Public

"A bill to strip U.S. EPA of its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions cleared its first hurdle today on the road to likely House passage."

An 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck Japan, shutting down major systems, killing at least 40, and causing a tsunami. Nuclear plants were shut down on an emergency basis after the cooling system at one plant failed. Tsunami warnings were issued through much of the Pacific, including Hawaii and parts of the U.S. West Coast and South America. Potential impact of tsunami on Hawaii within minutes of 8 am EST as hotels evacuate vertically.

"Protests over timber corruption that has made a billionaire of the chief minister of the Malaysian state of Sarawak and enriched his family at the expense of the state's indigenous and other citizens have spilled over to the streets of San Francisco, Seattle, Ottawa and London." Now there are charges of a political murder on US soil.

"The vast ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are melting faster than previously estimated and that melting is accelerating, according to a new report that verifies 18 years of melting via two independent techniques."

"Three nonprofit groups Monday filed a federal lawsuit aimed at cleaning up air pollution from the Lower Colorado River Authority's coal-fired Fayette Power Project located between Austin and Houston."

"Americans worried about the pain of $100 U.S. oil should worry a lot more. Although $100 oil is the headline in U.S. newspapers, most refineries that supply fuel to service stations are paying the equivalent of a much higher price -- and those costs are already being felt when consumers fill up their vehicles."

"U.S. EPA's plan to give businesses another three years to show how they calculate their greenhouse gas emissions will weaken the agency's new reporting requirements and could be illegal, environmental groups said before yesterday's deadline to comment on the proposal."

Coffee yields from Columbia are declining and prices are rising, because of warmer, wetter weather. Many scientists think global warming is responsible.