[Top News] from [REUTERS]
[Green Business]
Bill Rigby
SEATTLE
Mon Jan 25, 2010 1:09am EST
Bill Gates worries climate money robs health aid
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Bill Gates, the world's richest man and a leading philanthropist, said on Sunday spending by rich countries aimed at combating climate change in developing nations could mean a dangerous cut in aid for health issues.
Gates, the Microsoft Corp co-founder whose $34 billion foundation is fighting malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases in developing countries, expressed concern about the amount of spending pledged at December's Copenhagen global climate meeting.
Participants at the meeting agreed to a target of channeling $100 billion per year to developing countries to combat climate change by 2020. Gates said that amount represents more than three quarters of foreign aid currently given by the richest countries per year.
"I am concerned that some of this money will come from reducing other categories of foreign aid, especially health," Gates wrote in a letter, released late on Sunday, describing the work of his foundation.
"If just 1 percent of the $100 billion goal came from vaccine funding, then 700,000 more children could die from preventable diseases," Gates added.
Taking the focus away from health aid could be bad for the environment in the long run, said Gates, "because improvements in health, including voluntary family planning, lead people to have smaller families, which in turn reduces the strain on the environment."
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which he runs with his wife Melinda and father William Gates Sr., had an endowment worth $34 billion as of September. Gates, 54, remains Microsoft chairman but focuses his attention on his foundation.
Since starting in 1994, the foundation has handed out more than $21 billion in grants.
Gates said he was worried generally about levels of government aid from rich countries to poor countries slipping with tough economic conditions globally.
"Because of budget deficits, there is significant risk that aid budgets will either be cut or not increase much," Gates said in his letter.
He singled out Italy for criticism. "Italy was at the low end of European givers even before the Berlusconi government came in and cut the aid by over half, making them uniquely stingy among European donors," Gates said.
According to Forbes magazine, Gates was the richest man in the world in 2009 with an estimated fortune of $40 billion.
(Editing by Will Dunham)
[Green Business]
HONG KONG
Mon Jan 25, 2010 1:49am EST
Hundreds protest South China project over pollution worries
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hundreds of protesters in southern China donned masks to protest a planned incinerator plant, the latest grassroots initiative to target polluting projects in the region.
Mobilized by phone and over the Internet, about 400 protesters from Foshan municipality showed up in surgical masks to urge local authorities to scrap the proposed construction of a Jiangnan sludge incinerator in Nanhai district, west of Shenzhen, the Guangzhou Daily newspaper reported on Monday.
"Defend our homeland, oppose pollution," the protesters chanted, according to the paper, while a large number of police officers monitored them.
In recent months, authorities in southern Guangdong province have faced increasingly assertive protests by residents opposed to potentially high-polluting projects including plans for a waste incinerator in Guangzhou's Panyu district that was eventually put off by authorities.
Pan Zhiwen, a former mayor of Gaoming, a nearby town, was quoted as saying by the newspaper that should the Nanhai sludge incinerator fail an environmental impact assessment, his local government would be "firmly opposed to the project."
Guangdong province has experienced serious environmental degradation after nearly three decades of break-neck development. Environmental activism, however, has grown in recent years as the city's burgeoning middle class pursue a higher quality of life.
In a recent case, a proposed multi-billion dollar oil refinery in the ecologically rich Nansha district just downstream from Guangzhou along the Pearl River, was relocated to a less populated area in western Guangdong after a major public uproar.
(Reporting by James Pomfret; Editing by Ken Wills)
[Green Business]
Erwin Seba
HOUSTON
Sun Jan 24, 2010 11:24pm EST
Texas waterway remains closed after oil spill
HOUSTON (Reuters) - The Sabine-Neches Waterway, that supplies oil to four Texas refineries representing 6.5 percent of U.S. capacity, remained shut on Sunday as crews cleaned up oil spilled in a ship collision Saturday.
The U.S. Coast Guard said the shipping lane would remain shut until the spill was cleaned up. On Sunday, 13 ships were waiting to exit the waterway and 13 were waiting to enter.
"We don't have much of a timeline," said Coast Guard Petty Officer Adam Baylor. "We're working as quickly as possible to clean up the spill."
The four refineries, three in Port Arthur, Texas, and one in Beaumont, Texas, have not reported any shutdowns since a gash was torn in the side of the double-hulled Eagle Otome tanker on Saturday morning by a barge.
Texas officials said the spill of 460,000 gallons of crude, or about 11,000 barrels, was the state's biggest since 1991.
Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said it was unclear exactly how long the cleanup would take. "But I think it's a matter of days not weeks," he said in a telephone interview.
AET Tanker Holdings, which owns the Eagle Otome tanker, is paying for the cleanup, Patterson said.
The spill triggered a voluntary evacuation recommendation to residents living near the port. Police said about 12 people evacuated on Saturday. They were all back in their homes by Sunday.
The four refineries have a combined refining capacity of 1.15 million barrels.
The 807-foot (246-meter) Eagle Otome was bound with a cargo of crude to Exxon Mobil Corp's 344,500 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Beaumont, Exxon said.
The Beaumont refinery is the sixth-largest in the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
"We do not anticipate any impact to our operations at the Beaumont refinery," said Exxon spokesman Kevin Allexon.
A Valero Energy Corp spokesman said the company's 310,000 bpd Port Arthur refinery had offered emergency supplies to the clean-up crews. The plant's operations were unaffected by the crash.
A spokeswoman for Motiva Enterprises' 285,000 bpd Port Arthur refinery declined to discuss refinery operations, but said the plant had supplies on hand and contingency plans in place to deal with the situation. Motiva is joint-venture between Shell Oil and Saudi Refining.
Total SA did not reply to messages on Sunday. The company has a 232,000 bpd refinery in Port Arthur.
The collision between the southbound barge and the northbound tanker occurred near the Valero refinery location, according to the Coast Guard. The Valero refinery is the furthest south of the four supplied by the waterway.
The barge was one of two being moved by the Dixie Vengeance tug boat in the port of Port Arthur on Saturday morning when the collision occurred.
Investigators from the Coast Guard along with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board are probing the cause of the collision.
The Sabine-Neches Waterway is a man-made channel that for most of its 60-mile (100-km) length runs parallel to the Sabine River, which marks the Texas-Louisiana border.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
[Green Business]
Bill Rigby
SEATTLE
Mon Jan 25, 2010 1:09am EST
Bill Gates worries climate money robs health aid
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Bill Gates, the world's richest man and a leading philanthropist, said on Sunday spending by rich countries aimed at combating climate change in developing nations could mean a dangerous cut in aid for health issues.
Gates, the Microsoft Corp co-founder whose $34 billion foundation is fighting malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases in developing countries, expressed concern about the amount of spending pledged at December's Copenhagen global climate meeting.
Participants at the meeting agreed to a target of channeling $100 billion per year to developing countries to combat climate change by 2020. Gates said that amount represents more than three quarters of foreign aid currently given by the richest countries per year.
"I am concerned that some of this money will come from reducing other categories of foreign aid, especially health," Gates wrote in a letter, released late on Sunday, describing the work of his foundation.
"If just 1 percent of the $100 billion goal came from vaccine funding, then 700,000 more children could die from preventable diseases," Gates added.
Taking the focus away from health aid could be bad for the environment in the long run, said Gates, "because improvements in health, including voluntary family planning, lead people to have smaller families, which in turn reduces the strain on the environment."
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which he runs with his wife Melinda and father William Gates Sr., had an endowment worth $34 billion as of September. Gates, 54, remains Microsoft chairman but focuses his attention on his foundation.
Since starting in 1994, the foundation has handed out more than $21 billion in grants.
Gates said he was worried generally about levels of government aid from rich countries to poor countries slipping with tough economic conditions globally.
"Because of budget deficits, there is significant risk that aid budgets will either be cut or not increase much," Gates said in his letter.
He singled out Italy for criticism. "Italy was at the low end of European givers even before the Berlusconi government came in and cut the aid by over half, making them uniquely stingy among European donors," Gates said.
According to Forbes magazine, Gates was the richest man in the world in 2009 with an estimated fortune of $40 billion.
(Editing by Will Dunham)
[Green Business]
HONG KONG
Mon Jan 25, 2010 1:49am EST
Hundreds protest South China project over pollution worries
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hundreds of protesters in southern China donned masks to protest a planned incinerator plant, the latest grassroots initiative to target polluting projects in the region.
Mobilized by phone and over the Internet, about 400 protesters from Foshan municipality showed up in surgical masks to urge local authorities to scrap the proposed construction of a Jiangnan sludge incinerator in Nanhai district, west of Shenzhen, the Guangzhou Daily newspaper reported on Monday.
"Defend our homeland, oppose pollution," the protesters chanted, according to the paper, while a large number of police officers monitored them.
In recent months, authorities in southern Guangdong province have faced increasingly assertive protests by residents opposed to potentially high-polluting projects including plans for a waste incinerator in Guangzhou's Panyu district that was eventually put off by authorities.
Pan Zhiwen, a former mayor of Gaoming, a nearby town, was quoted as saying by the newspaper that should the Nanhai sludge incinerator fail an environmental impact assessment, his local government would be "firmly opposed to the project."
Guangdong province has experienced serious environmental degradation after nearly three decades of break-neck development. Environmental activism, however, has grown in recent years as the city's burgeoning middle class pursue a higher quality of life.
In a recent case, a proposed multi-billion dollar oil refinery in the ecologically rich Nansha district just downstream from Guangzhou along the Pearl River, was relocated to a less populated area in western Guangdong after a major public uproar.
(Reporting by James Pomfret; Editing by Ken Wills)
[Green Business]
Erwin Seba
HOUSTON
Sun Jan 24, 2010 11:24pm EST
Texas waterway remains closed after oil spill
HOUSTON (Reuters) - The Sabine-Neches Waterway, that supplies oil to four Texas refineries representing 6.5 percent of U.S. capacity, remained shut on Sunday as crews cleaned up oil spilled in a ship collision Saturday.
The U.S. Coast Guard said the shipping lane would remain shut until the spill was cleaned up. On Sunday, 13 ships were waiting to exit the waterway and 13 were waiting to enter.
"We don't have much of a timeline," said Coast Guard Petty Officer Adam Baylor. "We're working as quickly as possible to clean up the spill."
The four refineries, three in Port Arthur, Texas, and one in Beaumont, Texas, have not reported any shutdowns since a gash was torn in the side of the double-hulled Eagle Otome tanker on Saturday morning by a barge.
Texas officials said the spill of 460,000 gallons of crude, or about 11,000 barrels, was the state's biggest since 1991.
Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said it was unclear exactly how long the cleanup would take. "But I think it's a matter of days not weeks," he said in a telephone interview.
AET Tanker Holdings, which owns the Eagle Otome tanker, is paying for the cleanup, Patterson said.
The spill triggered a voluntary evacuation recommendation to residents living near the port. Police said about 12 people evacuated on Saturday. They were all back in their homes by Sunday.
The four refineries have a combined refining capacity of 1.15 million barrels.
The 807-foot (246-meter) Eagle Otome was bound with a cargo of crude to Exxon Mobil Corp's 344,500 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Beaumont, Exxon said.
The Beaumont refinery is the sixth-largest in the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
"We do not anticipate any impact to our operations at the Beaumont refinery," said Exxon spokesman Kevin Allexon.
A Valero Energy Corp spokesman said the company's 310,000 bpd Port Arthur refinery had offered emergency supplies to the clean-up crews. The plant's operations were unaffected by the crash.
A spokeswoman for Motiva Enterprises' 285,000 bpd Port Arthur refinery declined to discuss refinery operations, but said the plant had supplies on hand and contingency plans in place to deal with the situation. Motiva is joint-venture between Shell Oil and Saudi Refining.
Total SA did not reply to messages on Sunday. The company has a 232,000 bpd refinery in Port Arthur.
The collision between the southbound barge and the northbound tanker occurred near the Valero refinery location, according to the Coast Guard. The Valero refinery is the furthest south of the four supplied by the waterway.
The barge was one of two being moved by the Dixie Vengeance tug boat in the port of Port Arthur on Saturday morning when the collision occurred.
Investigators from the Coast Guard along with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board are probing the cause of the collision.
The Sabine-Neches Waterway is a man-made channel that for most of its 60-mile (100-km) length runs parallel to the Sabine River, which marks the Texas-Louisiana border.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
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