The devastating tornadoes which hit Oklahoma this May bring to the mind a powerful string of tornadoes that hit Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Georgia and 13 other states in 1999. Those tornadoes resulted in $1.5 billion in insured losses ($2.0 billion in 2012 dollars) in all the affected states, according to ISO. The damage to Oklahoma was nearly $1.0 billion ($1.4 billion in 2012 dollars, according to ISO). The costliest U.S. tornado event, based on insured losses, was the 2011 Tuscaloosa, Alabama, tornadoes, which cost $7.5 billion in insured damages (in 2012 dollars). That was the 10th costliest U.S. catastrophe, based on insured losses, according to ISO. The second costliest tornado event, based on insured losses, was the 2011 tornadoes that hit Joplin, Missouri, and other locations. They cost $7.0 billion in insured losses in 2012 dollars. Updated information on 2013 tornados from the National Weather Services are posted athttp://www.spc.ncep.noaa.gov/climo/online/monthly/newm.html

Severe U.S. thunderstorms, including tornado events, cost $14.9 billion in insured losses and $27.7 billion in economic losses in 2012, according to Munich Re. The U.S. experiences more tornadoes than any other country in the world, according to a 2013 report by Lloyd’s of London. (See Executive Summary, page 4 of Tornadoes a Rising Risk? for additional findings and statistics)… [H/T: Full Text Reports]

Lawmakers could increase federal revenues and encourage reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) by establishing a carbon tax, which would either tax those emissions directly or tax fuels that release CO₂ when they are burned (fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas). Emissions of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere and contribute to climate change—a long-term and potentially very costly global problem.

The effects of a carbon tax on the U.S. economy would depend on how the revenues from the tax were used. Options include using the revenues to reduce budget deficits, to decrease existing marginal tax rates (the rates on an additional dollar of income), or to offset the costs that a carbon tax would impose on certain groups of people. This study examines how a carbon tax, combined with those alternative uses of the revenues, might affect the economy and the environment…

…Before 2009, there had been no organized effort to leverage the abundant wind, solar, and geothermal renewable energy resources on public lands to power the economy and to support the growing renewable energy industry. In the Obama Administration’s first term, the Department of the Interior (Department) and its Bureau of Land Management (BLM) stood up a sensible renewable energy program for our public lands. For example, the BLM has made substantial progress in working through a large queue of backlogged applications inherited from the previous administration. More than 30 projects were permitted for more than 10,000 megawatts of new renewable power. These projects are creating jobs, driving innovation, and will help supply Western markets with clean, renewable power for decades to come.

Scientists working side-by-side from 25 wildlife organisations have compiled a stock take of our native species – the first of its kind in the UK. The report reveals that 60% of the species studied have declined over recent decades. More than one in ten of all the species assessed are under threat of disappearing from our shores altogether…

[Oil and Gas Journal article by Nick Snow] US natural gas prices are unlikely to rise markedly under a variety of scenarios, including those with increased demand across multiple sectors, a study by the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Energy Project staff concluded.

BPC said the report analyzed the combined effect of increased gas demand from multiple sources, including industry, electric power generation, and LNG and pipeline exports.

It said the analysis addresses two key policy questions: what price impacts would be when multiple demand drivers act in concert, and how impacts would vary under high and low gas supply assumptions.

The analysis found that even when demand for gas is high and supplies are low, prices in the scenario analysis would never reach levels seen in the past when prices peaked, BPC said.

It said increased gas consumption in the future will be primarily driven by overall economic growth and increased demand in the electric power and industrial sectors. Natural gas vehicles stand to make significant gains in market share and vehicle miles traveled by 2035, it said.

[From Press Release] NOAA presented to the U.S. Coast Guard today a new report that finds that 36 sunken vessels scattered across the U.S. seafloor could pose an oil pollution threat to the nation’s coastal marine resources. Of those, 17 were recommended for further assessment and potential removal of both fuel oil and oil cargo.

The sunken vessels are a legacy of more than a century of U.S. commerce and warfare. They include a barge lost in rough seas in 1936; two motor-powered ships that sank in separate collisions in 1947 and 1952; and a tanker that exploded and sank in 1984. The remaining sites are 13 merchant marine ships lost during World War II, primarily along the Atlantic Seaboard and Gulf of Mexico. To see a list of the ships and their locations, visit: http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/protect/ppw/…

[Green Car Congress] A new US Geological Survey study finds that US aquifers are being drawn down at an accelerating rate. Groundwater Depletion in the United States (1900-2008) comprehensively evaluates long-term cumulative depletion volumes in 40 separate aquifers (distinct underground water storage areas) in the United States, bringing together reliable information from previous references and from new analyses…

While the rate of groundwater depletion across the country has increased markedly since about 1950, the maximum rates have occurred during the most recent period of the study (2000–2008), when the depletion rate averaged almost 25 cubic kilometers per year. For comparison, 9.2 cubic kilometers per year is the historical average calculated over the 1900–2008 timespan of the study…

Crop productivity is improved by ecosystem services, including pollination, but this should be set in the context of trade-offs among multiple management practices. We investigated the impact of pollination services on coffee production, considering variation in fertilization, irrigation, shade cover, and environmental variables such as rainfall (which stimulates coffee flowering across all plantations), soil pH, and nitrogen availability. After accounting for management interventions, bee abundance improved coffee production (number of berries harvested). Some management interventions, such as irrigation, used once to trigger asynchronous flowering, dramatically increased bee abundance at coffee trees. Others, such as the extent and type of tree cover, revealed interacting effects on pollination and, ultimately, crop production. The effects of management interventions, notably irrigation and addition of lime, had, however, far more substantial positive effects on coffee production than tree cover. These results suggest that pollination services matter, but managing the asynchrony of flowering was a more effective tool for securing good pollination than maintaining high shade tree densities as pollinator habitat. Complex interactions across farm and landscape scales, including both management practices and environmental conditions, shape pollination outcomes. Effective production systems therefore require the integrated consideration of management practices in the context of the surrounding habitat structure. This paper points toward a more strategic use of ecosystem services in agricultural systems, where ecosystem services are shaped by the coupling of management interventions and environmental variables.

[Duke University Nicholas School Green Grok blog] …This week that same Duke team, in collaboration with scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, published a paper in the Journal of Applied Geochemistry on results of a study similar in design to that used for the 2011 study for the Marcellus shale but in this case looking at drinking water wells in Arkansas near fracking sites overlying the Fayetteville shale formation. The lead author of this new paper was Nathaniel Warner.

On the basis of 127 samples, the authors concluded that there was “no discernible impairment of groundwater quality in areas associated with natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing in this region.” Lead author Warner says that “[t]hese findings demonstrate that shale gas development, at least in this area, has been done without negatively impacting drinking water resources…”

• The trend of rising US dependence on imports of foreign oil and natural gas has been abruptly reversed, as a result of falling domestic demand for oil and increasing domestic supplies. This trend is likely to continue until at least 2020.
• There are significant transitional challenges. The main sources of US shale gas and ‘tight’ oil are distant from existing infrastructure. The new oil mainly replaces light African and Atlantic crudes, rather than heavier Middle East oil for which refineries were designed.
• Low natural gas prices have expanded the domestic gas market and enhanced the competitiveness of US industries.
• US developments will create an economically sustainable surplus of natural gas. North American producers are competing to develop liquefied natural gas exports to Asia.
• The aggregate of ‘energy self-sufficiency’ is superficial. While its crude oil imports from outside North America will diminish, the United States will continue to trade oil and gas with Canada and Mexico.
• ‘Energy security’ is losing strength as a policy justification. The United States will, however, remain a substantial oil importer for at least a decade, and cannot be indifferent to the stability and security of global oil markets.