Gulf research funding fight; Rebuilding after Copenhagen; Avoiding fracking trouble; Why SB722 failed; Warning about BP Whiting refinery; Grizzly troubles explained

The New York Times quoted Lisa Suatoni in a piece discussing the delay in oil spill research funding due to political fights…  Reuters circulated a blog post by Jake Schmidt on the Cancun climate negotiation session (COP16) through their AlertNet site. In the blog Jake outlined three critical functions to ensure the continued progress on international climate change efforts and to rebuild some of the trust lost after Copenhagen.

In an Associated Press article, Kate Sinding argued that it is necessary to do mapping studies of rock formations before and after hydrofracking occurs to evaluate the potential for the contamination of local wells while natural gas is extracted… Annie Notthoff was quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle discussing the failure of the SB722 bill, which would have required sellers of electricity to draw 33 percent of their power from renewable resources by 2020… Ann Alexander spoke with Toronto’s The Star about BP’s mishandling in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and how that disaster should serve as warning against the expansion of BP’s Whiting, Indiana refinery… In an Associated Press article picked up by CBS4Denver, Louisa Willcox explained the decline in whitebark pine as one of the major factors for the record number of grizzlies captured.