Coal State Senators Battle EPA to Control Greenhouse Gases
Senator Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, led a group of coal state senators in sending a letter to U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Friday challenging the agency’s potential regulation of greenhouse gases from stationary sources under the Clean Air Act.
Read More »Hybrid American Chestnut Trees Are Carbon Storage Champions
WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana, June 11, 2009 (ENS) – A new hybrid of the American chestnut tree could not only revive the nearly extinct species, but also help limit the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere, according to new research from Purdue University. Douglass Jacobs, an associate professor of forestry and natural resources, found [...]
Read More »Green Billions Fertilize the U.S. Economic Stimulus Package
WASHINGTON, DC, February 20, 2009 (ENS) – The $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed into law Tuesday by President Barack Obama will not only create jobs, it will create green jobs, the new U.S. EPA administrator said today. “Through the President’s stimulus package, green initiatives will play a significant role in powering economic [...]
Read More »Obama and Harper Establish Clean Energy Dialogue
OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada, February 19, 2009 (ENS) – President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced plans to collaborate on a new clean energy economy as a key element of broader economic recovery and reinvestment efforts between the United States and Canada. “I value our strategic partnership with Canada and look forward to [...]
Read More »EPA Revisits Bush-Era Denial of California Tailpipe Emissions Waiver
WASHINGTON, DC, February 6, 2009 (ENS) – In accordance with President Barack Obama’s order in January, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will reconsider its decision denying California permission to set standards controlling greenhouse gases from motor vehicles. The waiver request was made by California on December 21, 2005, to allow the state the right to [...]
Read More »Japan Launches World’s First Greenhouse Gas Observing Satellite
TOKYO, Japan, January 23, 2009 (ENS) – The first satellite dedicated to monitoring greenhouse gas emissions as part of global efforts to combat climate change was launched into space today from Japan. The IBUKI, which means “breath,” will circle the globe every 100 minutes at an altitude of some 670 kilometers (416 miles) and will [...]
Read More »Poll: Thousands of Scientists Affirm Human-Caused Global Warming
CHICAGO, Illinois, January 20, 2009 (ENS) – While the bitter cold of President Barack Obama’s Inauguration Day in Washington may seem to contradict the idea that global warming continues, a new survey reveals consensus among scientists about the reality of climate change and its likely cause. The survey of 3,146 earth scientists from around the [...]
Read More »New Jersey Seeks Public Input on Plan to Cut Greenhouse Gases
TRENTON, New Jersey, December 18, 2008 (ENS) – New Jersey environmental officials have released a proposal to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. Department of Environmental Protection Acting Commissioner Mark Mauriello has invited the public to comment on the recommendations outlined in a draft report published on the state’s Global Warming website. “While this plan [...]
Read More »Lawsuit Challenges 11th Hour Cuts in Endangered Species Protections
SAN FRANCISCO, California, December 17, 2008 (ENS) – Regulations announced by Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne last week that would exempt many federal activities, including those that generate greenhouse gases, from review under the Endangered Species Act were published in the Federal Register Tuesday. But the regulations are being challenged in court by three [...]
Read More »California Leads States Demanding EPA Tackle Global Warming
SACRAMENTO, California, December 4, 2008 (ENS) – California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. once again is urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to use its authority under the Clean Air Act to combat climate change. With U.S. greenhouse gas emissions rising year after year, according to a report issued this week by the U.S. [...]
Read More »U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rose by 1.4 Percent in 2007
WASHINGTON, DC, December 3, 2008 (ENS) – Total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions were 7,282 million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent in 2007 – an increase of 1.4 percent from the 2006 level, federal government figures show. The figures are contained in an annual report titled, “Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States 2007,” released [...]
Read More »Military Experts Enlisted to Dispose of Ozone-Damaging Chemicals
DOHA, Qatar, November 20, 2008 (ENS) – Military experts from Australia, the Netherlands and the United States will help save the ozone layer and fight global warming under a unique partnership between the United Nations, national governments and the armed services. Spearheaded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Defense, the [...]
Read More »UN: Industrial Countries’ Greenhouse Gases Rose 2000-2006
BONN, Germany, November 18, 2008 (ENS) – Climate change talks set for the Polish city of Poznan from 1 to 12 December come half-way through a two-year negotiating process to forge an international climate change deal in Copenhagen, Denmark next year. Talks are supposed to result in a replacement for the limited Kyoto Protocol with [...]
Read More »Climate Change Hits Home in Kansas
LAWRENCE, Kansas, November 14, 2008 (ENS) – Over the next century, climate change will bring more hot, dry weather, more insects and more storms to Kansas – and eastern and western Kansas will be affected in different ways, according to research published at the University of Kansas on Tuesday. University of Kansas scientists Nathaniel Brunsell [...]
Read More »Sierra Club Wins Appeal of Coal Plant Air Permit
WASHINGTON, DC, November 13, 2008 (ENS) – In a case with national implications, the Environmental Appeals Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ruled today that the EPA had no valid reason for refusing to require that best available control technology be used to limit carbon dioxide emissions from a coal-fired power plant proposed in [...]
Read More »Brown Clouds Melt Glaciers, Darken Cities Across Asia
BEIJING, China, November 13, 2008 (ENS) – A brown cloud of pollution caused by human activities, three kilometers thick and stretching from the Arabian Peninsula across Asia to the western Pacific Ocean, is darkening cities, speeding the melting of Himalayan glaciers and affecting human health, finds a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme. [...]
Read More »Houston Retrofits City Buildings to Save Energy, Protect Climate
HOUSTON, Texas, October 24, 2008 (ENS) – Houston is about to become the first U.S. city to retrofit municipal buildings to reduce energy and water consumption as part of the Clinton Climate Initiative. The energy efficiency improvements are projected to save enough electricity annually to create millions of dollars in savings and lower greenhouse gas [...]
Read More »Mirrors Up at New California Solar Thermal Power Plant
BAKERSFIELD, California, October 23, 2008 (ENS) – Turning a long line of mirrors to catch the California sunshine, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today fired up the first solar thermal power plant built in California in nearly 20 years. The new Kimberlina concentrating solar thermal power plant in Bakersfield was built by Ausra Inc., a large-scale solar [...]
Read More »Climate-Friendly Greenfreezers Come to the United States
WASHINGTON, DC, October 1, 2008 (ENS) – Greenpeace and Ben & Jerry’s have jointly launched the first ice cream freezer using climate-friendly technology in the United States. Ben & Jerry’s will be running trials of these hydrocarbon freezers in the Boston and DC areas while the company seeks approval for widespread commercial use from the [...]
Read More »New York Tests High-Efficiency Wood Heat Technologies
ALBANY, New York, September 30, 2008 (ENS) – Searching for efficient renewable fuels, New York State is investing $1.6 million in the evaluation and improvement of wood-fired heating equipment such as residential and commercial wood boilers, pellet stoves, wood stoves, and emerging grass-pellet technologies. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority today announced [...]
Read More »Western States, Provinces Set Climate Emissions Trading Program
SACRAMENTO, California, September 23, 2008 (ENS) – The Western Climate Initiative governments today announced the design of their new regional market-based cap-and-trade program. The emissions trading program is intended to reduce climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. The program recommendations met with support from environmental groups and criticism from [...]
Read More »Chicago Sets Goals for a Cooler City
CHICAGO, Illinois, September 19, 2008 (ENS) – Mayor Richard Daley has set Chicago on a cooler path by outlining strategies to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions and avert climate change. The Chicago Climate Action Plan introduced Thursday would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent of 1990 levels by 2020 by retrofitting commercial and [...]
Read More »Reports: California Climate Law Will Aid Economy, Health
SACRAMENTO, California, September 19, 2008 (ENS) – A first in the country, California’s climate change law, AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, will provide net benefits to the state’s economy and also to public health, according to reports issued Thursday by the state agency charged with implementing the law. The California Air [...]
Read More »In Honor of Philip E. Clapp
Recently, the world lost one of the most energizing environmental activists to ever influence Washington DC. Mr. Clapp tirelessly worked his connections in the legislative capital, always seeking new ways to improve the health of the environment. We invite you to wish Mr. Clapp’s family and friends your support in their time of loss. The [...]
Read More »Stockton Agrees to Halt Sprawl, Cut Greenhouse Gases
STOCKTON, California, September 17, 2008 (ENS) – The central California city of Stockton has agreed to identify and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging downtown growth instead of allowing development to sprawl. The city will cut down on emissions by constructing thousands of new residential units within its current city limits, putting a rapid transit [...]
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