2011 October Environment & Climate News

The October issue of Environment & Climate News reports on efforts by environmental activists and Obama administration officials to block construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would deliver oil from western Canada to refineries in Texas.

Also in this issue:

• A record number of nests of endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles has been counted along the Texas Gulf Coast this year, putting to rest fears that last year’s BP Gulf oil spill would further jeopardize the endangered turtles.

• An Obama administration advisory panel is championing hydraulic fracturing as a natural gas production method. The panel says natural gas production has “enormous potential to provide economic and environmental benefits for the country.”

• A California high-speed-rail proposal approved by voters in 2008 has strayed so far above original cost estimates and so far under ridership estimates that a key transportation analyst is calling it the greatest scam to hit the state – ever.

• Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) is urging elimination of “use it or lose it” state mandates regarding water-use rights. Brownback says the mandates are encouraging overutilization of water from the declining Ogallala Aquifer.

• Commissioners in Park County, Wyoming have decided not to recommend any new county lands be designated as wilderness areas to be managed by the federal government through the Bureau of Land Management.

• Already burdened by a 10.6 percent unemployment rate and a collapsed housing market, Florida’s shaky economy now faces a new challenge: The Sunshine State is squarely in the bull’s eye of the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory artillery.