Gulf Shrimper Sets the Record Straight About BP’s Failed Cleanup – from Julie Dermansky
Gulf Shrimper Dean Blanchard of Grand Isle Sets the Record Straight About BP’s Failed Cleanup (via Desmogblog) The second phase of hearings in the legal battle over the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico ended on October 17th. Following two weeks of testimony by the U.S. Department of Justice and BP, U.S. District Court Judge Carl Barbier will determine…
Alaskans Call Out Bully Governor
About 80 people gathered in the spirit of righteous indignation today outside the Anchorage office of Governor Sean Parnell. Protesters called on Parnell to drop the administrations campaign to recoup legal fees from a lawsuit involving the proposed Pebble Mine project in Bristol Bay. He’s demanding a million dollars from 88-year old Vic Fischer, an original framer of the Alaska Constitution, and 80-year old former First Lady of Alaska, and others. The stalwart bunch fought the state and sued unsuccessfully for the public’s right to know about exploration work at the mine site. And if you’re wondering about the answer…
Torches and Pitchforks for Parnell
There are certain times when a government crosses a line, and there’s really no other way to adequately express one’s feelings about it than by deploying torches and pitchforks. The glinting of the tines in the firelight, the surging of the crowd, the bellowing of moral outrage… Ahhh. There’s really nothing like it to get the ol’ blood pumping. Well, I guess there is another way, but I’m reasonably sure it’s illegal, and though it might be satisfying the irony of retaliating against a bully by tarring and feathering him could not be overlooked, and might garner said bully some…
Parnell Targets Former First Lady
Obama is a socialist. Health care is communism. Closed parks are fascism. It’s weird the way words and labels get thrown around these days. Apparently dictionaries are one of the things some people no longer believe in. Here’s a word that doesn’t get thrown around but should: corporatocracy. The Oxford Dictionary defines it as “a society or system that is governed or controlled by corporations.” I joke about living in a resource colony but it isn’t actually funny. When the Corrupt Bastards Club was running the Legislature, then-Gov. Frank Murkowski asked them to effectively strip Alaskans of the right to…
Parnell Gets Fish Slapped
When one grapples for a visual allegory of what happened to the Parnell administration this week, it’s hard to think of anything more appropriate than this: That’s Sean Parnell on the right, and the Anchorage Superior Court on the left. The Superior Court ruled that the constitutional rights of Alaskans have been violated by the current administration when Parnell & Co. refused to process a four-year-old application to reserve water in the Chuitna River watershed for wild salmon. “Today’s ruling is a victory for every Alaskan who wants to protect wild salmon and the Alaskan way of life,” said Ron…
XL Pipeline Profits More Important Than Environment – by Steve Horn for Desmosblog
US Court: Transcanada’s Keystone XL Profits More Important than Environment (via Desmogblog) In a major ruling that’s flown under the radar, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit – based in Denver, Colorado – decided not to grant the Sierra Club and Clean Energy Future Oklahoma a temporary injunction on the construction of the southern…
Smoke Up! – Smoked Salmon Photos
Salmon is the lifeblood of Alaska. We grill it. We jerk it. (Jerky it? Jerkify it?) We pan fry it. We put it in our vodka. This last week TheMudflats contributing editor Shannyn Moore spent a couple days working through some of the largest filets I’ve ever seen – smoking and canning them. I did what I know how to do with salmon… take photos of them. (and sneak some for my bagels) By the way… if you like Salmon… you should tell your legislators. Click this link.
Tell Them FRACK NO! – From the Cook Inletkeeper
This is from the Cook Inletkeeper – please click the link below and send a note to your legislators. Deadline is this MONDAY! Fracking fluids are used to enhance oil and gas recovery; they are injected under pressure in oil and gas reservoirs, and they blast apart spaces in the source rock to allow oil and gas to flow more easily. Fracking fluids can contain diesel fuel and other toxic chemicals, yet the precise constituents of fracking fluids are often concealed as “trade secrets.” In the Lower 48, the use of fracking fluids has been linked to drinking water and…
Fracking Hell: 20,600 Barrels Spilled in North Dakota – Steve Horn for Desmosblog
Over 865,200 Gallons of Fracked Oil Spill in ND, Public In Dark For Days Due to Government Shutdown (via Desmogblog) Over 20,600 barrels of oil fracked from the Bakken Shale has spilled from a Tesoro Logistics pipeline in Tioga, North Dakota in one of the biggest onshore oil spills in recent U.S. history. Though the spill occurred on September 29, the U.S. National…
Aurora Lite
After the early tease of the aurora in late August, I’ve been itching for the chance to get my next northern light fix. Even though the forecast emphasized overcast skies the aurora was supposed to be stormy so Carl Johnson and I ventured out to find a clearing in the sky. We did. It only lasted briefly and it was faint – but the stars were bright so it made for from some interesting shots. This one was on our way back along the highway – the street lights made the trees glow yellow.