AgClips
Recent AgClips
ChemChina gets around 82 percent of Syngenta in $43 billion deal
Reuters | Posted onMay 11, 2017 in Agriculture NewsChemChina [CNCC.UL] has won around 82 percent support from Syngenta shareholders for its $43 billion takeover of the Swiss pesticides and seeds group, China's biggest foreign acquisition to date.
Products containing certain neonic insecticides should be subject to ESA analysis, judge finds
Agri-Pulse | Posted onMay 11, 2017 in Agriculture NewsThe Environmental Protection Agency may have to assess the effects on endangered species of 59 products containing clothianidin and thiamethoxam, two neonicotinoid insecticides. A federal judge has found that the agency violated the Endangered Species Act by registering the products without complying with Endangered Species Act consultation requirements, said Center for Food Safety attorney George Kimbrell, who represents his group and other plaintiffs in the case, including four beekeepers, Beyond Pesticides, the Sierra Club and the Center for Environmental Health.U.S.
Growers, farmworkers say immigration raids scaring away labor
San Francisco Gate | Posted onMay 11, 2017 in Federal NewsGrowers and farmworker unions said Tuesday that a federal immigration crackdown in rural towns is scaring away workers and forcing cutbacks in production of hand-harvested produce. “Wherever I go in California — I was just up in the wine industry — when I talk to dairy farmers, when I talk to small farmers in the Bay Area, even some in the Central Valley, they tell me they can’t find workers,” Feinstein said on a conference call with reporters. “That workers are scared, that they’re afraid they’re going to be picked up and deported, that they have disappeared.”
Monsanto subsidiary, Climate Corporation, buys fellow digital agriculture company, HydroBio
St Louis Today | Posted onMay 11, 2017 in Agriculture News
Dakota Access pipeline leaked 84 gallons of oil in April
Telegraph Herald | Posted onMay 11, 2017 in Energy NewsThe Dakota Access pipeline leaked 84 gallons of oil in South Dakota early last month, which an American Indian tribe says bolsters its argument that the pipeline jeopardizes its water supply and deserves further environmental review. The April 4 spill was relatively small and was quickly cleaned up, and it didn’t threaten any waterways.
U.S. blocks major pipeline after 18 leaks and a 2 million gallon spill of drilling mud
The Washington Post | Posted onMay 11, 2017 in Energy NewsThe Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has curtailed work on a natural-gas pipeline in Ohio after the owner, Energy Transfer Partners, reported 18 leaks and spilled more than 2 million gallons of drilling materials. The pipeline regulator blocked Energy Transfer Partners, which also built the controversial Dakota Access pipeline, from starting horizontal drilling in eight areas where drilling has not yet begun.
Perdue proposes reorganization of USDA
USDA | Posted onMay 11, 2017 in Federal NewsThis report identifies actions we are taking at the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to meet the challenge of advancing agricultural trade, improving service delivery to agricultural producers, and addressing the needs of Rural America. These steps are part of a broader on-going review of the Department based on the President’s March 13, 2017; Executive Order 13781 entitled “Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch.” Section 3208 of the Agricultural Act of 2014, Pub. L.
Senate Can’t Pass Methane Rollback So Interior Decides To Do It Anyway
The Huffington Post | Posted onMay 11, 2017 in Energy NewsHours after Senate Republicans’ failed attempt to overturn an Obama-era rule regulating methane emissions, the Trump administration announced it will take matters into its own hands.
Environmentalists triumph as Senate upholds drilling rule
Telegraph Herald | Posted onMay 11, 2017 in Energy NewsEnvironmentalists notched a rare win in the Republican-led Senate on Wednesday as a GOP effort to reverse an Obama-era rule restricting harmful methane emissions unexpectedly failed. The 51-49 vote against the repeal measure was a blow to the fossil- fuel industry and groups linked to the conservative Koch Brothers, which had waged a public campaign to overturn the Interior Department rule.The rule, finalized in November, would force energy companies to capture methane that’s burned off or “flared” at drilling sites because it earns less money than oil.
Low Carbon Fuel Standard or Renewable Fuel Standard?
Biofuels Digest | Posted onMay 11, 2017 in Energy NewsWhat is different about a Low Carbon Fuel Standard — as compared to a Renewable Fuel Standard?There are 4 primary differences.1. An RFS creates a standard, and any fuel that meets that standard can compete in that market. Once a fuel has met the low-carbon standard, it becomes entirely about fuel price. In an LCFS, all fuels get credited according to the carbon reductions of their pathway. So, there are no “motivational dead zones” when it comes to pushing harder on reducing carbon.2. An LCFS sets carbon volumes, not fuel volumes. 3. All fuels and energy systems compete against each other.