Oiled duck from Mayflower Ark. oil spill. Photo by Lauren Ray.

On Monday, I spoke again with Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) for an update and they shared the following information with me. The main body of Lake Conway has NOT been impacted, only the adjacent cove/wetland. AGFC estimates approximately 15 acres has been impacted.

AGFC stated that Exxon acknowledged that they didn’t think there would be as much impact on wildlife and were thus not prepared to deal with the wildlife recovery until Tuesday April 2nd. A wildlife recovery center has been set up and the wildlife impact numbers are below (these are of course only the numbers of wildlife actually recovered – as we know from previous spills, most wildlife victims may never be found).  The public recovered numerous ducks the first few days and the HAWK Center took the majority of those.  Tuesday (2nd) they were all transported to the official recovery center to be treated.

Here’s a list of (this is not a comprehensive list but the total of 139 is current as of April 8th). 139 Total individual wildlife recovered

• 139 wildlife recovered
• 37 dead on arrival (23 birds, 5 turtles, 1 muskrat)
• 46 water moccasins euthanized on site due to safety concerns
• 2 raccoons
• 1 beaver
• 1 skunk
• 2 armadillos
• 22 total wildlife cleaned

The first release of recovered animals took place on Monday. Ten turtles and two raccoons were released at the nearby Bell Slough Wildlife Management Area.

How far down the size scale is the tar sands spill hitting? A Mayflower beekeeper had to move her hive after finding several dead bees covered in tar sands oil.

Previous coverage of the Exxon tar sands spill in Arkansas:

• Exxon Tar Sands Pipeline Ruptures in Arkansas, Forcing Evacuations and Threatening Wildlife
• As Arkansas Community Reels from Tar Sands Oil Spill, Wildlife Remain in Peril

Speak Up to Protect Wildlife from Tar Sands

It’s time for America to take a stand against tar sands oil –  the risks to our wildlife, communities and clean water are just too great. Please take a moment now to ask President Obama to say no to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

A homeowner’s photo of the Exxon Mobil Pegasus tar sands oil spilling through his front yard in Mayflower, Ark. (April 2013)

From that subdivision last Friday, the tar sands oil flowed down a storm drain, through a creek, and into a cove just before Lake Conway, a major sportfishing haven. Exxon Mobil crews are making a stand in that cove, hoping to keep the oil from flowing through a culvert under AR-89 and into Lake Conway. But that cove is also where tar sands oil-covered wildlife keep turning up — a fact Exxon Mobil can’t hide.

Community Hit Hard

Here in Mayflower, everyone’s happy to talk about how the spill has impacted them personally — but ask them to go on camera and they clam up. They know Exxon Mobil now has them over a barrel: the tar sands spill has left their homes somewhere on a scale between devalued and worthless, and an Exxon Mobil settlement is their best hope of getting that money back.

Joined by David Carruth, an Arkansas resident and member of the National Wildlife Federation’s board of directors, we walked into the local Hess gas station/bait shop to see if local sport fishermen had any insight into how local wildlife was faring. The man at the counter told us he lives on Starlite Drive, ground zero of the tar sands spill. He’s staying in a Holiday Inn Express in the next town over on Exxon Mobil’s tab while the cleanup continues.

Homeowner photo of a bird coated in tar sands oil after the Exxon Mobil Pegasus spill in Mayflower, Ark. (April 2013)

I mentioned that Exxon Mobil and other tar sands transporters haven’t been paying into the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, claiming the provisions only cover conventional oil, not tar sands oil. He shook his head sadly. “My father landed on Omaha Beach. Back then, folks had a sense of civic duty.”

Wetlands Coated in Tar Sands Oil

From there, we headed to the cove to get a closer look. A homeowner pulled out her phone and showed us photos she’s taken of oiled birds and a muskrat in her backyard. She said she called state officials to report the oiled wildlife but was told they didn’t have the resources to respond. She then called the HAWK Center, which rescued several ducks. Yesterday — four days after the spill — Exxon Mobil finally set up its own wildlife rehabilitation center with an oiled wildlife hotline (1-800-876-9291) and took over cleaning wildlife from HAWK.

Marsh coated in tar sands oil from Exxon Mobil Pegasus pipeline spill, Mayflower, Ark., April 2013 (NWF photo)

We pushed through the marsh around the edge of the cove, seeing a steady stream of oily spots and finding some tar balls. We then came upon a huge area of oiled marsh with cleanup crews working to remove as much tar sands oil as possible.

Two workers approached David and I thought for sure they’d tell us to scram. But it turned out they were wildlife rescuers asking if we’d seen any oiled wildlife. “I can’t believe how thick this stuff is,” one told David. “It’s like road tar — it’s nothing like motor oil.”

They estimated wildlife rescuers had found about 30 oiled ducks and other birds, a half-dozen oiled venomous snakes, and an oiled muskrat. They’d also spotted an oiled beaver out in the marsh, but said it was impossible to catch.

The sight of the heavily oiled marsh was a tragic reminder that cleaning 100% of this thick, sticky tar sands oil will likely be impossible; the impacts will be felt for months and possibly years to come.

The National Wildlife Federation will continue to monitor the impacts of the Arkansas tar sands oil spill. See more photos on Flickr and keep checking back to Wildlife Promise for updates.

Take Action

It’s time for America to take a stand against tar sands oil –  the risks to our wildlife, communities and clean water are just too great. Please take a moment now to ask President Obama to say no to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

Exxon crews try to control and clean-up tar sands oil in Arkansas

Last week, the Exxon pipeline burst near Mayflower, Ark., flooding wetlands and neighborhoods with toxic tar sands dilbit. The pipeline is more than 70 years old and Exxon was recently fined for failing to perform regular maintenance on the line. Very little is known about what’s actually happening, but recent aerial footage has given light to a much bigger problem for this community and Exxon.

Click here to view the embedded video.

NWF has been saying for years that the oil industry is not applying lessons learned from the Enbridge tar sands disaster and this Exxon spill proves that point unbelievably:

• Exxon had to be told that their tar sands pipeline broke as a river of tar sands oil flowed in and around homes and wetlands. Exxon is still working to stop the flow of oil from reaching nearby Lake Conway, which also happens to be the water resources for the nearby communities. Similarly, Enbridge had to be told about their million gallon spill – that tar sands spill went unreported for almost 17 hours and impacted nearly 40 miles of the Kalamazoo River! A State of Emergency was issued by the governor of Michigan to bring in resources to prevent the oil from hitting Lake Michigan.
• Exxon seems to be grossly underestimating the amount of tar sands spilled: they originally reported only 80,000 gallons spilled, but now that figure is closer to 400,000 gallons. Judging by the photos and videos, I would guess the figure will continue to rise. Enbridge also underestimated the original spill amounts, which is still under debate to this day. Enbridge also estimated the clean-up would take weeks, which has now turning into years. This is the same story Exxon is selling to the media and their failure to face the facts continues to cause major delays in the cleanup, which will only continue to impact the communities and wildlife negatively.
• Because of these low spill figures, Exxon has been allowed to get away with a pathetic response and responders are not showing signs of using spill equipment that accounts for the fact that this oil will sink in the wetlands and water impacted. It took Enbridge months to admit that the tar sands heavy crude sank in the river and wetlands, and by that time all the damage had been done. Because response to tar sands spills is much harder and much more expansive, I am guessing that Exxon will continue to try and hide the facts. Enbridge and the EPA are still trying to figure out how to clean-up tar sands oil submerged in the Kalamazoo River.
• Wildlife response is incredibly lacking and continues to be limited by Exxon — due to their potential liability. One group that has stood up in the face of this disaster is Helping Arkansas Wildlife Kritters. We want to thank them for their leadership in response. However, it appears that an Exxon contractor will soon take over all wildlife response efforts. We hope that federal agencies will also step in to ensure that response is being handled properly. It took Enbridge nearly two weeks to have their wildlife center in full gear. In those two weeks, local rescues along the Kalamazoo River tried to take matters into their own hands, but were quickly shut down because Enbridge considered their wildlife response a liability. My heart breaks for the wildlife and people that continue to be impacted.
  

  Tar sands heavy crude, from an Exxon pipeline, overtakes an Arkansas creek

• Transparency is nowhere to be found – leaving impacted residents confused and angry. Exxon has evacuated between 20-40 families and I have a feeling the evacuation zone could increase. It is critical to get people and wildlife out of the impacted area as quickly as possible because the benzene (part of the diluents used to transport tar sands through pipelines) is at unsafe concentrations in the days immediately following a release. Benzene is considered a carcinogen. Enbridge had major delays, but ended up evacuating homes within a few hundred feet of the Kalamazoo River because exposure to the chemicals was a major concern. Because of confusion and delays in those evacuations, over 300 people reported having health issues related to exposure to the tar sands crude. Ultimately, Enbridge ended up buying around 150 homes from families living along the Kalamazoo River because contamination was so widespread.

For almost 3 years now, many people (including myself) have been fighting to try and get the oil industry, our regulators and lawmakers to pay attention to the lessons learned from the Enbridge Kalamazoo River disaster – so it never happens again. The Exxon spill proves (again) that the focus for oil companies and pipeline operators is only on profits and not on the safety of our communities, wildlife and resources. Enbridge has also argued that the Kalamazoo River disaster was a rare situation. With not even three years between this spill and the Enbridge spill, I think we can safely say this is a precursor for what’s to come if we continue to allow the tar sands industry to expand.

It is inexcusable that our regulators let Exxon operate this incredibly old pipeline to transport tar sands crude. It is inexcusable that our regulators and decision makers are allowing any tar sands pipeline projects to move forward without proper spill response plans. And it is inexcusable for our lawmakers not to demand safety over oil profits.

What will it take for us to change? Last week, the National Wildlife Federation, through the filing of a rulemaking petition, lead a coalition of concerned citizens and organizations by called for a moratorium on tar sands pipelines projects and expansions until the EPA and PHMSA create tar sands pipeline regulations that account for these issues – and many more. Please help support this effort by contacting those agencies and speaking up for wildlife and those impacted by this latest disaster.

Exxon Mobil pipeline oil spill, Mayflower, AR, March 2013 (AJ Zolten)

It’s unclear exactly how much oil spilled, but as we saw in the early days of BP’s Gulf oil disaster, the number is growing exponentially each day. “Exxon Mobil officials said the total amount of water and oil pumped out of a Mayflower subdivision nearly tripled Sunday, reaching 12,000 barrels, or 504,000 gallons, compared with estimates on Saturday that crews had pumped 4,500 barrels,” reports the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette this morning.

The spill comes just days after a National Wildlife Federation-led coalition called on federal agencies to develop stronger safety standards for pipelines carrying heavy, corrosive tar sands oil. “It’s clear we need tough new standards to protect wildlife, our natural resources and public health,” said Jim Murphy, NWF’s senior counsel. “Until the right standards are put into place, we shouldn’t be exposing more communities and resources to tar sands risks.”

Watch this clip taken by a man who lives in the Mayflower, Ark. neighborhood where the pipeline ruptured:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Those storm drains head towards Lake Conway, a huge manmade reservoir stocked with bass, catfish, bream and crappie. Local authorities built several earthen dams to try to keep the tar sands oil out of Lake Conway, but if the water is fouled, it won’t just threaten the fish, it will threaten the area’s recreation economy.

As Reuters reports, the Arkansas spill comes at a critical juncture of America’s debate over whether to accept the risks inherent in transporting Canadian tar sands:

The 848-mile pipeline used to transport crude oil from Texas to Illinois. In 2006 Exxon reversed it to move crude from Illinois to Texas in response to growing Canadian oil production and the ability of U.S. Gulf Coast refineries to process heavy crude.

The Arkansas spill drew fast reaction from opponents of the 800,000 [barrel per day] Keystone XL pipeline, which also would carry heavy crude from Canada’s tar sands to the Gulf Coast refining hub.

Environmentalists have expressed concerns about the impact of developing the oil sands and say the crude is more corrosive to pipelines than conventional oil. On Wednesday, a train carrying Canadian crude derailed in Minnesota, spilling 15,000 gallons of oil.

“Whether it’s the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, or … (the) mess in Arkansas, Americans are realizing that transporting large amounts of this corrosive and polluting fuel is a bad deal for American taxpayers and for our environment,” said Representative Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat.

It’s not just Keystone XL – there’s also the Enbridge pipeline in Michigan that spilled into the Kalamazoo River in 2010 as well as the proposal to reverse New England’s Trailbreaker pipeline to carry tar sands from Canada to Maine. As NWF reported in 2010, oil disaster’s aren’t rare – they’re tragically common.

The National Wildlife Federation is working with staff, partners and our state affiliate, the Arkansas Wildlife Federation to monitor the impacts of the Arkansas oil spill. Keep checking back to this post and to Wildlife Promise for updates.

Take Action

The risks to our wildlife, communities and clean water are just too great — tell President Obama he should say no to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

UPDATE: The Helping Arkansas Wild Kritters (HAWK) Center is posting pictures of oiled birds to their Facebook page.

Lauren Ray, a University of the Ozarks student, sent NWF this photo of one of the ducks that was treated at the HAWK Center. According to Lauren, “This duck had already been washed multiple times, yet the oil was still very apparent.”

Oiled duck from Mayflower Ark. oil spill. Photo by Lauren Ray.

Did you know, for example, that since 1998, Exxon Mobil has spent $176,362,742 lobbying Congress, spending almost $7 million in 2012 alone? And did you know that for every dollar the fossil fuel industry invests in Congress, they get at least $320 back in subsidies? Did you know that Exxon Mobil has spent over $22,000,000 since 1998 to fund corporations and think tanks that work to deny global warming?

Live map of campuses working on divestment projects. Click the map to visit the Responsible Endowments Coalition website.

Institutions of higher education often have mission statements, generally encompassing themes like offering a high-quality education, ensuring a safe learning environment, advancing society and improving the human condition. More recent additions to many university mission statements are mentions of sustainability–a broad term that, for most, brings to mind resource conservation, clean energy projects and a green and sparkling future.

Well that sounds nice. It also sounds like there’s a disconnect between the way things are today and the socially and environmentally just world that universities are striving to create. Colleges and universities aren’t quite putting their money where their mouths are. But that is about to change.

There is a strong and growing collection of students issuing a challenge to institutions nationwide to stop investing in corporations that aren’t looking out for our health, or the health of our planet.

Divestment is a complicated issue, and there is no one-size-fits-all method to magically end campus funding of corporate polluters. Luckily, there are plenty of resources out there to help you and your team choose the most effective strategy for your campus.

The Responsible Endowments Coalition has tons of great resources for students who want to get involved with influencing their campuses’ endowment policies, including a Student Handbook, a collection of articles and blogs about divestment, and several firsthand accounts for best practices. They also offer educational and networking opportunities, like the upcoming conference on responsible investing and sustainability and other ways for students and administrators to connect and build the movement. The Energy Action Coalition has a coal divestment campaign to work with students who want to get their campuses to divest from the biggest and worst coal companies. The Sustainable Endowments Institute just launched the Billion Dollar Challenge to encourage campuses to use their endowments to invest in energy efficiency and clean energy projects for their campus.

So gather some friends and some faculty and see what kind of change you can make!

And now a word from Bill McKibben:

Image Credit reinvestearlham.wordpress.com

Campus Divestment projects in the news:

• Brown Divest Coal
• Tufts Responsible Endowments Collective
• University of Illinois Beyond Coal campaign

Imperial and Suncor are among the largest developers of Canadian tar sands oil. This convoluted corporate maze of oil behemoths is in bed with Enbridge, the company behind the Kalamazoo River oil spill, the most costly onshore spill in U.S. history. Now, it apparently wants to pump tar sands oil from Alberta through Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine to the port of Portland for overseas markets. Tar sands oil is a heavy, corrosive, diluted bitumen and is known as one of the dirtiest, most-polluting, hardest-to-clean-up fuels on the planet. The tar sands business is booming in Canada and the corporate hawks are positioning to pounce on the profits they see in this dirty product by using New England communities as conduits to export markets.

It’s no wonder ExxonMobil doesn’t want to come clean. The company’s not clean. It was ExxonMobil that caused the infamous 1989 Valdez spill, a disaster that spewed 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska’s pristine waters. In July 2011, the company’s Silvertip Pipeline dumped 42,000 gallons of oil into Montana’s Yellowstone River.

840,000 of tar sands crude spilled into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River last year

Photo by Mila Zinkova via Wikimedia Commons.

It’s happening again – Big Oil is using deceptive tactics to confuse the public about climate science. And this time, the attack threatens polar bears. We need your help to see through their smokescreen and to stand up for the truth.

Let’s go step by step to understand the attack, why it’s happening, and how we can fight back together.

The Strategy

A federal agency is looking into compliance with procurement process regulations, so global warming must not be happening and we can stop protecting polar bears. No, really – that’s what climate science-denying polluter front groups are claiming.

It’s become a familiar pattern, most recently repeated in the illegally hacked climate scientist email story:

• Take a complicated story most people don’t fully understand yet and make wild, completely unsubstantiated claims about what it means.
• Target individual scientists with personal attacks, leaving other advocates of scientific truth fearful of speaking out and being the next victim.
• Urge journalists to report to the controversy, leaving the public confused.

By the time the truth comes out, it’s too late – just enough doubt has been sowed to keep the profits rolling in.

The Attack

In the latest version, polluter groups are attacking the work of Dr. Charles Monnett, a wildlife biologist whose heartbreaking observations (pdf) documented polar bears’ vulnerability to the global warming-fueled retreat of summer Arctic sea ice.

His research was apparently the first documentation of polar bears drowning at sea on long swims. The study is part of a mountain of evidence that led to polar bears being listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (though the National Wildlife Federation argues they should be considered endangered).

“When it comes to science demonstrating the threat to polar bears posed by global warming, this study is only the tip of the iceberg,” says Dr. Doug Inkley, senior scientist with the National Wildlife Federation. “The latest major study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey further documents that on long swims to receding Arctic sea ice, some bear cubs are disappearing, and their mothers burn much-needed calories. So far, 2011 is no exception – the Arctic’s summer sea ice is at record-low levels.”

Big Oil’s strategy reveals much more about its own shameful lack of integrity as it does about Dr. Monnett’s work. That’s because the federal agency itself says its probe has “nothing to do with scientific integrity,” instead focusing on contract questions:

Some new details have emerged in the mysterious case of Charles Monnett, the government wildlife biologist under investigation by the Department of Interior’s Inspector General. When Monnett, who works for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE) in Alaska, was placed on adminstrative leave last month pending an investigation into unspecified “integrity issues,” there was speculation that the probe was linked to the biologist’s 2006 paper on polar bear deaths in the Arctic. But a spokeswoman for BOEMRE insisted last week that the investigation has “nothing to do with scientific integrity, his 2006 journal article, or issues related to permitting, as has been alleged.”

On Tuesday, Monnett’s legal representatives at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) released a memorandum that the IG’s office issued to the biologist last Friday indicating that its investigation centers on the procurement process for a research project on “Populations and Sources of Recruitment in Polar Bears.” The University of Alberta in Canada is the lead organization on the ongoing study, but BOEMRE provided a substantial portion of the funding. The agency ordered to the university to “cease and desist” all work on the study five days before Monnett was suspended in mid-July. [NWF Update: Suspension has since been lifted.]

The IG’s memo to Monnett requests an August 9 meeting to discuss “compliance with Federal Acquisition Regulations, disclosure of personal relationships, and preparation of the scope of work.”

Here’s just one example of how Big Oil’s allies have been executing their smokescreen strategy. The New York Post (owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation) ran an op-ed on Tuesday claiming BOEMRE’s probe–again, BOEMRE itself now says it has nothing to do with the polar bear study– saying that while “the specifics of the investigation are as yet unclear,” we can safely leap to the conclusion that climate science itself is in question. Sound familiar?

The article was written by Matt Patterson of a polluter front group called “Capital Research Center.” The CRC has received $265,000 from Exxon Mobil since 1998 according to ExxonSecrets.org, along with millions more from organizations built with polluter profits like the Sciafe Foundations. Like many polluter front groups, the CRC had extensive ties to the tobacco industry before moving on to climate science denial.

What, you expected Exxon Mobil to attack climate and polar bear science directly? That’s not how it works. Polluters pay front groups to do it for them, so instead of coming from a big, bad oil company, the attacks appear to be coming from a dispassionate third party.

The Motive

Why is attacking the science connecting polar bears and global warming so critical for these polluter front groups? Oil companies have been pushing relentlessly to drill in the Arctic, not only in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge but in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas – which the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has designated under the Endangered Species Act as critical polar bear habitat. Given the rock-solid scientific evidence, Big Oil knows it can’t win a fair debate, so it needs to resort to smokescreens and personal attacks to have any shot at drilling.

“The BP Gulf oil disaster reminds us that offshore drilling in environmentally sensitive areas, such as critical habitat for polar bears and other Arctic species, is simply not worth the risk,” says Dr. Doug Inkley.

via Norbert Rossing

Fight Back for Polar Bears

Legislation in Congress right now would gut the Endangered Species Act, and cripple the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to protect wildlife, clean air and water. Please take a moment to ask your members of Congress to stop this attack threatening polar bears.

Once you do, please pass this post along to your friends using the share, tweet and like buttons at the bottom of this post, or just email the link to your friends. The more people know about Big Oil’s deceptive tactics, the stronger our case will be for protecting polar bears.

Bald Eagle (NWF File Photo/John C Moerk)

As the Yellowstone River oil spill cleanup continues in Montana, we’re learning more about its impacts on wildlife. An estimated 42,000 gallons of  crude oil spilled from an Exxon Mobil pipeline under the river on July 1.

Now the Environmental Protection Agency is reporting one of the latest victims is a bald eagle:

Cleanup crews over the weekend found an oiled bald eagle and pockets of black crude trapped by debris piles along the Yellowstone River.

Biologists believe the bald eagle won’t survive the winter unless it’s cleaned, said Karen Nelson with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Crews are working now to trap the bird so it can be treated.

Workers also have found four geese and a cooper’s hawk covered in oil. They’ve trapped one goose and are working to capture the others, Nelson said.

The number of dead wildlife also increased over the weekend. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported finding dead two great horned owls, a wood duck, two ducklings, two fish, a fox, a beaver and a bunting.

Of those animals, one of the owls, the wood duck, the ducklings and the fish were covered in oil. All the animals will be tested to discover the cause of death.

Meanwhile, the Billings Gazette reports fish downstream from the spill are showing signs of stress and even illness:

Flesh samples from the fish will be tested in state labs. But visibly, gills on some of the captured fish aren’t the bright pink they’re supposed to be, and some of the fish have lesions.

Frazer said it’s common for river fish to show certain levels of stress throughout the year because of parasites and other conditions fish naturally carry.

However, in the samples that have been collected, the fish captured above the spill site show far fewer signs of stress than those below, leading Frazer to believe that the spill has had an effect.

Only 20 Critters Harmed in Oil Spill? Misleading, Says NWF Scientist

And as National Wildlife Federation Senior Scientist Dr. Doug Inkley tells Public News Service, the impacts we see may only be the tip of the iceberg:

“We need to observe not only the fish, but the entire food chain. The fish depend on all these little invertebrates – little mayflies, nymphs and things of this type – and those are very susceptible.”

A U.S. Senate subcommittee held a hearing on the Yellowstone spill on Wednesday. Inkley testified earlier before a similar subcommittee hearing in the House, calling for stronger federal safety regulations. He says that’s critically important as the Keystone XL pipeline is considered, which would also cross the Yellowstone, as well as the Missouri River and hundreds of other waterways.

Oil Spills: Tragically Common

While the oil and gas industry likes to paint spills like this as an aberration, the National Wildlife Federation has documented that oil and gas disasters are tragically common. Now the oil industry wants to build a new pipeline cutting right through America’s heartland. The Keystone XL pipeline wouldn’t carry just any oil – it would carry tar sands, one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet.

But we still have a chance to protect the people and wildlife along the proposed pipeline route. Please take a moment right now to ask President Obama to say no to tar sands.

1. Highlight of the Week: House Spending Bill Attacks Endangered Species, Clean Water and Clean Air
2. Quote: Jeremy Symons, senior VP, Conservation & Education, NWF
3. Economic Story of the Week: Light it Up
4. Editorial of the Week: Climate Change and Disaster in Montana
5. Yellowstone River Oil Spill Doesn’t Bode Well for Keystone XL
6. Study: Mountaintop Removal Neighbors Risk Birth Defects
7. BLM Exempts Acres from New Mining Claims, Promotes Solar
8. Happening this Week

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Highlight of the Week

House Spending Bill Attacks Endangered Species, Clean Water and Clean Air

via Norbert Rossing

Leaders of the House Appropriations Committee are working to pass the fiscal year 2012 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill. According to NWF’s Adam Kolton, the bill is “riddled with special interest policy riders, pet provisions and unprecedented cuts to virtually every program that protects the air we breathe, the water we drink and the public lands and wildlife that we cherish.”

Some especially concerning provisions would block the Environmental Protection Agency from curbing dangerous carbon pollution, similar to the attacks we saw in the continuing resolution legislation. Other harmful provisions would endanger the survival of countless species of wildlife, fish and plants by eliminating investments to list endangered species, block regulations of mountaintop-removal coal mining, and endanger public health by allowing coal ash to pollute groundwater.

To learn more about how appropriators are sacrificing public lands, wildlife conservation, and our health in favor of subsidizing Big Oil, click here.

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Quote:

Jeremy Symons

“Clearly, the legislation to rush the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline should be postponed until we know the cause of the Yellowstone River oil spill and deal with pipeline safety issues. Instead, we’re seeing Congress rush to build America’s next great oil disaster.”

-Jeremy Symons, senior VP, Conservation & Education, National Wildlife Federation.

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Economic Story of the Week

Light it Up

via p. Gordon/Flickr

The House is slated to vote on H.R. 2417 this week, a measure to repeal efficiency standards for light bulbs that were enacted in 2007 with strong bipartisan support. The standards require new bulbs to use 25 to 30 percent less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs and are likely to encourage more energy-efficient technology.

Contrary to criticisms, the standard is not a ban on incandescent light bulbs (and would not affect consumer freedom), but rather one of many energy efficiency measures that are the cheapest and quickest ways to reduce carbon pollution. The light bulb efficiency standards will reduce pollution that harms our public health and prevent more 100 million tons of carbon pollution per year.

The lighting industry has already made significant investments to develop and produce more efficient bulbs and repealing this standard would create uncertainty and threaten jobs. The New York Times called the measure “daft and destructive” and “utterly without merit.”

Stephen Chu, secretary of Energy, has said that consumer choice will be maintained and households will see savings in their electric bills.

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Editorial of the Week

Climate Change and Disaster in Montana

(Los Angeles Times)

Everyone agrees that the two disasters — the flooding of the Yellowstone River and the oil spill in the riverbed — are connected. According to Exxon officials, the high and fast-moving river has four times its usual flow this year, which has hampered cleanup and prevented their workers from reaching the exact source of the spill….Government and company officials have also speculated that the flooding may even have caused the spill in the first place….

But here is the really uncomfortable question: Did the pipeline cause the flooding? Not this one particular pipeline, of course, but all the pipelines, and all the coal trains, and all the refineries and the power plants they supply? Was the flooding that has made the oil spill so much worse caused by the burning of oil and other fossil fuels? (More…)

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Yellowstone River Oil Spill Doesn’t Bode Well for Keystone XL

via NWF

Last week hundreds of barrels of crude oil spilled into Montana’s Yellowstone River after an Exxon Mobil pipeline beneath the riverbed ruptured. Officials are still scrambling to protect the health and safety of local communities and wildlife.

While Exxon Mobil had claimed the rupture of its Silvertip oil pipeline had only released oil for 30 minutes, federal documents now show it took 56 minutes to completely close the pipeline. And although Exxon Mobil originally estimated the oil would travel just 10 miles downstream, pools of oil have now been reported 80 miles down the Yellowstone River.

Including the Gulf oil disaster and Michigan’s Kalamazoo River oil spill, the Yellowstone River spill becomes America’s third major oil disaster in just the last 15 months. Now the oil industry wants to build a new pipeline cutting right through America’s heartland. The Keystone XL pipeline wouldn’t carry just any oil – it would carry tar sands, one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet.

Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE) has introduced legislation (H.R. 1938) to force regulators to rush their decision on the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. The bill has already cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee and could reach the House floor as soon as this week.

But according to a recent report, the potential frequency and magnitude of oil spills from the tar sands oil project, as well as the consequences of worst-case spills into the Yellowstone, Missouri and Platte Rivers and atop the Ogallala Aquifer, are far worse than the Canadians are letting on. Analysis of the report indicates that, “A worst-case scenario spill from the proposed Keystone XL pipeline into the Platte River in Nebraska would form a plume of oil that could extend more than 450 miles, contaminating drinking water for people as far away as Kansas City, MO and threatening wildlife habitat.”

You can take action and tell the Obama Administration to reject Keystone XL.

More on this story: NY Times, Omaha World-Herald, Lincoln Star Journal, Huffington Post

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Study: Mountaintop Removal Neighbors Risk Birth Defects

Mountaintop Removal in Kentucky, iLoveMountains.org

Folks living near mountaintop removal mining operations may be at greater risk for birth defects according to a new study by West Virginia University (WVU) researchers. Co-author Michael Hendryx said, “Research related to infants has found that mothers residing in coal mining areas are more likely to have a low birth weight infant. This study extends that research, showing that mountaintop mining areas are associated with elevated levels of birth defect prevalence rates.”

Mountaintop removal mining is a destructive technique for extracting coal that destroys mountains, forests, wildlife, water and the way of life for people who live near the operation. As the WVU study reveals, the process can also have a terrible impact on babies, the next generation of West Virginians who will see the Mountain State with fewer mountains, greater pollution and potentially more health problems.

H.R. 2018, the Dirty Waters Bill, could make mountaintop removal mining even dirtier by gutting the Clean Water Act. Click here to tell lawmakers to protect our future, our health and our precious natural resources from pollution.

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BLM Exempts Acres from New Mining Claims, Promotes Solar

Desert Solar Panels, via Winam/Flickr

The Bureau of Land Management announced it is setting aside 677,000 acres of lands in the Southwest from future mining claims to promote renewable solar power development.

The temporary two-year segmentation is working to prevent new speculative mining claims from derailing proposed solar farm applications in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

According to BLM spokeswoman Megan Crandall they are “trying to facilitate renewable energy generation.” BLM said it is identifying which lands are most suitable for commercial-scale solar development and have limited conflicts with wildlife or other resources and land uses.

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Happening this Week

Tuesday, July 12

Markup of EPA and Interior appropriations bill, Appropriations Committee, 9AM, 2359 Rayburn
Hearing on renewable energy legislation, Energy and Natural Resources, 10 AM, 366 Dirksen
Markup of TRAIN Act and coal ash bill, Pt. 2, House Energy and Commerce, 10AM, 2123 Rayburn

Wednesday, July 13

Markup of bills to accelerate development of renewable energy, oil and gas and minerals, Natural Resources, 10AM, 1324 Longworth

Thursday, July 14

Hearing on regulations and job creation, Energy and Commerce, 9 AM, 2322 Rayburn
Markup of energy bills, Energy and Natural Resources, 10 AM, 366 Dirksen
Hearing on pipeline safety, Transportation and Infrastructure, 10 AM, 2167 Rayburn
Hearing on Appalachian mining permits, Oversight Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, 1:30 PM, 2154 Rayburn

Friday, July 15

Hearing on the American Energy Initiative, Energy and Commerce, 9:30 AM, 2322 Rayburn

Coming Soon…
Wednesday, July 19

Farm Bill Energy Title: Rural Energy for America Program, Environmental and Energy Study Institute, 10-11:30 AM & 2 – 3:30 PM, 188 Russell Senate Office Building

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For more global warming news on Wildlife Promise click here.

A pipeline spill could ravage the heartland's agriculture sector and economy while pummeling important wildlife habitat.

Pipelines have been spilling regularly across the U.S., but those spills could be small peanuts compared to a true disaster that might occur from building the proposed and highly controversial tar sludge pipeline known as Keystone XL.

A report released today and spearheaded by a Nebraska academic says the potential frequency and magnitude of oil spills from the tar sands oil project, as well as the consequences of worst-case spills into the Yellowstone, Missouri and Platte Rivers and atop the Ogallala Aquifer, are far worse than the Canadians are letting on to U.S. regulators tasked with approving the dubious project.

According to a news story from the Lincoln Journal Star:

A worst-case scenario spill from the proposed Keystone XL pipeline into the Platte River in Nebraska would  form a plume of oil that could extend more than 450 miles, contaminating drinking water for people as far away as Kansas City, MO and threatening wildlife habitat, according to an independent analysis of the project released Monday.

The study by John Stansbury, a professor of water resources engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, also said a worst-case spill in the Sand Hills region of Nebraska could pollute 4.9 billion gallons of groundwater with a plume of contaminants 40 feet thick, 500 feet wide and 15 miles long.

“This plume, and other contaminant plumes from the spill, would pose serious health risks to people using that groundwater for drinking water and irrigation,” Stansbury said in the report.

In comparison to the nasty 42,000 gallon spill by Exxon last week into Montana’s Yellowstone River, a major spill from the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline into the Platte River in Nebraska could leak 5.9 million gallons of toxic, corrosive tar sands oil and spread pollutants such as carcinogenic benzene in excess of federal health standards hundreds of miles downstream, contaminating drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people as far south as Kansas City, MO.

A scene from the recent and deadly Enbridge pipeline disaster. It would be relatively small peanuts compared to a worst-case Keystone XL spill.

Can we trust the oil giants and regulators to do the right thing?  Not really, says the author.

He led an independent analysis of worst-case spill scenarios for four locations along the proposed Keystone XL pipeline route through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. He found that the pipeline’s operator, TransCanada Corp., made significant flawed and inappropriate assumptions about the frequency and severity of expected spills from its pipelines.

Although the federal Clean Water Act requires pipeline builders to analyze and make public worst-case spill scenarios and resulting environmental impacts for their projects before beginning operation, TransCanada has yet to adequately do so for the Keystone XL, and the pipeline could be approved before regulators see the conclusions.

We’re not kidding when we say Keystone XL is the next great oil disaster in waiting, on par with BP’s Gulf spill last year.  But this is a tragedy we can stop. You can help.  TAKE ACTION and tell the Obama Administration to reject Keystone XL.