Month: March 2010

Giving the Coal Industry the Byrd

Senator Byrd (D-W. Va.) has long by a mainstay of the coal industry.  Actually, you could add the phrase “has long been” to almost any sentence about Byrd — he’s been around for a heck of a long time.  After all, he’s served longer than any member of Congress in history.  You might expect him …

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EPA proposes to veto mountaintop removal project

Cross-posted at CPRBlog. EPA’s seesaw on mountaintop removal mining continues. Last time I wrote about this topic it was to note EPA’s approval of the Hobet 45 project. Today, EPA announced that it is proposing to veto the Spruce No. 1 project, as it had threatened last fall. Should EPA follow through on its proposal, …

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California’s Delta & Water Reforms: Now the Hard Work Begins

Last fall’s passage of landmark California legislation to “fix” the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and reform California water law was big news. But key, recent events demonstrate that the devil is truly in the details, and that while legislation certainly matters, it is the manner and means of executive branch implementation that ultimately spell success or …

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If not at Yucca Mountain, then where?

Cross-posted at CPRBlog. Last August, Dan announced “The Death of Yucca Mountain,” pointing to a news story in which Senator Harry Reid ( D – Nev.) declared that he had dealt a fatal blow to plans to store high-level radioactive waste in a repository there. The Department of Energy sought to pull the plug on …

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Health Care Reform could help the environment

As Streetsblog noted, the newly-passed health care reform contains some grant money for nonprofits, Indian Tribes, and state and local governments to promote increased physical exercise and to create “the infrastructure to support active living.” Overall, this provision could provide local governments with extra money they desperately need to create more bicycle and pedestrian-friendly land …

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Death of a Great American

Stewart Udall died today.  His legacy, as the N.Y. Times recounts, surrounds us: As interior secretary in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, he presided over the acquisition of 3.85 million acres of new holdings, including 4 national parks — Canyonlands in Utah, Redwood in California, North Cascades in Washington State and Guadalupe Mountains in Texas …

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Delta NRC committee issues initial report

The National Research Council’s Committee on Sustainable Water and Environmental Management in the California Bay-Delta released its first report this morning (also available through the National Academies Press web site, with registration). On a quick review of the summary, the conclusions are unsurprising — the Committee finds that the provisions of the Biological Opinions for …

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Why Doesn’t Anyone Care When IPCC UNDER-Estimates Climate Impacts

A major mistake by IPCC. Why hasn’t anyone ever heard of it? Because it underestimated the seriousness of climate change!

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Big Three backs CAA regulation, cars deal

An interesting development: Yesterday, the industry group for major car manufacturers sent a letter to Congressional leaders opposing Sen. Murkowski’s legislative efforts (discussed by Holly here) to un-do EPA’s greenhouse gas endangerment finding.  The Murkowski resolution, as many have pointed out, would have the result of undoing the federally brokered cars deal set to impose Clean Air …

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A blue day for bluefin

Negotiators at the meeting in Qatar of the parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species have rejected proposals to ban international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna (and in polar bears). (See coverage in the New York Times and Washington Post.) The vote on the bluefin ban was surprisingly lopsided — only 20 …

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