February, 25 2013, 11:00pm EDT
Senate Bill Introduced to Stop Fracking in New Mexico
In the wake of a recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report that identified ConocoPhillips' San Juan Basin operations in Northwest New Mexico as the second-most prolific greenhouse-gas polluter in the nation among onshore oil and gas systems, Senator William Soules (D-37 Dona Ana) has introduced a bill to prohibit horizontal hydraulic fracturing in New Mexico. Senate Bill 547 would amend the Oil and Gas Act to prohibit the controversial practice best known as fracking.
Albuquerque, NM
In the wake of a recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report that identified ConocoPhillips' San Juan Basin operations in Northwest New Mexico as the second-most prolific greenhouse-gas polluter in the nation among onshore oil and gas systems, Senator William Soules (D-37 Dona Ana) has introduced a bill to prohibit horizontal hydraulic fracturing in New Mexico. Senate Bill 547 would amend the Oil and Gas Act to prohibit the controversial practice best known as fracking.
"It is critical that this act take effect immediately to protect New Mexico's natural heritage and the health of New Mexicans," said Senator Soules. "We just don't know enough about the impact fracking has on the long term health of our land. Once the health of our land and people is compromised, it is nearly impossible to restore. New Mexico deserves a healthy future, and fracking jeopardizes that future."
Fracking, the horizontal drilling technique in which operators inject millions of gallons of chemically laced fluid at high pressure into rock formations to force the release of oil and gas, is exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act. While the oil and gas industry has been fracking in New Mexico for decades, current techniques are more intensive and dangerous and have prompted a drilling frenzy facilitated by a lack of government oversight.
"Despite thousands of cases of water contamination near drilling sites across New Mexico, documented human health risks, and the litany of 'fraccidents' across the state and country growing every day, it's hard to believe that federal and state regulators continue to turn a blind eye to the problems caused by fracking," said Eleanor Bravo, New Mexico organizer for the consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch. "New Mexico's air, water, soil and public health are not commodities to be squandered for the sole purpose of bolstering oil and gas companies' bottom lines. This is why several New Mexico municipalities are working to pass local ban ordinances and why we need SB 547 to pass."
This week, Food & Water Watch is gathering petitions from New Mexicans across the state in support of SB 547. The bill has been referred to three committees: Senate Conservation, Senate Corporations & Transportation and Senate Finance, and is expected to be heard this week.
Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people's health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.
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Working-Class Independent Dan Osborn Giving GOP Senator Run for Her Money in Nebraska
New polling suggests that "a willingness to take on millionaires, billionaires, and the politicians who serve them plays well everywhere," said one columnist.
Sep 25, 2024
Dan Osborn, a mechanic and union leader running to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer in Nebraska, told an Omaha news station on Tuesday that recent polling showing a highly competitive race didn't come as a surprise to him.
"It's what I'm seeing on the ground," he toldKETV of a Survey USA poll showing 45% of respondents supporting him, compared with 44% backing Fischer. "People, I think, are ready for a change."
Osborn describes himself as a "lifelong Independent," and has not sought or accepted endorsements from either major political party.
He does have the backing of the United Auto Workers, which said in June, "It's time for labor to get behind candidates who look like us, talk like us, and know the issues facing working-class people."
Osborn began working as an industrial mechanic for a Kellogg's plant in 2004, and eventually rose to the presidency of his union local, Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 50G.
In that role in 2021, he led 500 of his co-workers at the cereal plant in a work stoppage that lasted 77 days, with workers protesting a two-tier hiring system that left new employees with lower pay and no pensions and demanding fair working schedules and pay.
The strike forced the company to agree to cost-of-living raises, no plant closures through 2026, and no permanent two-tier system.
"I've gone up against a major American corporation," Osborn toldThe New York Times in February. "I stood up for what I thought was right, and I won."
The Fischer campaign and its supporters have taken notice of the senator's opponent as multiple polls have shown the two candidates neck-and-neck. Last month, Fischer was up by just one point, with 23% undecided.
Conservative super political action committee Heartland Resurgence has spent $479,000 in a new ad campaign opposing Osborn, repeating the same false claims about his support for abortion care as those Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump made at his debate against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this month: that Osborn "supports abortion until the moment of birth."
Osborn told the independent rural news outlet Barn Raiser in March that he believes "a woman's decision on whether or not to have an abortion is between her and her doctor, it's not the federal government's place to dictate those things to people. Deb Fischer believes in a complete abortion ban. I strongly disagree with that position."
In an ad released this week, Osborn is seen next to a stand-in for Fischer, who wears a blazer decorated with the logos of some of her major corporate donors: Northrop Grumman, which has given her $64,827 over her career; Union Pacific Corp., which has donated $141,651; and Goldman Sachs, which has donated $18,200 this election cycle.
Osborn says in the ad that the Senate is made up of "millionaires controlled by billionaires."
"Deb Fischer is part of the problem," he says. "She's taken so much corporate cash she should wear patches."
Columnist John Nichols said the latest poll numbers in Nebraska suggest "that a willingness to take on millionaires, billionaires, and the politicians who serve them plays well everywhere."
Pro-worker media organization More Perfect Unionpointed to earlier polling in July that showed Osborn and Fischer tied 42-42.
"Fifty-seven percent of the state's GOP voters say they're open to voting for an Independent," the outlet reported. "Osborn, a long-time union worker, could kick a Republican out of the Senate."
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Deadly Flooding in Central Europe Made Twice as Likely By Climate Change: Study
"This is definitely what we will see much more of in the future."
Sep 25, 2024
The record-setting rainfall that hit Central Europe in mid September was made roughly twice as likely and 7% more severe by climate change, according to an analysis released Wednesday.
The 36-page study, conducted by scientists affiliated with World Weather Attribution (WWA), looked at the causes of the extreme rain that peaked from September 12 until September 15. Called Storm Boris, it hit many countries including Poland, Austria, and the Czech Republic, and set off flooding that killed at least 24 people.
The authors, whose work wasn't peer reviewed, warned that Storm Boris was a sign of what's to come.
"This is definitely what we will see much more of in the future," Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London and co-author of the study, told the BBC.
"[It] is the absolute fingerprint signature of climate change... that records are broken by such a large margin."
The floods that killed 24 people in Central Europe were caused by rainfall made twice as likely and at least 7% heavier by climate change 📈🌧️
Floods will become more destructive and costly with further fossil fuel warming.
Our analysis was published this morning 🧵 https://t.co/0rJjYuYnUt
— World Weather Attribution (@WWAttribution) September 25, 2024
The heavy rainfall was caused by a Vb (pronounced "five-b") depression that "forms when cold polar air flows from the north over the Alps, meeting very warm air in Southern Europe," according to a WWA statement that accompanied the study.
The damage came partly from the fact that the storm lingered for many days, with rain falling on saturated ground and overflowing bodies of water. The WWA scientists didn't determine if the duration was affected by climate change; however, in general, the affect of climate change on the jet stream, which normally helps push weather patterns through the continent quickly, could play a role in causing storms to linger, experts say.
"These types of blocking situations and meandering jet stream-induced situations are increasing in frequency," Hayley Fowler, a climate scientist at Newcastle University who wasn't involved in the study, toldNPR.
Other factors in the Stom Boris disaster were more clearly influenced by a warmer planet. The most basic and straightforward factor is that hotter air can hold more water—for each degree celsius that the Earth heats up, the atmosphere can hold about 7% more water, so there's more that can turn into rain.
The WWA study's key findings—a roughly twofold increase in the likelihood of Storm Boris and a 7% increase in intensity caused by climate change—may in fact be underestimates. The findings are "too conservative," the study says.
The analysis does contain good news: European authorities were more prepared for this storm than they had been in the past, likely saving dozens of lives.
Far more people died during extreme flooding episodes in the region in 1997 and 2002—more than 100, in each case—even though the rainfall in those events was less severe and didn't cover such a large area. Governments have since invested in forecasting, early warning systems, and flood defenses like levees. The city of Vienna has been particularly strong on flood preparations, and its investments paid off when Storm Boris did little damage there.
Otto, the co-author, said on social media that early warning systems worked well but flood defenses are, in general, still being put up "way too slowly." She said addressing the climate crisis would pay off in many ways for people on the continent.
"All Europeans need to know that tackling it will make their lives so much better—ending fossil fuels creates jobs, lowers energy bills, makes cities healthier places to live, and reduces the risk of killer floods," she said.
Many observers had assumed that climate change played a role in the flooding before the WWA analysis was released. On September 16, Greenpeace called for fossil fuel companies to pay for the damage caused by extreme weather events. The type of attribution science conducted by WWA helps strengthen the case for accountability, advocates say.
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Rights Groups List 50+ Calls for Gaza Genocide on Israel's Channel 14
"Incitement to war crimes is part of the Channel 14 poison machine, and its aim is to create a forever war here," said one campaigner.
Sep 25, 2024
Since the October 7 attack, Israel's right-wing Channel 14 has broadcast over 50 statements by presenters, panelists, and guests advocating or defending genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and more than 150 calls for war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to a report published Tuesday by an Israeli newspaper.
Haaretzreported that the Israeli human rights groups—Zulat for Equality and Human Rights, Hatzlacha: Movement for the Promotion of a Fair Society, and the Democratic Bloc—have compiled a list of genocidal statements and incitements to war crimes made by individuals appearing on Channel 14 since October 7.
The groups have written to Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara requesting a criminal investigation into the station for "systematic and widespread incitement." The organizations want Channel 14 sanctioned and fined.
"On October 7, the terrorist organization Hamas committed war crimes and crimes against humanity," attorneys Michael Sfard, Alon Sapir, and Einat Gaier—who are representing the groups—told Haaretz. This caused "massive grief, deep sorrow, and burning and understandable fury."
"Israeli society is deeply traumatized, and this trauma will take years to heal," the lawyers continued. "This is exactly the type of ground upon which moral monstrosities are liable to flourish, and are flourishing."
The Haaretz article lists each incident in which genocidal statements have aired on Channel 14, with one program, "The Patriots," appearing repeatedly on the list.
On October 12, former Israeli lawmaker Moshe Feiglin—who has quoted Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany, while arguing for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza—said on "The Patriots" that "if the goal of this operation isn't destruction, occupation, expulsion, and settlement, then we've done nothing."
Two days later on the program, presenter Nave Dromi said that "there are no innocents" in Gaza.
"In 1948, they brought the Nakba on themselves," she added, referring to the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Arabs from Palestine by Jewish militias during the foundation of modern Israel. "Now they'll have a second Nakba, but for real, to finish the job."
The following day, October 15, Channel 14 aired a prerecorded message from Israeli singer Eyal Golan, who asserted that "Gaza should be totally wiped out, not one person should be left there."
Golan's message was cited in the South Africa-led genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. Israeli State Attorney Amit Aisman is also considering a criminal investigation of Golan's remarks.
The human rights groups and Haaretz documented many other instances of on-air calls for indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, shooting civilians, and to "just exterminate" Palestinians.
Channel 14 personalities were aware of the legal implications of these statements. Following the ICJ's January order for Israel to avoid genocidal acts—which the country's far-right government has been accused of ignoring—Israeli journalist Shimon Riklin said on air that a law professor "warned me before the broadcast that if I say these things on the show I could be sued in The Hague."
"But I want you all to know that since October 7, one of the things that helps me to sleep is when I see all kinds of buildings flying through the air in Gaza, I enjoy it," he said. "Let's have more! Destroy as much as possible, so they won't have anywhere to go back to. Hang on a second, The Hague is calling... Hello?"
That same day another Israeli journalist, Itamar Fleischmann, argued on air that "the more humane solution is to starve" Palestinians in Gaza.
"And the choice is up to the civilians there," he added. "You want to keep starving? Keep supporting Hamas... That's why in my view, the Israeli interest is starvation in Gaza and a humanitarian disaster in Gaza."
At least dozens of Gazans, mostly children, have starved to death amid Israel's siege of the embattled enclave, where more than 147,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured by Israel's nearly yearlong onslaught.
"Incitement to war crimes is part of the Channel 14 poison machine, and its aim is to create a forever war here," Zehava Galon, a former left-wing Israeli lawmaker and president of Zulat for Equality and Human Rights, told Haaretz.
In a social media post, Zulat for Equality and Human Rights said Tuesday that "we specifically present here evidence of a serious crime being committed on Channel 14 and it needs to be stopped immediately."
Channel 14 "turned these statements into a systematic agenda," the group added. "An urgent investigation is required so that this incitement cannot be legitimate and allowed in Israel. It's time for the instigators to pay the price."
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