Enbridge Energy Partners has essentially pulled the plug on the controversial Sandpiper pipeline in northern Minnesota, just a few weeks after announcing it’s buying a stake in a different pipeline that doesn’t cross the state.
Calgary-based Enbridge is withdrawing its state application for the $2.6 billion Sandpiper. It’s asking for an end to regulatory proceedings, including work on an environmental-impact statement, according to documents […]
Iowa – MidAmerican Energy wind towers
The Iowa Utilities Board has given MidAmerican Energy the green light for the utility’s plans for a $3.6 billion wind energy investment, the largest renewable energy project in the state.
The state board on Friday gave final approval for the utility’s Wind XI farm.
The project — first announced in April — is part of Des Moines-based MidAmerican’s goal to reach 100 percent renewable energy for Iowa customers.
“We are finalizing plans to begin construction of the 1,000 wind turbines, with completion expected by the end of 2019,” MidAmerican spokeswoman Ashton Hockman said in an email Monday. “Wind XI will add up to 2,000 megawatts of wind generation in Iowa and is the largest wind project MidAmerican Energy has ever undertaken.”
Hockman said Wind XI will include multiple sites across Iowa, but exact locations are still being finalized. Those sites will be brought into service over a three-year period, from 2017 through 2019, she added.
The entire cost of the project planned to be recouped through federal production tax credits over 10 years, so the company is not […]
The number of elephants in the African savanna is in drastic decline, their population having dwindled by 30 percent between 2007 and 2014, according to the Great Elephant Census, the first-ever pan-African survey of savanna elephants. (emphasis added) The recently released report was funded by philanthropist Paul G. Allen.
This extraordinarily detailed and comprehensive effort, which required the participation of 90 scientists doing on-the-ground work in 18 countries, paints a deeply disturbing picture for the future of this iconic species. Between 2007 and 2014, the number of elephants dropped by a startling 144,000. Continent-wide elephant populations are shrinking by eight percent each year. Some of the worst declines are in Angola, Mozambique, and Tanzania. In certain parts of Cameroon and Zambia, elephant populations could be facing local extirpation. In Zimbabwe’s Sebungwe region — on the Zambezi River and Lake Kariba north of Hwange National Park — populations are down by a sickening 74 percent.
Graphic by Great Elephant Census
The cruelty that is associated with the decline is soul-numbing. Mike Chase, the scientist who led the survey, told CNN that in just two days, his team counted the remains of more than […]
EpiPen is the leading way to treat allergic reactions that are so severe that some people can’t breathe, a condition known as anaphylaxis. To do that, EpiPen (shown left) uses the drug epinephrine, delivered by a unique, patented technology that makes it easy to inject yourself during an emergency; so much so that kids can do it, too. But while a dose of the decades-old drug costs just pennies to make, the self-injectable pen is expensive—GoodRx shows that the cost of a two-pack of EpiPen or Epipen JR starts at around $600.
As children who rely on the life-saving drug return to school, some parents might need to buy multiple pens for their kids as well as for teachers and school nurses, and those expenses can add up fast. Such is the case for Tracy Bush, of Pfafftown, N.C., whose 14-year-old son relies on EpiPen for his allergies to nuts, eggs, and other foods. Bush has watched the price of EpiPen increase over the past nine years from $146 for a two-pack to more than $600. The total cost of […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
