Fracking bill passes NC Senate and House

The fracking bill, SB-820, has now passed the NC Senate and then the NC House. It still must be sent back to the Senate for that chamber’s concurrence with the House changes, which is expected. The bill will then be sent to the governor for her approval or possible veto.

Fracking bill passes NC Senate

A bill to legalize hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, in NC passed the NC Senate on June 5 and moved to the House. Fracking is a process of extracting natural gas from shale by injection of water and chemicals into the shale in order to break the shale and release trapped gas. It has been linked to contamination of ground water, problems with the disposal of contaminated water that returns to the surface, and other environmental problems.

Land for Tomorrow Lobby Day

Today, people from many organizations concerned about land preservation, for clean water protection, farmland preservation, recreation, and other purposes, came together to lobby the NC General Assembly for preservation and improvement of the four NC trust funds that are used to protect land in North Carolina.

The trust funds are (information copied from www.landfortomorrow.org):

NC League of Conservation Voters announces the 2012 Green Tie Award

The North Carolina League of Conservation Voters has announced the 2012 Green Tie Award winners. The awards will be presented at the Green Tie Awards Dinner on June 20th from 6-9 p.m. at the Downtown Sheraton. These awards are given annually to members of the NC General Assembly for their work on behalf of the environment. More information about the awards can be found at http://nclcv.org/what/honoring/green_tie_2012/

Raleigh lifts watering restrictions

The Raleigh City Council has lifted restrictions that require alternate day watering. In Raleigh you can now water any time you want. If the city council felt that the restriction were unneeded because the same amount of water would be used without them, it would be more understandable. However, it is now revealed that the reason for lifting restrictions was to increase the usage of water.

NC League of Conservation Voters endorses pro-conservation legislators in primary

NC League of Conservation Voters’ (NCLCV) Conservation PAC (CPAC) announced its endorsement of 10 pro-conservation legislators facing opposition in the May 8 primary voting. These legislators have made protecting North Carolina’s natural heritage a high priority even in the face of strong opposition.

Is Natural Gas Better Than Coal for Climate Change?

Many of us have thought that natural gas could serve as a bridge between coal and "clean" energy (solar and wind) because combustion of natural gas produces far less CO2 than combustion of coal. Therefore, from a climate change perspective, natural gas was better than coal.

Environmental Groups Praise EPA’s First-Ever Clean Air Protections for Fracking

The following is a press release from the Sierra Club:

Agency Takes Important First Step to Protect Air Quality and Public Health

Washington, D.C.—Today environmental groups praised the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) vital updates to nationwide air quality protections to include oil and natural gas production.  This is the first federal safeguard aimed at curbing air pollution from hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking.’

Making buses better

ConserveNC and the environmental community supports mass transit (buses and rail) because it can reduce the amount of travel by car, reducing fuel consumption and production of pollutants and CO2. 

Two New Features - Events and News

Two new pages are being added to ConserveNC: Events and News. These will be pages, listed near the top of the right hand column.

Solar Hot Water - Industrial Scale

Most articles (here and elsewhere) about solar energy is about the production of electricity from solar cells, typically photovoltaic cells.

Another use way of using sunlight is heating water directly, a process generally referred to as “solar thermal”. Solar water heaters have been available in smaller sizes for residential water heating, but the use of industrial scale solar thermal plants is more unusual, at least not as well reported.

Fracking comments

Here are comments that I submitted to DENR on the shale gas (fracking) issue.

Links to the report, including the full report and the executive summary, can be found at:
http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/guest/denr-study

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