The North American Institute

Advances in Oil and Gas Leasing, Drilling and Production Continue in Deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

2008-05-12T18:57:00-06:00

Subsea World, May 11, 2008 - “With approximately 72 percent of the Gulf of Mexico’s oil production coming from wells drilled in 1,000 feet (305 meters) of water or greater, advancement into deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) continues as offshore operators meet the challenges presented in exploring and developing this energy frontier.” Read more.

Company plans major oil pipeline.

2008-05-12T18:53:00-06:00

Jackson Hole Star-Tribune, May 9, 2008 - “TransCanada Corp. plans to build a 36-inch underground pipeline through eastern Montana and five other states to carry Canadian crude down to U.S. refineries along the Gulf Coast of Texas. The 1,940-mile pipeline project must first obtain land easements and approval from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. No formal announcement has been made yet, but Gov. Brian Schweitzer said this week that TransCanada wants to finish the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline by the end of next year.” Read more.

Virtual Border Fence To Hit Texas.

2008-05-12T18:50:00-06:00

PimpinTurtle, May 10, 2008 - “Sections of Texas’ border with Mexico eventually could be secured by the same kind of high-tech ‘virtual fence’ that’s been deployed in Arizona, key legislators said Friday after touring the state-of-the-art surveillance network. The comments by two subcommittee chairmen with the House Homeland Security Committee — Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, and Christopher Carney, D-Pa.— followed an inspection tour Friday of the $20.6 million virtual fence near Sasabe, Ariz. The project links high-tech surveillance towers, cameras, radar, ground sensors and unmanned aerial drones along a 28-mile section of the 1,947-mile international border.” Read more.

International Joint Commission Sets Meeting Dates.

2008-05-09T19:25:00-06:00

The Seaway Channel, May 8, 2008 - “The International Joint Commission (IJC), a bi-national commission established under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 between the United States of America and Canada has announced a number of meetings that may be of interest to those who care about the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence River and other U.S. Canada boundary waters.” Read more.

A Primer on Plan Mexico.

2008-05-05T17:46:00-06:00

Americas Program, May 5, 2008 - “On Oct. 22, 2007 President Bush announced the $1.4 billion dollar ‘Merida Initiative,’ security aid package to Mexico and Central America. The initiative has fatal flaws in its strategy; instead of leading to a stable binational relationship and peaceful border communities, its military approach will escalate drug-related violence and human rights abuses. Mexico and the United States face a joint challenge in decreasing transnational organized crime and they must cooperate to strengthen the rule of law and stop illegal drug and arms trafficking over the border. This misguided policy will result in an inability to achieve its own goals and will waste taxpayers’ money. It will also seriously undermine the U.S.-Mexico relationship and Mexican stability.” Read more.

Governors to plot climate fight at Yale meeting.

2008-04-19T21:38:01-06:00

Reuters, April 15, 2008 - “Governors from across the United States who bypassed the Bush administration by introducing laws to cut greenhouse emissions are slated to meet this week to broaden their fight against climate change. At least five governors including Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger from California and Democrats Rod Blagojevich from Illinois and Jon Corzine from New Jersey will meet at Yale University on Friday to discuss uniting the developing markets for trading of credits representing carbon emission reductions.” Read more.

Bush prepares global warming initiative

2008-04-15T20:41:00-06:00

Washington Times, April 15, 2008 - “President Bush is poised to change course and announce as early as this week that he wants Congress to pass a bill to combat global warming, and will lay out principles for what that should include. Specifics of the policy are still being fiercely debated, but Bush administration officials have told Republicans in Congress that they feel pressure to act now because they fear a coming regulatory nightmare. It would be the first time Mr. Bush has called for statutory authority on the subject.” Read more.

RFF’s Nigel Purvis makes case for executive agreement on domestic, int’l policy.

2008-04-14T21:31:00-06:00

E&E TV, April 14, 2008 - “In his new paper, “Paving the way for U.S. Climate Leadership: The Case for Executive Agreements and Climate Protection Authority,” Nigel Purvis, a former U.S. climate negotiator and current visiting scholar at Resources for the Future, explains why he believes the United States should negotiate a congressional-executive agreement on climate instead of a treaty.” Listen to/watch the interview.

Climate Change Talks Begin

2008-04-07T20:28:00-06:00

The Press Association, March 31, 2008 - “Negotiators have opened their first talks on forging a devilishly complex global warming pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. They face wide divisions between rich and developing countries over how to slash greenhouse gases.” Read more.

Looming water wars foreshadow big problems.

2008-03-11T22:08:01-06:00

EarthNews, March 10, 2008 - “Adaptation, or the matter of adjusting to climate change, is sometimes called a cheaper, easier way to deal with some of the consequences of a warming world. But consider the battle between the United States, Mexico and Canada that was triggered here amid the vegetable farms near the California border. For more than 60 years the family of Geronimo Hernandez has raised watermelons, peppers and other crops in the rich, irrigated soil of Mexicali Valley, but within the next five years it could begin to dry up.” Read more.

The Border and the Ballot Box.

2008-03-02T19:01:00-06:00

The New York Times, Week in Review, March 2, 2008 - “Immigration has a fantastically complicated political history in the United States. It has produced enough populist anger to elect Know Nothing mayors of Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington and San Francisco, all in the 1850s and, more recently, to help Lou Dobbs reinvent his television career and become a best-selling author. But when national politicians have tried to seize on such anger, they have usually failed — and failed quickly.” Read more.

Human Shadows on the Seas.

2008-02-26T18:54:00-06:00

The New York Times, February 26, 2008 - “A paper in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Science is the first effort to map 17 kinds of human ocean impacts like organic pollution, including agricultural runoff and sewage; damage from bottom-scraping trawls; and intensive traditional fishing along coral reefs. About 40 percent of ocean areas are strongly affected, and just 4 percent pristine, according to the review.” Read more.

Business leaders tackle emissions.

2008-02-15T19:35:01-06:00

Washington Times, February 15, 2008 - “Tim Wirth, president of the U.N. Foundation and former Democratic senator from Colorado, said the next 50 years would bring a unique chance to adopt energy sources that emit less carbon dioxide and other global-warming gases. He said that shift would prove to be ‘as important as the computer revolution in generating new wealth and jobs.’” Read more.

All world’s seas show damage.

2008-02-15T19:32:00-06:00

The Star [Canada], February 14, 2008 - “Researchers studying 17 different activities ranging from fishing to pollution compiled a new map showing how and where people have impacted the seas. The map was released at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston and published in today’s edition of the journal Science. {snip] ‘Our results show that when these and other individual impacts are summed up, the big picture looks much worse than I imagine most people expected. It was certainly a surprise to me,’ said lead author Ben Halpern, an assistant research scientist at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara.” Read more.

U.N. Gathering to address climate change.

2008-02-11T18:33:01-06:00

Associated Press, February 11, 2008 - “The U.N. General Assembly is bringing together business leaders, activists and government officials for a debate on climate change starting Monday — an effort to keep up the momentum for a new treaty by 2009 to fight global warming. The two-day session is a follow-up to the international climate conference in December on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, where delegates from nearly 190 nations agreed to adopt a blueprint to control global warming gases before the end of next year.” Read more.

Scientists see looming water crisis in western U.S.

2008-02-01T18:46:01-06:00

Environmental News Network, February 1, 2008 - “A water supply crisis is looming in the western United States thanks to human-caused climate change that already has altered the region’s river flows, snow pack and air temperatures, scientists said. Trends over the past half century foreshadow a worsening decline in water, perhaps the region’s most valuable natural resource, even as population and demand expands in western states, researchers led by a scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography wrote in the journal Science on Thursday.” Read more.

Senator Tim Wirth speaks on ‘The United Nation’s Role in Dealing With Future Challenges’

2008-01-24T23:24:00-06:00

Courtesy the Santa Fe Council on International Relations - A Special Event Dinner Program. Senator Timothy Wirth, President, United Nations Foundation will be speaking on “The United Nation’s Role in Dealing With Future Challenges.” The event date is Thursday, February 7 at 6:30 PM at the Santa Fe Hilton Ballroom. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Senator Wirth. More information is available on the SFCIR website.

Fourteen Years of NAFTA and the Tortilla Crisis

2008-01-17T20:23:00-06:00

IRC Americas Program, January 17, 2008 - “In January 2008, agricultural trade between Mexico, the United States, and Canada will become completely free, with the end of the implementation period of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). [snip] NAFTA is the first treaty to treat two developed countries and an underdeveloped one as equals. But compared to U.S. and Canadian agricultural sectors, Mexico’s presents huge asymmetries in terms of economics, technology, production factors, and agricultural policies and supports.” Read more, here.

NAFTA Free Trade Myths Lead to Farm Failure in Mexico.

2007-12-05T21:23:00-06:00

Americas Program, Dec. 5, 2007 - “The tariff removal ostensibly gives full rein to an open-market trade and investment regime between the United States and Mexico. The idea is that all products now enter into a competitive market that will self-regulate to enhance production, efficiency, investment, and, indirectly, the lives of Mexican producers and consumers. That’s the idea. But what has happened in the Mexican countryside over the past 14 years of NAFTA shows that free trade has been a disaster for small farmers in Mexico.” Read more.

New ‘rigidity of mindset’ hurting cross-border trade between Canada and the U.S.

2007-12-03T21:21:00-06:00

Canadian Business Online, December 3, 2007 - “Heightened security concerns and ‘escalating protectionist rhetoric’ in the United States is damaging cross-border trade with Canada, International Trade Minister David Emerson says. ‘We see more and more border measures, such as fees for product inspections and new regulatory requirements, and a new rigidity of mindset that is thickening our historically open border’ Emerson said in the prepared text of a speech given at a Miami conference Monday night.” Read more.