The Stream, January 19: Shale Gas and the Renewable Energy Sector

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found that shale gas production would undermine the still-emerging renewable energy sector in the United States, according to Yale Environment 360.

Meanwhile, two groups of scientists at Cornell University are dueling over whether the climate impact of shale gas is bigger or smaller than coal’s, Associated Press reported.

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper lashed out on Monday at American environmental groups opposed to the 731-mile Northern Gateway pipeline that would transport crude from northern Alberta to a proposed supertanker port on the Pacific coast of British Columbia, GlobalPost reported. The pipeline would allow oil from Alberta’s tar sands to be shipped to Asian and U.S. markets.

Thailand is in a race against time to implement water management schemes to prevent a repeat of last October’s flood disaster, which forced the closure of major industrial estates, caused billions of dollars of damage and put about 650,000 people temporarily out of work, Reuters reported.

On Thursday, the operators of the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant for the first time used an endoscope to look inside one of the plant’s leaking reactors, according to Reuters.

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