After More Than 12 Tortured Years, Keystone XL Pipeline Is Officially Canceled

The announcement marks the end of a bitter feud that pitted environmentalists, Native American tribes, and farmers against Canadian officials and energy industry leaders

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Andrew Burton/Getty Images

BY NEAL FREYMAN, MANAGING EDITOR, MORNING BREW

Canceled. The pipeline’s developer, TC Energy, said yesterday it was pulling the plug on the project after a decade-long game of tug of war over the pipeline’s environmental impact.  

Keystone XL wasn’t exactly an active construction site. President Biden rescinded the pipeline’s construction permit on his first day in office, reflecting his administration’s commitment to fighting climate change. 

Why it matters: The announcement marks the end of a bitter feud that pitted environmentalists, Native American tribes, and farmers against Canadian officials and the energy industry. 

The former group argued the pipeline would have widespread damaging effects on the environment, increasing greenhouse gas emissions and potentially leaking oil into a critical aquifer.

Supporters of the pipeline said it would create thousands of well-paying construction jobs and bolster US energy security. 

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NY Gov. Cuomo’s administration is contending with investigative scrutiny on multiple fronts

New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D). (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

By Josh Dawsey, Washington Post

A team appointed by the New York state attorney general probing the workplace conduct of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is seeking to determine whether laws banning retaliation against sexual harassment victims were broken.

The attorney general’s public integrity unit is separately scrutinizing whether the Democratic governor misused public resources when his administration provided Cuomo relatives with preferential coronavirus testing and aides helped him write a book last year that netted him more than $5 million.

And federal investigators have quizzed at least five former state Department of Health employees about the administration’s handling of the coronavirus in nursing homes and whether the office deliberately misled the federal government and the public about the number of deaths last year.

An initial state probe launched earlier this year after several women accused Cuomo of inappropriate behavior has mushroomed into a number of wide-ranging investigations in which at least a dozen current and former staffers have been interviewed, according to eight people familiar with the various inquiries who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the cases are ongoing.

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2.4 Magnitude Earthquake Recorded In New Jersey

By Tom Davis, Patch Staff

(Shutterstock)

TUCKERTON – A 2.4 magnitude earthquake was recorded in New Jersey on Wednesday, and the effects of it were felt elsewhere in the area.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the 7:52 a.m. quake was at a depth of 5.0 kilometers, or 3.1 miles, centered in Tuckerton in Ocean County.

According to the USGS website, more than 70 responses were logged saying the earthquake had been felt (see map below).

Here is where it happened (the orange star) and here is where it was felt – blue indicates that the tremors could be felt, but they were likely weak.

It’s among the biggest to impact New Jersey since a 3.1 magnitude earthquake was recorded in Freehold last fall, and the effects of that were felt across the state.

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How Thursday’s solar eclipse will shroud German solar power

A partial solar eclipse is seen beside the 'Golden Victoria' statue on top of the Victory Column (Siegessaule) in Berlin March 20, 2015. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo
A partial solar eclipse is seen beside the ‘Golden Victoria’ statue on top of the Victory Column (Siegessaule) in Berlin March 20, 2015. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo


By Vera Eckert, Reuters

Electrical transmission networks in Germany are preparing for a solar eclipse this week that could trigger a sudden fall of around 1 gigawatt (GW) in solar power output, grid firm Amprion (RWEG.DE) said on Monday.

The event will take place between 0920 GMT and 1140 GMT on Thursday in northern Europe, an Amprion background paper said.

Related:
Here’s what you need to know about viewing the upcoming solar eclipse

Although it is expected to have a more modest impact than 2015’s solar eclipse across Europe — which reduced output by 15GW in a country that can need up to 80 GW of power on winter days — Germany’s four high-voltage grid operators, or TSOs, must keep the grids in balance because large amounts of power cannot be stored.

“The network frequency has to be stable and swings in production must be balanced,” said an Amprion spokeswoman.

The TSOs can draw on alternative energy sources such as coal, gas, nuclear and hydroelectric energy. One GW is equivalent to the installed capacity of a nuclear power station.

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