Mining The Earth & Fracking The World: Keystone Showdown

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Kate Lanier’s collects global energy and climate news. This week, she has a special focus on the fight over the Keystone XL Pipeline in Congress including:

Keystone XL Pipeline, US Senate: Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) of the senate’s Energy and Natural resources Committee blasted the Senate’s Keystone XL pipeline bill. Sanders is concerned about the US Senate rejecting science and efficient renewable energy, while Warren concentrated on the pipeline benefitting the Canadian oil industry and not US families. Update: “Democrats plan tough votes for GOP on Keystone pipeline bill.”

Meanwhile, from Vatican City: Pope Francis has added his voice in opposition to mining, fracking, and disregard for the earth in general. He appears in a movie, La Guerra Del Fracking de Pino Solanas (The Fracking War), banned in Argentina (where the government calls fracking “non-conventional gas”), but now on YouTube.” Pope Francis also spoke to the urgency of focusing on youth, the future.

Alabama: Radioactive (tritium) leak at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant near Athens, after which TVA said “the leak was quickly contained and presented no public risk.” Not the only TVA radioactive leak, nor the only one at Browns Ferry.

Mining The Earth & Fracking The World: Who’s The Murderer?

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Kate Lanier collects global news of mining and fracking, as well as protest and alternative energy, including:

Burma (Myanmar): Police have killed one and wounded other protesters against the Letpadaungtaung mine run by Chinese operator Myanmar Wanbao Mining Copper Ltd. 500+ villagers in Aunden protested “construction of a 1,200-megawatt coal-fired power plant” earlier this month because of “extensive and irreversible environmental damage.”

Canada: The Yukon Supreme Court has ruled that “the pristine, fragile Peel Watershed [is now protected] from mining.” Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus and Na-Cho Nyak Dun First Nation Chief Ed Champion emphasize the importance of preserving such treasures. Another victory, as the federal government was cited for failure to consult with the Alberta First Nation Mikisew Cree, as required, on “changes that affect water and fisheries laws.”

Rhode Island: Class action suit filed by Rhode Island against Brazil’s “state-run oil company Petrobras over investor losses due to a corruption scandal.” Currently, some 39 people have been indicted for “corruption, money laundering and racketeering”—including some $3.9 billion in “‘atypical’ financial transactions.” RI’s suit names chief executives, by the way.

Mining The Earth: Taking Back Our Water

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Kate’s roundup of the top mining and environmental news from around the world including:

Ecuador: Jose Isidro Tendetza Antun of the indigenous Shuar Federation will not be attending the climate talks in Lima, Peru, this week. He was recently captured, tortured, and killed after leading resistance to the Chinese CCRC-Tonagguan Investment’s Mirador open-pit copper and gold mine. BTW, President Rafael Correa has assured multinational companies of “full state security from the police and the army” and is pursing oil drilling in the Amazon reserve.

Alaska: XS Platinum and five executives “have been criminally indicted under the federal Clean Water Act for allegedly dumping toxic waste into the Salmon River” from their Platinum Creek mine, falsifying records and reports, etc. Apparently, the toxic waste made its way into the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge where “chinook, chum, coho, pink and sockeye [salmon]” spa

Worldwide: 180 cities in 35 countries have taken back their water, preventing it from being contaminated by extractive industries.

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