Everyone bewildered by the seemingly unprecedented weirdness of this year's summer might spare a thought for those living in 1783, who went through another kind of trial by weather. Gilbert White of Selborne's account of the events of 23 June to 20 July is a masterpiece of deadpan gothic: "The sun, at noon, looked as blank as a clouded moon, and shed a rust coloured ferruginous light on the ground … but was lurid and blood-coloured at rising and setting. All the time the heat was so intense that the butcher's meat could hardly be eaten on the day after it was killed."

White didn't know this phenomenon was caused by a volcanic eruption in Iceland, and regarded it as just an extreme example of the British weather's intrinsic capriciousness. His daily journal shows that 1783 had already been depressingly awful. Immense rains in January, deep snow into May, cold north winds throughout the spring. The year before had been just as dismal.

Sounds familiar? A browse through centuries of graphic weather description in English writing gives a different – and oddly reassuring – perspective on the soul-sapping bleakness of the past three years. Which makes me wonder if there is an undeclared motive behind the Met Office's unprecedented decision to hold a crisis meeting this week to discuss the UK's "disappointing" recent weather. We don't need any hints about the agenda: 2013 had the coolest spring for 50 years, 2012 was the wettest year "since records began", the cold winter of 2010-11 (the paralysing snowdrifts of 1979 and 1982 having, it seems, already been forgotten) is regarded as "exceptional". Jet stream shifts and Arctic ice-melt will be on the agenda, which will focus on whether we are experiencing just a short-term blip, a longer-term natural trend, or a sinister early fallout from global warming.

It will doubtless be a fascinating academic debate, but won't – indeed can't – come to any firm conclusions, given that it is concerned with such a short period. (A "trend" is defined as a consistent shift over 30 years.) Perhaps the Met Office hopes it may point a way towards better forecasting. I think the meteorological business is at last acknowledging how deeply it is involved in our cultural experience of the weather. Our national preoccupation has made the forecast part of the weather, and the forecasters have come to be regarded as oracles, not just sources of practical guidance but scapegoats when things go wrong. Sensing our heightened concerns, they may this week be undertaking a risky reading of the runes.

If so, I fear the outcome will be evasive, depressing, and miss the point of what is needed. If there is long-term change afoot in our weather, it matters not a jot to the quality of our lives whether it is part of an entirely natural cycle or a consequence of global warming. (We're way past the point where anything short of a massive programme of carbon capture could halt the latter for the next half century.) We need to learn to adapt to what is happening. This has always been especially difficult for the British.

Because we live on an island in the Atlantic storm belt, just offshore from a huge continental land mass, our meteorological lot has always been messy and erratic. We can't acclimatise, culturally or psychologically, can't reconcile ourselves to these repeated bolts from the blue. We take refuge in false memories of perpetual golden summers, and regard what, on any objective scale, would be trivial weather nuisances, as dashers of hopes and ruiners of our sense of the proper order of things.

Is it beyond the bounds of possibility that we could find ways of positively enjoying grim weather – of, in the language of cognitive behaviour therapy, "reconfiguring" it? I think there are signs we could. This week the Aldeburgh Festival has been staging Britten's opera Peter Grimes on the shoreline, where it belongs, with a stiff north-easterly blowing salt on to the lips of the audience. Next week it's Glastonbury, where rain and mud are on the cast-list of star attractions, and which has turned the wellington boot into a fashion item. Maybe we'll see a reprise of Dorothy and William Wordsworth's (early adapters) habit of going round snuggled together in a vast single topcoat.

Up here in East Anglia, on the front line of sea-level rise, the first houses on stilts are being built, reviving a common tradition of the flood-prone middle ages. If only the local farmers (already pleading for support) could get beyond their paralysed dependence on monocultures, we'd be moving in the right direction. (Any Mexican smallholder, sowing a dozen varieties of corn to cope with any contingency, would be derisory of agribusinesses' reflex of entrusting all its seeds to one genetic basket.)

Evolution itself, a long, successful negotiation with changeable climates, depends on diversity and quick-footed inventiveness. We need to get in line. At the moment it's as if, T-shirted at the umpteenth climate change rally, we've looked up and, good gracious, the weather has changed, and we'd clean forgotten our mum's advice to always take an extra layer.

]]> Richard Mabey Guardian http://ecotopical.com/site/environment:-climate-change-|-guardian-co-uk/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/18/weather-grim-but-lets-enjoy-it http://ecotopical.com/climate/#5 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:27:00 -0400 A recently mapped genome of the famous albino gorilla Snowflake shows he was born to an uncle and a niece, a new study says.

Driving through the countryside in the south of France, you would probably be charmed by the vineyards and delighted at the thought of drinking fine French wine. But when Rienk van Grondelle looks at the same view, he envisages something completely different. Where farmers now grow vines or corn to feed animals, he sees a future landscape dotted with red ponds.

The ponds would teem with red algae for the production of "biofuels" – gases and vegetable oils made from organic waste that are considered a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels, because when burned they release less greenhouse gases than fossil fuels.

One day, van Grondelle speculates, ethanol and butanol will be produced not only from algae but directly from artificial leaves. "They would look pretty much like normal leaves, only you won't find them on a tree," he says. They would probably not even be green, he adds, but would perform the same task as natural plants: capturing light energy and transforming it into chemical energy.

Biofuels are considered a viable alternative to fossil fuels because they can be integrated into the present industrial and transportation system: they can be combined with conventional fuels without revolutionising our supply infrastructures. However, conventional biofuels such as palm oil and sugar cane have had substantial environmental impacts, especially in terms of land use. Forests and agricultural land all over the world have been converted to biofuel production, creating problems with loss of biodiversity and feeding local communities.

A new generation of biofuels made from engineered plants capable of more energy-efficient photosynthesis may help to solve the problem, because they would require less space to obtain the same amount of energy and if implemented at a domestic level they would save resources now used for transportation.

Van Grondelle, professor of biophysics at VU University Amsterdam, has devoted his life to that crucial moment when light hits a leaf's surface and triggers a chemical reaction to produce carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and water. "Photosynthesis is amazingly efficient: it uses very simple molecules to exploit the power of light. And this happens in an infinitesimal fraction of a second."

This is what his research, and the last 30 years of his life, have been all about. "I am trying to understand what triggers the process and how it's regulated, so we can learn lessons from nature, mimic it in a solar device and eventually improve it."

The great advantage of harvesting light through photosynthesis rather than photovoltaic technology, says van Grondelle, is that 80% of the world's energy consumption is still based on fuels. Another advantage of biofuels is that you can store them for later use, whereas the electricity generated by solar and wind power is intermittent. "That's exactly what plants do through photosynthesis: they store energy for you."

Since the 1970s, when van Grondelle joined the biophysics group in Leiden as a PhD student, the study of photosynthesis has made great progress. As a result we now have a complete picture of how energy from light is captured by chlorophyll pigments in the cells of a leaf's surface and passes through a sequence of molecules like an electric discharge. These molecules harness the energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and chemical fuel – food.

"Now we can engineer these complexes and figure out, relying on experiments, what changes need to be done to improve their structure and make them better," says van Grondelle. "We can modify a surface enabling it to capture a wider [range] of the light's spectrum. This way, the process produces more energy."

He points out that plants and algae have evolved to produce only enough energy to live and reproduce. "For example, if you calculate the energy return on investment of a plant, say a tree, you will see that it is not very efficient." The first step to solve this efficiency problem is to study very simple organisms such as algae.

Photosynthesis in algae is a lot more efficient than that in plants, and you can more easily genetically engineer them to enhance their ability to capture light and convert it into chemical energy.

Van Grondelle admits that it remains difficult to calculate the ultimate efficiency of a photosynthesis-based power plant while research is ongoing, but the plan is to be producing ethanol and butanol at a competitive price within 10 years.

In 2010 the European Research Council provided his team with €3m of funding to investigate the role of proteins bound to chlorophyll in the efficiency of photosynthesis. The objective is an efficient way to make biofuels that could support a cleaner transportation system and replace natural gas in the domestic supply.

He doesn't claim that his research alone can save the world. "I believe the solution for the world's growing energy demand has got to be a combination of different technologies and political strategies."

But the price of meeting the rise in global energy demand may be very different urban and rural landscapes. "It might be difficult to imagine," Grondelle concedes, "but in a civilised society it is already widely accepted to use land for meat production or industrial agriculture."

Once the technology has been implemented on agricultural land, he says, it could be rolled out across the urban environment. "Every backyard may have a pond, or a tank, where algae are grown for domestic energy supply."

Lou Del Bello is a freelance journalist from Italy with a background in environmental issues. She is studying for an MA in science journalism at City University in London. Email her cleanenergy.lou@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @loudelbello

]]> Lou Del Bello Guardian http://ecotopical.com/site/environment:-climate-change-|-guardian-co-uk/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2013/jun/18/future-biofuels-pond-algae-backyard http://ecotopical.com/climate/#9 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:19:00 -0400 SciDev SciDev http://ecotopical.com/site/scidev/ http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/news/common-aid-standards-and-certification-stir-debate-.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_news http://ecotopical.com/climate/#10 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:50:00 -0400 SciDev SciDev http://ecotopical.com/site/scidev/ http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/capacity-building/opinions/mobile-phone-data-are-a-treasure-trove-for-development.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_opinions http://ecotopical.com/climate/#11 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:46:00 -0400 EPA News EPA News http://ecotopical.com/site/epa-news/ http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/CC82C68CFCF338F785257B8E005664F8 http://ecotopical.com/climate/#12 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:08:00 -0400 Germany has stepped up the pressure on governments to water down limits on vehicle emissions

Senior members of the German government have warned EU member states that German automakers could scale back or scrap production plans in their countries unless they support weakened carbon emissions rules, according to diplomatic sources.

With EU governments and lawmakers aiming to finalise the rules next week, which most of the 27 member states back, Germany has stepped up the pressure on them to water down limits on vehicle emissions to protect the country's mighty car industry, particularly luxury makers such as BMW and Daimler.

The sources added that some calls warning EU member states of possible consequences have come from members of Chancellor Angela Merkel's office.

Her office declined to comment.

One EU diplomat said Berlin had reminded Lisbon of Portugal's €78bn eurozone bailout, which was heavily financed by Germany, in its bid to convince the country to drop its opposition to softer limits.

"They have tried everything at the highest level to pressure member states, in particular countries in the bailout club, to support their proposals," said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Germany seems hell-bent on pressing its interests. Even countries that are generally pro-German feel that they are going too far."

A German government source denied that Berlin had put particular pressure on countries that have received EU financial aid, and said its aim was to protect jobs in the EU auto sector.

"Our strategy is to focus on France, Britain and Italy as the big car producing countries, and on the countries which have important supply industries," the source said.

"They should all be together in this fight. We should not drive jobs out of Europe at a moment of high unemployment."

Germany's position is backed by a handful of central European countries with domestic auto production, but France, Britain and Italy are opposed, EU sources say.

The proposal from the European commission, the EU's executive, would set a goal of 95n of carbon dioxide per kilometre (g/km) as an average for all new vehicles sold in Europe from 2020.

Each manufacturer is assigned an individual target to take account of the nature of their fleet and their record of past cuts.

But making less-polluting cars is costly and restricts profit margins, which is why major German manufacturers want to delay the stricter rules.

The legal changes demanded by Berlin would allow luxury makers to continue selling more powerful – and profitable – models in Europe after 2020, when the new EU emission limits will take effect.

Under the plan, carmakers would be allowed to carry over credits to pollute that were accrued before the new rules kick in.

Known as supercredits, these permits are earned if manufacturers make some very low-emissions vehicles, such as electric cars, which German firms are making to meet a separate national target.

The problem is that if they manage to hold on to a glut of supercredits, they can carry on making higher emissions models, and emissions levels will fail to meet the 2020 95 g/km target.

An internal European commission document, seen by Reuters, on the latest German proposal says its plan "could result in a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions, increased oil and fuel use and reduced energy security."

Germany and its carmakers say the flexibility they want is essential for spurring innovation, but critics say the changes amount to major loopholes in the rules.

An EU source said the German proposal would delay achievement of the 95 g/km target until 2023 for those carmakers who made use of the accrued credits.

No-one from BMW was immediately available for comment. A spokesman for Daimler denied the company had played any part in any threats, direct or indirect, made to EU member states.

In the past, the car industry has exaggerated the difficulty of EU targets, environmentalists say, and they need to innovate to find ways to cut emissions to stay ahead of a global trend.

The United States has agreed fuel efficiency standards, though they lag Europe, while China, where smog has stirred social unrest, is increasingly aware of the implications of vehicle emissions for air pollution.

In 2008, after dire predictions of factory closures and mass job losses, the European Union agreed a limit of 130 g/km to be phased in between 2012 and 2015.

Average emissions were already down to 132.2 g/km in 2012, the EU's European Environment Agency said, meaning the target is on course to be met early, prompting accusations that the industry cried wolf in order to weaken the rules.

Germany as a whole is at the upper end of the EU emissions range, with emissions of 147 g/km in 2011, according to the non-profit International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT).

At the lower end are nations including the Netherlands, which has given tax breaks for fuel-efficient vehicles, and Denmark, which has led a wider push for energy efficiency.

]]> Guardian Guardian http://ecotopical.com/site/environment:-climate-change-|-guardian-co-uk/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jun/18/germany-eu-car-emissions-law http://ecotopical.com/climate/#13 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:07:00 -0400 Jeremy Hance Mongabay http://ecotopical.com/site/mongabay/ http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0618-gen-fipronil.html http://ecotopical.com/climate/#14 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:38:00 -0400 Rhett Butler Mongabay http://ecotopical.com/site/mongabay/ http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0618-gen-nyc-composting.html http://ecotopical.com/climate/#15 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:00:00 -0400 By Lisa Song

Since 2010, at least three ruptured pipelines have spilled oil into U.S. neighborhoods, forcing officials to decide quickly whether local residents would be harmed if they breathed the foul air. But because there are no clear federal guidelines saying if or when the public should be evacuated during an oil spill, health officials had to use a patchwork of scientific and regulatory data designed for other situations.

As a result, residents of the three communities received different levels of protection.

No houses were evacuated in Salt Lake City, Utah, where a ruptured pipeline leaked 33,000 gallons of medium grade crude oil before it was discovered on the morning of June 12, 2010. The oil ran down Red Butte Creek, past neighborhoods where windows were left open in the summer heat. The fumes, which are known to cause drowsiness, left some people so lethargic that they didn't wake up until after noon.

In Marshall, Mich. officials called for a voluntary evacuation after more than a million gallons of heavy Canadian crude spilled into the Kalamazoo River on July 25, 2010. But they agonized over the decision for four days before making that recommendation.

In Mayflower, Ark. authorities quickly evacuated 22 families after a broken pipeline leaked about 200,000 gallons of heavy crude on March 29, 2013. But people living in the same subdivision, just a few blocks away, were not asked to leave. Neither were the residents of the lakeside community where the oil eventually pooled and where the cleanup continues today.

read more

Leading scientists and meteorologists are meeting at the Met Office to discuss the UK's unusual weather patterns in recent years.

Experts will discuss the reasons for 2010's icy winter, last year's washout summer and this year's spring, which is set to be the coldest in more than 50 years.

Discussions at the Met Office in Exeter on Tuesday will seek to answer whether the unusual seasons were the result of natural variation or linked to the effects of climate change, such as melting Arctic sea ice.

Stephen Belcher, head of the Met Office Hadley Centre and chairman of the workshop, said: "We have seen a run of unusual seasons in the UK and northern Europe, such as the cold winter of 2010, last year's wet weather and the cold spring this year.

"This may be nothing more than a run of natural variability, but there may be other factors impacting our weather. For example, there is emerging research which suggests there is a link between declining Arctic sea ice and European climate – but exactly how this process might work, and how important it may be among a host of other factors, remains unclear.

"The Met Office is running a workshop to bring together climate experts from across the UK to look at these unusual seasons, the possible causes behind them, and how we can learn more about those drivers of our weather."

The meeting will assess the research done so far and discuss what needs to be studied in the future to get a better idea of what could be causing the weather extremes.

Earlier this month the Met Office said below-average temperatures through March, April and May made it the fifth coldest spring in national records dating back to 1910 and the coldest spring since 1962.

Provisional findings show the UK's mean temperature for the season was 6C (42.8F), while March was "exceptionally" cold, averaging 2.2C.

]]> Guardian Guardian http://ecotopical.com/site/environment:-climate-change-|-guardian-co-uk/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jun/18/weather-experts-discuss-unusual-uk-seaons http://ecotopical.com/climate/#17 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 02:00:00 -0400 The U.S. oil boom is moving Congress closer than it has been in more than three decades to easing the ban on exporting crude imposed after the Arab embargo.

This is a guest post by Don Lieber, originally published on PlanetSave.

Suncor Energy, the largest producer in Canada’s tar sands oil operations, has announced it will require fewer major safety maintenance “shut-down” checks at its Alberta production sites, decreasing the required checks to once every five years, down from its prior four-year schedule.

Steve Douglas, Suncor’s vice president of investor relations, said that routine safety shut downs cost the company money due to necessary replacement of equipment, labor, and lost revenue during the shut-down. This was reported by Reuters on June 7.

Ignoring the implications for public health, safety, and carbon-related climate consequences of tar sands operations, Douglas focused on revenue stream, saying, “You’re entirely down during a maintenance period. There’s significant foregone revenue during a period like that. It’s material.”

With not just a hint of Orwellian logic, the decision to require fewer major safety checks was made despite many high-profile Suncor accidents in recent months and years.

Some examples:

Suncor’s safety record is not unique among oil companies. The incidents of extraction, pipeline, and refinery accidents — from all companies — is immense. As reported byPlanetsave previously, there were at least three oil spills in the US during just one week in April – largely unreported in mainstream media. Wikipedia’s page on pipeline accidents alone consists of multiple windows, listed by decade and divided by accident type.

Suncor also has a record of dangerous workplace conditions. In this video, Rene Gauthier describes in tragic detail the sub-par conditions at Suncor’s Fort McMurray, Alberta processing plant, which caused the death of his 64-year old father.

Suncor’s vice president, Steve Douglas, nevertheless praised the decision to require fewer safety shut downs, saying, “If you’re doing four maintainance turnarounds in 20 years versus four in 16 years, clearly there is a significant benefit.“ Image Credit: Suncor sign in Calgary, Canada via Jeff Whyte / Shutterstock.com

We tend to think of fish as dead-eyed, cold-blooded creatures without much compassion. But with Father’s Day still fresh in mind, there’s at least one piscine species whose dads are deserving of respect: the three-spined stickleback. Not only does the male of this species build nests and care for the fertilized eggs, but sticklebacks are also rapidly adapting to a changing climate to keep their broods safe.

Sticklebacks -- not to be confused with picklebacks -- are two-inch bottom feeders that live throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Most species prefer slow-moving water, where the males make nests by gluing algae, sand, and other debris together with a protein substance produced in their kidneys. (The glue is called “spiggin” after the Swedish word for the animal, “spigg.”) Once the nest is complete, males woo mates with a zig-zag dance only a stickleback in heat could love.

If a female consents, he ushers her into the nest, where she lays between 40 and 300 eggs, all while the male pecks at her from behind to stimulate ovulation. (We said they were great dads, not necessarily great lovers.) As soon as she’s finished, the male darts into the nest to fertilize the eggs, then back out again to chase the female away. (The creature named for the pointy fins running down his spine isn’t a cuddler either.) Now a single-dad-to-be, the male guards his nest from other sticklebacks, predators, and erosion until the eggs hatch. He even fans the eggs to keep them oxygenated, which is the stickleback version of going to the store at 3 a.m. to pick up pepperoni rolls and lemon sherbet.

Constant guard duty and oxygen detail is a tall order, but male sticklebacks might soon have to deal with a bigger worry: climate change. Those family-friendly, slow-moving rivers and streams could speed up throughout much of the fish’s habitat, thanks to rising water levels, increased rainfall, and large-scale flooding. Last week, FEMA reported that over the next century, areas in the United States at risk of flooding will surge by 45 percent. Across the pond, Europe is still mopping up after weeks of record floods. All of this is bad news if you’re an animal that makes its home on a riverbed and your building material of choice is the consistency of muck.

But like I said, sticklebacks aren’t your ordinary dad. When the waters get rough, the fish get glueing.

“They need to put more glue into their nests to make them stronger,” says biologist Iain Barber of the University of Leicester. “Sticklebacks appear to be very well adapted to cope with changes in their environment -- and can change their nests and nesting habits depending on the water flow levels.”

Barber warns, however, that producing spiggin requires a lot of the father's energy and making more of the sticky stuff could impinge on his ability to raise multiple broods. Even so, the research suggests sticklebacks are up to the task.

So far, the daddy dynamos appear to be standing up to increased water flow both in the lab and in the wild. The fish’s ability to adapt may be why several variations of the species exist in diverse habitats across the planet. Originally a saltwater fish, many sticklebacks became trapped inland about 10,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. Now many species -- including the three-spined stickleback – thrive in freshwater.

Unfortunately, such adaptability will unlikely be the norm for many species as the Earth’s climate changes. California, for instance, may lose 82 percent of its native fish. And fish aren’t alone, of course. Polar bears, pandas, right whales, sea turtles, orangutans, and many plant species face similar fates.

This may be the first and the last time you hear about the three-spined stickleback, but while human dads are out this week returning ugly ties, this little fish will be raising hundreds of kids in the face of a global environmental crisis -- with spiggin as his only weapon.

Image: University of Leicester

California has become the newest battleground state in the fracking fight that is already being waged in states like Pennsylvania and New York. Why?

The short answer is the Monterey Shale. It’s a massive oil deposit that is trapped in the shale formations underneath Los Angeles and most of California’s Central Coast and Central Valley regions (as well as all of the sources of drinking water for the people living in those regions). It was considered too difficult to reach to be worth it until fracking technology came along.

The rush to exploit the Monterey Shale’s reserves has spurred three bills moving through the California state legislature that would halt all fracking in the Golden State until its impacts can be studied more fully, not unlike what has happened in New York and New Jersey. Unlike New Jersey’s ban, which expired in January, the California legislation would require further legislative action to lift. It also stipulates that fracking cannot be done close to valuable water sources, and that all chemicals used in the process must be disclosed.

Environmentalists oppose fracking because of the many dangers, known and unknown, that it poses to the environment and human health. Contamination of water supplies is the major concern, as is the amount of fresh water required by fracking operations, and the fact that injecting water and chemicals to fracture the ground is maybe not a great idea in earthquake-prone California.

Current regulations in California around fracking are very much on the weak side, according to Clean Water Action. The agency responsible for overseeing fracking does not require a permit before a company can frack, and doesn’t even know where all the fracking wells in the state are, let alone what went into them and what dangers they may pose to surrounding communities.

Oil companies would like it to stay that way. They’re eager to frack in the Monterey Shale, which the U.S. Department of Energy has estimated may contain “upward of 15 billion barrels of oil.” As Politico says: “The stakes for industry are big: California is home to the oil-rich Monterey Shale, which by some estimates may hold enough oil to displace five years of petroleum imports to the U.S.”

It’s no surprise that oil companies would want to frack California at will--the Monterey Shale is a very difficult oil field to get to and fracking may be the only method capable of making it cost-effective. But it is somewhat surprising that Jerry Brown, California’s green governor, says he’s willing to listen, especially since it seems he’s mostly saying he’s willing to listen to the oil industry. "I called up one of our lead oil companies and said, 'What’s the story with fracking?'” Brown said when announcing he was open to the idea of fracking. “They said, 'It’s not as bad as the environmentalists say, it’s not as safe as the oil companies say.'"

But Jerry Brown is a politician, and it’s very political for him to take a measured approach. Plus, he’s the governor—it’s his job to balance things like job creation and a strong economy with preserving clean air and water. He says he’s primarily interested in fracking as a strategy to keep California the fourth largest oil producing state in the union. He might have also read this in Politico: “A recent study by the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles think tank Communications Institute concluded that developing the Monterey Shale could create 500,000 jobs in the next two years and 2.8 million by 2020. The development could net California $4.5 billion in tax revenue over the next two years and $24.6 billion by 2020.”

But you know who helped fund that study? The Western States Petroleum Association, whose member list is pretty much a roll call of the Big Oil inner circle: ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips, Shell, Occidental, Valero, etc. Which really drives home the need for further studies - studies without even a hint of industry bias.

Clean Water Action has the scoop on which companies have the biggest stakes in the Monterey Shale:

Occidental Corporation (Oxy) is the largest holder of land/ mineral rights in California, holding rights to drill over 1.6 million acres of land in the Monterey Shale. In a presentation to shareholders in 2010, Oxy officials stated that “in 10 years, California shale could become Oxy’s largest business unit.”

Venoco Inc. has one of the largest stakes in the Monterey Shale with rights to drill in over 300,000 acres. There are more than 10 billion barrels of oil available for extraction at its current sites.  In its 2011 report to shareholders, the company stated that it continues to expand its onshore Monterey acreage lease holdings across three basins: Santa Maria, Salinas Valley, and San Joaquin (which includes the Sevier discovery).

Apparently, oil and gas industry officials feel optimistic that regulatory agencies won’t present an obstacle to plans to develop their oil and gas leases in California. Tim Marquez, founder,Chairman and Chief Executive of Venoco, said in 2011, "[w]e are shoring up our development plans for the Sevier discovery and have been in contact with the agencies to ensure we have a clear path forward to develop this discovery. We currently expect to drill 30 to 40 wells there next year.”

No one who has been paying any attention would expect an oil company like Occidental or Chevron to sit around and do nothing while the California state legislature considers banning a practice that it needs to exploit the last of Earth’s dwindling oil reserves. So now the race is on. Can Cali pass a ban before Big Oil buys enough support? Stay tuned.Image credit: California written in the sand | Shutterstock