Environmental Issues
1/12/2012 | Environmental Issues
Detroit unsure over the future of green cars
Breitbart
The US auto industry remains unsold over the future of "green cars" such as electrics and hybrids, as car makers struggle with the first steps in a market most agree shows promise over the long term.
Automakers wheeled out a variety of new hybrids and plug-in electrics at the annual Detroit auto show this week, touting their great energy savings along with new, freshened designs.
Ten years after the Toyota Prius hybrid swept into the market, only about three percent of all cars sold in the United States are electric or gas-electric hybrids, said David Cole, director of the Center for Automotive Research.
8/24/2011 | Energy Policy, Environmental Issues
EPA Answers 390 ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ About Its New Pollution Regulation
CNS News
Sept. 30 is the deadline for thousands of American businesses -- including power plants, petroleum refineries, landfills and large engine manufacturers -- to report their greenhouse gas emissions to the U.S. government for the first time.
The EPA on Monday announced a new tool that will allow 7,000 companies in “all sectors” of the U.S. economy to submit their greenhouse gas pollution data electronically.
Electronic submission of the data is supposed to make the process easier. But the reporting process is complex and cumbersome.
For starters, the EPA's ‘Frequently-Asked Questions” Web page includes 21 sections that cover 390 FAQs. (The questions cover everything from the definition of a “facility,” to “storage tank emissions reported in Subpart Y,” to methods for measuring the “composition of the CO2 stream.”)
In addition, to help "large emitters" comply with the new regulations, the EPA is offering “Refresher Webinars” on how to report the data electronically.
The EPA, invoking its authority under the Clean Air Act, launched its greenhouse gas reporting regulations in October 2009. The regulations apply not only to large emitters – those that produce over 25,000 metric tons of CO2 -- but also to "suppliers of products that would emit GHGs if they were released, combusted or oxidized” (emphasis added).
6/15/2011 | Economy, Environmental Issues, Taxes
Senate to Vote on Repealing Ethanol Tax Credits
Associated Press
With lawmakers desperately working to shave federal budget deficits, the Senate is debating a measure to eliminate ethanol tax credits that pay the oil industry $5 billion a year. The biggest defenders of the subsidies, however, include farm belt conservatives leading the charge for less government.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is forcing a vote on a measure Tuesday that would repeal the credits. Coburn says they are wasteful subsidies for an industry that no longer needs them.
"The days of placing spending programs in the tax code and giving them holy status are over," Coburn said. "Ethanol is bad economic policy, bad energy policy and bad environmental policy."
Coburn's measure is supported by conservative groups such as the Club for Growth and environmental groups such as the Sierra Club.
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5/4/2011 | Environmental Issues
Climate Activists Target States With Lawsuits; Atmosphere As a 'Public Trust'
Associated Press
A group of attorneys using children and young adults as plaintiffs plans to file legal actions in every state and the District of Columbia on Wednesday in an effort to force government intervention on climate change.
The courtroom ploy is backed by high-profile activists looking for a legal soft spot to advance a cause that has stumbled in the face of stiff congressional opposition and a skeptical U.S. Supreme Court.
The goal is to have the atmosphere declared for the first time as a "public trust" deserving special protection. That's a concept previously used to clean up polluted rivers and coastlines, although legal experts said they were uncertain it could be applied successfully to climate change.
4/12/2011 | Environmental Issues, Governmental Control, UN
UN document would give 'Mother Earth' same rights as humans
Canada.com
Bolivia will this month table a draft United Nations treaty giving "Mother Earth" the same rights as humans — having just passed a domestic law that does the same for bugs, trees and all other natural things in the South American country.
The bid aims to have the UN recognize the Earth as a living entity that humans have sought to "dominate and exploit" — to the point that the "well-being and existence of many beings" is now threatened.
The wording may yet evolve, but the general structure is meant to mirror Bolivia's Law of the Rights of Mother Earth, which Bolivian President Evo Morales enacted in January.
That document speaks of the country's natural resources as "blessings," and grants the Earth a series of specific rights that include rights to life, water and clean air; the right to repair livelihoods affected by human activities; and the right to be free from pollution.
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2/21/2011 | Environmental Issues
White House Science Advisor: Climate Change Skeptics Are ‘Heretics’
CNS News
President Obama’s top science advisor, Dr. John Holdren, told a congressman asking about climate change skeptics that climate change is accepted science and that “there are always heretics” in the scientific community.
“This is not the view of a few isolated scientists, this is the overwhelming view of scientists who study this matter around the world,” Holdren said, adding, “There are always skeptics, there are always heretics. That’s in the nature of science.
2/7/2011 | Environmental Issues
'Pulling the plug' on green subsidies
OneNewsNow
While at least three European countries are doing away with green energy subsidies, a recent article reports that another may soon follow.
Spain, Germany and France are pulling the plug on green energy subsidies, and according to Eric Reguly's recent article in The Globe and Mail, the British may soon have no other option.
The issue comes down to money. Spain, for example, has invested nearly $32 billion to the solar power industry since 2002, including $3 billion in 2009 alone. At a time when unemployment rates are high and housing bubbles have gone bust, the impact has made its way to already high energy prices. So some European countries have decided it is better to stop now rather than later.
David Kreutzer (Heritage)"They're just so expensive. It also becomes very clear in economic tough times that this fallacy about creating green jobs with huge subsidies is just not true," explains David Kreutzer, research fellow in energy economics and climate change at The Heritage Foundation.
6/11/2010 | Environmental Issues
Feds: BP Agrees to Expedite Oil Spill Payments
Associated Press
BP said Thursday it plans to increase the amount of oil captured from a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico by early next week as the Obama administration announced that the oil giant agreed to speed up payments to people whose livelihoods have been washed away by the spill.
Fishermen, property owners and businesspeople who have filed damage claims with BP are angrily complaining of delays, excessive paperwork and skimpy payments that have put them on the verge of going under as the financial and environmental toll of the seven-week-old disaster grows.
1/29/2009 | Environmental Issues
Inhofe Calls Gore's Climate Message 'Desperate'
The Hill
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking member of the Senate's Environment & Public Works Committee, had sharp criticism for former Vice President Al Gore's testimony Wednesday before the Foreign Relations Committee. Gore, a former Tennessee senator and Nobel Peace Prize winner, spoke on the dangers of global warming, urging senators to pursue a treaty to lower carbon emissions at a United Nations conference in Copenhagen in December. Inhofe called Gore's message "desperate," and noted the irony of it being delivered on such an icy day in D.C. "They almost had to cancel it because of freezing weather, and last year they did cancel it because of cold weather," Inhofe said. "I'd say he has a real serious problem. But he's already made his $100 million, so I don't think he needs to worry too much about it. But the science and logic are on our side, and we are winning
12/15/2008 | Economy, Environmental Issues
Obama left with little time to curb global warming
My Way News
WASHINGTON (AP) - When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, global warming was a slow-moving environmental problem that was easy to ignore. Now it is a ticking time bomb that President-elect Barack Obama can't avoid. Since Clinton's inauguration, summer Arctic sea ice has lost the equivalent of Alaska, California and Texas. The 10 hottest years on record have occurred since Clinton's second inauguration. Global warming is accelerating. Time is close to running out, and Obama knows it. "The time for delay is over; the time for denial is over," he said on Tuesday after meeting with former Vice President Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global warming. "We all believe what the scientists have been telling us for years now that this is a matter of urgency and national security and it has to be dealt with in a serious way." But there are powerful political and economic realities that must be quickly overcome for Obama to succeed. Despite the urgency he expresses, it's not at all clear that he and Congress will agree on an approach during a worldwide financial crisis in time to meet some of the more crucial deadlines.
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6/26/2008 | Character and Ethics, Environmental Issues
Spanish parliament to extend rights to apes
Reuters
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's parliament voiced its support on Wednesday for the rights of great apes to life and freedom in what will apparently be the first time any national legislature has called for such rights for non-humans. Parliament's environmental committee approved resolutions urging Spain to comply with the Great Apes Project, devised by scientists and philosophers who say our closest genetic relatives deserve rights hitherto limited to humans.
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6/25/2008 | Environmental Issues, Presidential Issues
McCain bucks Bush on climate change
Breitbart.Com
Republican nominee-elect John McCain Tuesday vowed to combat global warming without sacrificing economic growth, contradicting President George W. Bush on the need for binding emissions cuts. Unlike Bush, McCain pressed for mandatory cuts in emissions of warming gases as he spoke at a California event alongside Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who opposes the White House hopeful's call for offshore oil drilling. McCain said lifting a federal ban on coastal drilling may not bring down sky-high fuel prices for "some years," but could have a psychological impact as the United States takes greater control over its energy future. "Nothing is more urgent right now than regaining our energy security -- we need to get it done and get it right," the Arizona senator said.
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6/24/2008 | Environmental Issues, Global Warming, Presidential Issues
Former UN sec-gen Annan calls for 'climate justice'
Breitbart.com
Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan on Tuesday called for 'climate justice', saying that it was polluters who should pay for the effects of climate change, and not the poorest and most vulnerable. He said funding should be made available to help disadvantaged communities adapt to the effects of global warming as he urged for the international community to focus on adaptation measures. "We must have climate justice. As an international community, we must recognise that the polluter must pay and not the poor and vulnerable," said Annan at the first high-level meeting of his new humanitarian forum.
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6/24/2008 | Environmental Issues, Governmental Control, Illegal Immigration, Border Issues
Next battle over border fence may be Texas
Yahoo News
McALLEN, Texas - A U.S. Supreme Court decision paving the way for a 670-mile federal fence along the U.S.-Mexico border drew swift criticism from environmentalists, who promised to make another legal stand in Texas. The justices' turned down a plea Monday to hear a lawsuit opposing a two-mile section of the fence in Arizona brought by the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife. The section of fence in question in that case has already been built and even if the court had taken the case, oral arguments would not have been heard until October. But Monday's decision could have the most immediate implications for Texas, where opposition has been most widespread and fence construction is expected to begin next month.
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5/14/2008 | Environmental Issues, Presidential Issues
Paul McCartney 'horrified' as his eco car is flown 7,000 miles from Japan
Telegraph United Kingdom
Sir Paul McCartney is said to be "horrified" that his new eco-friendly car was flown 7,000 miles from Japan. The Lexus LS600H, which costs £84,000, was a gift from Lexus to the 65-year-old former Beatle, who helped promote the hybrid vehicle. But instead of arriving by boat as expected, the car was flown to Britain on a Korean Air flight, creating a carbon footprint almost 100 times bigger than if it had come by sea. Sir Paul is a vocal advocate of vegetarianism and has long been a poster child for environmental activism.
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5/12/2008 | Character and Ethics, Environmental Issues, Gender Issues, Global Warming, Human Sexuality, Pro-Family
Wanna help planet? 'Let's all just die!'
World Net Daily
"May we live long and die out" is the unofficial motto of a movement that seeks to improve the Earth's ecosystem by ensuring that the human species does not survive. The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, or VHEMT, consists of volunteers who have made active life decisions to remain childless for the benefit of the Earth, thereby preventing the extinction of millions of species of plants and animals.
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4/25/2008 | Economy, Environmental Issues
Food Crisis Starts Eclipsing Climate Change Worries
The Sun
The campaign against climate change could be set back by the global food crisis, as foreign populations turn against measures to use foodstuffs as substitutes for fossil fuels. With prices for rice, wheat, and corn soaring, food-related unrest has broken out in places such as Haiti, Indonesia, and Afghanistan. Several countries have blocked the export of grain. There is even talk that governments could fall if they cannot bring food costs down.
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11/14/2007 | Environmental Issues, Global Warming
Report: N. America oversaturated in CO2
USA Today
North America's ability to absorb global-warming gases created by the USA, Canada and Mexico is smaller than some experts thought and likely to shrink further, a federal climate study said Tuesday. The report by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, the Bush administration's climate research arm, estimated the continent produces three to four times more carbon dioxide than its forests, croplands, wetlands and coastal waters can soak up. The rest adds to the warming. North America emits 27% of the carbon dioxide — the most plentiful of man-made greenhouse gases and the byproduct of burning fossil fuels — released worldwide. The USA creates 85% of North America's total and is the world's largest emitter, though China is forecast to exceed that soon, according to the International Energy Agency.
7/27/2007 | Environmental Issues, Governmental Control
Calif. Strikes New Blow Against Pollution
CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/07/27/tech/main3103464.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_3103464
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6/19/2007 | Environmental Issues, Global Warming
Green Concerns Over the Energy Bill
Time
Environmental groups are anxiously watching three votes this week that could significantly water down the energy bill currently before the Senate. The outcome of the votes will determine whether or not the environmental community supports the legislation drafted by Senate Democrats.