Alaska
-
Alaska is about to get fracked up
Alaska’s been coasting on its stores of easy-access oil, but a new report from the U.S. Geological Survey shows that the state has a motherlode of shale oil and natural gas. You know what means — here come the frackers. The numbers are impressive: as much as 80 trillion cubic feet of frackable natural gas […]
-
Representative thinks oil pipeline will help caribou get laid
Foolish enviros might think that oil pipelines are bad for wildlife, what with the habitat-destroying and whatnot. But Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert (Texas) is an expert on ungulate romance, and he knows the score: Oil pipelines are the caribou equivalent of a hotel room with a heart-shaped bed, a champagne glass-shaped hot tub, and a […]
-
Critical List: Connecting climate change to the Texas heat wave; ditching plastic straws
Climate scientist James Hansen says he can prove that climate change caused the Texas heat wave. Maine fishermen caught more lobster last year than ever before. Wave and tidal energy could provide enough electricity to meet 15 percent of current demand in the United States. In London, plastic straws are the new plastic bags. No […]
-
Rep. Don Young throws a weird tantrum over arctic drilling
Usually, we at Grist List try to make the news amusing for your entertainment. But sometimes Congress does the work for us. The scene: A committee hearing on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The characters: Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), drilling advocate, professional crank Douglas Brinkley, respected historian Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), committee chairman, […]
-
Airlines race to be first to fly with biofuel
One day, maybe, planes will be able fly on electricity alone, but until then, the best chance they have to get off gasoline is to switch over to biofuels. And that's actually happening! Over the summer, two biofueled flights made it across the Atlantic, and now Alaska Airlines is pushing an ambitious commercial biofuel flight […]
-
Superstorm hits Alaska
When the National Weather Service calls a storm "epic," you know something big is going down. (Or that the National Weather Service employs a lot of 20something copywriters, I guess, but in this case it's the former.) The storm currently sweeping over Alaska is going to be one of the most severe Bering Strait storms […]
-
Critical List: MIT recreates photosynthesis; City of Austin goes 100 percent renewable
MIT created an "artificial leaf" that recreates photosynthesis.
In Germany, they've got so much wind-generated electricity, they’re giving it away.
Driving 75 mph isn't fuel efficient, ahem, Maine.
Austin's going to be the largest local government using only renewable energy to power its municipal buildings. -
Company that created Alaskan ‘dead zone’ has to pay to clean it up
Dumping buckets of fish guts into the ocean turns out not to be so good for the ecosystems involved. Basically, the more dead fish you put in the water, the fewer live fish can survive there. Off the coast of Alaska, one seafood processor has created "a massive wasteland of fish guts about 50 acres or more … a dead zone."
The processor, Seattle-based Trident, now has to pay $30 to 40 million to clean up its mess (plus, stop dumping so many damn fish innards into the sea). -
Valdez redux? Scientists sound alarm over key Gulf fish species
Could one of the Gulf of Mexico’s most abundant fish face the same fate as Prince William Sound’s crashed herring population? A new study [PDF] by a team of researchers published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences raises alarming questions about the lingering effects of the BP oil spill on Gulf killifish. The […]