Arctic drilling could contribute to US oil resurgence | cleveland.com

SEATTLE -- During the last year, some 400 workers at a shipyard on Seattle's Harbor  Island have been installing new diesel engines, welding bulkheads, painting and tackling other tasks to prepare the Kulluk, a Shell Oil rig, for drilling holes this summer in the sea bottom off Alaska's North Slope.

The refurbishing of Kulluk and other Shell work done in the Pacific Northwest has pumped some $200 million into the local economy, according to company officials. This could be the launch to what may be a decade of exploration and development of offshore oil fields in Arctic waters.

"It's the first new maritime-associated industry to start to emerge in Puget Sound in decades, and we're just thrilled about it," said John Lockwood, a senior adviser at Vigor Shipyards, which landed the oil-rig work at Harbor Island.

..."We are not touting any kind of grand energy independence. This is all about energy choice," said Pete Slaiby, a Shell Alaska vice president. He said offshore Arctic oil could help replace crude from regimes that the United States does not want to support.

The Kulluk and a second rig, the Noble Discoverer, are scheduled to depart Seattle later this month for the slow journey north. The rigs would begin drilling sometime in July, when unusually heavy pack ice recedes enough to allow for summer work to begin.

UN conference calls for economic “contraction” to combat climate change « Hot Air

Altogether now: “Wealthier societies are healthier societies!” We don’t need to go backward to achieve environmental quality — technology, efficiency, and innovation mean that we can move forward both economically and ecologically. I always find it singularly disturbing when self-important bureaucrats prescribe a reversal on economic growth when so many people in this world still live in poverty. Affordable energy and economic expansion are the recipe for lifting people out of poverty, and third-world countries without the wealth or means to worry about their environmental impact are oftentimes some of the worst environmental offenders.

Green Energy Threatens To Vandalise Britain's Finest Countryside

Hundreds of miles of giant electricity pylon lines are planned to be driven through some of Britain’s finest landscape — including at least two national parks — to serve the growing wind farm industry. Among the most damaging is a proposed link through Snowdonia National Park, running from Dinorwig on the Menai Strait to Ffestiniog.

Pollen on the rise: report | Herald Sun

Plants can survive in more places.