news20091231jt

[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Thursday, Dec. 31, 2009
Move Futenma to outer isle?: Ozawa
Shimoji, Ie options floated despite U.S. rejection
Kyodo News

Ruling Democratic Party of Japan kingpin Ichiro Ozawa has suggested relocating Okinawa's U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to one of two small islands in the prefecture, coalition lawmakers said Wednesday.

It remains unclear how viable the islands of Shimoji or Ie can be, given that they were written off in the process of formulating the 2006 Japan-U.S. accord to relocate the air base, now in Ginowan on the main Okinawa Island, to a point farther north on the same island.

Reiterating his reservations about the 2006 plan, which entails building a new airfield to accommodate Futenma's aircraft operations at Camp Schwab in a less-populated part of Okinawa Island, Ozawa, the DPJ secretary general, noted during a dinner Tuesday night: "There is an airport not being used on Shimoji Island."

The lawmakers also quoted Ozawa as asking Social Democratic Party Secretary General Yasumasa Shigeno during the dinner, "Is the SDP opposed to (relocating the base to) any part of Okinawa Prefecture?"

The SDP, part of the DPJ-led tripartite ruling bloc, has called for relocating the Futenma base outside Okinawa to lighten the burden on the people in the prefecture, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military installations in Japan.

Shozaburo Jimi, secretary general of Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party), the third partner in Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's DPJ-led coalition government, also attended the dinner.

Prior to the session, Ozawa was quoted by a coalition source as saying, "The airports not being used in Okinawa should be among those to be considered (for a possible relocation)."

Shimoji is a small island about 280 km southwest of the main island. It hosts a 3,000-meter runway that is mostly used by airlines for pilot training. Ie, on the other hand, lies just off Okinawa Island's west coast and has an airstrip used as a marine training facility.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama refrained from commenting on Ozawa's remarks, telling reporters, "This is not the time for me to say various things."

Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa cautioned that plans to relocate Futenma to either of the islands would face various hurdles.

"It's not easy for Shimoji Island or Ie Island to be an easy) alternative for Futenma . . . because of geographical and capacity issues," he said.

Japan and the United States mulled relocating the Futenma airfield to either Shimoji or Ie, but in the end opted for Camp Schwab in the Henoko district of Nago as part of a broader 2006 bilateral agreement on the reorganization of the U.S. forces in Japan.

On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said relocating the Futenma facility within Okinawa as agreed on between the two countries can be an option to pursue in the event that Tokyo fails to find what he calls a "better" relocation site.

The ruling parties had agreed the previous day to make maximum efforts to reach a decision by May on where to relocate Futenma by examining various sites regardless of whether they are in Japan or abroad.

This consensus came in the face of strong pressure from Washington on Tokyo to swiftly abide by the existing deal.

Meanwhile, Hatoyama on Monday indicated Japan will have to respect the U.S. stance in deciding where to relocate the Futenma base in Okinawa.

The ruling camp cannot forge an agreement on the base's relocation site in defiance of U.S. demands, Hatoyama told Japanese reporters Monday at a New Delhi hotel.

He visited India earlier this week and signed a joint statement agreeing to strengthen collaboration on security.

Many in Okinawa are already unhappy about having to host U.S. forces for decades.

Under the U.S. forces realignment plan agreed on in 2006, the Futenma facility will be moved to Henoko by 2014, and simultaneously, around 8,000 marines and their dependents would be transferred from Okinawa to Guam.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Thursday, Dec. 31, 2009
Law eyed to strip abusers of parental rights
Kyodo News

A study group of government officials and scholars is preparing a report that calls for establishing a legal provision to restrict parental rights as a way to curb child abuses, sources said Wednesday.

The group is proposing a provision under the Child Welfare Act, given repeated cases in which parents forcibly retrieved children who had been placed in institutions because they had been abused.

Under the envisaged provision, people in charge of orphanages and other institutions to which children are placed would have authority that outweighed "parental rights" as defined under the Civil Code, the sources said.

The group also cited the need to revise the Civil Code to enable temporary suspension of parental rights, with a view to protecting children under the care of grandparents or other people, they said.

The study group on parental rights for preventing child abuse was set up in May, comprising officials from the Justice and welfare ministries, the Supreme Court, scholars, lawyers and child welfare experts.

The group is expected to compile the report in January. In February, the Justice and welfare ministries plan to start examining the report at their respective advisory councils for proposing legal changes in the 2011 Diet session.

Under the current legal framework, if a report of child abuse is filed, a child welfare center is empowered to ask a family court to void parental rights or seek an injunction to suspend parental rights until an abuse is confirmed.

But depriving parents of their rights indefinitely would have substantial influence on their future relations with their offspring, and the family court sometimes takes considerable time to reach a decision. Experts have been calling for a legal framework for curbing flexibly on parental rights.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, Dec. 31, 2009
Economic growth to '20 wish list unveiled
Kyodo News

The government released Wednesday a basic growth wish list through 2020, aiming to achieve average annual economic growth of 3 percent in nominal terms by boosting demand in environmental science, health care and tourism, and creating 4.76 million jobs.

Under the New Growth Strategy, whose basic framework was approved at an extraordinary Cabinet meeting Wednesday morning, the government will strive to lift the nation's nominal gross domestic product to around \650 trillion by 2020 from the expected \473 trillion in fiscal 2009 through next March.

The Democratic Party of Japan-led government, which took office in September, said its growth strategy focuses on generating demand and jobs by implementing measures to improve the lives of households, and differs from the previous government's strategy of putting priority on expanding business activity to boost the economy.

"What is lacking in Japan now is confidence, hope and a sense that things will be all right if we pursue a certain path," Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said at a separate meeting with Cabinet members. "A growth strategy is necessary in Japan, and we want to reshape the nation into one where the government firmly and effectively supports" growth.

The nominal economic growth target would be a major reversal of the record 4.3 percent contraction forecast for fiscal 2009.

On a price-adjusted basis, the government has targeted a 2 percent annual expansion on average over the next decade.

Designating the environment, health care and tourism as key areas for growth, the government plans to generate over \100 trillion in demand from the three sectors by 2020.

But it has yet to paint a clear picture of its fiscal spending plan to achieve these targets, and in recent weeks its budget-cutting efforts have apparently run counter to these goals.

Details of the growth strategy are expected to be fleshed out by around June, the government said.

The government also aims to reduce the unemployment rate from the current 5 percent-plus to about 3 percent.

In addition to the environment, health and tourism, it has also pledged to prioritize development of science and technology, and employment and human resources, as well as taking advantage of rapid growth in Asia.

To help achieve the economic targets, the government plans to support technology development for advanced cars and rechargeable batteries, and encourage the spread of sustainable energy.

By doing so, it aims to generate 1.4 million jobs in environment-related businesses and to cut 1.3 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 from the current 28 billion tons.

To boost tourism and regional economies, the government plans to introduce a new holiday system and make it easier for Asians to obtain tourist visas. It hopes to nearly triple the number of overseas visitors to Japan from 8.35 million in fiscal 2008 to 25 million by 2020.

In the field of medical and nursing care services, the government will help companies develop overseas markets, especially in Asia. By promoting barrier-free housing, among other steps, the government aims to create 2.8 million jobs in the sector.

news20091231gdn1

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Forests]
Sainsbury's pulls plug on plastic corks to protect endangered species
All of Sainsbury's own-brand wines will be sealed with corks certified by the Forest Stewardship Council by the end of 2010
Rebecca Smithers
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 31 December 2009 00.05 GMT Article history

The corks popping from bottles of bubbly tonight will release more than a toast to the new year: a safer home for Europe's last big cat, the Iberian lynx, and other endangered animals.

To help the celebrations be more environmentally friendly in future, Sainsbury's has pledged that from 2010 all the corks used in its own-label drinks will be from guaranteed sustainable sources.

Its first champagnes and sparkling wines sealed with the cork – certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and sourced from the most sustainably farmed forests in the world – will be bottled next month. A full-scale switchover for the rest of the supermarket's 6m bottles of own-brand wine, champagne, and sparkling wines using the FSC-certified corks will be completed by the end of 2010.

The move is the largest yet by a single UK retailer. A spokesman for the Co-operative Group said it planned to introduce

FSC-certified corks in 2010 on about a third of its own-brand wines.

The use of FSC corks could reduce the threat of extinction of a number of endangered species living in forests such as the Mediterranean Cork Oak forests. These include the Iberian lynx, of which there are fewer than 100 remaining, and the Iberian imperial eagle, of which only 150 breeding pairs remain.

Cork oak trees are unique in their ability to regenerate after their bark has been harvested. This means that cork forests undergo fewer disturbances than conventional commercial forests, creating a unique and valuable eco-system. FSC certification is considered the best way to protect this environment for the long-term benefit of communities living and working in these regions, as well as the indigenous wildlife. In order to gain certification, cork producers have to ensure that they have minimal impact on biodiversity in the area, while also ensuring that harvesting practice is fully sustainable.

But while Sainsbury's move was welcomed by conservationists as a step in the right direction, it is a small step. Natural corks are used for about 80% of the 20bn bottles produced globally each year.

The growing popularity of plastic corks and screw caps has raised fears about the long-term future of cork oak forests. Sainsbury's wine maker, Barry Dick, said the type of closure used to seal bottles was based on quality, style and appellation laws which stipulate the type of closure that best suits each individual wine. Natural corks are important for certain types of wine – particularly for bold reds – because they allow oxygen to interact with wine for proper ageing, for example.

Dick commented: "Where we use cork, it is important to us to make sure that the harvesting of that cork makes a positive contribution to the wildlife in the area, while at the same time managing traceability, consistency and quality to ensure our wines taste their best."

Julia Young, Manager of WWF's Global Forest and Trade Network in the UK said: "The fragile cork oak forests are part of the unique natural heritage of the Mediterranean; a valuable and threatened forest region right on our doorstep. Leadership like this sets the bar for UK retailers as Sainsbury's achieve a first going into the New Year, and an iconic forest habitat faces a more secure future."

Charles Thwaites, executive director of FSC UK, added: "We tend to associate trees with everyday goods such as timber, paper and tissues. But supporting the cork industry so that cork-oak forests continue to thrive is vital to the local ecology, especially in the Iberian peninsular. We hope Sainsbury's example will tempt other companies to make similar commitments and together we will preserve these precious landscapes and habitats."


[Environment > Coal]
Investing in coal is dysfunctional
Power companies, investment bankers and pension fund managers are fuelling an unlivable future – with our money
Jeremy Leggett
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 December 2009 14.23 GMT Article history

The acid test of the Copenhagen climate change summit was always going to be coal. Had governments managed to come up with a meaningful agreement, those who seek to continue burning coal would have faced significant risk that they would be spending their money on what investors call "strandable" assets – assets that become obsolete and therefore worthless. And for their part, financial institutions would have had to think twice whether they should keep pouring billions of dollars into new coal-fired electricity generation, seeking short-term returns while knowingly fuelling future climate ruin that is not costed in today's books.

But there was no meaningful agreement. And so we see the first in the queue to foist coal horrors upon us already knocking at the door. Since Copenhagen, E.ON has announced that any further emissions cuts by the company will depend on governments making progress in 2010 in the climate negotiations. E.ON and Centrica have both said they are less likely to build coal plants attempting carbon capture and storage. We can expect to see similar sentiments from most of the other big energy companies. Enlightened business leadership ahead of legislation is not their bag. More plans for unsequestered coal, without trapping and burying the carbon dioxide, will be the best we can expect.

To be fair to the power companies, the fault is wider. Most investors expect this behaviour of them. Most banks, insurance companies and pension funds are happy, as things stand, to continue investing in coal.

When it comes to the London Stock Exchange, they will have their first major chance soon. The largest Russian steam coal producer is eyeing an initial public offering in London during the first half of 2010. Suek, owned by two oligarchs, is worth $8-9bn (£5-6bn), and will be floating as many as a quarter of its shares. As one anonymous banker put it to Reuters: "There haven't been any good opportunities in this sector for a long time, and the sector is on its way up, so therefore this will be a positive story."

Of course, at the same time, those buying shares will be fuelling long-term wealth destruction – let me not be so base as to mention killing people to boot, let's stick to the money – by stoking climate change. This is the bottom line with the dysfunctional form of capitalism we have allowed to evolve. And the most galling thing is this: the bonus cultists are doing it, in large part, with our money.

A pension fund manager invests billions built up from tiny parcels of the peoples' pension contributions. He is rewarded, like everyone else in the temples of finance, on the basis of short-term returns. That the pension holder might retire into a world that is increasingly unliveable because of the actions of his fund manager features nowhere in any bonus calculation.

Hugo Chávez gloatingly told the Copenhagen summit that capitalism is to blame for climate change. He has more than half a point. After this failure of a summit many leaders had cast as a last-chance saloon, surely now we have to think hard about capitalism in the form we have allowed it to evolve.

The fact is that as things stand – to use the parlance of the investment bankers who will scrabble to win the Russian coal business and the pension fund managers who will line up to invest in the listing – there is no place on the global balance sheet for the assets most relevant to the survival of economies: ecosystems and civilisation. There is plenty of space for spectres they label as assets while shovelling the attendant megarisks off the books. That is the real bottom line.

Unless, that is, we can mobilise enough people-power, on enough fronts, for the citizenry to turn around the course of a war in which our leaders are currently displaying toothless impotence. The listing by Suek, and the role of our money it, might be a good place to start.

Any company investing in that IPO is a company that I will no longer bank or insure with. And any pension fund investing in it is one that I will encourage all my friends to switch their pension out of.

Jeremy Leggett, jeremyleggett.net, set up his company, Solarcentury, to fight climate change.

news20091231gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Carbon emissions]
Humiliation for green convert Sarkozy as carbon tax ruled unconstitutionalFrench court judges tax would punish households while letting off big industrial polluters
Lizzy Davies in Paris
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 December 2009 16.13 GMT Article history

Nicolas Sarkozy's dreams of putting France on the frontline of the fight against global warming were in disarray today, after his flagship carbon tax was ruled unconstitutional two days before it was due to come into effect.

In an unexpected and embarrassing blow, the court responsible for ensuring the validity of French legislation rejected the reform as ineffective and unfair.

It ruled that rather than being the revolutionary measure Sarkozy promised, the tax would have let off many industrial polluters, while placing a disproportionately heavy burden on ordinary households.

"The large number of exemptions from the carbon tax runs counter to the goal of fighting climate change and violates the equality enjoyed by all in terms of public charges," said the constitutional council in its eleventh hour ruling last night.

Scrambling to salvage a project which the President had vigorously defended against criticism from opposition politicians, green groups and members of his own party, the government insisted today the carbon tax had not been put off for good. "It is a tough fight, but a worthwhile one," said spokesman Luc Chatel. Ministers promised a revised text within weeks.

However, there was little the government could do to distract from the humiliation of having a much-trailed reform batted back by the sages of the august constitutional council.

Nor will the hopes of a new and improved plan do much to calm heightening worries over revenue. Even if a revised proposal is made, the tax – which was expected to raise €1.5bn (£1.34bn) during 2010 – will take weeks to reach parliament again and even longer to start boosting state coffers.

The opposition Socialist party made no secret of their glee at seeing the right-wing president fall at the final hurdle of his marathon battle to introduce a tax which was opposed by two-thirds of the public.

"This is a good decision and shows once again that Sarkozy's way of doing things does not work," the Socialist party's parliamentary leader, Jean-Marc Ayrault, told French radio. "They announce a reform, listen to no one and produce a poor job. It's a real mess."

Sarkozy, who has championed the environmental cause with increasing vigour since the strong performance of the French Greens in June's European elections, set out his vision for the carbon tax in September with the zeal of the ecological convert he claims to be. "It's a question of survival of the human race," he said. A tax of €17 (£17.22) per tonne of carbon emissions would have been levied on oil, coal and gas consumption.

But, while green campaigners warned the tax was not high enough to be effective, the Socialists and consumer groups claimed it would lead to an unfair situation in which certain people, such as car-dependant households in isolated areas, would be hit harder than the real culprits.

The ruling of the constitutional council appeared to support those criticisms. It said that more than 1,000 of France's biggest polluters could have been exempted from the charges, and that 93% of industrial emissions would not have been taxed.

However, many big polluters are required to participate in the EU emissions trading scheme, in which they must buy carbon permits if they exceed pollution targets.

Speaking on French radio this yesterday morning, the junior minister for trade and consumption admitted mistakes had been made. "It was perhaps shocking that the sectors given exemptions were those that polluted the most," said Hervé Novelli. "So we will have to put that right."

Sarkozy, who is returning tonight from a Christmas break in Morocco with his wife Carla Bruni, has made no public comment on the setback. But Chantal Jouanno, the junior minister for ecology, said he remained "very determined" to get a carbon tax into law before the summer.


[Environment > Endangered species]
Vultures face extinction as gamblers seek visions of the futureInhaling smoked vulture's brain confers gift of premonition, according to vendors of traditional medicine in parts of Africa
David Smith in Johannesburg
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 December 2009 17.52 GMT Article history

It's a tiny organ that, the superstition goes, holds the secrets of the future. When smoked and inhaled, the brain of a vulture is said to confer the gift of premonition. To put it bluntly, most users hope to sneak a look at next week's national lottery numbers.

Such is the demand for vulture brains to use in muti – traditional medicine – that wildlife experts fear the birds could be driven to extinction within two or three decades. They also warn that hunting could intensify as gamblers seek an advantage when betting on the football World Cup in South Africa.

Vultures' acute vision, and ability to find prey, has kindled a belief that they possess clairvoyant powers. Their brains are dried and rolled into a cigarette or inhaled as vapours in the hope they will bring a vision of the future - including lottery numbers and sports results.

Andre Botha, manager of the birds of prey working group at the Endangered Wildlife Trust in South Africa, said: "People believe it's foresight and this finds fertile ground in people's imagination. If it worked for the lottery, everyone would use it and we'd have a lot of millionaires walking around today.

"There is a lot of betting in South Africa. So we may see an increase connected to gambling around the 2010 World Cup."

A 2007 study found that 160 vultures are sold a year for muti in eastern South Africa, with the total across the region thought to be much higher. About 1,000 are killed every year in Tanzania alone.

The birds are shot, trapped or poisoned by hunters. One tactic is to poison an animal so the vultures that feed on the carcass themselves fall victim. "You can have 300 or 400 converge on a poisoned carcass and all be wiped out," Botha added. Brains and other body parts are then sold at street markets or shops in Johannesburg and other cities.

Steve McKean, a researcher at the conservation body Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, was quoted by South Africa's Star newspaper: "Traditional use as it is currently happening is likely to render vultures extinct in southern Africa on its own within 20 to 30 years."

Seven of the nine species of vulture are rated endangered. Botha said there was demand for the bearded vulture in Eastern Cape province. Traditional healers prefer that the bird be captured alive as the head needs to be removed while it is still living so that "the brain does not flow down into the spinal cord" and the muti loses its potency.

news20091231gdn3

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Business > Royal Dutch Shell]
Shell must face Friends of the Earth Nigeria claim in Netherlands
Shell disappointed at Hague court ruling on Oruma oil spill compensation case
Terry Macalister
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 December 2009 22.00 GMT Article history

A judge in the Netherlands has opened the door to a potential avalanche of legal cases against Shell over environmental degradation said to be caused by its oil operations in the Niger Delta.

The oil group expressed "disappointment" tonight that a court in The Hague had agreed to allow Friends of the Earth Netherlands and four local Nigerian farmers to bring a compensation case in its backyard for the first time.

Environmental campaigners insisted the case in the Netherlands was only being brought as a final resort and they declined to put a figure on the kind of damages stemming from the test case involving four farmers and alleged pollution at Oruma in Bayelsa state. But they said a variety of independent organisations in the past had estimated that the wider oil industry may be responsible for up to $20bn (£12.5bn) worth of damage as a result of pipeline spills and flaring of gas.

Geert Ritsema, a spokesman for the Dutch environmentalist group, said: "For years, these people have been trying to get Shell to clean up its mess and stop polluting their habitat. However, again and again they have come away empty-handed.

"That is why they are now trying to get justice in the Netherlands. The court decision is an initial victory for all Nigerians that have been fighting for years for a cleaner habitat and justice," he added.

Friends of the Earth claims the oil spills are not accidents but represent a pattern of systematic pollution and contempt for the rights of the local population that had been going on for decades, something denied by the oil group.

Up until now compensation claims have been brought in Nigeria, but many have become bogged down in a congested court system.

Alai Efanga, one of the plaintiffs in the Oruma case, said: "Our village was pleased with the [initial] decision of the Dutch court. We hope that Shell will now quickly clean up the oil pollution so that we can resume growing food and fishing."

The three other plaintiffs are all farmers and fishermen from the villages of Oruma, Goi and Ikot Ada Udo, all located in the oil-rich Niger Delta, which is one of Shell's most important oil-producing areas. The substantive hearing of the first lawsuit is expected to be held in the spring of 2010 but Shell said it continued to believe that the case should not be heard in the Netherlands.

A Shell spokesman said: "It is with disappointment that we learned of the district court ruling. We believe there are good arguments on the basis of which the district court could have concluded that it lacks jurisdiction in respect of SPDC [Shell Petroleum Development Corporation] in these purely Nigerian matters."

Friends of the Earth Netherlands said an important hurdle had been overcome paving the way for an appropriate court hearing. But oil industry sources said that Shell was being unfairly targeted, given that the oil spill had been caused in the first place by sabotage.

Last June, the oil group agreed to pay $15.5m in settlement of a legal action in which it was accused of having collaborated in the execution of the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other leaders of the Ogoni tribe of southern Nigeria.

The settlement, reached on the eve of the trial in a federal court in New York, was one of the largest payouts agreed by a multinational corporation charged with human rights violations.

Shell has also been under heavy fire from environmentalists over allegations of unnecessary flaring of gas from oil wells, something that is regarded as a prime source of global warming.


[Environment > Climate change]
Climate change increasing malaria risk, research reveals
UK-funded research shows climate change has caused a seven-fold increase in cases of malaria on the slopes of Mount Kenya
Press Association
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 31 December 2009 11.19 GMT Article history

Rising temperatures on the slopes of Mount Kenya have put an extra 4 million people at risk of malaria, research funded by the UK government warned today.

Climate change has raised average temperatures in the Central Highlands region of Kenya, allowing the disease to creep into higher altitude areas where the population has little or no immunity.

The findings by a research team funded by the UK Department for International Development (DfID), showed that seven times more people are contracting the disease in outbreaks in the region than 10 years ago.

The team from the Kenyan Medical Research Institute (Kemri) said that while similar outbreaks elsewhere have been attributed to multiple factors including drug resistance and changes in land use, the only change on Mount Kenya is a rise in temperature.

The average temperature in the Central Highlands was 17C in 1989, with malaria completely absent from the region. This is because the parasite which causes malaria can only mature above 18C.

But with temperatures today averaging 19C, mosquitos are carrying the disease into high altitude areas and epidemics have begun to break out among humans.

Kemri is using climate models to predict when epidemics might occur up to three months in advance, giving authorities time to stock up on medicine and warn the public of the dangers.

The institute is also using church meetings and local health clinics to educate people in high-altitude areas on how climate change could be leading to the spread of malaria into their area.

In the west Kenyan highlands, where malaria has been present since the late 1980s, programmes have been providing mosquito nets for people to sleep under - with DfID providing 14m bed nets since 2001.

But because malaria is a relatively new phenomenon, less than half of those who own bed nets use them, DfID said.

In areas where researchers have been encouraging people to use them the incidence of malaria has dropped markedly and epidemics have been all but eradicated.

The international development secretary, Douglas Alexander, said: "The spread of malaria in the Mount Kenya region is a worrying sign of things to come.

"Without strong and urgent action to tackle climate change, malaria could infect areas without any experience of the disease.

"That's why we need to make sure vulnerable, developing nations such as Kenya have the support they need to tackle the potentially devastating impacts of climate change."

news20091231gdn4

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[News > Science]
The year ahead: science
Is this finally the year that artificial life will be created?
Ian Sample
The Guardian, Thursday 31 December 2009 Article history

The year ahead is shaping up to be one long celebration for the world's oldest science academy. The Royal Society formed on a dreary night in London 350 years ago, when the acquisition of scientific knowledge was little more than a hobby for amateurs and polymaths. As part of the celebrations, world-leading researchers have been invited to Britain to thrash out the most pressing questions facing science today: what is consciousness? Where did the universe come from? How are we ever going to feed everybody? Whatever the scientists decide, it will reflect the agenda for the next two decades.

Science and scientists have been transformed since the creation of the society and the year ahead will emphasise this. Modern science is more complicated and costly. It is dominated by huge groups, not individuals. It is more international, professional and specialised.

A decade ago, scientists from more than 80 countries began the world's first comprehensive census of sea life. In 2010, they will publish their results, giving us the first global snapshot of ocean life from the Arctic to the Antarctic, via corals, continental shelves and deep-sea vents.

The importance of the Census for Marine Life project is hard to overstate. It will help to predict the future health of the oceans; to spot species on the brink of extinction and highlight spectacular new species that had hitherto gone unnoticed. It will quantify the biodiversity of the oceans and give scientists unprecedented insight into these complex and fragile ecosystems.

The new year also marks the beginning of a critical period for physics. The Large Hadron Collider at Cern, the European Nuclear Research Organisation near Geneva, will go into full operation and begin crashing subatomic particles together at unprecedented energies. The future of physics hangs on what scientists find there. The long-sought-for Higgs boson, which confers mass on fundamental particles, is one hoped-for discovery. Before that, Cern scientists might create previously unseen particles that prove a theory called supersymmetry, which pairs every particle in the universe with a heavier twin. Some of these might make up the mysterious and invisible dark matter that accounts for a quarter of the mass of the universe.

If the optimists are to be believed, the year ahead will see tentative steps towards stem-cell-based medical treatments. Geron, the US biotech company, expects to launch its first clinical trial of embryonic stem cells in patients with spinal-cord injuries. Laboratories around the world are racing to make stem cells from patients' skin, a technique that raises the possibility of treating a person's illness with their own cells.

The steady advances in genetics are beginning to bear fruit and will continue in the coming year. The cost of reading a person's whole genome is falling almost by the month, making the technology cheap enough for mainstream use in hospitals. In the year ahead, doctors will use genetic sequencing machines to pinpoint the genetic defects that drive patients' cancers, information that should help them select more effective drug treatments.

Finally, this could be the year that Craig Venter, the American genetics pioneer, achieves his goal of creating artificial life. A mere microbe it may be, but if Venter pulls it off, he will have opened the door to a new and potentially powerful branch of science. Venter's forceful style and taste for competition have seen him cast as the bad boy of modern science but, more than anyone, he personifies the spirit of individualism that has underpinned the success of the Royal Society since its birth.

news20091231gdn5

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Comment is free]
As threats multiply and power fragments, the coming decade cries out for realistic idealism
A foiled terrorist attack must not lure us back to simplistic illusions. Strategic co-operation between old and new powers is the order of the next decade if we are to tackle the big issues
Timothy Garton Ash
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 December 2009 23.00 GMT Article history

An Islamist terrorist caught trying to crash a plane over Detroit creates a flash of illusory clarity. The decade might have ended with another 9/11. So was George Bush right after all? Is the "global war on terror" the defining struggle of our times?

In which case, what about climate change? And the fact that more than a billion human beings have to live on less than $1 a day? And nuclear proliferation; the threat of a worldwide pandemic; the crisis of globalised capitalism – not to mention the old-fashioned risk of war between states, which always increases as rising powers jostle for position with established ones?

When vendors of the Big Issue accost me at street corners with cries of "Big Issue! Big Issue!", I want to say: "Yes, but which one?" Islamist terrorism is a big issue. It will take a long struggle to reduce the threat to a bearable minimum, and that struggle will need to be conducted more skilfully than it has been over the last 10 years. But the trouble with the decade that starts tomorrow is that there are already half a dozen other king-size threats to the freedoms and way of life enjoyed by most – though not all – who live in developed liberal democracies. And that's before the 2010s have even begun.

There is, however, a pattern that is common to most of these big issues, and may therefore itself stake a claim to be the big issue. We face more and more risks, threats and challenges that affect people in one country – say, Britain – but originate mainly or entirely in other countries, and can only be addressed by many countries working together. That is true of the financial crisis, organised crime, mass migration, global warming, pandemics and international terrorism, to name but a few. The need for international co-operation has never been greater, but the supply has not kept up with the demand. In some areas, we have more international co-operation than we had 10 or 20 years ago. In important ways, however, it has become more difficult to achieve.

One of the main reasons for the difficulty is that power has been diffused both vertically and horizontally. I have written "countries" and "international" co-operation, but the power of national governments is increasingly constrained by multinational companies, banks, markets, media, non-governmental organisations and information flows, by international organisations supposedly above governments and by regions (including nations within states), provinces and cities supposedly beneath them. Beside this vertical diffusion there is the horizontal one: from the west and north to the east and south, with the emergence of new (or new-old) great powers to compete with the United States, Europe and Russia. The rise of China is the most important, and will be a central story of the 2010s, but there are also India, Brazil, South Africa, and others.

None of this is yet properly reflected in the institutional arrangements of the post-1945 international organisations, be it the permanent membership of the UN security council or voting rights in the International Monetary Fund. Historically, major shifts in the power relations between states have usually been accompanied by war. Rereading Samuel Huntington's book The Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of World Order, first published in 1996, I was reminded that he imagines a Chinese-American war taking place in 2010. Things are not that bad yet, but over the next few decades, the mere avoidance of a major war, whether between China and America or inside Asia, will require conscious effort and statecraft of a high order. Yet this age of transnational problems demands not merely states that don't fight each other – the most basic condition of international order – but states that actively co-operate with each other as they have never done before.

Back in 2000, the United States could still have given a decisive lead, but it wasted a huge opportunity in the eight years of President Bush. The American foreign policy expert Richard Haass, himself a member of the Bush administration in its early years, talks of "a decade of strategic distraction". Now Barack Obama is trying to pick up the pieces, but it may be too late. Historians may yet say: Bush could have, but wouldn't; Obama would have, but couldn't.

At decade's end, the Copenhagen summit on climate change was a perfect vignette of this world of global problems without global governance. In theory, the nearly 200 states of the so-called "international community" would, under UN auspices, seal a legally binding international agreement to address the most obviously global challenge of our time. In practice, at 7pm on the very last day, the US president walked in to what is described as an "unscheduled meeting" with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao and the leaders of India, Brazil and South Africa, and asked "Mr Premier, are you ready to see me?" The five – America, China, India, Brazil, South Africa – then cobbled together a weak political declaration of intent, which the conference subsequently, under protest, endorsed. At the crucial meeting, Europe was nowhere to be seen. Europe's leaders were then photographed huddling disconsolately around a coffee table with Obama, looking like the losing team in a pub quiz.

So at the start of the 2010s we have not so much a multi-polar as a no-polar world. The internet and other forms of instant, worldwide communication offer unprecedented chances for making transnational campaigns on particular issues, but this is no substitute for what, in the jargon, is called global governance. The key to that, even within the international organisations, still lies with the governments of states. For all the proliferation of non-state actors, we still live in a world of states; and, I'll take a bet, still will in 2020. The EU is the exception that proves the rule: it, too, can ultimately only do what the governments of its member states allow it to do.

There are some initiatives we can take directly as citizens. The 10:10 campaign to cut our own personal carbon footprints by 10% by the end of 2010 is a good example. But, rationally, the main target of political activism must continue to be governments. Beyond what our own governments do in our own countries, the ones that matter most will continue to be the most powerful ones. That is simply a fact of life.

According to the best available projections, by 2020, the US, China and the EU will between them produce around half the world's GDP. If, on any of the big issues, you had a shared position of this "G3", together with some or all of the most relevant other major powers, such as Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa, that would not be the end of the matter. You would still want to go, perhaps via the G20, to the broadest possible international coalition, ideally under UN auspices. But it would be a very good beginning. To build such strategic coalitions of the willing and able, coalitions that will vary from issue to issue, is the daunting task of realistic idealism in the 2010s.

news20091231bbc1

[One-Minute World News] from [BBC NEWS]

[Science & Environment]
Page last updated at 01:13 GMT, Thursday, 31 December 2009
By Jason Palmer
Science and technology reporter, BBC News
Honour for top science educator
John Holman, a lifelong champion of science and technology education, is among the scientists to appear in the New Year Honours list.
{Prof Holman holds the government's top post in science education}

Professor Holman, who leads the National Science Learning Centre, is awarded a knighthood.

Prehistory expert Paul Mellars and RSPB director Graham Wynne also receive knighthoods, while nuclear physicist Sue Ion becomes a dame.

Further honours for scientists include two CBEs, three OBEs, and nine MBEs.

"I'm delighted; it's an enormous personal honour and somewhat overwhelming," Sir John told BBC News.

"But more importantly I think that it's a recognition of the importance of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to the future of the UK and to the lives of millions of young people."

Sir John studied natural sciences at Cambridge University, going on to teach in a number of secondary schools and soon began advising on science education nationally and internationally.

In the late 1980s, when the National Curriculum standardised teaching across the UK, it was he who wrote the science curriculum.

After six years as headmaster of Watford Grammar School for Boys, in 2000 he came to the University of York as Salters Professor of Chemical Education, founding the National Science Learning Centre in 2004.

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In 2006, he also became the first national director of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) for the government, a post Sir John refers to as "conducting an orchestra of groups inside and outside the government" where the sole motive is STEM education.

"We're in difficult economic times but it's quite clear that one thing this country is very good at is science and technology - but we need to maintain that and build on the strength of that as the core of a future economic strategy."

Honour roll

Also honoured is Sue Ion, a visiting professor at Imperial College London and chair of the UK Fusion Advisory Board, who becomes a dame for her services to science and engineering.

{Prof Ion is a renowned expert in nuclear fuels and technology}

A former head of technology for British Nuclear Fuels Limited, she has served as vice president of the Royal Academy of Engineering and on councils of the Engineering and Physical Sciences and Particle Physics and Astronomy research councils.

Graham Wynne, the head of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), has been awarded a knighthood for his services to nature conservation.

Paul Mellars, professor of pre-history and human evolution at the University of Cambridge, receives a knighthood for his services to scholarship.

Two Fellows of the Royal Society - physics professor Donal Bradley, of Imperial College London, and Alastair Fitter, pro-vice chancellor for research at the University of York, are made CBEs for their services to science and environmental science, respectively.


[Science & Environment]
Page last updated at 09:18 GMT, Thursday, 31 December 2009
Russia 'plans to stop asteroid'
The head of Russia's federal space agency has said it will work to divert an asteroid which will make several passes near the Earth from 2029.
{Mr Perminov said Roscosmos' science council would hold a 'closed meeting'}

Anatoly Perminov told the Voice of Russia radio service that the agency's science council would hold a closed meeting to discuss the issue.

Any eventual plan is likely to be an international collaboration, he said.

The US space agency said in October that there is a one-in-250,000 chance of Apophis hitting Earth in 2036.

That announcement was a significant reduction in the probability of an impact, based on previous calculations that put the chances at about one-in-45,000. The asteroid is estimated to pass within about 30,000 km of the Earth in 2029.

Mr Perminov, who is the chief of Roscosmos, gave little detail of any plans that the agency has, but was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying that the solution would not entail the use of nuclear weapons.

Other schemes that have been put forth in the past for diverting asteroids from collision courses include spacecraft that nudge the space rocks out of their trajectory through force, or diverting them with "solar sails" that use the wind of particles ejected from the Sun.

"People's lives are at stake," Mr Perminov reportedly told the radio service Golos Rossii (Voice of Russia).

"We should pay several hundred million dollars and build a system that would allow us to prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people."


[Technology]
Page last updated at 15:17 GMT, Wednesday, 30 December 2009
Spinvox bought by Nuance for £64m
UK firm Spinvox, which converts voicemails into texts, has been bought by speech recognition company Nuance for $102.5m (£64m).
{SpinVox had been given extra time to repay a £30m loan.}

The deal is worth $66m in cash and $36.5m in stock, about a third of the previously rumoured $146m price tag.

Nuance told BBC News it is too early to say what impact the deal will have on Spinvox's 230 staff.

It also declined to comment on whether Spinvox founders Christina Domecq and Daniel Doulton will remain on board.

"At the beginning of the year Spinvox was riding high as one of Britain's most promising technology companies," said BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones.

"But the year has ended with it being sold at a knock-down price which means its investors are not likely to see much of a return."

More than $200m has been invested in the company so far and it had also been given a £30m loan.

"Nuance is likely to have been more interested in Spinvox's contracts with major telecoms firms - such as Telefonica - than in its technology," added Mr Cellan-Jones.

Spinvox investor Invesco Perpetual had confirmed in September that Spinvox was up for sale.

In recent months doubts had been cast on how effective Spinvox's speech-to-text software actually was.

The company claims to use advanced voice recognition software for its service, but the BBC found that human operators were also involved in transcribing many messages.

"Around the world, the voice-to-text market has experienced tremendous growth over the last year," said John Pollard, vice president of Nuance Voice-to-Text Services.

"With Spinvox's robust infrastructure, language support and operational experience, we will broaden the reach and capabilities of our platform."


[Technology]
Page last updated at 07:42 GMT, Thursday, 31 December 2009
Apple wins iPod hearing dispute
A US appeals court has ruled in favour of Apple in a lawsuit claiming that the iPod was could be responsible for hearing loss.
{Apple has sold more than 220 million iPods since the 2001 launch.}

The judge upheld a 2008 ruling, saying "the plaintiffs simply do not plead facts showing that hearing loss from iPod use is actual or imminent".

He also noted that Apple issues a warning with each of the music players.

The two claimants said the iPod was defective because users can listen to it at the unsafe level of 115 decibels.

Apple has sold more than 220 million iPods since its launch in 2001.

"The plaintiffs do not allege the iPods failed to do anything they were designed to do nor do they allege that they, or any others, have suffered or are substantially certain to suffer inevitable hearing loss or other injury from iPod use," Senior Judge David Thompson wrote in a statement.

He added: "At most, the plaintiffs plead a potential risk of hearing loss not to themselves, but to other unidentified iPod users."

news20091231bbc2

[One-Minute World News] from [BBC NEWS]

[Technology]
Page last updated at 10:42 GMT, Thursday, 31 December 2009
By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley
New visa proposal to help create the next big thing
A proposal that will make it easier for foreign entrepreneurs in the US to start the next Google or Yahoo will be debated in the new year.

Congressman Jared Polis has proposed a start-up visa to entice "foreigners with good ideas" to stay in the US.

The issue has been gathering steam in Silicon Valley where half of all tech company founders are immigrants, according to Duke University research.

The idea is part of a proposed overhaul of the US immigration system.

"Every day the American economy is losing ground - not to mention high-tech jobs and technologies - to India and China because foreign-born entrepreneurs cannot secure a visa to stay in the US," he said.

Lost opportunity

Eric Diep, who has just turned 22, could be regarded as one entrepreneur who got away.

He came to Silicon Valley as a student like many immigrant founders who have helped start companies such as Google and PayPal.

Mr Diep was one of the first developers to get into social games with his application called Quizzes, initially launched on the social networking site Facebook.

{Google, Pfizer, Yahoo and eBay were in-part founded by immigrants}

Over a year ago he started to apply for a visa to allow him to carry on working in the Valley, but he soon encountered problems.

"The reason it was so difficult for me was because I dropped out of university and the stipulation for a lot of visas is undergraduate experience. My age also seemed to be an issue for the attorneys

"At the beginning it wasn't the expense in terms of legal fees but the big problem soon became one of distraction. I was trying to spend as much time working on perfecting my product but then I would have to go away and figure out the legalities of applying for the visa," Mr Diep told BBC News.

In the end, Mr Diep decided to base himself in his native Canada and travel back and forth to Silicon Valley.

"The flying is so tiring between the two places and it's expensive. At one point, I had no money left in my bank account but at the last minute money came in and now I feel pretty fortunate that I can still do this.

"It was a pretty close call," he added.

He backs a start-up visa because, for him, being in Silicon Valley is where he needs to be.

"Being there at the time really launched me. I would never have spotted the social gaming opportunity had I not been there."

Visa details

The start-up visa is aimed at streamlining the country's EB-5 visa system which was initially introduced in 1990 to attract foreign capital to the US.

Each year 10,000 EB-5 visas are available but to get one, applicants need to invest $1m and create 10 full-time jobs.

Mr Polis said he wants "a new class of eligibility" with the start-up visa.

{The new visa would require $100k-$250k in venture capital funding}

It would be granted to foreign entrepreneurs if their business plan attracts either $250,000 from a venture capital operating company that is primarily US based or $100,000 from an angel investor.

They must also show that the business will create five to ten jobs or generate a profit and at least $1m in revenue.

Some of these requirements may well be changed when the bill goes to committee in the new year.

"Immigration reform is a big discussion in Washington," said supporter Brad Feld, who is also a managing director with venture company the Foundry Group.

"We think the start-up visa is an easy thing to talk about and get consensus around in terms of having a positive spin on entrepreneurship and creating jobs."

Job creation

Some critics fear that making it easier for entrepreneurs to set up shop will hurt Americans by taking jobs away from them.

"I feel incredibly strongly that that is a misinterpretation of the proposal," said Eric Ries a venture advisor and author.

{Start-up companies are needed to boost the economy say backer of the visa}

"Some people have called those opposed to new immigration reform xenophobes and that is why I think it is important we craft this proposal so it addresses those concerns. This is not a new visa category but reform of an existing but flawed category," he told BBC News.

The proposal's backers say that far from taking away jobs, new jobs will emerge that were never there in the first place.

"If the capital is available for the market, we should jump to bring those people here. Those jobs only get created once the founders get funded. This is a market driven decision," said Dave McClure, an internet entrepreneur, investor and start-up advisor.

YouNoodle is a start-up company founded by two British entrepreneurs. It tracks the start-up sector and said the figures speak for themselves.

"If just ten thousand start-up visas were made available this would mean over 3000 additional new innovative and funded companies would be based in the US every year," said Kirill Makharinsky, YouNoodle co-founder.

"They would generate more than 10,000 jobs on average every year. In the first 10 years that would add up to over 500,000 highly-skilled new jobs

"So the upside is huge and the downside is negligible because no jobs are being taken away from US citizens," Mr Makharinsky told BBC News.

And for Mr McClure, the consequences of not establishing a start-up visa class are obvious.

"We will lose out because we are not being competitive with the rest of the world," he said.

"There are similar programmes in Canada, the UK and Australia. They are all vying for the top entrepreneurs and if we only look at our own citizens, we are only taking 10-20% of the world's talent into consideration here. That would be short-sighted in the extreme."

news20091231cnn1

[Top stories] from [CNN.com]

[U.S.]
December 31, 2009 -- Updated 1146 GMT (1946 HKT)
Poll: Americans less hopeful about future
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> Poll finds 69 percent hopeful for selves, 51 percent hopeful for world
> Numbers well below confidence figures at turn of millennium
> In 1999, 85 percent were hopeful for selves, 68 percent for world

CNN) -- Americans will usher in the new decade less hopeful than they were at the dawn of the millennium in 2000, says a new national poll.

In 1999, 85 percent of Americans surveyed said they were hopeful about their own future, and 68 percent said they were hopeful for what the New Year boded for the world.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Thursday found 69 percent of Americans hopeful for their future, and 51 percent hopeful for the world.

The survey polled 1,160 Americans. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.


[World]
December 31, 2009 -- Updated 1033 GMT (1833 HKT)
Taliban claims responsibility for bombing
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> Not known how bomber got past security at Forward Operating Base Chapman
> Source: 8 Americans killed in attack believed to be CIA employees
Suicide bomber struck forward operating base in eastern Afghanistan, military says
> In separate incident, four Canadian soldiers and a reporter killed near Kandahar

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The Taliban has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing Wednesday that killed eight Americans believed to be CIA employees.

In a message posted on its Web site, the Taliban said an Afghan National Army soldier detonated his explosives-packed vest, killing 20 people and injuring 25 others.

A spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force's (ISAF) Joint Command would not comment on the claim that a soldier was involved, saying the force was still gathering information.

The Taliban routinely offers a higher casualty count, accounting for the discrepancy in their claim and the official death toll.

Earlier, a senior U.S. official said information suggested a bomber walked into a gym facility at Forward Operating Base Chapman and detonated a suicide vest. It's not known how the bomber got past security.

In addition to the eight deaths, the blast wounded six Americans, the official said.

A U.S. military source said that FOB Chapman was originally a base for the Khost Provincial Construction Team, but the team left some time ago.

Authorities believe that perhaps the suicide bomber attacked just after a convoy was ending or beginning, which would account for high number of casualties.

Also Wednesday, five Canadians -- four soldiers and a journalist -- were killed when a roadside bomb hit their armored vehicle in southern Afghanistan, Canada's defense ministry said.

The attack happened about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) south of Kandahar, where the Canadian contingent in Afghanistan is headquartered.

"The soldiers were conducting a community security patrol in order to gather information on the pattern of life and maintain security in the area," Brig. Gen. Daniel Menard, the commander of the 2,800-member Canadian contingent, told reporters. "The journalist was traveling with them to tell the story of what Canada's soldiers are doing in Afghanistan."

Four other Canadian troops and a civilian official also were injured in the attack, he said.

The Calgary Herald identified the reporter as Michelle Lang, 34, who had been with the paper since 2002. Lang is the first Canadian journalist killed in the Afghan war and is believed to be the first Herald reporter killed while on the job.

The deaths bring the number of Canadian military fatalities in Afghanistan to 138. The names of the troops were not immediately released.

The deaths are the most Canadians killed in a single incident in Afghanistan since six Canadian soldiers died in a bombing on July 4, 2007.


[World]
December 30, 2009 -- Updated 1457 GMT (2257 HKT)
Part of complete coverage on
Protests in Iran
Iran opposition leader's nephew buried after riots
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> Saeed Ali Moussavi's body was delivered to his family early Wednesday
> Not clear how Moussavi died, though some claim he was shot
> Iranian government has denied that its security forces killed anyone

Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- The nephew of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi was buried Wednesday, three days after he was killed in anti-government demonstrations.

Seyyed Ali Moussavi's body was delivered to his family early Wednesday and buried at Tehran's Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery around 10:30 a.m. (2 a.m. ET). There were no demonstrations or disturbances during the burial, and several plain-clothed and uniformed security personnel were patrolling the area.

A reformist Web site, Parlemannews, had reported Tuesday that Moussavi's body had disappeared, though the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) disputed that account.

Moussavi was one of seven people killed in the riots Sunday, according to Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, Tehran's chief prosecutor. The toll meant the riots were the bloodiest since June, when protests over the disputed presidential election that gave Ahmadinejad a second term left at least eight dead.

The Iranian government has denied that its security forces killed anyone.

It is not clear how Moussavi died, though his uncle's political movement said he was shot to death.

Dolatabadi said one of those killed was fatally shot and the case is under investigation, but he did not identify the victim. He said most of the seven deaths occurred after the people were struck with "hard objects or due to similar causes."

Mir Hossein Moussavi's Web site said the nephew was killed in the demonstrations by a shot to the heart. But IRNA said the bullet came from a "terror team," and that other such teams were operating in Tehran. It did not offer further details.

The semi-official Mehr news agency quoted security forces Tuesday as explaining that the nephew was standing on a street at midday Sunday when he was "assassinated by firearm by the occupants of a passing vehicle, and died because of the delay in taking him to the hospital."

"He died of severe bleeding on the way to the hospital," Mehr reported. "Efforts to identify the culprit or culprits continue."

Parlemannews, which reported the disappearance of Seyyed Ali Moussavi's body, said the government was holding it and four other bodies for autopsies. The delay meant the dead could not be buried within 24 hours, as Islamic custom dictates.

news20091231cnn2

[Top stories] from [CNN.com]

[World]
December 31, 2009 -- Updated 1047 GMT (1847 HKT)
U.S. Embassy warns of possible New Year's attack on Bali
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, warns of an indication of an attack on Bali on New Year's Eve
> Embassy said warning initially came from Bali governor
> Terrorist groups have carried out repeated attacks on Bali and elsewhere in Indonesia since 2002

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, warned Thursday of an indication of an attack to Bali on New Year's Eve.

The Embassy said the warning initially came from the Bali governor, Mangku Pastika, and that it passed on his alert verbatim. The governor, however, said there was no information about a new terrorist threat.

"We never release(d) any warning related to terror on New Year's Eve," the governor's office said in a statement after the Embassy released the warning.

"We however encourage both domestic and foreign tourists to be cautious," the governor's office said. "The terrorists hit Bali twice. Who knows what they will do next."

Pastika's office said there was only a general alert on the island because of the holiday.

Terrorist groups, including Jemaah Islamiyah, have carried out repeated attacks in Bali and elsewhere in Indonesia since 2002.

The Embassy did not elaborate on the governor's message, but the United States has a standing warning to U.S. citizens in Indonesia that extremists may target both official and private interests, including hotels, clubs, and shopping centers.

"In their work and daily living activities, and while traveling, U.S. citizens should be vigilant and prudent at all times," the U.S. State Department warning states. "We urge U.S. citizens to monitor local news reports, vary their routes and times, and maintain a low profile. U.S. citizens must consider the security and safety preparedness of hotels, residences, restaurants, and entertainment or recreation venues that they frequent."

Unknown attackers shot at foreigners in Banda Aceh, in northern Sumatra, last month, wounding a European development worker, the Embassy said. The attackers also targeted a house occupied by American teachers, but no U.S. citizens were hurt, it said.

The most major recent attack was in July, when suspected Jemaah Islamiyah elements bombed two western hotels in Jakarta. The blasts at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels killed nine people -- including at least two presumed suicide bombers -- and wounded more than 50, including U.S. citizens.

Also in July, armed assailants in Papua killed several people, including security personnel and one Australian national, the Embassy said.

Jemaah Islamiyah, said to have links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network, is blamed for the 2002 Bali bomb attacks in which 202 people, mainly foreign tourists, were killed.

More than 300 people -- many of them young Australians on vacation -- were wounded by the massive blasts in the town of Kuta. Dozens of victims were burned beyond recognition or blown to pieces.

The bombing was blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah.

The group was also said to be behind an attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta in 2004 in which nine people died, and an attack on the same Marriott hotel that killed eight the same year.

news20091231reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Wed Dec 30, 2009 9:22am EST
Republican protest builds against EPA ruling
(SolveClimate)www.solveclimate.com - A storm of Republican protest is erupting over the Environmental Protection Agency's finding that greenhouse gases pose a public danger, with the latest wave coming from a state among those most at risk from the effects of climate change.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, one of the party's rising stars, launched a letter-writing offensive from Baton Rouge this week to protest the possibility of EPA regulation that the finding now allows. His own letter focuses on the economic dislocation he says such regulation might bring. It doesn't mention the economic threats climate change poses to costal communities and cities like New Orleans.

The letters from Jindal and the secretaries of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources and Louisiana Economic Development joined letters sent by the executive director of the Louisiana Workforce Commission and the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality in previous weeks. They also echo letters from the governor of Texas and an outcry from GOP congressional figures, most notably Alaska's Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Joe Barton of Texas.

Once Congress returns from recess, Murkowski has said she plans to introduce a so-called "disapproval" resolution in the Senate. The goal is to veto the EPA's endangerment finding - and the authority to regulate greenhouse gases that results from that finding. Barton has joined with other Republican congressmen to introduce a parallel resolution in the House.

"I remain committed to reducing emissions through a policy that will protect our environment and strengthen our economy, but EPA's backdoor climate regulations achieve neither of those goals," Murkowski said in announcing her decision to challenge the agency's finding. "EPA regulation must be taken off the table so that we can focus on more responsible approaches to dealing with global climate change."

Jindal focused on the economic impacts to his state's heavily fossil fuel-dependent economy. He says new regulations that could follow the endangerment finding could damage his state's economy to such an extent that the "energy supply, fuel prices and energy security for the entire country" could be impacted. The rules could also cause a dislocation of jobs and industry, he argued.

"These EPA's proposed regulations will tangentially force commercial, industrial and major agricultural employers to spend less money on labor, thereby further reducing employment during these already tough economic times. Worse, Louisiana and the entire country will likely lose industry to other countries without an increased benefit to the environment," Jindal writes, explaining that industry may relocate to countries with more lax environmental standards.

But the letters, points out Haywood Martin of the Sierra Club's Louisiana chapter, "give no consideration to the serious problems that human caused climate change pose for Louisiana's citizens, its economy, and its efforts to protect its coast."

The EPA's finding does not itself automatically include any greenhouse gas regulations. In fact, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, a New Orleans native, said in announcing the finding that the agency and the White House would prefer that Congress take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions instead. But the finding does open the door for the EPA to regulate as long as its authority to do so is not preempted by regulations passed by Congress.

Martin says the EPA "is right to act to protect the country and its citizens," but that "regulation is a cumbersome and inefficient process." He would prefer to see action taken in the U.S. Senate and state governments.

"Louisiana would be acting in its own interest and in the national interest to do so," he says.

The endangerment finding was announced December 7, the first day of the Copenhagen climate talks. This timing was seen as a smart diplomatic move by environmental groups and others wondering how the Obama administration would navigate the two-level game of negotiating an international agreement on a topic about which the domestic debate is still ongoing. Murkowski considered it a political ploy.

"The administration introduced the endangerment finding the week before the president traveled to Copenhagen, instead of working with Congress to find a bipartisan solution to the nation's climate and energy challenges," says Murkowski's statement on seeking to veto the EPA finding.

Climate legislation had been on the table for months, however, and though the House passed its version of the bill in June - including a provision to preempt EPA regulation greenhouse gases - the Senate bill was still delayed, largely due to protests from Republicans and coal-state centrist Democrats, as Copenhagen kicked off.

DOUBLE EDGED SWORD

In his letter, Louisiana DEQ Secretary Hal Legget writes, "The fuel crises which nearly paralyzed the country with the Louisiana landfalls of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike in the recent years clearly illustrated the significance of this base in Louisiana and its impact on the energy lifeline upon which America depends."

This demonstrates the double-edged sword that climate change presents to a state like Louisiana, both dependent on the fossil fuel industry and all too vulnerable to extreme weather events and rising seas.

These letters, however, focus heavily on the former - the prospect of economic dislocation rather than climate change-related dislocation.

Martin notes the irony of mentioning Hurricane Katrina.

"While Louisiana asks the federal government for $100 billion in coastal assistance, the entire congressional delegation voted against the recently passed House energy legislation (Waxman-Markey), and now the state expresses outright opposition to regulation under the Clean Air Act," Martin said. "Louisiana is one of the top carbon emissions producing states, and should be leading, not obstructing the transition to a clean energy economy."

Murkowski's opposition to the specter of EPA regulation is longstanding. Separately from the endangerment ruling challenge, she will take a second shot at banning the EPA from working on emissions restrictions by attempting to attach an amendment to legislation increasing the government's debt ceiling, which the Senate will debate next month. Her first try at such an amendment, in September, did not even go to a vote.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has joined with Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) to create a bipartisan climate bill, has said he will nonetheless co-sponsor Murkowski's disapproval resolution because he feels EPA regulation would be the worst option.

Though it is possible that legislation vetoing the endangerment finding could pass the Senate, it is more doubtful that it would pass the House, where Democrats hold a larger majority. It is also unlikely President Obama would sign such a law, nor that it could get the two-thirds majority in each house needed to override a presidential veto.

The Union of Concerned Scientists terms this opposition a "distraction".

"Senators should be spending their time and energy putting solutions on the table, not throwing wrenches into the works at EPA," says Lexi Shultz, deputy director of UCS's Climate and Energy Program. "The best way for senators to address their concerns about EPA authority is to pass their own climate and energy bill."

Noted climate-change denier Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) has said he doubts the legislation could make it through, but that he expects lawsuits will succeed in overturning the EPA's finding.

Just hours after the EPA's Dec. 7 announcement the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute announced its intention to file suit to challenge the decision "on the grounds that EPA has ignored major scientific issues, including those raised recently in the Climategate fraud scandal." The latter refers to the hacking of scientists' personal emails at a British university (that critics said undermined evidence).

Last Wednesday, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, concerned about the economic impacts of new regulations to farmers and ranchers, joined with Massey Energy and others to file a petition in the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals to challenge the EPA decision.

The EPA's decision is, in fact, already based on a 5-4 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007 that required the agency to look into whether greenhouse gases should be regulated under the Clean Air Act. This mandate was ignored for the last two years of the Bush administration before the final finding was announced this month.

Now, Jindal says, "Simply, the EPA's proposed regulations will cast unknown penalties on American manufacturers without Congressional input. In today's economic climate, one of the greatest threats to industry and jobs is the unknown, and there will not be sustainable growth without predictability."

Several large companies, including Nike, Sempra Energy and Starbucks, however, have said the problem is the uncertainty regarding future regulations and they hope regulations are in place sooner rather than later so they can plan accordingly. The threat of EPA regulation, or the Congressional regulation it may help spur Congress toward, would go a long way toward filling in those unknowns.

news20091231reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
COPENHAGEN
Wed Dec 30, 2009 10:24am EST
Vestas gets 48 MW wind turbine order from Spain
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark's Vestas, the world's biggest manufacturer of wind turbines, said on Wednesday it won an order for 24 turbines for the Andalusia region in Spain.

The order is for Vestas' V90-2.0 MW wind turbine, so the total capacity of the order is 48 megawatts.

Vestas said the customer had asked to remain anonymous.

Earlier on Wednesday, Vestas said it won a 96 MW wind turbine order from a German company for installations in Poland.


[Green Business]
AMSTERDAM
Wed Dec 30, 2009 10:52am EST
Glencore takes majority stake in Biopetrol
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Swiss commodities trader Glencore has taken a majority stake in Swiss-German company Biopetrol Industries AG, which underwent financial restructuring earlier this year.

Biopetrol said Glencore had acquired 50 percent of the biodiesel producer, plus one share, from previous majority shareholders, and has the option to increase its holding to a two-thirds majority.

"The changes in market conditions in the biofuels industry have made it necessary to achieve further economies of scale and extend the value chain," Biopetrol said in a statement released late on Tuesday.

It said combining Glencore's trading platform and Biopetrol's plants would help ensure Biopetrol's full production capacities were utilized in the mid-term.

Biopetrol has production capacity of about 350,000 tonnes of biodiesel at two sites in Germany, and is starting up a 400,000 tonnes biodiesel plant in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

The biofuels producer has struggled with a collapse in biofuels sales due to higher taxes on the green fuel in Germany and weak demand in slowing economies.

It agreed a financial restructuring programme earlier this year that allowed it to continue operations, after announcing it could not pay bond coupon interest and was looking at restructuring as an alternative to an insolvency.

The transaction with Glencore is subject to approval by anti-trust authorities, Biopetrol said.

(Reporting by Catherine Hornby; Editing by David Cowell)


[Green Business]
MUMBAI
Wed Dec 30, 2009 10:26am EST
India's NTPC to set up 300 MW solar capacity
MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's largest utility, NTPC Ltd, said on Wednesday its board has approved setting up 301 megawatts of solar power generation capacity by March 2014.

The state run firm currently operates a majority of its installed capacity of over 30,000 MW through coal-fired power plants.

NTPC also said it would spend 5.64 billion rupees ($120 million) to modernize two units at the Badarpur thermal power station. ($1=46.7 rupees)

(Reporting by Prashant Mehra; Editing by John Mair)


[Green Business]
Jeffrey Jones
CALGARY, Alberta
Wed Dec 30, 2009 9:57pm EST
Canada panel backs Arctic pipeline conditionally
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - The C$16.2 billion ($15.4 billion) Mackenzie pipeline in Canada's Arctic should be allowed to proceed, provided 176 recommendations aimed at securing socioeconomic benefits and minimizing environmental damage are followed, regulators ruled on Wednesday.

In a much-anticipated report, the Joint Review Panel said it believed the huge gas project would bring overall benefits to Canada's Northwest Territories and avoid major ecological impact if the oil companies proposing the line and governments follow its list of measures.

The list is as diverse as analyzing the impact of climate change on facilities buried in permafrost, monitoring grizzly bear dens, and assessing if alcohol and drug abuse programs in the sparsely populated region are adequate.

"The Mackenzie Gas Project and associated Northwest Alberta Facilities would provide the foundation for a sustainable northern future," the seven-member panel said. "The challenge to all will be to build on that foundation."

The pipeline would carry at least 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas a day to the Alberta border from fields in the Mackenzie Delta near the Beaufort Sea. In Alberta, the gas could be routed to numerous markets in Canada and the United States.

The JRP report, which concentrated on the project's environmental, social and economic impact, comes more than two years after public hearings into the development ended. The project is led by Imperial Oil Ltd.

Imperial and its partners welcomed what appears to be a vote of confidence for the long-delayed project, but could not say yet if any of the recommended measures appear onerous, spokesman Pius Rolheiser said.

The company has three weeks to respond to the report.

"It would be fair to say that we're pleased that the JRP has concluded that, with appropriate measures to mitigate potential impacts, the project be allowed to proceed," Rolheiser said.

Imperial's partners are Royal Dutch Shell, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp, and Aboriginal Pipeline Group.

Canada's National Energy Board will use the JRP report to help make its decision on whether the project can go ahead. That decision is expected in September.

(To view the report's executive summary, including the list of recommendations, click here )

DELAYS, RISING COSTS

The Mackenzie project was first envisioned in the 1970s after oil companies discovered large gas deposits in Canada's Arctic. Imperial and its partners began studying the current incarnation of the project in 2000 and filed regulatory applications four years later.

Since then, the Mackenzie project has been beset with a big cost increase, regulatory delays, lengthy talks with Ottawa over fiscal breaks and a transformation of gas markets due to the recession and development of massive shale gas reserves located close to major U.S. markets.

Still, northern communities see the project as an opportunity for badly needed economic development, one that could provide careers for young people and spark spin-off businesses in the rugged region.

As part of a deal with the oil companies, aboriginal groups along the proposed 1,220 km (760-mile) route have the right to own up to one-third for the pipeline.

Environmental groups that opposed the project, such as the Sierra Club, argued during the JRP hearings that the bulk of the gas would be used to fuel development of Alberta's oil sands.

($1=$1.05 Canadian)

(Reporting by Jeffrey Jones; editing by Peter Galloway)


[Green Business]
CALGARY, Alberta
Wed Dec 30, 2009 3:24pm EST
Canada approves PetroChina's oil sands bid
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Canada approved on Tuesday PetroChina's bid for control of two oil sands projects, a deal it scrutinized under recently tightened rules for takeovers of strategic assets by foreign state-controlled companies.

Industry Minister Tony Clement said the C$1.9 billion ($1.8 billion) acquisition of majority stakes in projects planned by Athabasca Oil Sands Corp, announced in August, is likely to be of net benefit to Canada after PetroChina agreed to several spending and employment commitments.

The deal is China's priciest investment to date in Canada's vast oil sands, the largest crude deposits outside the Middle East and a major source of U.S. energy supply.

"To successfully compete in a globalized economy, we need to attract international investment, which can create jobs, raise our level of competition, and develop Canada's long-term economic prospects," Clement said in a statement.

Under the deal, PetroChina will take majority control of the proposed MacKay River and Dover oil sands projects owned by closely held Athabasca, properties that could eventually produce as much as 500,000 barrels per day.

It is one of numerous deals around the world in which cash-rich Chinese companies have bid for energy and mineral resources to help fuel their huge and growing economy.

Clement said PetroChina agreed to spend C$250 million on the northern Alberta properties and increase employment levels over the next three years.

It will also maintain an office in Alberta for five years and ensure that the majority of senior management positions in the operating companies are held by Canadians.

In addition, PetroChina committed to remain a public company and not voluntarily delist from the New York or Hong Kong stock exchanges without a listing on another designated exchange while it controls the oil sands projects.

($1=$1.04 Canadian)

(Reporting by Jeffrey Jones; editing by Gunna Dickson)

news20091231reut3

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
LIBREVILLE
Wed Dec 30, 2009 3:20pm EST
Gabon warns Veolia unit on water contract
LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - Gabon warned environmental services group Veolia's SEEG unit on Wednesday to improve water distribution in the capital Libreville or risk seeing its concession frozen.

"The water distribution system faces shortages going back to 2003 as a result of obsolescence and saturation of the transport system for treated water," government spokesman Seraphin Moundounga said after a cabinet meeting.

Some Libreville districts had no water at all, while others faced cuts of up to eight hours a day, he said. Failure to make improvements would result in a "sequestration" of the contract.

He did not indicate how much time SEEG, 51 percent owned by Veolia's water services division, had to react.

SEEG has agreed to try and alleviate the problem by seeking to transfer water from a reservoir currently being used to supply the north of the city. Tests on that project began on December 28 and are due to last seven days.

Veolia has been operating in Gabon since 1997.

(Reporting by Linel Kwatsi; Editing by Mark John and Richard Chang)


[Green Business]
JAKARTA
Wed Dec 30, 2009 11:09am EST
Indonesia to relax forest protection on key projects
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia will allow some infrastructure projects deemed in the public interest such as toll roads and geothermal energy plants to operate in protected forests, the chief economics minister said on Wednesday.

Under Indonesian law it is currently forbidden to undertake any kind of activity that could impact on a forest conservation area.

But chief economics minister Hatta Rajasa told reporters that the government would issue a new rule to allow some development in forests after discussions between relevant ministers.

"For the public interest such infrastructure projects and geothermal projects can use protected forests," Rajasa said.

The users of protected forests would have to compensate by setting aside twice as much land within another part of the province for use as forested land, he added.

The minister said the regulation would give investors certainty and denied it would disturb forest conservation.

"We know that there are many geothermal projects located in protected areas. That's why this regulation is part of the government's 100-day programme," he said.

The administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who started a second term in October, has set 100-day programmes focused on removing bottlenecks that have stalled investment and infrastructure development in Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

Overlapping regulations on the environment and resource development frequently complicate plans to develop projects in Indonesia, although green groups also complain that firms are sometimes wrongly given permission to exploit forests.

Indonesia also currently has one of the fastest rates of deforestation in the world that threatens to swiftly erode its dwindling untouched tracts of tropical forests.

At the same time, the developing nation desperately wants to speed up spending on airports, roads, ports and other infrastructure to help reduce inefficiencies and speed up economic growth in order to reduce poverty and unemployment.

On energy, Indonesia has established two crash programmes to increase power generation by 10,000 megawatts (MW) in a bid to resolve chronic power shortages in the country.

The first programme, which is due to be 40 percent complete by the middle of next year, relies on coal-fired power stations, while a second programme, due to start next year, has nearly half, or 4,733 MW, of power slated to come from geothermal sources.

Abadi Poernomo, president director of Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PHE), said previously the company planned to increase its geothermal capacity but had been blocked by the conservation law.

PHE, which is a unit of the country's state oil and gas firm Pertamina, planned to increase its geothermal capacity to 1,342 MW in 2014 from 272 MW currently. Pertamina already operates geothermal projects in West Java and North Sulawesi.

Indonesia is hoping to tap alternative sources of energy to meet rising power demand and cut consumption of expensive crude oil as its own reserves dwindle.

The vast archipelago, with hundreds of active and extinct volcanoes, has the potential to produce an estimated 27,000 MW of electricity from geothermal sources.

However, most of the potential remains largely untapped because the high cost of geothermal energy makes the price of electricity generated this way expensive.

(Reporting by Muklis Ali; Editing by Ed Davies)


[Green Business]
LOS ANGELES
Wed Dec 30, 2009 6:22pm EST
Clean tech venture capital off 36 percent in '09: report
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Venture capital investors spent 36 percent less this year on clean technology for a total of nearly $5 billion, an industry group reported on Wednesday.

The solar power sector continued to pull in the most investment, with 84 deals worth $1.4 billion -- more than a quarter of the total $4.85 billion invested in clean technology in 2009, Greentech Media said in a year-end report. Last year's total was $7.6 billion.

Biofuel companies followed with $976 million in 44 rounds, while investment in water tallied more than $130 million.

The volume of deals -- 356 -- rose slightly from the previous year's total of 350 deals, the report said.

Among the sizable venture capital deals in 2009, the group noted the $198 million venture capital investment led by Argonaut Private Equity for solar thin film player Solyndra, which filed in December for an initial public offering.

The group also noted key acquisitions and initial public offerings in the clean technology sector, such as German conglomerate Siemens' purchase of solar thermal player Solel for $418 million and battery maker A123 Systems Inc's strong IPO debut. (Reporting by Laura Isensee; Editing by Gary Hill)


[Green Business]
Daniel Fineren
LONDON
Wed Dec 30, 2009 1:30pm EST
Spain stops wind turbines to balance supply
LONDON (Reuters) - Spain had to shut down some of its wind turbines on Wednesday as wet and windy weather caused a surge in green electricity generation at a time of low demand, grid operator Red Electrica said.

The country's thousands of wind turbines supplied a new record of 54.1 percent of demand early on Wednesday, forcing gas- and coal-fired power plants to run at minimum output to avoid system overload as hydropower companies drained brimming reservoirs.

"High wind output in the early hours of this morning, together with the high level of hydropower generation, due to reservoirs opening up after recent rains, forced the control center to cut thermal power to a technical minimum," Red Electrica said in a statement.

"Due to low demand at the moment this was not enough ... So the control center had to order wind power production to be cut between 4 am and 7 am this morning by 600 megawatts."

Spain has invested heavily in wind power generation over the last decade to cut carbon emissions and reduce its reliance on imported fuel.

It now has over 18,000 MW of turbines installed, out of a total power generation capacity of about 93,000 MW, and first produced over half of its electricity with them early on November 9.

Wind turbines are seen as a key technology for producing electricity without emitting climate-warming carbon. But the Spanish experience highlights the difficulties for grid and other plant operators in balancing the system when the wind blows hard and there is little demand, especially early in the morning.

Greater numbers of electric cars charging up overnight could help absorb some of the extra output in future but there are still too few to make a difference.

Wind power output hit 54.1 percent of demand at around 0350 local time (0250 GMT) on Wednesday, or over 10,000 megawatts.

Even after the order to cut output the remaining turbines were still producing around 40 percent of Spain's power at around 7 am, reducing the contribution of coal and gas plants to under 5 percent in the hours in between, according to Red Electrica data.

(Additional reporting by Martin Roberts in Madrid)

news20091231reut4

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Jon Hurdle
PHILADELPHIA
Wed Dec 30, 2009 3:57pm EST
U.S. states strive to regulate shale gas industry
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - As U.S. energy companies scramble to mine natural gas from shale deposits, state regulators are struggling to keep pace amid criticism that they lack the resources to enforce environmental laws.

Shale gas trapped deep underground is considered one of the most promising sources of U.S. energy and one that is generating jobs, royalties for landowners and tax revenue for cash-strapped state governments.

But environmentalists and small-town neighbors of drilling operations say officials have been slow to respond to their complaints of air and water pollution resulting from drilling, production or gas processing.

Neighbors of drilling sites complain their claims are often dismissed as insignificant or outside state control, though they received a morale boost last week when New York City asked New York state to ban shale gas drilling in the city's watershed.

Energy companies say they work hard to prevent spills and note that science has yet to link the chemicals used in the controversial technique to break through layers of rock to illness.

Agencies such as Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection, which is monitoring the rapid development of the massive Marcellus Shale, argue that they keep a close watch on gas companies and don't hesitate to penalize rule-breakers.

"We are not turning a blind eye to the problem," DEP Secretary John Hanger told Reuters. "Our role is to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs."

Shale gas is being tapped by advances in horizontal drilling, and by hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," a technique that critics say contaminates drinking water with chemicals that can cause cancer and a range of illnesses.

Hanger rejected claims the agency is facilitating Marcellus development with minimal regulation. He said the number of drilling inspectors has risen to 120 from 75 in February 2009. They regulate more than 800 Marcellus wells that have been drilled since 2005.

In September, the DEP fined Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. $56,500 for three spills of a drilling lubricant and banned it from hydraulic fracturing until it bolstered safeguards.

The increased oversight is being paid for by higher fees levied on energy companies, the secretary said.

WYOMING, NEW YORK

In Wyoming, whose economy is heavily dependent on oil and gas, some in the farming community of Pavillion say the state's Department of Environmental Quality has shown little interest in complaints about trucks spilling drilling fluids on roads or requests to test water.

"There's a lot of pressure from the government to allow industry to proceed," said John Fenton, a Pavillion farmer whose water well is contaminated. "They are not hindering the industry in any way."

In New York state, 17 inspectors and other officials monitor about 15 traditional vertical wells in the Marcellus Shale, and the state is considering opening the formation to the type of horizontal drilling that critics fear.

Stephanie Hallowich, from the southwest Pennsylvania town of Hickory, said the DEP has downplayed or ignored her complaints about air and water contamination from a complex of gas installations near her home.

In October, a compressor station experienced what she said was a sudden, violent release of gas that shook her house and filled the air around it with foul-smelling gas. "It sounded like a jet engine," Hallowich said.

State inspectors found the incident to be a routine albeit loud depressurization of compressor station equipment.

"The company is now being required to alert area residents when they are doing scheduled blow downs," said Teresa Candori, a spokeswoman for the DEP.

Hallowich rejected the DEP's statements that it is adequately regulating the Marcellus boom.

"They have not been responsive," she said. "There have been no violations, and they have not been keeping up with inspections."

(Reporting by Jon Hurdle; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Cynthia Osterman)


[Green Business]
Catherine Hornby
AMSTERDAM
Wed Dec 30, 2009 12:23pm EST
Dutch court to take on Shell Nigeria cases
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell and its Nigerian unit will face compensation demands in a Dutch court for alleged damage caused by oil spills in Nigeria after the court ruled on Wednesday it was competent to handle the cases.

Environmental group Friends of the Earth Netherlands and four Nigerians aim to sue Shell and Nigeria-based Shell Petroleum Development Co. (SPDC) in a district court in The Hague on charges related to incidents of oil spills in Nigeria.

Shell had asked for a ruling on whether the Dutch court had jurisdiction over SPDC's Nigerian activities, but the court rejected a claim of incompetence.

"The court has decided that it is competent, so we will be handling the case," said a court spokeswoman. "The facts are connected and for reasons of efficiency the cases against Royal Dutch Shell and Shell Nigeria will be handled jointly."

The plaintiffs, farmers and fishermen in the oil-rich Niger Delta, say that oil leaking from Shell activities has polluted their farmlands and fish ponds, and are demanding that Shell clean up the oil and compensate them.

After several failed attempts to address the issue in Nigeria, the plaintiffs decided to bring the cases to the Netherlands as Shell is a partly Dutch firm, said a spokeswoman for Friends of the Earth.

"For years, these people have been trying to get Shell to clean up its mess," Friends of the Earth said. "The court decision is an initial victory for all Nigerians that have been fighting for years for a cleaner habitat and justice."

Shell has said the spills in question were caused by sabotage. Oil companies active in Nigeria have grappled with militant sabotage activities in recent years which have hit production in the world's eighth-biggest crude oil exporter.

Shell will be able to enter a statement of reply to the claims on February 10, the court spokeswoman said. Shell said on Wednesday it was disappointed with the court's ruling, describing the issues as 'purely Nigerian matters'.

Friends of the Earth's Dutch arm has said Shell has the authority and the control to ensure oil spills are prevented and are cleaned up. They argue the spills are part of a systematic pattern over decades.

(Reporting by Catherine Hornby; editing by David Cowell and Hans Peters)


[Green Business]
SYDNEY
Wed Dec 30, 2009 11:11am EST
Australian bushfires destroys almost 40 homes
SYDNEY (Reuters) - A major bushfire in the west Australian outback has destroyed almost 40 homes, officials said on Wednesday, as firefighters end a third month of fighting bushfires across the country.

Fire officials say the Australian summer could be one of the worst bushfire seasons, with a series of catastrophic warnings already issued for big fires in at least three states.

Australia's most deadly bushfires occurred last February, when the "Black Saturday" infernos killed 173 people and destroyed thousands of homes in the southern Victoria state.

As a result of the "Black Saturday" fires, officials adopted a "catastrophic" warning which advises residents to evacuate homes in the face of major bushfires.

Until the west Australian fire this week, property losses had been few. No one has died in the fires this summer.

Three firefighters and a woman from the wheat-belt town of Toodyay, in Western Australian state, suffered minor injuries in the latest bushfire, which burned 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres).

"It's a devastating fire with great destruction," Western Australian state Premier Colin Barnett told reporters.

Bushfires are a natural phenomenon in Australia, due to its hot, dry environment. Lightning strikes over dry land are the most common cause, followed by human intervention such as fires that get out of control.

Australia's bushfire danger period is from October to March, covering the end of spring, all of summer and the start of autumn, when temperatures are highest and humidity lowest.

A decade-long drought and hot, dry interior outback winds have left much of Australia a tinderbox.

(Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by Bill Tarrant)


[Green Business]
AMSTERDAM
Wed Dec 30, 2009 10:09am EST
Small leak resolved at Shell's Pernis refinery
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A minor leak from a pipeline in Royal Dutch Shell's Pernis refinery in Rotterdam has been resolved and operations are running as usual, a spokesman for the oil major said on Wednesday.

Shell alerted nearby residents that the leak was causing a smell in the area of the 412,000 barrels-per-day refinery, but a spokesman said the issue was resolved and no units were affected by it.

(Reporting by Catherine Hornby, editing by Anthony Barker)