Monthly Archives: August 2011

Link: Anger in Homer, Alaska over halibut allocation

Fisheries

Environment Fishery Halibut Link There is growing anger to the north of us in Alaska, over halibut allocation policies by the US National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration.   If Kitimat is the centre of opposition by the recreational halibut sector in British Columbia, in Alaska, much of the opposition is in the town of Homer. The Homer Tribune is reporting: Chamber members vote to oppose one-halibut rule Business members of the Homer Chamber of Commerce voted Sunday night in favor of a letter to the National…

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Links: Japan seeking more sources of LNG

Qatar

Energy LNG Links Post-earthquake Japan is said to be one of the main markets for liquified natural gas that will flow through the LNG terminals under construction and proposed for the port of Kitimat. Since the earthquake Japan has been making major purchases of LNG from both Qatar and Russia. The Doha, Qatar-based, Gulf Times is reporting: Qatar LNG exports to Japan up Qatar is about to overtake Indonesia as the third-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas to Japan, which has been increasing LNG imports…

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Obama press secretary questioned on anti oil sands demonstrations

tar sands

Energy Environment links U.S. president Barack Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, was asked about the continuing demonstrations  in Washington against the Alberta oil sands and the Keystone XL pipeline proposal during a “gaggle” (an informal news conference) aboard Air Force One en route to Minnesota today. The White House released this transcript of the brief exchange: Q Also, anything on these protests outside the White House on this pipeline? Has the President decided against TransCanada’s permit for the pipeline? It’s the tar sands pipeline. There…

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Micro organisms played key roles in Exxon Valdez, BP cleanup: study

Study

Environment Link A study by the U.S. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is reporting that microbes, mostly  bacteria, but also archaea (single cell organisms without a cell nucleus) and fungi, played key roles in mitigating both the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska and the  BP Deep Ocean Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. In a news release, Terry Hazen, microbial ecologist with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) says, “Responders to future oil spills would do well to mobilize as rapidly as possible…

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Is that halibut playing a smart phone video game?

Fisheries

Environment Fishery   The International Pacific Halibut Commission is trying a new way of tracking halibut migration using technology invented for smart phones and tablets. The same high tech that lets your smart phone or tablet know the screen should be horizontal or vertical may help the commission, responsible for the conservation of halibut from the Bering Sea along the Alaska and BC coasts all the way to California, track the migration of the valuable and possibly threatened groundfish. Commission scientists have tagged 30 halibut…

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DFO closes recreational halibut fishery as internal memo warns of “significant economic impacts in the fishery”

Fisheries

Environment FisheryOriginally posted  Aug 23, 2011  1:15 PTUpdated Aug. 23, 2011, 2104 PT. .Just after noon on August 22, 2011, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans  quietly announced that the it was closing the Pacific region  recreational halibut fishery as of  midnight Sept. 5,  2011 cutting off charter, lodge and recreational anglers from the fishery. The commercial halibut fishery will continue, as planned, until November 18, 2011. At the same time, DFO continued the highly controversial program of allowing those recreational fishers who can afford…

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“Front End Engineering” begins for BC LNG

natural gas

Energy The Hart Energy  E&P (exploration and production) newsletter is reporting that an Overland,  Kansas based company, Black & Veatch,  a multi-billion dollar, employee-owned engineering firm founded in 1915,  is beginning front end engineering (FEED) for the second proposed Kitimat liquified natural gas facility, BC LNG. Although no information appears on the Black & Veatch website, the newsletter quotes Tom Tatham, the managing director of  Douglas Channel Gas Services Ltd, the company which will contract with energy firms wanting to export through the BC LNG…

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Japan Quake Is Causing Costly Shift to Fossil Fuels: New York Times

LNG

Energy Link New York Times Japan Quake Is Causing Costly Shift to Fossil Fuels Japan, the world’s third-largest user of electricity behind China and the United States, had counted on an expansion of nuclear power to contain energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, its nuclear program is in retreat, as the public and government officials urge a sharp reduction in the nation’s reliance on nuclear power and perhaps an end to it altogether. As its nuclear program implodes, Japan is grappling with a jump…

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