Category: Environment

Scientists solve mystery of West Coast starfish plague

Researchers analyzed hundreds of sunflower starfish to figure out what’s causing sea star wasting syndrome. Photo courtesy of Cornell University
Researchers analyzed hundreds of sunflower starfish to figure out what’s causing sea star wasting syndrome. Photo courtesy of Cornell University

 

By Katie Campbell, Earthfix

SEATTLE — After months of research, scientists have identified the pathogen at the heart of the wasting disease that’s been killing starfish by the millions along the Pacific shores of North America, according to research published Monday.
They said it’s a virus that’s different from all other known viruses infecting marine organisms. They’ve dubbed it “sea star associated densovirus.”

Figuring out what brings on marine diseases is rare, especially among invertebrates. And identifying what virus is to blame is particularly difficult because a drop of seawater contains about 10 million viruses.

“Basically we’ve had to sort through to try to find the virus that is responsible for this disease,” Hewson said.

To find the culprit virus, an international team of researchers from more than a dozen universities, aquariums, government agencies and other organizations worked together with the help of the National Science Foundation’s coordination network for marine infectious disease.

Tissue samples of sick and healthy starfish were analyzed for all the possible pathogens associated with diseased starfish. The team then conducted DNA sequencing of the viruses and compared them to all of the other known viruses. Once they had identified a leading candidate, they tested it by injecting the densovirus into healthy starfish in an aquarium. Then they watched to see if the disease took hold.

And sure enough it did.

“When we inoculated them, they died within about a week to 14 days,” Hewson said. “Whereas controls that had received viruses that had been destroyed by heat, did not become sick.”

Infographic by Cornell University
Infographic by Cornell University

When researchers tried to figure out where the virus may have come from, they learned that West Coast starfish have been living with the virus for decades. They detected the densovirus in preserved starfish specimens from as far back as the 1940s.
“It’s probably been sort of smoldering at a low level for a very long time,” Hewson said.

Scientists don’t yet know what sparked the seemingly benign virus to transform into the perpetrator of what’s considered the largest marine disease outbreak ever recorded.

What they do know, Hewson said, is that for about a decade before the first signs of sea star wasting syndrome were reported in the Pacific Northwest, starfish populations here were considered to be overabundant. And they think this might be a clue.

Photo courtesy of Cornell University
Photo courtesy of Cornell University

Because viruses often spread by physical contact, when host populations mushroom, there’s greater opportunity for viruses to circulate. There’s also a greater chance that a virus can mutate and become more lethal.
“Predators, like this particular virus, play a very important role in population control,” Hewson said.

But densoviruses don’t usually cause their hosts to die. What seems to be happening, Hewson explained, is that the sea star associated densovirus weakens a starfish’s immune system. That makes the starfish more susceptible to bacterial infections, which ultimately lead to the gruesome deaths associated with the syndrome – lesions forming, arms falling off and stars melting into piles of mush.

Hewson said it may be possible to use antibiotics to help starfish fight off those bacterial infections.

“That’s not a great strategy for the entire ocean or even small bays and inlets,” Hewson says. “But it does give us some ability to keep them in captivity and potentially grow up resistant stocks in aquariums.”

Scientists will also be watching to see what happens to the next generation of baby starfish that have sprung up in some areas along the Pacific Coast.

After months of research, scientists have identified the pathogen at the heart of the starfish wasting disease that’s been killing starfish by the millions along the Pacific shores of North America, according to research published Monday. Video by Katie Campbell/Earthfix

“We are interested in the potential for stars to develop resistance to this outbreak,” says Drew Harvell, a marine epidemiologist at Cornell University and the University of Washington who has been coordinating the research. “The only way forward and to have sea stars in the future is for them to develop resistance and having new stars to propagate.”

The research team also plans to continue investigating environmental factors such as warming water and ocean acidification that may have caused starfish to be more susceptible to the viral infection.

This report first appeared on EarthFix’s website. EarthFix is a public media project of Oregon Public Broadcasting and Boise State Public Radio, Idaho Public Television, KCTS 9 Seattle, KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio, Northwest Public Radio and Television, Southern Oregon Public Television and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The Final Indian War in America is About to Begin

Lakota members during the annual Liberation Day commemoration of the Wounded Knee massacre. Photo: Deep Roots United Front/Victor Puertas
Lakota members during the annual Liberation Day commemoration of the Wounded Knee massacre. Photo: Deep Roots United Front/Victor Puertas

 

Notes from Indian Country, November 16, 2014
By Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji)
© Native Sun News

Source: Huffington Post

(Note: This column will appear before the Senate votes on the Keystone XL Pipeline. The House has already approved the construction of the Pipeline)

South Dakota’s Republican leadership of John Thune and Kristi Noem always march lockstep with the other Republican robots. Neither of them care that South Dakota’s largest minority, the people of the Great Sioux Nation, diametrically oppose the Pipeline and they also fail to understand the determination of the Indian people to stop it.

The House vote was 252-161 favoring the bill. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) who is trying to take the senate seat from Democrat Mary Landrieu, They are headed for a senate runoff on December 6 and Landrieu has expressed a strong support of the bill in hopes of holding her senate seat.

Two hundred twenty-one Republicans supported the bill which made the Republican support unanimous while 31 Democrats joined the Republicans. One hundred sixty-one Democrats rejected the bill.

Progressive newsman and commentator for MSNBC, Ed Schultz, traveled to the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota this year to meet with the Indian opponents of the Pipeline. Firsthand he witnessed the absolute determination of the Indian nations to stop construction of the Pipeline.

He witnessed their determination and reported on it. Except for Schultz the national media shows no interest and apparently has no knowledge of how the Indian people feel about the Pipeline nor do they comprehend that they will go to their deaths stopping it. What is wrong with the national media when it comes to Indians?

As an example of the national media’s apathy, the Lakota, Nakota and Dakota have turned their backs on the $1.5 billion dollars offered to them for settling the Black Hills Claim and although they are among the poorest of all Americans, the national media does not consider this news.

Why do they protest the XL Pipeline? Because the lands the Pipeline will cross are Sacred Treaty Lands and to violate these lands by digging ditches for the pipelines is blasphemes to the beliefs of the Native Americans. Violating the human and religious rights of a people in order to create jobs and low cost fuel is the worst form of capitalism. Will the Pipeline bring down the cost of fuel and create thousands of jobs?

President Barack Obama has blocked the construction of the Pipeline for six years and he said, “I have constantly pushed back against the idea the somehow the Keystone Pipeline is either this massive jobs bill for the United States or is somehow lowering gas prices. Understand what this project is. It is providing the ability of Canada to pump their oil, send it through our land, down to the Gulf, where it will be sold everywhere else. That doesn’t have an impact on U.S. gas prices.”

In the meantime Senator Landrieu conceded that it is unlikely that the Senate and the House will have the two-thirds majority needed to override an Obama veto.

Wizipan Little Elk of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and a coalition of tribal leaders from across the Northern Plains and the United States have pulled no punches on how they intend to fight the Pipeline to the death if that is the only way to stop it.

South Dakota’s elected leadership has totally ignored the protests of the largest minority residing in their state. They have also totally underestimated and misunderstood the inherent determination of the Indian people. This is a huge mistake that will have national implications and it is taking place right under their Republican noses.

What is even worse South Dakota’s media has also buried its collective heads in the sand even though Native Sun News has been reporting on the Keystone XL Pipeline since 2006. Award-winning Health and Environment Editor for Native Sun News, Talli Nauman, has been at the journalistic forefront of this environmental disaster about to happen from day one and she has been rewarded by the South Dakota Newspaper Association with many awards for her yearly series of articles on this most important topic. Until this issue became a political football, the rest of South Dakota’s media had been silent.

The Keystone XL Pipeline that is being pushed by TransCanada may well be the beginning of the final war between the United States government and the Indian Nations. A word of caution to TransCanada and the U.S. Government: please do not disregard the determination of the Indian people when they say they will fight this Pipeline to their deaths if need be. They mean it!

When asked if he truly thought that a handful of Indians could stop the construction of the Pipeline, Little Elk simply said, “Try us!”

Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, is the editor and publisher of Native Sun News. He can be reached at editor@nsweekly.com.

 

 

Puget Sound eagles show high levels of banned toxic compound

The significance of the exposure of the Pacific Northwest eagles to PBDEs is not clear, but PCBs were banned 40 years ago and we're still dealing with the residual affect of that toxic chemical compound in the environment. (AP Photo/File)
The significance of the exposure of the Pacific Northwest eagles to PBDEs is not clear, but PCBs were banned 40 years ago and we’re still dealing with the residual affect of that toxic chemical compound in the environment. (AP Photo/File)

 

By: Tim Haeck, MyNorthwest.com

A chemical flame retardant, banned in certain products in Washington state, is showing up in the environment, years later, in alarming levels.

Scientists studied the livers of 21 bald and golden eagles collected from Washington and Idaho and found polybrominated diphenyl ethers, known as PBDEs. Higher levels of the toxic compound were found in samples of eagles from urban areas. The compound has been commonly used as a flame retardant in all manner of consumer products, but it was banned in Washington in 2008.

“So PBDEs are not allowed to be used in Washington in the biggest uses, so furniture, TVs, computers, mattresses, that sort of thing,” explained Washington State Department of Ecology toxicologist Carol Kraege.

Over time, the compound breaks down.

“It gets in house dust, it gets in the air, it attaches to particles, things like dust, and then when you clean and wash, you rinse it all down the drain. It goes out into the water, gets in the fish,” said Kraege.

Another problem with PBDEs is that it’s bio-cumulative. In other words, creatures absorb it faster than it dissipates, with higher concentrations as you move up the food chain.

“You’ll find a little less in critters that live on the bottom of the Puget Sound and the top predator, like the eagle, will have the most,” according to Kraege. “For humans, we are at the top of our food chain, so it can be a problem for people. It has been detected in people, that’s part of what led to the ban was that it was detected in people and in high enough levels to start causing concern.”

PBDEs have been shown to reduce fertility in humans as well as other issues.

“The kinds of things that PBDEs can cause in people; learning disabilities, so if you’re exposed in utero or as a really tiny baby, it’s going to affect how your brain develops,” said Kraege.

The significance of the exposure of the Pacific Northwest eagles to PBDEs is not clear, but PCBs were banned 40 years ago and we’re still dealing with the residual affect of that toxic chemical compound in the environment.

Klamath Basin Agreements Move Toward Senate Floor

The J.C. Boyle Dam, one of four that the Interior Department has recommended for removal from the Klamath River. It runs through Southern Oregon and Northern California. | credit: Amelia Templeton
The J.C. Boyle Dam, one of four that the Interior Department has recommended for removal from the Klamath River. It runs through Southern Oregon and Northern California. | credit: Amelia Templeton

By: Jes Burns, Earthfix

A long-negotiated series of agreements to manage water in the Klamath Basin in Southern Oregon and Northern California received Senate committee passage Thursday.

“This legislation is the result of a historic collaboration of efforts,” said Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden during the committee meeting.

Wyden was one of the four Oregon and California co-sponsors the Senate bill. It gives federal authorization for local efforts to ensure enough water for fish and wildlife, while providing predictable irrigation supplies for farmers and ranchers.

The Klamath agreements were signed by local stakeholders in 2010. They establish a hierarchy of water rights and present the possibility of removing dams owned by PacifiCorp. Congressional approval is needed to enact certain provisions.

The legislation gained broad bi-partisan approval in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski supported the bill after the committee approved an amendment decreasing the role of the federal government in making dam-removal decisions.

“What we do… is ensure that the states of California and Oregon are empowered to decide,” Murkowski said.

Now the legislation faces the possibility of a full Senate vote in the coming weeks.

Activist groups sue over border pipeline

The groups said the State Department should not have approved a temporary change.

 

Tribal and environmental groups have sued the U.S. State Department for approving a temporary plan by Enbridge Energy to expand the Alberta Clipper pipeline through Minnesota. File photo of construction on the Alberta Clipper in 2009.
Tribal and environmental groups have sued the U.S. State Department for approving a temporary plan by Enbridge Energy to expand the Alberta Clipper pipeline through Minnesota. File photo of construction on the Alberta Clipper in 2009.

 

By David Shaffer, StarTribune

Tribal and environmental groups have sued the U.S. State Department for approving a temporary plan by a Canadian pipeline company to increase the flow of heavy crude oil from Alberta into Minnesota before a federal environmental study is finished.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Minnesota, alleges that the State Department violated the National Environmental Policy Act and other laws in approving the temporary increase in oil flow and in not releasing information about it. The suit seeks an injunction to halt the project.

“It is a blatant attempt to avoid the ongoing State Department review process,” Doug Hayes, staff attorney for Sierra Club, one of the groups behind the lawsuit, said on a conference call Wednesday. “It is an attempt to increase tar sands imports into the United States without any public scrutiny.”

The State Department said by e-mail that its policy is not to comment on litigation.

Enbridge Energy won Minnesota regulatory approval in August to complete a $200 million upgrade of its 1,000-mile Alberta Clipper pipeline, boosting its flow by adding pumping stations. The line carries heavy crude from the Alberta oil sands region across the state, supplying refineries across the Midwest.

Part of the upgrade is already finished, but the State Department hasn’t yet approved a presidential permit for Enbridge to legally increase cross-border oil shipments. That’s the same permit needed for TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline through Western states, on which the Obama administration has not yet acted.

In a move that angered climate and environmental activists, Calgary-based Enbridge got approval from the State Department in July to increase its cross-border oil flows on the Alberta Clipper line by shifting the crude into another, underused pipeline at the border.

The underused pipeline, known as Line 3, already has a presidential permit to operate at higher volumes. It also carries Canadian crude to Midwest refineries, but operates at a reduced flow for safety reasons. The 1960s-era Line 3 suffers from corrosion and has ruptured several times, and Enbridge has announced plans to rebuild it by 2017.

To make the cross-border switch, Enbridge recently replaced a 17.5-mile segment of Line 3 at the border — allowing it operate at high capacity — and installed valves linking it to the parallel Alberta Clipper Line. On only that border segment, the flows of the two lines are switched, strictly for legal reasons. After the crude oil enters the United States, valves send the oil back into the newer Alberta Clipper line.

The State Department decided that the switch was legal under Line 3’s existing permit.

The lawsuit was filed by Duluth-based environmental attorney Marc Fink on behalf of the White Earth Nation, Honor the Earth, Indigenous Environmental Network, Minnesota Conservation Foundation, MN350, Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club and National Wildlife Federation.

The suit alleges the State Department violated federal law by approving the temporary border project before completing an environmental-impact statement on the Alberta Clipper upgrade. That environmental study is underway but likely won’t be completed for a year. Keystone XL also has been held up by an environmental study.

The suit also alleges violations of the Administrative Procedures Act, which governs agency actions, and the Freedom of Information Act for not releasing information about the project. The suit further cites 19th-century treaties giving Indian tribes hunting, fishing and gathering rights in the region crossed by the Alberta Clipper pipeline.

Enbridge, which is not a defendant, said in a statement that it believes the State Department acted lawfully to approve the switch. It allows the company to temporarily meet customer demands using “existing permitted cross-border capacity,” but does not address long-term needs to transport North American oil to refineries, spokeswoman Lorraine Little said in an e-mail.

Wyoming Coal Tour Goes On, Without Most Invited Tribes

An arial view of a coal mine on public land near Gillette, Wyoming. The state has made efforts to promote coal exports and sway opponents near potential export sites Oregon and Washington. | credit: Katie Campbell
An arial view of a coal mine on public land near Gillette, Wyoming. The state has made efforts to promote coal exports and sway opponents near potential export sites Oregon and Washington. | credit: Katie Campbell

 

By Tony Schick, OPB

The Wyoming Governor invited 25 members of eight Northwest tribes on an all-expenses paid tour of coal operations.

The tour happened last week, and only one tribe participated.

The Wyoming government hosted three visitors from the Pacific Northwest, according to the Casper Star-Tribune: Alice Dietz of the Cowlitz Economic Development Council, Gary Archer of the Kelso, Washington, City Council and Gary MacWilliams of the Nooksack Tribe.

The tour was the latest in the Wyoming government’s efforts to promote coal as good for the economy and not as environmentally dirty as its critics in the Northwest might think. The governor and representatives of the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority have also visited proposed sites for coal export facilities in the Northwest.

With more coal in the ground than the U.S. needs or wants, particularly in light of new clean air regulations that phase out coal plants, the future of the Powder River Basin’s coal industry depends on exports. Several projects have been proposed in Oregon and Washington to receive coal from Montana and Wyoming by rail, transfer it to ships and send it to Asia.

Most tribes in Oregon and Washington oppose coal exports, in part because of concerns about what coal dust and marine shipping would mean for their tribal fishing grounds. Tribes’ treaty fishing rights give them unique power to halt coal export projects.

Most refused the offer, and the tour itself didn’t appear to change any minds. Those who attended were either already in favor of coal exports or remained unswayed. But it was impressive to some. Here’s a quote from the Star-Tribune article:

“We had a prime rib dinner last night,” marveled Gary Archer, a city councilman from Kelso, Washington, a town neighboring one of the proposed ports. “These guys got it made up here. They got everything they need, except public perception.”

Coincidentally, the tour happened the same week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its starkest warning yet, essentially saying if we’re going to have a shot at curbing climate change, the fossil fuels currently in the ground need to stay there.

Traces Of Fukushima Radioactivity Detected In West Coast Waters

By Tom Banse, Northwest News Network

An oceanography institute announced today (Monday) that trace amounts of radioactivity from Fukushima have been detected off the West Coast. This stems from the 2011 nuclear plant accident in Japan.

Radiation experts say the very low levels of radioactivity measured do not pose a health threat here.

The post-earthquake and tsunami nuke plant accident spilled a large amount of radioactive contamination into the Pacific three years ago. Oceanographers projected that it would take until this year for highly diluted traces to reach the West Coast of North America. And a recent research cruise from Dutch Harbor, Alaska to Eureka, California detected the front edge of the plume multiple times between 100 and 1,000 miles offshore. Ken Buesseler is a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

“The levels offshore still are quite low. So by that I mean they are a couple units of these Becquerels per cubic meter, something that is about a thousand times less than a drinking water standard,” he said.

Buesseler said he is reluctant to “trivialize” any amount of radiation, but says he personally has no concerns about swimming, boating or eating fish from local waters.

Since the start of this year, Buesseler’s lab has also tested about 50 seawater samples collected at the shore by concerned coastal residents from California to Alaska. All of those results have come up negative. This sampling was paid for through crowdfunding as part of an ongoing “citizen science” monitoring project initiated by Buesseler.

A parallel but independent monitoring effort run through the radiation health lab at Oregon State University found no detectable traces of Fukushima radiation in seawater samples collected earlier this year in near shore waters along the Pacific Northwest coast.

Scientists tracking the plume from Japan look for a short-lived cesium isotope, cesium-134, that serves as the “fingerprint” of Fukushima contamination.

For context, radioecologist Delvan Neville at OSU said it helps to know that the cesium-134 levels reported by the Woods Hole researcher are “much less than the natural background radiation in seawater.” In an interview, Neville was certain the low levels of Fukushima-derived isotopes detected in the northeastern Pacific do not pose an environmental or human health radiological threat.

Buesseler is scheduled to present his findings Thursday during the annual meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry in Vancouver, Canada.

He is also responding to questions from the public on the “Ask Me Anything” forum on Reddit at 10 a.m. PST Monday.

The results Buesseler reported corroborate detections of cesium-134 in seawater far offshore from Vancouver Island starting last year. Scientists from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Health Canada and the University of Victoria are collaborating on a monitoring effort that also includes fish sampling.

None of the salmon, halibut, sablefish and spiny dogfish they have analyzed have contained detectable levels of radiation traceable to Fukushima.

This was first reported for the Northwest News Network.

 

A Salmon’s Journey Through Dams: Robotic Fish Tell All

Sensor fish are helping researchers figure out what it's like for juvenile salmon to pass through dams. After the newest version of the mechanical devices runs a test through a dam, it lights up so that researchers can find it in the water.
Sensor fish are helping researchers figure out what it’s like for juvenile salmon to pass through dams. After the newest version of the mechanical devices runs a test through a dam, it lights up so that researchers can find it in the water.

 

By Courtney Flatt, Northwest Public Radio

It’s hard to know exactly what happens to young salmon as they swim out to sea – what sort of wild, sometimes fatal ride they experience when they plunge through a dam’s turbine.

A few robotic fish are helping researchers find answers.

They may lack fins, gills, and scales, but these fish are equipped with sensors that can detect pressure changes, water temperature, and the direction they’re facing.

Major pressure changes can make fish experience something akin to the bends in divers. Fish can also get whipped around by turbine blades.

Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have worked with several iterations of robotic fish. Two years ago, EarthFix first covered the robo fish.

Back then, researcher Tom Carlson said it’s important to downsize the mechanical fish so that they can test what it’s like at dams smaller than those on the mainstem Columbia River.

“Everybody tries to imagine what it might be like to be a fish. I don’t think any of us do it very well,” said Carlson, who is now retired. “The experience of the fish may be quite different … They may not have the same sensation of water flow that we might imagine as humans when we’re swimming.”

This newest generation is even smaller than the models used two years ago, when testing found the sensors still worked well after facing up to 600 times the force of gravity – definitely something that’s hard to imagine.

The newest sensor fish are the same size as the juvenile salmon they’ll be sometimes be “swimming” alongside: about 3.5 inches long and 1 inch in diameter. (Researchers are developing other models to mimic more types of fish.)

“The earlier sensor fish design helped us understand how intense pressure changes can harm fish as they pass through dam turbines,” said scientist Daniel Deng, now in charge of the sensor fish project.

“And the newly improved sensor fish will allow us to more accurately measure the forces that fish feel as they pass by turbines and other structures in both conventional dams and other hydro power facilities. As we’re increasingly turning to renewable energy, these measurements can help further reduce the environmental impact of hydropower,” Deng said.

The new devices will be tested at three small hydro projects in the U.S., two conventional hydroelectric dams in the U.S., irrigation structures in Australia and a dam on the Mekong River in Southeast Asia. They can be used with several types of turbines and pumped storage plants.

Election Shifts Oregon Closer To Carbon Tax, Not So For Washington

Smoke stacks during a night scene in Tacoma, Wash. Election-night shifts in the Oregon state Senate moved it closer to a carbon tax. Washington might have distanced itself further. | credit: Flickr/Tom Collins
Smoke stacks during a night scene in Tacoma, Wash. Election-night shifts in the Oregon state Senate moved it closer to a carbon tax. Washington might have distanced itself further. | credit: Flickr/Tom Collins

 

By Ashley Ahearn, Earthfix

Environmentalists spent more than $1.5 million in Oregon and Washington in bids to secure Democratic majorities in state legislatures — majorities they wanted for approving clean-fuel standards and a tax on carbon emissions.

The plan worked in Oregon. It didn’t in Washington.

The Washington Conservation Voters, with money from California billionaire Tom Steyer, backed Democratic candidates in three conservative-leaning districts in an attempt to give their party control of the state Senate. All three lost to Republicans.

Environmentalists backed Tami Green against Sen. Steve O’Ban in the south Puget Sound area. Green lost.

They backed Matt Isenhower challenging Sen. Andy Hill in his East Side King County district. Isenhower lost.

They backed Seth Fleetwood trying to unseat Sen. Doug Ericksen in Whatcom County. Fleetwood lost.

That puts Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee in a challenging position for advancing his plans to institute a price on carbon and a low-carbon fuel standard. Environmental groups expected the Democratic challengers to vote for those policies.

At an energy conference Wednesday in Seattle, the governor spoke to reporters with a bit less enthusiasm than normal. He stressed the need for bipartisanship.

“All parties are going to have to accept what they consider imperfect solutions,” Inslee said. “It is the nature of bipartisanship. So I’m going to urge people to come to Olympia with that mindset and if they have that mindset I believe we will succeed.”

In Oregon, Democrats increased their majority in the Senate to at least 17 of the chamber’s 30 seats. They secured one seat and took another one from a Republican. Sen. Alan Bates, D-Medford, won reelection and Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, defeated Republican incumbent Betsy Close. Another Republican-held seat could flip to the Democrats. It’s held by Sen. Bruce Starr, R-Hillsboro, whose narrow lead against Democratic challenger Chuck Riley remained too close to call Wednesday.

Those results have conservation groups thinking the Oregon Senate is poised to reconsider environmental legislation on issues like clean fuels and disclosure of chemicals in children’s products.

Both of those failed previously after Democrat Betsy Johnson voted with Republicans.

“We don’t even know what we could have brought to the floor because it was just DOA: Dead on Arrival,” said Doug Moore, Executive Director of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters.

But now, Moore thinks they will have the votes in the Senate to offset that.

“Our ultimate objective here is to price carbon in Oregon. And maybe having 18 seats in the Senate gives us that opportunity,” Moore said.

JL Wilson, a lobbyist for groups opposed to the carbon tax, said he plans to appeal to democrats whose districts depend on industries that oppose the economic burdens of putting a price on carbon emissions.

“I would have a hard time believing you would have 16 senators just lined up to support these policy options,” Wilson said. “Is it more of a challenge than it was prior to last night? Yeah, of course it is. But it’s by no means a fait accompli.”

Public opposition has cost tar sands industry $17bn, says report

Protests helped stymie three major tar sands projects this year, as industry is beset with transportation problems

 

Protest against tar sands in Portland, Oregon, US. Photograph: Alex Milan Tracy/Demotix/Corbis
Protest against tar sands in Portland, Oregon, US. Photograph: Alex Milan Tracy/Demotix/Corbis

 

by: Arthur Nelsen, The Guardian

 

Anti-tar sands campaigns have cost the industry a staggering $17bn (£11bn) in lost revenues, and helped to push it onto the backfoot, according to a study by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), and Oil Change International.

Another $13.8bn has been lost to transportation bottlenecks and the flood of cheap crude coming from shale oil fields, says the Material Risks report, which presents the first quantification of the impact that environmental campaigners have had on the unconventional energy business.

“Industry officials never anticipated the level and intensity of public opposition to their massive build-out plans,” said Steve Kretzmann, Oil Change International’s executive director. “Legal and other challenges are raising new issues related to environmental protection, indigenous rights and the disruptive impact of new pipeline proposals. Business as usual for Big Oil – particularly in the tar sands – is over.”

The industry is currently facing a decline in increased capital expenditure on new tar sands projects, due to problems in transporting the crude, which the study links to public campaigns.

While industry profits continue to fall, the report says that lack of market access helped to stymie three major tar sands enterprises in 2014 alone – Shell’s Pierre River, Total’s Joslyn North and Statoil’s Corner project – which together would have emitted 2.8bn tonnes of CO2.

Protests by environmentalists have been swollen by the presence of first nations communities, angry at the environmental damage they fear the industry could wreak on their ancestral lands.

“The taking of resources has left many lands and waters poisoned – the animals and plants are dying in many areas in Canada,” says the Idle No More manifesto. “We have laws older than this colonial government about how to live with the land.”

“Tar sands producers face a new kind of risk from growing public opposition,” said Tom Sanzillo, director of finance at IEEFA, and one of the lead authors on the report. “This opposition has achieved a permanent presence as public sentiment evolves and as the influence of organisations opposed to tar sands production continues to grow.”

 

Mining trucks carry loads of oil laden sand at the Albian Sands oils project in Ft. McMurray, Alberta, Canada.
Mining trucks carry loads of oil laden sand at the Albian Sands’ oil sands project in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. Photograph: Jeff McIntosh/Associated Press

 

Canada has staked its energy future on a massive expansion of tar sands, which hold the world’s third largest reserve of crude after Saudia Arabia and Venezuela.

But the huge amounts of water and solvents needed to extract oil from bitumen dramatically boost greenhouse gas output and, on latest production forecasts, will increase Canada’s CO2 emissions by 56 megatonnes by 2020.

The tar sands production process involves steam injection, strip mining and refining, and leaves environmental scars ranging from clear-cut forests to toxic tailing ponds and destroyed farmland.

This has pushed the focus of environmental and indigenous land rights protests onto export pipelines, such as the stalled Keystone XL project to send tar sands crude to the US.

According to the new paper, the industry’s current inability to build new pipelines has the potential to cancel most, if not all, planned new projects.

It says that the 6.9bn barrels of tar sands this could still leave underground by 2030 would be the equivalent of an additional 4.1bn tonnes of CO2 emissions – or the same as 54m average passenger vehicles, over the same period.