Mining The Earth: *AZ.  Yay!  US District Court  judge has ruled “to uphold the Obama administration’s 20-year ban on new uranium mining claims across one million acres of public lands adjacent to the Grand Canyon.”  But will there be an appeal? *CA-OR.  A proposed nickel mine in CA stalled when

A Quick Whirl Around The Fracking World *Arctic.  Russia’s Rosneft and Exxon Mobil have struck oil in the Arctic, so now (but not before, mind you) Exxon has decided to “wind down” its operation in light of US sanctions against Russia and specifically against Rosneft’s leader, Igor Sechin. It’s wonderfully

MINING THE EARTH: *Everywhere. Last ditch efforts by some utilities around the globe to halt renewables include taxes on “solar energy-equipped houses and offices”, vigorous lobbying to stop governments providing incentives to “green energy”, much heftier “daily connection” fees rather than billing for units of energy used, etc. Will alternative

A Quick Whirl Around The Fracking World *Keep the Oil in the Ground. *US.  President Obama went before the UN to talk about climate change and what the US is doing regarding it.   Several significant claims made in his speech were quickly subjected to some fact checking. *UN.  According

Mining the Earth *KY.   Back lung disease among coal miners at levels seen 40 years ago is “back with a vengeance”.  This time around, its worst cases occur not just among underground miners, but surface-miners as well.  All the “easy-pickins” of past mining are gone; consequently, miners today have

  A Quick Whirl Around the Fracking World *USA. Are you ready? The People’s Climate March is set to go on Sunday, September 21st, at 11:30 am in Central Park West, New York City. Why’s it so important? See here and here, for example. If you’re able to go, you just

Mining the Earth *Everywhere. Intriguing chart out of Finland showing when various resources obtained by various extraction methods will be depleted. So, what plans do our policy-makers have in mind to meet these challenges? *USA. Since they can’t seem to accomplish much else, the US Congress is turning its attention

*Rhetorical questions:  If the world did this, why can’t it do the same for this?  Does non-response have anything to do with this? *CA.  The Kern County Board of Supervisors just approved “the largest ‘crude by rail’ project in the state”, allowing Texas’ Alon USA to ship 100 cars of

Mining the Earth: 9 Sep 2014 *AK. September 19th is the deadline for letting the EPA know if you oppose the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska’s beautiful Bristol Bay and if you support the EPA’s efforts to protect Bristol Bay “from the risks posed by large-scale mining at the Pebble deposit.”

There’re the old myths: the free market, the Invisible Hand, free enterprise, competition equals better products, and so forth. Of course, when those shibboleths don’t translate as they should in real life, there is often a turn toward “investing” in politicians and political parties, advertising to grab and ensure a