Ex-Halliburton Official Charged With Destroying Evidence In Gulf Oil Spill Disaster

See on Scoop.itGreen & Sustainable News

The the latest twist in an ongoing legal battle following the explosion that killed 11 people and resulted in the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

>Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement: “Halliburton and one of its managers have now been held criminally accountable for their misconduct, underscoring our continued commitment to ensuring that the victims of this tragedy obtain justice, and to safeguarding the integrity of relevant evidence.”

U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo of the Eastern District of Louisiana also noted that Halliburton self-reported the misconduct and cooperated with the investigation. Badalamenti was charged with a “bill of information,” which often means that the defendant is cooperating with prosecutors.

Rig owner Transocean and BP were both criminally charged for the disaster, but Halliburton was not — these charges are just related to the post-spill review.

Even though the spill happened more than three years ago, residents in the area still feel the effects. The 170,000 workers hired to help clean up the oil spill are at an increased risk of getting cancer, leukemia, and other serious illnesses. And on Thursday, BP sued the state of Louisiana to block its order to remove abandoned anchors the company used to deploy oil spill booms during cleanup efforts.<

See on thinkprogress.org

Innovations in waste water treatment processes to provide clean energy

See on Scoop.itGreen Energy Technologies & Development

The race is on to develop innovative, cost-effective ways to extract value from waste water instead of just dumping it, writes Sadhbh Walshe

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

>In a conventional treatment process, ammonia is converted back into nitrogen gas, a non-harmful gas which can be safely released into the atmosphere. The conversion process is expensive, however, and energy prohibitive.

What the Stanford team do, instead, is to use a less energy-intensive process to convert the ammonia into nitrous oxide (N2O), a powerful substance that is typically used to turbo-boost cars or fire rockets.

Normally, N2O is discouraged from forming because it is a harmful greenhouse gas, but when it is burned along with methane it becomes an energy source that can be used to power the treatment facility. According to Scherson, there is a double energy-saving benefit.

“Our process reduces energy input in nitrogen treatment and then the energy from nitrous oxide can potentially be used to power the plant making it energy neutral or even energy positive.”<

See on www.guardian.co.uk

Colorado’s oil and gas boom is polluting the state’s air

See on Scoop.itGreen & Sustainable News

Drillers pump 600 tons of air pollution over Colorado every day, and three-quarters of the state’s air pollution enforcement cases are linked to drilling.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

>The 50,000 oil and gas wells in the state are collectively pumping hundreds of tons of pollution into the air every day, making the drilling industry the state’s largest source of airborne volatile organic compounds and third-largest source of nitrogen oxides. That’s according to a report in The Denver Post: […]<

See on grist.org

Concern about emissions trading scheme affecting the impact of renewables

See on Scoop.itGreen & Sustainable News

Deep problems in Europe’s carbon trading scheme – its flagship climate change policy – are set to cancel out over 700m tonnes of emissions saved through renewable energy and energy efficiency efforts, according to a new report.

The study, by carbon trading thinktank Sandbag, found that a huge oversupply of carbon pollution permits means many are being banked to enable emissions after 2020, when efforts to tackle global warming should be intensifying. These emissions, nearly equivalent to Germany’s annual carbon pollution, will cancel out efforts made in other areas to cut carbon.

The report also warns that Europe’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) is a “global dumping ground” for “dubious” carbon permits created by projects around the world.

See on energyindemand.com