)
Also at Znet.
