http://www.nlcv.org NLCV News. en-us info@nlcv.org (NLCV) info@nlcv.org (NLCV) Newsight RSS Feed Generator I was wrong: the June oil spew at Pump Station 22 near Roswell on the TransCanada Keystone Pipeline was not the first reported spill. Shortly after posting the DENR report on the Roswell incident, I received this DENR report documenting a 5-gallon leak at Pump Station 21 near Carpenter in Beadle County on May 21, 2010. This time a leaky valve was the culprit. http://www.nlcv.org135.php 07/29/2010 http://www.nlcv.org135.php The new city-county comprehensive plan, called "lplan2040," has some good opportunities for citizen input. If you act today or tomorrow you can add your own ideas on the theme of BEAUTY, which includes natural beauty. Please also consider voting for the idea to "Expand Wilderness Park South" as well as the one called "Expand Prairie Corridor" that would link Spring Creek and Pioneers Park prairies with a hiker-biker trail. The "Expand Prairie Corridor" idea was submitted by Mayor Chris Beutler. http://www.nlcv.org134.php 07/29/2010 http://www.nlcv.org134.php IT MAY seem premature to talk about last-ditch measures to deal with runaway climate change, but Ben Lieberman has it right. Lieberman, an energy expert at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think-tank, responded to the news that the US Senate will not pass any climate legislation this year by saying: "It's pretty clear that no post-Kyoto treaty is in the making -- certainly not in Cancun, and maybe not ever." http://www.nlcv.org133.php 07/29/2010 http://www.nlcv.org133.php Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson said Wednesday that he sent a letter to the U.S. State Department asking for an update and copies of correspondence concerning its efforts to gather analyses and viewpoints from federal, state and local officials about the Keystone XL pipeline proposed to be constructed from Canada through Nebraska. http://www.nlcv.org132.php 07/29/2010 http://www.nlcv.org132.php DARYL SMITH is a professor of biology and director of the Tallgrass Prairie Center at the University of Northern Iowa. Each year that I work on prairie reconstruction projects I become a more avid prairie preservationist. Prior to Euro-American settlement, the tallgrass prairie was an awesome place. It occupied the eastern part of the mid-continent grassland that dominated the horizon, from the forest margins of the Wabash River in western Indiana to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico to the boreal forest of central Canada. Those long grasses held sway across Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota and northwest Indiana. Their dominance extended into southern Manitoba and across eastern Oklahoma and Texas to the Gulf Coast and a bit of Louisiana. Scattered outliers occurred in Ontario, Ohio, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama. http://www.nlcv.org131.php 07/29/2010 http://www.nlcv.org131.php It's time for the federal government to move beyond offering tax credits to companies that combine ethanol with gasoline, said the CEO of the fourth-largest ethanol producer in the country. Instead, he said, government incentives are needed for companies that install special pumps at gas stations and design cars capable of handling higher amounts of the fuel additive. http://www.nlcv.org130.php 07/28/2010 http://www.nlcv.org130.php Sen. John Harms of District 48 was pragmatic. “LB1048 was not an easy bill — it doesn’t solve all the problems,” Harms said to a crowd of about 90 attending the Wind Energy in the Panhandle: A Forum on our Future, presentation at the Harms Advanced Technology Center in Scottsbluff Tuesday night. “But it does open doors to the largest single thrust to our economy in the past two decades.” http://www.nlcv.org129.php 07/28/2010 http://www.nlcv.org129.php LINCOLN, Neb. — Thirty-one Nebraska recipients have been selected to receive about $500,000 in loans and grants to be used to make energy-efficiency improvements that will promote energy conservation. http://www.nlcv.org128.php 07/27/2010 http://www.nlcv.org128.php WASHINGTON, D.C. – July 26, 2010 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that a general sign-up for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) will begin on August 2, 2010 and continue through August 27, 2010. During the sign-up period, farmers and ranchers may offer eligible land for CRP's competitive general sign-up at their county Farm Service Agency (FSA) office. The 2008 Farm Bill authorized USDA to maintain CRP enrollment up to 32 million acres. Jim Miller, Agriculture Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agriculture Services, made the announcement on behalf of Secretary Vilsack during a conference call with reporters. http://www.nlcv.org127.php 07/27/2010 http://www.nlcv.org127.php Annie Leonard used to spout jargon. She reveled in the sort of geek-speak that glazes your eyeballs. Externalized costs, paradigm shifts, the precautionary principle, extended producer responsibility. That was before she discovered cartoons. Today the 45-year-old Berkeley, Calif., activist is America's pitchperson for a new style of environmental message. Out with boring PowerPoints and turgid reports; in with witty videos that explain complex issues in digestible terms. http://www.nlcv.org126.php 07/27/2010 http://www.nlcv.org126.php