Thomko Petro Chemical Blog

Nigeria and Big Oil are engaged in a power struggle over profits.

The country is withholding nearly $1 billion from Shell, in a bid to re-negotiate existing profit-sharing agreements.

Shell states that 95% of profits from its joint venture go to the Nigerian federal government - but Nigeria believes that it has been shortchanged by the oil majors.

Shell also claims that the government is failing to come up with cash to deal with gas flaring from oil facilities.

Anger in local communities at the pollution caused by the gas flaring - along with the inability of local and national governments, as well as oil firms, to provide basic infrastructure in the Delta has prompted protesting youths to regularly invade and occupy vital facilities.

The latest invasion took place on Friday and disrupted production, which is running at well below capacity.

Source: Guardian UK - Shell's future in Nigeria in doubt

Addressing ongoing food riots around the world — in places as disparate as Haiti, Egypt, Indonesia, and Pakistan — has shot to the top of the World Bank's crisis agenda.

International leaders met last weekend to discuss spiking commodity prices — up 40% in 2008 — and to ring the alarm for international aid. Heeding the call, President Bush released $200 million in food aid on Tuesday.

The grave situation, felt most acutely in the developing world, has been fueled by several factors. The world population continues to grow while arable land mass decreases; more land is being cultivated for biofuels, not crops; and a changing climate has disrupted traditional growing patterns. (CN)

Read Fuel Choices, Food Crises and Finger-Pointing
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/business/worldbusiness/15food.html?ref=world

Well it seems we only have ourselves to blame . . . Charles

Water shortages in the western U.S. are not likely to wane any time soon, according to new research that finds human activities are responsible for recent droughts.

60% of the changes in river flow, snowpack, and winter temperatures from 1950 to 1999 were caused by human activities, such as driving, that produce greenhouse gases.

Read full article at Environmental Science & Technology

As well are all aware, billions of plastic bags are choking our planet, littering the landscape, and put toxic chemicals in our rivers, lakes, beaches and the ocean.

The plastic bags we use, and throw away every day do not biodegrade, they photodegrade, which simply means the plastic breaks down into small toxic bits which contaminate the ground and waterways.

These toxic plastic bits also enter the food chain when animals ingest these particles.

Sea turtles, whales and other marine life die from ingesting plastic bags and debris mistaken for food.

While these bags are assumed to be "free", these plastics bags have, and will continue to bring an untold cost to our global environment.   

Plastic bags are a by product of the oil industry, and it takes vast amounts of oil to produce the billions of bags that are used by consumers every day. So it's easy to understand that the cost of oil is also driven by our constant use of plastic bags and products.

Visit this great site for more info, and how you, and all of us can get more involved -
Eco-friendly reusable bags, plus facts & news on plastic bag issue
http://www.reusablebags.com/

A coalition of Alaska natives and conservation groups filed a lawsuit in federal court Thursday challenging oil drilling in the Chukchi Sea, which lies above the Arctic Circle between Alaska and Russia.

Thirty million acres of polar bear, walrus, and whale habitat in the Chukchi Sea are scheduled to be opened to oil and gas companies on February 6, when the U.S. Interior Department's Minerals Management Service (MMS), plans to hold bidding for drilling leases.

Read complete article at ENS

Stopped by ENN this morning, and one of their news posts is about GreenBiz.com, which has just launched its "State of Green Business 2008" report - Charles

In it, you will find a wealth of information on green business trends with a cross-sectoral approach. Over the next week, ENN is posting a synopsis of some of those trends.

To start off, here's a list of the "Top Green Business Stories of 2007."

1. Corporate Climate Commitments - Major companies are making public commitments about their strategies to address climate change in record numbers.

2. Automotive Industry Finally Gets It - Major carmakers are bringing us more fuel-efficient and hybrid vehicles, with plans to launch plug-in hybrids soon.

3. Planes, Trains, Trucks, and Ships are Going Green Too - Other players in the transportation sector are also implementing eco-efficient tech to reduce their environmental impact.

4. Green Marketing/Greenwashing - Just as companies are increasingly catering to the "green consumer," mainstream consumers are increasingly skeptical of such claims.

5. Toxic Product Reduction - Manufacturers and retailers faced a public backlash this year concerning toxic materials in their products. As such, they are making amends to reduce or eliminate them in future production.

6. E-waste - The computing industry got serious this year about energy use and disposal problems associated with technology.

7. Big Companies Get Real about Sustainability - More Fortune 500 businesses announced plans to incorporate company-wide initiatives to engender smarter resource use.

8. Green Buildings Skyrocket - Green buildings become the norm in major urban centers across the nation.

9. Banks Pull Out of "Dirty Investments" - Shareholder activism pressure large banks to invest in clean energy production instead.

10. "Zero" is Where It's At - "Zero-waste," "zero-carbon," and "zero-emissions," are the rallying cries from the new initiatives emerging from the corporate sector.

Source: ENN
http://www.enn.com/business/article/30576

U.S. Corn Subsidies Promote Amazon Deforestation - Corn... Fuel... Fire!

Amazon deforestation and fires are being aggravated by US farm subsidies.

A recent spike in Amazonian fires is being promoted by massive US subsidies that promote American corn production for ethanol. The ethanol is being blended with gasoline as an automobile fuel.

The US is the world's leading producer of soy, but many American soy farmers are shifting to corn to qualify for the government subsidies. Since 2006, US corn production rose 19% while soy farming fell by 15%.

American taxpayers are spending $11 billion a year to subsidize corn producers, which is having global consequences.

Rising soy and beef products in Brazil are contributing to forest destruction. Some forests are cleared for soy farms. Farmers also buy and convert many cattle ranches into soy farms, effectively pushing the ranchers further into the Amazonian frontier.

Read article at ENN - Corn... Fuel... Fire!

What do San Francisco Bay and the Black Sea have in common these days?

Black waters fouled by crumbling ships, possibly bad seamanship, single-hulled tankers, and what always seems to be chronically inadequate first responders.

The San Jose Mercury News reports that the spill in San Francisco Bay has wafted north to foul the oyster beds in Point Reyes National Seashore, shutting down the Drakes Bay Oyster Company, which produces more than 80% of Marin County's oyster crop.

The ship's crew has been ordered to appear before grand jury investigating the bay oil spill. Authorities subpoenaed the crew of the ship that spewed the fuel, gleaned new details from its pilot and began to examine what might be wrong with the area's disaster response plans. 

And once again Google maps are bringing the disaster closer to home, wherever you are, including this one from KCBS

Halfway around the world, the Strait of Kerch, connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, is reeling from the effects of up to 10 ships sunk in a monster storm Sunday.

The Volganeft-139 tanker was carrying about 1.3 million gallons of fuel oil when the storm sundered it, losing at least half its load so far. The AP reports the ship was constructed for river use and was unfit to endure severe weather at sea. So far, more than 30,000 birds, some of the thousands migrating south from Siberia at this time of year, plus countless fish have been killed in an what officials are calling an ecological catastrophe.

Read full article at Blue Marble Blog - Mother Jones

SAN FRANCISCO BAY OIL SPILL

Many beaches in the San Francisco area remained closed on Thursday as officials tried to clean up 58,000 gallons of fuel that spilled into the West Coast city's famous bay the day before.

The Cosco Busan struck a tower of the Bay Bridge on Wednesday morning in dense fog, creating a long slash along the ship that allowed bunker fuel to spill into the water.

The Coast Guard initially called the spill minor but later realized the amount of fuel was greater than first thought. Environmentalists criticized the Coast Guard for not notifying other agencies fast enough and for being slow to put inflatable booms on the water's surface to prevent oil from spreading.

Read more about the San Francisco Bay oil spill at ENN.
 

RUSSIAN OIL SPILL IN BLACK SEA

The oil spill came from the Volgoneft-139, a small Russian oil tanker which broke in two during the storm when it was off the Ukrainian port in the northern Black Sea.

Russian rescue helicopters searched for five missing seamen on Monday, while a slick of oil from a sunken tanker began washing onto beaches.

Birds seeking shelter on the shore near the centre of the storm were covered in a treacly mixture of oil and seaweed -- the first evidence of what one Russian official called an "environmental disaster."

Read full story at ENN

Global climate change, if left unaddressed, is likely to pose "as a great or a greater foreign policy and national security challenge than any problem" the United States currently faces, according to a major new report released here Monday by two influential Washington think tanks.

The rising temperatures and sea levels that are caused by climate change will probably set off "large-scale migrations of people, both inside nations and across existing national borders" even under more benign scenarios.

The impact of drought and glacial melt in some parts of the world will is also likely to spur large population movements.

"The more severe scenarios suggest the prospect of perhaps billions of people over the medium or longer term being forced to relocate," according to the report, which stressed that any mass migrations will almost certainly trigger sharp increases in regional tensions and increasingly draconian efforts by wealthier countries to prevent migrants from crossing their borders.

No region is more directly threatened by human migration than is South Asia, as low-lying regions of Bangladesh will become progressively more uninhabitable under the expected scenario, and India will have to cope with a surge of displaced people from its eastern neighbor.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and its biggest oil-producer, and East Africa are also likely to become severely stressed under the mildest scenario, as a result of changes to the climate, coupled with population growth. State failure - which is already in evidence in East Africa - is a distinct possibility.

The expected decline in food production and fresh drinking water, combined with greater possibilities for intra-state and inter-state conflict, will drive more Africans and South Asians to migrate further abroad, possibly resulting in a major surge in the number of Muslim immigrants to Europe, according to the report, which notes that such processes could set in motion both a backlash among Europeans and radicalisation of the continent's Muslim population.

If the severe scenario takes hold, the Americas will also witness mass migration as the residents of low-lying areas in the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, and the northern rim of South America seek higher ground within countries and across countries, including into the United States.

Source: IPS News

 I can't even comment on this - CT

George Bush is set to release a regulation tomorrow that will allow mining companies to blast the tops off mountains and dump the resulting waste in nearby streams and valleys.

Currently the practice, called mountaintop mining, exists in a hazy legal status but has been used regularly for the past two decades.

The new rule will loosen a 1983 law which prohibits disturbing soils within 100 feet of streams (in the past, companies have been sued under the Clean Water Act for dumping mining waste into streams), essentially giving coal companies the go-ahead.

Read full article at Mother Jones

An influx of invasive species including the goby and zebra mussels are threatening the Great Lakes and its native fish. The goby and zebra mussels eat the eggs of the native fish, and literally kill off entire native species.

These invasive species can live in the low ballast water levels inside the ships hold. Coast Guard regulations already instruct freighters bound for U.S. ports to exchange ballast water while at sea. But ships hauling cargo can get around the requirement by declaring they aren't carrying ballast.

At least 185 invaders have been identified in the Great Lakes, including zebra and quagga mussels, which clog water pipes and do more than $150 million worth of damage a year.

The Great Lakes provide drinking water to about 40 million people and represent about 20% of the world's supply of fresh water. The waters are key to the region's tourist economy and industrial base.

State lawmakers have promised they will work in a bipartisan effort to propose federal legislation which would allow states to direct special management plans for ships when new invasive species are detected.

One things for sure, those 40 million people (including myself) need the drinking water. It's time to stop talking about this issue and actually enact laws, and then fund the Coast Guard so they can do their job - CT

Washington's Worldwatch Institute has issued a report that bottled water, the world's fastest growing beverage, carries with it a heavy environmental cost, along with the financial cost. 

Let's not forget that plastic is a material made from oil. Most of the water we drink is bottled in polyethylene terephthalate or PET. About 23% of these bottles are currently recycled in the U.S. - and the rest ends up in our land fills. And it takes plenty of energy to produce, bottle, package, store and ship millions upon millions of bottles of plastic bottled water.

And where does the water come from? At some point these springs will become depleted due to excessive withdrawal - and then what??

I'm one of those people who remember when water was FREE. The thought of paying for water was not even on the radar screen.

Bottled water costs 240 to 10,000 times as much as water straight from the tap. I also drink bottled water (Ice Mountain), but I sometimes wonder if the water we pay for is really all that safe. Let's hope so since the U.S. is the largest consumer. We drank over 6 billion gallons in 2005, and when the reports come in for 2006 it will obviously be more.

Among the top ten countries that use bottled water, India's consumption nearly tripled, and China's more than doubled between 2000 and 2005. Other countries that consume large amounts of bottled water are Mexico, Brazil, Italy, Germany, France, Indonesia and Spain. 

While we take water for granted, the real disgrace is that there are 1 billion people in the world who have NO access to clean drinking water, must less a certain brand of bottled water. Worldwatch estimates that up to 50% of urban dwellers in Asia and Africa lack access to safe drinking water. 

Source: ENN News 

Future eastern United States summers look much hotter than originally predicted with daily highs about 10 degrees warmer than in recent years by the mid-2080s, a new NASA study says.

And that's just the eastern United States as a whole. For individual cities, the future looks even hotter.

In the 2080s, the average summer high will probably be 102 degrees in Jacksonville, 100 degrees in Memphis, 96 degrees in Atlanta, and 91 degrees in Chicago and Washington, according to the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Climate.

Read full article at ENN

While toxic chemicals are a serious health issue anywhere in the world, we have our own toxic chemical wasteland right here in the Gulf region. These dangerous toxins are flowing into the Mississippi River, and then on to the Gulf of Mexico. Much of our "fresh" seafood comes from the Gulf Region . . . CT

Along an 85-mile stretch between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, La., there are 130-plus petrochemical plants and refineries discharging toxins to the air and the waters flowing to the Mississippi River, then into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. 

Cancers, respiratory problems and emotional disorders seep through the communities, collectively called Cancer Alley.

Don't think this is just a problem for the Gulf States - the Mississippi River flows through a great portion of the U.S., and millions of Americans will be affected by these toxins - CT

Deep Trouble - The Gulf in Peril
http://web.naplesnews.com/deeptrouble/deeptrouble.html#dayone

This week The House overwhelmingly endorsed federal help for communities faced with deteriorating sewage systems, ignoring White House warnings that the cost was too high.

The legislation, approved 367-58, would spend $1.7 billion over five years in federal grants to states and municipalities to modernize wastewater systems and control sewage overflows that pollute rivers and streams and pose health risks.

Those voting against the bill, which now moves to the Senate, were all Republicans.

"No American should have to walk outside after a storm to see sewage in the streets," said Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif.

Supporters cited Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the nation's wastewater infrastructure will face a funding shortfall of $300 billion to $400 billion over the next 20 years.

The White House, in a statement released Tuesday, said the administration strongly opposes the bill, stating that the money approved was "unrealistic in the current fiscal environment."

It added that the bill could also encourage municipalities to delay starting sewer infrastructure projects while they wait for federal subsidies. The statement promoted an administration proposal to give exceptions to state caps on tax-exempt private activity bonds for wastewater and drinking water projects.

According to a 2004 EPA report, about 850 billion gallons of untreated wastewater and storm water are released every year as combined sewer overflow. There are also between 23,000 and 75,000 incidents each year of sanitary sewer overflow, releasing between 3 billion and 10 billion gallons.

Combined sewer systems collect rainwater runoff, domestic sewage and industrial wastewater in one pipe. Sanitary sewer systems carry only sewage from homes and industrial and commercial wastewater.

The EPA says there are roughly 772 communities serving some 40 million people with the older and more vulnerable combined sewer systems. Most are located in the Northeast and Great Lakes areas, with some in the Pacific Northwest.

Congress in 2002 and 2003 also approved federal grants under the Clean Water Act for sewer systems, but then failed to appropriate the money in annual spending bills.

The legislation is one of three water quality bills the House is taking up this week. On Thursday it plans to revisit a defunct Clean Water Act program providing $125 million in grants for alternative water source projects. The administration also opposes this bill, saying it costs too much and is unnecessary because of other available funding sources.

On Friday it is to act on the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which would give out up to $20 billion in loans over five years for water pollution abatement projects.

The bill is H.R. 569

On the Net:
Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov/

2004 EPA report: http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/cso/cpolicy--report2004.cfm

Source: Associated Press

117,000 faulty tanks still need to be cleaned up - that's at least the figure from the latest reports dated September, 2005.

Forty three states say they expect to find 16,700 new leaks in the next five years - and federal money will be required for the cleanups.

It will cost at least $12 billion to clean up contamination from tens of thousands of gasoline storage tanks that are leaking underground, congressional auditors say - and the latest government figures are outdated, so the real cleanup cost will be higher.

Now if you think that money is the problem - you're wrong! That's the scandal . . .

Every time you pay for a gallon of gas, a tenth of a penny goes into a trust fund to remove the contamination. The fund now has about $2.6 billion and is expected to reach $3 billion before the end of 2008.

Congress created the trust fund in 1986 because of concerns about contamination from leaking tanks at gas stations, but annually only a small fraction has been appropriated for cleanups. Most has sat in the Treasury to help counter federal budget deficits.

AND Congress and the Bush Administration have provided $72 million each year, according to a report last week from the GAO (General Accountability Office).

The EPA, which oversees the cleanups, has already spent more than $10 billion to reduce the contamination over the past 20 years caused by hundreds of thousands of leaking tanks, many of them found at gas stations and convenience stores.

GAO estimates that it will take $12 billion to remove 54,000 leaks from underground storage tanks that are either abandoned, or no one can be held accountable for cleaning up. Another 63,000 leaking tanks would be paid for by pump stations, store owners or other operators of the leaking tanks, along with insurers and state funds. 

For year leaking underground gasoline tanks have been blamed for much of the MTBE ( methyl tertiary-butyl ether) found in drinking water supplies in at least 36 states. More than 150 lawsuits have been filed seeking damages because of problems with MTBE, which until recently has been a widespread gasoline additive that helped curb air pollution.

The GAO's own report has found that some states' financial assurance funds lack the money to pay for timely tank cleanups, and tank owners covered under the state programs usually pay only a small deductible when tanks leak - the government picks up most of the tab.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 required underground storage tanks to be inspected every three years. Only one-third of the states currently assure the EPA they are checking to see if tank owners are covered by insurance.

Now the GAO has the money, but in their report this past week they are going to "consider studying" better ways to distribute money from the trust fund. And the GAO is also going to "consider studying" whether the state funds and insurance are effective enough.

More Resources On the Net on this Subject:

House Energy and Commerce Committee

 http://energycommerce.house.gov/

EPA

http://www.epa.gov/OUST/index.htm

Article Source: ENN Network

The nation's biggest milk company, Dean Foods says it will refuse milk from cloned cows. And smaller companies like Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, along with Organic Valley have say they will oppose milk from clones.

Now, there is a difference between refuse and oppose . . . CT

The FDA has already given preliminary approval to meat and milk from cloned animals, and could grant final approval by the end of the year. Federal scientists say there is virtually no difference between clones and conventional cows, pigs or goats.

Dallas-based Dean Foods is a $10 billion company that owns Land O Lakes and Horizon Organic, among dozens of other brands. In a statement issued last week, the company said its customers and consumers don't want milk from cloned animals.

"Numerous surveys have shown that Americans are not interested in buying dairy products that contain milk from cloned cows and Dean Foods is responding to the needs of our customers," the statement said.

Milk companies worry that concern over cloning could turn people away from dairy products.

So far, public opinion appears mixed - A September poll by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology found that 64%  of respondents were uncomfortable with animal cloning - And a December poll by the University of Maryland found that the same percentage would buy, or consider buying, such food if the government said it was safe.

What happened between September and December? I'm with the 64% in September, and just because the government says it safe don't make it so - CT

Dean Foods spokeswoman Marguerite Copel said the company respects the FDA, "but we've got a customer and consumer base."

The company did not say whether it would use milk from the offspring of cloned animals. Cloning companies say the purpose of cloning is not to put many cloned livestock into the food supply. Instead, the goal is to make a genetic copy of a superior animal, and then put its offspring into the food supply.

So is using the "offspring of cloned animals" going to be a way for companies to say there are not using cloned animals? Food for thought. CT

Source: ENN