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"'Towering' Conservationist Edgar Wayburn, Dies at 103"

jdavis_sej — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:12:55 -0500

"Honorary Sierra Club President and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, Dr. Edgar Wayburn died late Friday night at his home in San Francisco in the presence of his family. He was 103.

The environmental community is mourning the death of the five-term president of the Sierra Club who spearheaded the preservation of millions of acres of natural lands in California and Alaska.

"Aging Reactors Put Nuclear Power Plant 'Safety Cultures' in the Spotlight"

jdavis_sej — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:06:37 -0500

"Across the U.S. nuclear energy sector, plant owners are seeking -- and gaining -- NRC approval to run first-generation plants for 20 years beyond the original license period. Nine Mile Point Unit 1's operating license has been extended to 2029, and Unit 2 is cleared to run until 2046.

The Obama administration considers the 104 U.S. reactors a cornerstone of the nation's long-term quest to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. As the plants age, the need for rigorous safety supervision steadily mounts, industry experts stress."

"Bipartisan Great Lakes Restoration Bill Wins Environmental Support"

jdavis_sej — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:05:08 -0500

"Bipartisan legislation that promises the largest federal investment ever to clean up the Great Lakes -- $650 million annually for the next five years -- has been introduced in the Senate and in the House to applause from environmental groups.

"Chanel Muses On Global Cooling With Iceberg Show"

jdavis_sej — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:14:30 -0500

"PARIS -- An event based around hundreds of fashionistas flying in from all over the world was never going to be a convincing platform for environmental campaigning, but designers in Paris haven't let that stop them.

While British designer Vivienne Westwood regularly rails against global warming, fashion king Karl Lagerfeld trumped her with a rival theory at the Chanel show on Monday: the globe is in fact cooling, and he has an iceberg to prove it.

"FDA Says Basic Food Flavors Knew Plant Was Contaminated With Salmonella"

jdavis_sej — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:49:15 -0500

"The company at the heart of a growing recall of processed foods knew that its plant was contaminated with salmonella but continued to make a flavoring and sell it to foodmakers around the country, according to inspectors at the Food and Drug Administration.

Managers at Basic Food Flavors of Las Vegas learned on Jan. 21 that samples taken a week earlier from their Nevada facility tested positive for salmonella, a potentially deadly bacterium, but they kept shipping their product to foodmakers, according to FDA inspection records.

"Lejeune Water Probe: Did Marine Corps Hide Benzene Data?"

jdavis_sej — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:02:43 -0500

"Congressional investigators late Tuesday requested detailed documents from Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and a private contractor that was involved in the testing and cleanup of contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, N.C., over the past two decades.

More letters to the Environmental Protection Agency and a second private contractor are expected this week.

"Obama Meets With Key Senators in Bid To Advance Climate Legislation"

jdavis_sej — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:43:10 -0500

"President Barack Obama made a renewed push for a long-stalled climate and energy bill Tuesday, urging lawmakers at a White House meeting to pass a comprehensive bill this year.

Fourteen senators from both parties — including several who remain undecided on the climate bill — met for more than an hour with Obama, four Cabinet members and White House energy adviser Carol Browner.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama wants a comprehensive bill that includes a cap on emissions of pollution blamed for global warming."

"Solar Industry Learns Lessons in Spanish Sun"

jdavis_sej — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:08:18 -0500

"PUERTOLLANO, Spain — Two years ago, this gritty mining city hosted a brief 21st-century gold rush. Long famous for coal, Puertollano discovered another energy source it had overlooked: the relentless, scorching sun. ... Half the solar power installed globally in 2008 was installed in Spain.

But as low-quality, poorly designed solar plants sprang up on Spain’s plateaus, Spanish officials came to realize that they would have to subsidize many of them indefinitely, and that the industry they had created might never produce efficient green energy on its own.

"Taiji Dolphin Slaughter Film Wins Best Documentary Oscar"

jdavis_sej — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:10:51 -0500

"LOS ANGELES -- 'The Cove,' an American film documenting the annual killing of dolphins in a cove near the Japanese village of Taiji, was awarded an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature Sunday night by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Directed by former National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos, parts of the documentary were filmed secretly during 2007 using underwater microphones and high-definition cameras disguised as rocks."

China and India Formally Support Copenhagen Accord

jdavis_sej — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:47:22 -0500

"China and India formally agreed Tuesday to join the international climate change agreement reached in December in Copenhagen, the last two major economies to sign up.

The two countries, among the largest and fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, submitted letters to the United Nations agreeing to be included on a list of countries covered by the Copenhagen Accord, a three-page nonbinding statement reached at the end of the contentious and chaotic 10-day conference.

"Counting 'Outsourced' Greenhouse Gas Emissions"

jdavis_sej — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:18:45 -0500

"One of the stickiest points in international climate change negotiations is how to account for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions produced to make goods that are then sold for export. ...

Put another way, if manufacturing an automobile in, say, Korea, produces 10 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and the car is then bought in the United States, which country should be considered responsible for those 10 tons? ...

"Democrats to Turn Spotlight on Energy Efficiency Programs This Week"

jdavis_sej — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:21:34 -0500

"Democrats will turn the focus to energy efficiency standards and incentive programs this week with hearings in the Senate and House energy panels.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) is a champion for energy efficiency and has pushed stakeholders and focused his staff on improving standards across the board this session. He is also leading efforts to get energy efficiency tax incentives for home and commercial building included in the Democrats' jobs agenda.

"ENVIRONMENT-MEXICO: Green Areas to the Highest Bidder"

jdavis_sej — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:15:49 -0500

"MEXICO CITY -- Activists in Mexico complain that the deforestation threatening the environmental health of Mexico has been accentuated by the granting of public areas to private companies.

A recent case involves a plan by the government of the state of Nuevo León to hand over 26 hectares next to the La Pastora park in the city of Monterrey to FEMSA, the largest soft drink and beer company in Mexico, whose brewery division was acquired by Dutch brewing company Heineken in a deal in January.

"EPA chief: Mountaintop-Removal Guidelines Coming Soon"

jdavis_sej — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:05:44 -0500

"U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said Monday her agency is not seeking to halt mountaintop removal, but will 'try to minimize, if not end, any environmental degradation to the water' caused by the practice.

Jackson told a National Press Club audience the EPA does not specifically regulate mining practices, but is responsible for policing how those practices impact water quality.

"Iran’s Ace (or Deuce): Its Oil Reserves"

jdavis_sej — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:12:23 -0500

"Diplomacy and energy are never far apart in the Persian Gulf. So, as American officials seek new international sanctions against Iran this week, it’s probably wise for them to remember how much the world’s global energy map has changed over the past decade.

Iran’s leaders certainly do, and they’ve been counting on their increased ties with Asian countries, especially China, as their trump card against efforts to hem in their nuclear program.

"Mexico's Oil Politics Keeps Riches Just Out of Reach"

jdavis_sej — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:19:58 -0500

"VENUSTIANO CARRANZA, Mexico -- To the Mexican people, one of the great achievements in their history was the day their president kicked out foreign oil companies in 1938. Thus, they celebrate March 18 as a civic holiday.

Yet today, that 72-year-old act has put Mexico in a straitjacket, one that threatens both the welfare of the country and the oil supply of the United States.

"Plentiful Great Plains Power Blows in Opponents From All Corners"

jdavis_sej — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:07:15 -0500

"A group of mostly East Coast utility companies calling itself the Coalition for Fair Transmission Policy fears that the prime conditions in the Great Plains will make the region's wind power too cheap for its members to compete with, unless developers there are made to pay the costs of moving wind power eastward.

"Supreme Court Won't Review Decision That Closed EPA Emissions 'Loophole'"

jdavis_sej — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:03:28 -0500

"The Supreme Court declined today to review a lower court's ruling prohibiting U.S. EPA from suspending normal emissions standards for major pollution sources during "startup, shutdown and malfunction" (SSM) periods.

"US EPA Chief Concerned About Gas Drilling Fluids"

jdavis_sej — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:22:52 -0500

"The top U.S. environmental regulator said she was 'very concerned' about fluids blamed by some for polluting water supplies near sites where drillers use them to extract natural gas from shale deposits.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson said she hopes her agency will launch a study this year into the nature of fluids used in the hydraulic fracturing process of natural gas drilling.

"World's Pall of Black Carbon Can Be Eased With New Stoves"

jdavis_sej — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:14:04 -0500

"Two billion people worldwide do their cooking on open fires, producing sooty pollution that shortens millions of lives and exacerbates global warming. If widely adopted, a new generation of inexpensive, durable cook stoves could go a long way toward alleviating this problem."

Jon R. Luoma reports for Yale Environment 360 March 8, 2010.

Calif. Debates $3.3-Billion Water Project

jdavis_sej — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:17:19 -0500

"Backed by the Schwarzenegger administration and Central Valley farm interests, the $3.3-billion dam and reservoir at Temperance Flat would be the biggest water storage project in California in more than three decades.

But amid a deep recession and an endemic budget crisis in Sacramento, some are questioning whether it's worth the investment and whether taxpayers should keep subsidizing water projects that primarily benefit California agribusiness."

"EPA Delays Action on Mountaintop Removal Plan"

jdavis_sej — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:04:35 -0500

"The Obama administration has delayed action on a set of broad-ranging and specific measures to reduce the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal, after details of the plan were leaked to coal-state mining regulators.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials are also facing a cool reception from other government agencies, including the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.

"Deal to Save Everglades May Help Sugar Firm"

jdavis_sej — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:51:05 -0500

"When Gov. Charlie Crist announced Florida's $1.75 billion plan to save the Everglades by buying out a major landowner, United States Sugar, he declared that the deal would be remembered as a public acquisition 'as monumental as the creation of the nation's first national park, Yellowstone.'

"EU Climate Funding Threatened"

jdavis_sej — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:17:05 -0500

"The European Union's development chief may be forced to name and shame France, Germany and Italy for not living up to their aid commitments, contributing to a roughly $17 billion funding gap this year.

Andris Piebalgs warned in January he would clearly identify EU countries that failed to meet their aid commitments.

"Growing Low-Oxygen Zones in Oceans Worry Scientists"

jdavis_sej — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:14:14 -0500

"Scientists say global climate change may be contributing to the increased appearance of dead zones in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans where low oxygen levels are damaging the undersea ecosystem."

Les Blumenthal reports for McClatchy Newspapers March 7, 2010.

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