Federal ethanol subsidies are hardly dead. They are still a key controversy in climate change, air pollution, the automotive industry, agricultural markets, food prices, budget wars, and the 2012 presidential race. No wonder the media mob descending on Iowa for the Aug. 13 straw poll is getting a free banquet of PR pitches.
"Volcano Lake, Calif. -- The news is distressing: A cratering real estate market, tight-fisted banks unwilling to make loans and no appetite among elected officials to let go of a dime. So why are conservationists smiling?"
"Hardly anyone has heard of them, but millions of pounds of glymes are used every year to make household products. Now time is running out for glymes -- at least when it comes to new uses in consumer products. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it plans to clamp down on these little-known ingredients used by a broad array of industries, including manufacturers of lithium batteries, inkjet cartridges, paints, prescription drugs and microchips."
"Carbon offsets neared all-time lows Friday, confirming their status as the world's worst performing commodity, as slumping demand meets rising supply of the U.N. instrument traded under the Kyoto Protocol."
The battle over a coal export terminal near Bellingham, Washington, is a symptom of a profound shift in world economic roles.
"A key natural gas pipeline which crosses southern New York state is in danger of rupturing and could pose a safety threat, according to a recent report from regulators."
"Chicago's first round of testing for a toxic metal called hexavalent chromium found that levels in local drinking water are more than 11 times higher than a health standard California adopted last month.
EPA has released its Draft Scientific Integrity Policy, which will affect how freely EPA scientists may talk to reporters. It requires press officers to sit in on all reporter interviews with scientists. The press release is here. The draft policy is here.
"Monsanto Co. is preparing to launch a genetically altered sweet corn, marking the global seed company's first commercial combination of its biotechnology with a consumer-oriented vegetable product."
"Environmentalists say the Environmental Protection Agency has shot down a request for new regulations to deal with the massive area of low oxygen that crops up every summer in the Gulf of Mexico due to the huge amount of nitrogen and phosphorous from fertilizer, urban runoff and sewage systems that winds up in the Gulf."
