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Recent posts
- Beartooth landowners victorious in lawsuit against Stillwater County
- PLEASE NOTE: Change in Zoom access code for today’s hearing
- Action alert: Watch court hearing on Zoom, Thursday, 2:00 pm
- Action alert: Stillwater County Planning Board meeting, Wed, 9/4, 7pm
- Must attend! Stillwater County Planning Board: Wednesday, August 7, 7pm
Blog Archives
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Author Archives: davidjkatz
Paris climate talks: the future of the planet is at stake
Beginning today 40,000 world leaders, diplomats, experts and partisans will meet in Paris to begin 12 days of climate talks that could very well decide the future of our planet.
The conference is called Conference of the Parties 21, or COP 21, which refers to the countries that have signed up to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). UNFCCC is an international treaty now signed by 195 parties, with the aim of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions to control climate change. This is the 21st meeting since 1992, hence COP 21.
The goal is a new global climate treaty, involving all nations, that would take effect in 2020 to help the world avoid the worst consequences of manmade global warming. According to the UNFCCC, this means limiting global warming in 2100 to less than 2°C, or 3.7°F, above pre-industrial levels.
According to recent data, we’re already halfway there. In 2015, global temperatures have reached 1°C higher than pre-industrial levels. Without action, temperatures are expected to increase by 3.7 – 4.8°C by 2100.
To learn more about what can be accomplished in Paris, and why we should feel great urgency about acting now, read on. Continue reading
Posted in Climate change
Tagged carbon emissions, Clean Power Plan, climate change, COP 21, global warming, Paris 2015, sea level rise, UNFCCC
2 Comments
Developing countries are moving fast to create clean energy capacity. Time for the US — and Montana — to step up
Some politicians characterize policies to address climate change as a choice between economic growth and the environment. What’s more, even if we were to take action on climate change, anything we do will make no difference because countries like China are “drilling a hole and digging anywhere in the world that they can get a hold of.”
Problem is, that just isn’t true.
New data just released shows that developing countries, most notably China, are far outstripping the United States in investing in and developing clean energy capacity. This trend is expected to continue and intensify over the next 25 years.
In advance of the critical international climate meeting about to take place in Paris, it’s time for the United States to step up its commitment to controlling carbon emissions. And in Montana, where our leaders blithely promote an “all of the above” energy policy, it’s time to wake up. The future is going to be built around transitioning to clean energy, not extracting fossil fuels from the shale underneath the Beartooth Front..
They understand this in Pakistan, Tunisia and Mexico. Why not Helena and Washington DC? Continue reading
Posted in Climate change
Tagged Carly Fiorina, China, clean energy, climate change, Marco Rubio, Paris climate meeting, renewables
2 Comments
Carbon County landowners file Supreme Court brief
The plaintiffs in the Carbon County lawsuit over citizen initiated zoning filed their brief in Montana Supreme Court last week. This is the latest step in a process that should be decided in 2016. You can read the brief by … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
1 Comment
Beartooth Front landowners present hundreds of signatures to Stillwater County Commissioners to set up oil and gas zoning district (with video)
On Tuesday, November 10, before a room packed with supporters, Stillwater County landowners from the Nye/Fishtail area presented hundreds of signed petitions to the Stillwater County Commissioners. The petitioners want to establish the Stillwater County Beartooth Front Zoning District to locally regulate oil and gas activity within the boundaries of the zone. The area of the proposed zone is large, approximately 80,000 acres, and includes about 600 properties.
The submission is the culmination of over two years of work by local landowners in this rural community, who were jolted into action in October 2013 when John Mork, CEO of Energy Corporation of America, promised to use horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies to “bring a little bit of the Bakken” to the area.
Following Mork’s announcement, neighbors set to work learning about the impacts of oil and gas activity, studying Montana law and regulations, holding meetings to weigh possible alternatives, reaching broad consensus for action among landowners, and gathering signatures.
This is the first formal step in what promises to be a long process in Stillwater County. Click to find out more about what happened, see video of the meeting, and understand what’s next. Continue reading
Montana elected leaders’ response to Keystone XL decision is unanimous, but not visionary
Say what you will about President Obama’s decision last week to reject TransCanada’s bid to build the Keystone XL Pipeline, it brought unity to Montana’s elected leaders. They were unanimous in their displeasure.
In their bipartisan agreement they claim to be fighting for jobs and economic development, which is admirable, but they are failing to lead in a way that will point Montana to long-term energy viability. Continue reading
This is Life with Lisa Ling: Filthy Rich (video)
I’ve been accumulating some information about the Bakken, so this is the first of a few posts on the subject. The posts will have more to do with the impacts of an oil society on communities rather than specific oil and gas issues.
Lisa Ling is a CNN reporter who hosts This is Life, a series of video-magazine stories that take her on a “gritty, breathtaking journey to the far corners of America.” One episode is entitled “Filthy Rich,” and it deals with the life of women in the Bakken.
The first part of her story chronicles the lives of some of the few women who have been brave enough to come to Williston to seek their fortunes. Their stories are inspiring. They are tough. They learn to deal with intolerable housing, tremendous social pressure and numbing isolation, and, for the few who can stick it out, they are able to find high-paying jobs in service industries, in the oil fields, and in transport.
But the second half of the episode deals with the flip side of the stories of those strong women, and it is frightening. The trafficking industry is a substantial part of life around the oilfields, and the stories of who they are and how they got to the Bakken will make you angry.
Click to watch the episode. Continue reading
Posted in Bakken
Tagged Bakken, Filthy Rich, Lisa Ling, sex trafficking, This is Life, Williston, women
2 Comments
American acceptance of climate change growing rapidly, opening opportunities for action
American acceptance of the problem of climate change and the need for action is growing rapidly. A New National Survey on Energy and the Environment (NSEE) from the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan shows acceptance of mainstream science near an all time high. For the first time since 2008, at least 7 out of 10 Americans indicate that they believe there is solid evidence of global warming over the past four decades.
For a discussion of the findings and their implications, go to the post. Continue reading
When North Dakota needed a new pipeline, they turned to the company that tainted Glendive’s water supply
Sometimes the news just makes you shake your head.
You probably remember Bridger Pipeline, LLC. They’re the company that operated the Poplar Pipeline. That’s the one that ruptured last January, sending 40,000 gallons of Bakken crude into the Yellowstone River, tainting Glendive’s water supply.
So when the North Dakota Public Service Commission needed a company to build a new pipeline, a key piece of infrastructure that will stretch 15 mines across Billings and Stark Counties, one that will transport 125,000 barrels per day and connect to an existing pipeline leading to Baker, Montana, who do you think they chose?
You already know the answer. Click to read more.
Watch Josh Fox’s new short film, Gaswork: The Fight for C.J.’s Law, here
Josh Fox, the creator of Gasland and Gasland 2, has released a new 46-minute film on the dangers of fracking jobs. The film is entitled Gaswork: The Fight for C.J.’s Law.
One of the great benefits of oil and gas drilling, according to its proponents, is the creation of new jobs in the communities where fracking occurs. But, according to Fox, many of these jobs are extremely dangerous, exposing workers to chemicals with unknown long-term impacts on human health. The fatality rate of oil field jobs in seven times greater than the national average.
Fox’s new film investigates worker safety and chemical risk. It follows Charlotte Bevins in her fight for CJ’s law, a bill to protect workers named for her brother CJ Bevins, who died at a drilling site.
Click to read the rest of this post and watch the entire film. Continue reading
Posted in Health impacts
Tagged CJ's Law, Gashoax, health impacts, Josh Fox, Phelim McAleer, worker safety
1 Comment
Preserve the Beartooth Front 