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A battle over whether the U.S. should curb its use of oil produced from Canada’s oil sands is straining ties between the countries and comes amid a wider debate about the safest and cleanest ways to extract fossil fuels.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.), chairman of the House energy committee, this week urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to veto the expansion of a giant pipeline that would roughly double the amount of oil-sands crude Canada ships to the U.S., calling it a “multi-billion dollar investment to expand our reliance on the dirtiest source of transportation fuel currently available.” Read more »

No Brasil, em 2000, 9% do carvão vegetal foi usado em residências (cocção) e 86% em indústrias, a maior parte na produção de ferro gusa. Do total de 21,2 Mtep (~69.5 Mt) de lenha usada para energia no país, 7,8Mtep foram destinadas à produção de carvão vegetal. As políticas para a redução de importação de coque e carvão mineral fizeram a produção de carvão vegetal crescer muito nos anos 80, atingindo o pico em 1989 (40% da produção de ferro gusa). Read more »

Quatro dos cinco pinguins que foram encontrados na segunda-feira (9) em três praias de Búzios e Cabo Frio, na Região dos Lagos, recebem tratamento especial de profissionais do zoológico de Niterói (Zoonit), na Região Metropolitana do Rio. Uma das aves resgatada não resistiu.

Segundo o veterinário responsável pelo local, Marco Janackovic, o zoológico acolheu ainda outros oito pinguins também sujos de óleo, totalizando 12 animais. Read more »

Southwest Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt visited media outlets Wednesday to answer back at a new television commercial that accuses Blunt of “turning his back on Missouri” in favor of big oil interests. In a conversation with KSPR Wednesday, Blunt did not dispute the amount of money he has received during his time in Congress from oil companies. The ad, paid for by the League of Conservation Voters reports Blunt has received $1012398 from “big oil and energy.” OpenSecrets.org, a non-partisan group that collects campaign finance information, reports during his Congressional career, Blunt has received, $428098 from oil and gas companies and $395584 from electric utilities. The ad takes Blunt to task for voting against the American Clean Energy and Security Act, better known as the “cap and trade” bill. The proposal, which has passed the US House of Representatives, would set limits on the emissions of greenhouse gases. At the time of its passage, Blunt called it the “National Energy Tax. During the debate the night of the House vote, Blunt said the bill puts the country at a competitive disadvantage and hurts the economy. Blunt accused the group of trying to circumvent campaign finance laws and said the group supports Blunt’s likely opponent in the 2010 race for the US Senate, Robin Carnahan. Blunt did know the amount Carnahan has taken from lobbyists. The LCV has published a line-by-line analysis of the ad, backing up the claims made. Aired 11-11-09

A China fez pouco progresso nos programas ambientais delineados há quase uma década para limitar a poluição nas regiões próximas ao reservatório das usina hidrelétrica de Três Gargantas, informaram fontes oficias nesta sexta-feira (2).

Menos de 20% dos projetos acertados em 2001 para proteger as águas foram completados. E nenhum dos nove programas para limitar a poluição das águas, causada pela constante passagem de navios no reservatório, teve início. Read more »

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4dV5SY01mc

n Africa, UNDP, as an implementing partner of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), is getting people in remote areas onto the electrical grid by harnessing green sources of energy like hydropower and solar energy. In the Embu district of central Kenya, a high rate of rainfall combined with a large amount of runoff water from the snows of Mount Kenya made hydropower the obvious choice. Through GEFs Small Grants Programme, which is managed by UNDP, the community there has established a hydro-powered turbine. Today it provides power to hundreds of people with the potential to reach thousands more. Namibia, meanwhile, is unable to receive all the energy it needs from its coal and hydropower plants to feed its rapidly growing tourism, fishing and mining industries. A UNDP/GEF initiative there is working with the Ministry of Mining and Energy to provide financing for people so they can install solar energy systems in both private homes and public buildings like schools and health clinics. In both initiatives, the introduction of alternative sources of energy has cut down on the collection and use of biomass fuels, which cause an estimated 1.4 million people around the world to die from respiratory disease every year. The collection of firewood also leads to the destruction of vital forest lands. In Embu, for example, people are collecting and burning firewood less and less. Instead, they are relying on the hydropower turbines output for all of their electricity needs, from …

Petrobras notified the country’s National Petroleum Agency, or ANP, that a well in the Amazon jungle tested positive for natural gas.

The find was listed on the oil regulator’s website over the weekend. The discovery was made at the 1BRSA835AM well at the inland SOL-T-150 Block in the Solimoes Basin. Petrobras holds a 100% stake in the block.

The filing was part of a routine process that the ANP requires of oil companies operating in Brazil. Oil companies must inform the ANP of indications of oil, gas or hydrocarbons in any exploratory well within 48 hours. The disclosures are routine, and do not indicate commercial viability

The well was drilled by the Queiroz Galvao 3 rig to a target depth of 2,166 meters, ANP drilling data showed.

http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=97141&hmpn=1

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TA1L67pgUU

Cientistas de uma empresa dos EUA identificaram em bactérias genes responsáveis pela produção de moléculas com potencial combustível, uma espécie de biopetróleo.

A descoberta, realizada em bactérias fotossintetizantes – que utilizam gás carbônico e luz solar para a síntese do biopetróleo-, abre caminho para a produção de gasolina e óleo diesel renováveis. Read more »

China’s “apparent oil demand” (production plus net imports) last month hit another record high at 36.74 million metric tons or about 8.98 million b/d, according to Platts’ analysis of official data from that nation. The June demand figure is up 10 percent from a year ago and eclipses the previous high of 36.48 million metric tons set in May 2010 by .7 percent.

Meanwhile, China’s apparent oil demand in the first half of 2010 jumped 13 percent to 210.81 million metric tons from the corresponding period of 2009, Platts reports. The January-June average was 8.54 million b/d. Read more »

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcCAFH08yIM

While China’s growing population, economy and energy usage has prompted the Chinese government to encourage the development of other energy resources, coal is still expected to play a significant role in the nation’s energy future.

“In the absence of national policies and/or binding international agreements that would limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions, world coal consumption is projected to increase from 132 quadrillion Btu in 2007 to 206 quadrillion Btu in 2035, at an average annual rate of 1.6 percent, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported in its International Energy Outlook.

EIA reports that much of the projected increase in coal use occurs in China and other non-Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries in Asia, which accounts for 95 percent of the total net increase in world coal use from 2007 to 2035. Read more »

Pesquisadores do Centro de Pesquisas Hidráulicas e Recursos Hídricos, CPH, da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, UFMG, estão desenvolvendo um veículo submersível para inspeção e manutenção de estruturas que se encontram debaixo d’água.

A propostas surgiu da demanda devido ao crescente número de usinas hidrelétricas no país. Hoje mais de 800 estão em operação, respondendo por 67% da produção nacional de energia. “A ideia é criar uma espécie de robô capaz de fazer a manutenção das usinas sem interromper o seu funcionamento, economizando tempo e dinheiro”, explicou o coordenador do projeto, Paulo Henrique Vieira Magalhães. Read more »

O presidente venezuelano, Hugo Chávez, ameaçou neste domingo (25) cortar o fornecimento de petróleo aos Estados Unidos caso a Colômbia promova um ataque militar contra o país devido às crescentes rixas por acusações de que a Venezuela abriga rebeldes colombianos.

Chávez, um esquerdista e crítico voraz dos EUA, cortou relações diplomáticas com a Colômbia na semana passada, devido a acusações de que o governo de Álvaro Uribe, que está em seu fim, é um aliado dos norte-americanos. Read more »

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D60haeuB-Gc&feature=related

A água do Delta do Níger, área de manguezais perto de Bodo, um dos diversos povoados dessa região localizada no Golfo da Guiné, na África ocidental, apresenta reflexos de arco-íris, devido ao petróleo que vaza dos oleodutos.

Há décadas, esta região pantanosa e rica em hidrocarbonetos no sul da Nigéria, onde operam diversas multinacionais petroleiras, está contaminada por vazamentos. Read more »