December 7, 2009 – A summary review of environmental law settlements, decisions, regulatory actions and lawsuits filed during the past week. These were all first posted, in abbreviated form, on http://twitter.com/smtaber. If you would like to receive this update in an e-mail delivered to your inbox every Monday, please send an e-mail to subscribe@taberlaw.com with the word “subscribe” in the subject line.
SETTLEMENTS
Proposed Consent Decree, Clean Air Act Citizen Suit. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, November 30, 2009
In accordance with section 113(g) of the Clean Air Act, as amended (‘‘CAA’’ or the ‘‘Act’’), 42 U.S.C. 7413(g), notice is hereby given of a proposed consent decree to address a lawsuit filed by Comite Civico Del Valle, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California: Comite Civico Del Valle, Inc. v. Jackson, No. C09–04095 PJH (N.D. Cal.). Plaintiff filed a deadline suit to compel the Administrator to take final action under section 110(k) of the Act on Imperial County Air Pollution Control District (ICAPCD) Rules 800 through 806 submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by the California Air Resources Board as revisions to the state implementation plan. The proposed consent decree establishes a deadline for EPA action on ICAPCD Rules 800 through 806.
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Apartment Complex Owner Pays Fine for Failing to Warn Tenants about Lead Paint in Springfield, Mass. — EPA News Release, November 30, 2009
The owner of a 25-unit apartment building in Springfield, Mass. has agreed to pay a fine of $10,000 to settle an EPA enforcement action alleging violations of federal lead-based paint disclosure requirements.
The real estate company, MA No. 2, LLC (MA2), is a Nevada corporation that owns the Parkview Apartments on Federal Street in Springfield. In March 2006, EPA issued a subpoena seeking information regarding lead disclosure at Parkview. The subpoena response provided EPA with information leading to this enforcement case and the underlying allegations that eight lease transactions from 2004 and 2005 by MA2 were in violation of the Lead Disclosure Rule.
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EPA reaches agreement with Sauder on clean-air violations. — EPA News Release, December 1, 2009
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has reached an agreement with Sauder Woodworking Co. on alleged Clean Air Act violations at the company’s cogeneration plant at 820 W. Barre Road, Archbold, Ohio. The agreement, which includes a $79,500 penalty, resolves EPA allegations that, among other things, Sauder violated federal and state regulations by emitting excessive amounts of visible particulates (smoke, dust, ash), nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds from its wood-fired boilers.
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Settlement reached with ethanol plant. — Fond Du Lac Reporter, December 1, 2009
A settlement agreement has been reached between an environmental group and an ethanol plant near Oshkosh. Clean Water Action Council of Northeastern Wisconsin (CWAC) maintained that Utica Energy LLC had repeatedly violated the Clean Water Act by discharging zinc, sediment and other pollutants into Sawyer Creek in excess of limits outlined in the company’s DNR-issued wastewater discharge permit. The agreement was filed by CWAC’s legal representatives, Midwest Environmental Advocates (MEA), on Nov. 24 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin
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DECISIONS
EPA cites Bucklen Equipment for damages to the Cache la Poudre River in Greeley. — EPA News Release, December 1, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached an agreement with Bucklen Equipment Company, Inc. to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Water Act in Weld County, Colorado. The alleged violations include unauthorized discharges of pollutants to the Cache la Poudre River and its adjacent wetlands within the City of Greeley. Under the consent agreement, the company will pay a penalty of $16,000 and will remove any remaining gravel piles from wetlands along the river.
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Former Harlem water official gets year in prison. — Sandy Hodson, Augusta Chronicle, December 1, 2009
Harlem’s former public works director was sentenced today to 12 months and one day in jail for releasing untreated wastewater and falsifying water quality reports. Although Daniel W. Cason, 66, pleaded guilty to three federal crimes in March, Mr. Cason declared Tuesday, “I am not a criminal.” Violating the Clean Water Act, however, is a federal offense because the American people want clean water and must trust those in charge of water treatment plants to do their jobs faithfully, countered Assistant U.S. Attorney David Stewart.
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Center for Biological Diversity v. Kempthorne: Ninth Circuit Affirms District Court Finding of No Violation of NEPA or Marine Mammals Act. — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, December 2, 2009
The Ninth Circuit held that the Department of Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service did not violate either the Marine Mammals Protection Act or the National Environmental Policy Act when it issued its regulations that allow the incidental “take” of marine animals.
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Barrick Gold to work on mine despite court ruling. — The Associated Press, December 4, 2009
Global mining giant Barrick Gold Corp. will continue work on a massive gold mine project in Nevada even though a U.S. court of appeals ordered more environmental analysis on the mining project, a company spokesman said Friday. Vincent Borg said work will continue on its new $500 million Cortez Hills mine a day after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit granted an injunction to force Barrick Gold to postpone digging a 2,000-foot deep open pit at the mine. The appeals court ruling will be interpreted by a Nevada District Court, which will determine what action, including any suspension of operations, may be required to respond to the decision of the U.S. court of appeals.
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National Union Fire Insurance Company et al. v. Standard Fusee Corporation. — Court of Appeals of Indiana, Leagle, December 3, 2009
Because we find that the pollution exclusion is ambiguous and unenforceable under Kiger and the line of cases following Kiger, we need not address the Insurers’ argument about conversations about pollution claims between SFC and insurance brokers. The pollution exclusion does not relieve the Insurers of their duty to defend SFC.
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Judge: Livingston broke the law. — Jonah Owen Lamb, Merced Sun-Star, December 5, 2009
Livingston broke state law when it approved its 2025 general plan update and certified the requisite environmental documents, a Merced Superior Court judge has ruled. The ruling decided a nearly year-old lawsuit against the city and ordered Livingston to send its controversial 2025 general plan — which projects the city to grow to roughly 100,000 — back to the drawing board. The lawsuit was filed by the Merced Farm Bureau in December 2008.
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Justices deliver a blow to coal plant. — Judy Fahys, Salt Lake Tribune, December 4, 2009
Two rulings by the Utah Supreme Court are making the company behind a coal-fired power plant proposal wonder if the project still makes sense. The court threw new obstacles Friday in front of the Sevier Power Co. by requiring a substantial updating of its air-pollution permit for a 270-megawatt, $600 million electric generator in Sigurd. The extra work, basically requiring the company to ensure the cleanest possible technology is used, could cost millions and take months, if not years. Justices unanimously backed arguments made by the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club and two Sevier County retirees, firefighter Jim Kennon and boat-designer Dick Cumiskey, who have led local opposition to the proposed plant and argued their case directly before the justices last year.
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LAWSUITS AND ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS FILED
North Carolina Poultry Processing Plant and Manager Indicted for Violations of Clean Water Act. — Department of Justice News Release, November 30, 2009
A federal grand jury in Greensboro, N.C., returned an indictment today charging a poultry processor and a plant manager with multiple violations of the Clean Water Act for illegally discharging wastewater from its Raeford, N.C., based facility, the Justice Department announced. House of Raeford Farms Inc. and its plant manager, Gregory Steenblock, were both charged with 14 counts of violating the Clean Water Act. House of Raeford is a turkey slaughter and processing facility located in Raeford.
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:
Indictment: Poultry plant wouldn’t slow wastewater. — Emery P. Dalesio, The Associated Press, December 1, 2009
A poultry plant facing federal charges of discharging water containing untreated turkey waste wouldn’t slow its processes after its output of polluted water overwhelmed its onsite treatment capacity, a federal indictment released Tuesday said. A federal grand jury on Monday indicted House of Raeford Farms and plant manager Gregory Steenblock on 14 counts of violating the federal Clean Water Act. The indictment accuses the company and Steenblock of knowingly bypassing its water treatment system at its Raeford turkey processing plant 14 times between 2005 and 2006. The wastewater was sent directly to the city’s municipal sewage treatment works, the indictment said.
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EPA unhappy with Columbus Steel Castings: Violation of pollution order alleged. — Spencer Hunt, The Columbus Dispatch, December 1, 2009
Columbus Steel Castings has failed to follow through on a court-ordered plan to identify and fix air-pollution problems at its South Side foundry, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency officials said yesterday. The Ohio EPA took the foundry, which makes metal parts for rail cars, to court in June 2008 over air-pollution violations that included excessive smoke and dust at its plant at 2211 Parsons Ave. In April, Franklin County Municipal Judge Harland H. Hale ordered the company to conduct an audit of air-pollution issues and eliminate those problems by Nov. 18.
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Sierra Club appeals gas plant permit. — Tesa Culli, Mt. Vernon Register-News, December 1, 2009
The Sierra Club has filed an appeal to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency construction permit granted to Power Holdings, Inc., for a synthetic natural gas plant to be built near Waltonville. In late October, the IEPA issued the construction permit for the proposed plant, which is slated for construction on Tomahawk Lane. According to the permit, the facility would use gasification technology to produce pipeline quality natural gas. The plant would utilize coal from Herrin No. 6 creating a “clean synthesis gas which would be further processed by methanation to produce synthetic natural gas, which would be sold to natural gas suppliers,” according to the permit. The IEPA stated under design specifications for the plant, all standards are under compliance.
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Murchison cited for buried waste: `He Didn’t Know Any Better’. — Paul Bryant, The Chandler & Brownsboro Statesman, December 3, 2009
Murchison Mayor Mike Hill told investigators with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality he didn’t know it was illegal to bury solid waste instead of discarding it at a licensed facility, a state official told the Statesman following a month-long investigation. “He said he didn’t know any better,” Craig Conner said. “That is a typical response for things like that. We cited them, but they were pretty cooperative with us.” The newspaper on Oct. 5 sent an email to TCEQ’s Tyler office notifying officials there that two Murchison witnesses had reported Hill ordered the burial of scrap metal and other materials at the city’s wastewater treatment plant in July.
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Bahr et al. v. Jackson, U.S.District Court for District of Arizona. — Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, Complaint, December 2, 2009
This is an action to compel the United States Environmental Protection Agency and its Administrator (collectively “the Administrator”) to perform nondiscretionary duties under the Clean Air Act (the “Act”). Specifically, the Administrator has a duty to act upon the “MAG 2007 Five Percent Plan for PM-10 for the Maricopa County Nonattainment Area,” Maricopa Association of Governments, 2007 (“5% Plan”) which was submitted by the State of Arizona. The Administrator has failed to take action on the 5% Plan as required by 42 U.S.C. §7410(k)(2).
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EPA Blows off Phoenix’s Foul Air, Citizens Say. — Jamie Ross, Courthouse News Services, December 4, 2009
Phoenix residents say the Environmental Protection Agency failed to take action on a state plan to reduce airborne particulates in the Phoenix metro area by 5 percent to meet National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Phoenix was given a “D” grade by the American Lung Association for particulate pollution this spring. Sandra L. Bahr, Diane E. Brown and David Matusow say the health of other Phoenix residents is endangered by breathing air “that is less pure than required” by the Clean Air Act. EPA administrator Lisa Jackson had until June 30 to approve or reject the state’s plan, according to the federal complaint. The EPA considers Phoenix a “serious nonattainment” area, which fails to meet federal health and welfare standards for air pollutants. Air particulates include airborne dust, soot and dirt emitted or tossed up by cars, construction and wind. The particulates can damage lung tissue, the respiratory system and “the body’s defense systems against foreign materials.”
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U.S. lawsuit targets pesticide impact on polar bears. — Yereth Rosen, Reuters, December 3, 2009
The U.S. government violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to curb use of pesticides that have been accumulating in the Arctic food chain and in the fat of polar bears, a species listed as threatened, environmentalists charged in a lawsuit on Thursday. While the biggest threat to polar bears comes from the rapidly warming Arctic climate and the disappearance of sea ice, the pesticide onslaught creates more woes for an already stressed population, said Rebecca Noblin, a Center for Biological Diversity staff attorney in Anchorage. “The health impacts of pesticides tend to make polar bears more susceptible to disease, to lower cub survival,” Noblin said. “Since polar bears are already struggling, the combined impacts of the two could lead to more problems.”
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:
Polar bear lawsuit filed. — The Associated Press, December 4, 2009
An environmental group sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, claiming it has not reviewed the detrimental effects of pesticides on polar bears and their Arctic habitat. “We’re asking EPA to fulfill its obligations under the Endangered Species Act,” said Rebecca Noblin, an attorney and spokeswoman for the Center for Biological Diversity. Polar bears were listed as a threatened species in May 2008 because of the dramatic loss in their primary habitat, sea ice. EPA spokesman Mark MacIntyre in Seattle said he had not seen the lawsuit and noted the agency generally does not comment on pending litigation.
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South Fork Band Council of Western Shoshone of Nevada v. Department of Interior. — Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Opinion, December 2, 2009
The Tribes fail to point to any relevant action on BLM’s part that was arbitrary or unreasonable. We will not second guess the agency’s weighing of the compliant and noncompliant visual resource areas in light of its experience and expertise. Trout Unlimited v. Lohn, 559 F.3d 946, 955 (9th Cir. 2009). We affirm the district court’s determination that the Tribes failed to show a likelihood of succeeding on their FLPMA claims. However, the Court concluded that the Bureau of Land Management did not take the requisite “hard look” under NEPA, so it reversed the District Court and remanded the matter.
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Secret coal ash ponds spark legal action. — Facing South, December 2, 2009
The public does not have access to information about more than 70 coal ash waste storage sites because the Environmental Protection Agency is withholding at the request of the power companies, which claim it represents “confidential business information.” Among the companies demanding that the information be kept secret are North Carolina-based Duke Energy and Southern Company subsidiaries Georgia Power and Alabama Power. But the EPA may be forced to hand over the information thanks to an action taken this week by three environmental advocacy groups.
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REGULATORY ACTIONS
Air
Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Utah; Redesignation Request and Maintenance Plan for Salt Lake County; Utah County; Ogden City PM10 Nonattainment Area. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 1, 2009
EPA is proposing to disapprove the State of Utah’s requests under the Clean Air Act to redesignate the Salt Lake County, Utah County, and Ogden City PM10 nonattainment areas to attainment, and to approve some and disapprove other associated State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions. The Governor of Utah submitted the redesignation requests and associated SIP revisions on September 2, 2005. EPA is proposing to disapprove the redesignation requests because the areas do not meet all Clean Air Act requirements for redesignation.
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Feds reject one Utah plan to clean up air. — Judy Fahys, The Salt Lake Tribune, December 1, 2009
Federal environmental officials don’t think Utah has done a good-enough job of cleaning up urban Utah’s air. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said today the state must do more to deal with PM 10, a type of airborne soot and pollution. In a Federal Register notice published Tuesday, the EPA says that Utah and Salt Lake counties, along with the city of Ogden, still violate the federal standard for PM 10, and the Utah Division of Air Quality’s plan to clean it up falls short. The state first began to petition the EPA in 2005 to remove the Utah counties from the list of areas that do not meet the Clean Air Act standards for PM 10. Tuesday’s notice rejects a number of those requests and sends the state back to the planning stage in search of better ways to reduce PM 10 emissions.
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Idaho sets stringent clean coal’ rules for proposed plant. — Rocky Barker, McClatchy Newspapers, December 1, 2009
The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality set a national precedent Monday when it issued a permit requiring a proposed Power County fertilizer plant to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 58 percent of what a comparable facility now emits. The permit – hashed out over several months among Southeast Idaho Energy, the state, the Sierra Club and the Idaho Conservation League – was issued only days before negotiators from around the world arrive in Copenhagen, Denmark, to write a new treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Southeast Idaho Energy’s facility would turn coal into gas that would both produce nitrogen fertilizer and sulfur.
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MEMA seeks clearly defined GHG, fuel economy standards. — Fleet Owner, December 1, 2009
The Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA) wants the U.S. government agencies in charge of developing new light-duty vehicle greenhouse gas emission (GHG) and corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) regulations to establish and follow “compatible and consistent” standards to ease the financial burden on its members. In comments submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about the joint proposed rulemaking, MEMA president & CEO Bob McKenna said that vehicle manufacturers “focus their resources on investing in the best technologies, which, in turn, feeds the ability of the supplier base to advance development and transfer research technologies into commercially viable products.”
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EPA Announces Proposal to Withdraw the Emission Comparable Fuels Rule. — EPA News Release, December 2, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed to withdraw the Emission Comparable Fuels (ECF) rule, which became effective on Jan. 20, 2009. The ECF rule governs fuel that would otherwise be regulated as hazardous waste, but that generates emissions that are comparable to fuel oil. EPA issued a rule in January 2009 that classifies ECF as a product rather than a hazardous waste. However, EPA is now proposing to withdraw the January 2009 rule due to the difficulty of ensuring that emissions from burning ECF are comparable to emissions from burning fuel oil, and the limited savings of burning ECF.
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EPA Petitioned to Regulate CO2 Using Clean Air Act, Cap At 350ppm. — Matthew McDermott, Treehugger, December 2, 2009
On and off for the past year we’ve heard statements about how the Environmental Protection Agency could really make an end run around Congressional inaction on climate and set a cap on carbon dioxide emissions though the Clean Air Act. Even Al Gore hinted at it during Climate Week NYC. Well now the Center for Biological Diversity and 350.org have petitioned the EPA to do just that:
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Groups want national limit on greenhouse gases. — Jim Snyder. The Hill, December 2, 2009
The Center for Biological Diversity and 350.org want EPA to use the Clean Air Act to dramatically scale back greenhouse gas emissions. “The Clean Air Act provides the tools necessary for the U.S. to commit to the deep and rapid greenhouse emissions reductions – on the order of 45 percent or more below 1990 levels by 2020 – needed to avert the worst impacts of climate change,” a petition the groups sent EPA states.
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Groups Petition EPA to Set Greenhouse Gas Limits Under Clean Air Act. — Robin Bravender, Greenwire in The New York Times, December 2, 2009
Two environmental groups petitioned U.S. EPA today to set national limits for greenhouse gases using the Clean Air Act. The Center for Biological Diversity and 350.org petitioned (pdf) EPA to designate greenhouse gases as “criteria” air pollutants, which would require EPA to establish allowable nationwide concentrations for the gases. The groups are asking the agency to cap atmospheric concentrations of CO2 at 350 parts per million (ppm) — a level the groups and some scientists say is necessary to avoid the worst effects of global warming. “It’s time to use our strongest existing tool for reducing greenhouse gas pollution — the Clean Air Act,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “For four decades, this law has protected the air we breathe — and it’s done that through a proven, successful system of pollution control that saves lives and creates economic benefits vastly exceeding its costs.”
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National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Area Sources: Asphalt Processing and Asphalt Roofing Manufacturing. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 2, 2009
EPA is promulgating national emissions standards for the control of emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAP) from the asphalt processing and asphalt roofing manufacturing area source category. These final emissions standards for new and existing sources are based upon EPA’s final determination as to what constitutes the generally available control technology or management practices (GACT) for the source category.
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National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Area Source Standards for Paints and Allied Products Manufacturing. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 3, 2009
EPA is issuing national emission standards for control of hazardous air pollutants (HAP) for the Paints and Allied Products Manufacturing area source category. The final rule establishes emission standards in the form of management practices for volatile HAP, and emission standards in the form of equipment standards for particulate HAP. The emissions standards for new and existing sources are based on EPA’s determination as to what constitutes the generally available control technology or management practices (GACT) for the area source category.
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EPA asked to give reasons for pollution decision. — Judy Fahys, Salt Lake Tribune, December 2, 2009
State environmental officials want federal regulators to explain what’s wrong with Utah’s plan to keep fine soot and dust out of the air. The state Air Quality Board is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to answer its questions at a Jan. 6 meeting. The board also wants the agency to provide more time for state comment on those explanations. “I think it would be useful to hear [EPA] Region 8’s thinking on this,” said Cheryl Heying, director of Utah’s Air Quality Division. On Tuesday, EPA announced plans to reject Utah’s 4-year-old proposal to give the state’s urban areas a passing grade for PM 10, a kind of microscopic soot and dust pollution. At the heart of the rejection is a disagreement between state and federal regulators about whether to count periodic dust episodes in Utah County, Salt Lake County and the city of Ogden.
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CARLSBAD: Air pollution concerns dominate at power plant meeting. — Barbara Henry, North County Times, December 2, 2009
New air pollution maps for a proposed 558-megawatt power plant indicate that communities east of Carlsbad will experience the plant’s emissions more than some areas within the city limits. That’s because of the proposed height of the project’s two 139-foot-tall smoke stacks, as well as regional topography, air quality officials said at a workshop Wednesday. One area within Carlsbad that is forecast to have a higher pollution exposure is the strawberry fields region directly east of the Encina Power Station, officials said during a presentation at a state Energy Commission meeting. The officials repeatedly stressed that the various pollutants were well below any level of significance that would lead to denying the project the permits it needs.
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Approval of Section 112(l) Authority for Hazardous Air Pollutants; Equivalency by Permit Provisions; National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants; Plywood and Composite Wood Products. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 4, 2009
On August 26, 2003, the EPA published in the Federal Register a direct final rule to approve the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resource’s (NC DENR) equivalency by permit program, pursuant to section 112(l) of the Clean Air Act, to implement and enforce State permit terms and conditions that substitute for the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants from the pulp and paper industry for the International Paper Riegelwood mill in Riegelwood, North Carolina. Then, on April 12, 2004, the EPA published in the Federal Register a direct final rule to amend the August 26, 2003, direct final rule in order to extend its coverage to include an additional four mills in North Carolina. This action is taken to once again amend the August 26, 2003, direct final rule in order to expand the NC DENR equivalency by permit program coverage to include all 32 sources in North Carolina subject to the plywood and composite wood products rule.
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EPA rule change leaves too many questions unanswered. — The Prairie Star, December 3, 2009
At the present time, meetings are taking place across the country among farmers and farm organizations as they discuss the Environmental Protection Agency’s permitting process for spraying pesticides on or near water. What’s come out of those meetings thus far is a lot of unanswered questions.
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Sulfur rule could affect industry. — Claire Johnson, The Billings Gazette, December 4, 2009
Despite big reductions in sulfur dioxide pollution in the Yellowstone Valley, area industries may have more work to do to comply with a proposed new federal standard. The Environmental Protection Agency announced last week that it intends to adopt an hourly standard for sulfur dioxide pollution to better protect the health of people who suffer from asthma and other respiratory diseases. Research has shown that exposure even to short-term spikes of sulfur dioxide can make breathing difficult for people with asthma when they’re active outdoors.
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Selenium from power plants poses ecological risks, spurs EPA review. — Sarah Coefield, Environmental Health News, December 4, 2009
Selenium is an essential nutrient, but excess amounts can be dangerous to wildlife and people. Now the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is preparing a new regulation that would require more than 600 coal-fired power plants to clean up — perhaps even eliminate — wastewater discharged into lakes, rivers and other waterways. The national standards would replace a patchwork of state regulations that EPA officials say are too lax to protect fish and wildlife from toxic metals and other elements, particularly selenium, in the plants’ wastewater. Some states allow the plants to emit selenium at levels hundreds of times higher than EPA’s water-quality standards, while others don’t even require monitoring for it.
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EPA Poised to Declare CO2 a Public Danger. — Ian Talley, The Wall Street Journal, December 5, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will early next week, possibly as soon as Monday, officially declare carbon dioxide a public danger, a trigger that could mean regulation for emitters across the economy, according to several people close to the matter. Such an “endangerment” decision is necessary for the EPA to move ahead early next year with new emission standards for cars. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has said it could also mean large emitters such as power stations, cement kilns, crude-oil refineries and chemical plants would have to curb their greenhouse gas output. The announcement would also give President Barack Obama and his climate envoy negotiating leverage at a global climate summit starting next week in Copenhagen, Denmark and increase pressure on Congress to pass a climate bill that would modify the price of polluting.
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Water
Va. Farm Bureau takes aim at new bay rules. — Steve Szkotak, The Associated Press, November 28, 2009
Virginia’s largest agricultural advocacy group is rallying against a proposed clean-up plan for the Chesapeake Bay, contending the new federal regulations could put small farmers out of business. The Virginia Farm Bureau Federation begins its annual convention Monday in Richmond, and the proposed regulations are likely to be the buzz among 800 farmers and others attending. Farm Bureau officials will outline their opposition to elements of the clean-up plan at a news conference Wednesday, the final day of the convention.
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EPA Finalizes Nationwide Numeric Limit, Prescriptive Stormwater Controls For All Construction Sites. — Environmental Observer, The Associated General Contractors of America, November 30, 2009
On Nov. 23, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its Construction and Development Effluent Limitations Guidelines (C&D ELG) rule. EPA has for the first time imposed nationwide monitoring requirements and enforceable numeric limits on the amount of sediment that can run off any construction site that impacts 10 or more acres of land at any one time. The rule also specifies the exact types of erosion and sediment controls that contractors must use, at a bare minimum, to control stormwater runoff on all construction sites that disturb one or more acres of land. The rule will take effect in February 2010 and be phased in over four years. A 250-page “pre-publication” version is available on EPA’s Web site.
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Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Construction and Development Point Source Category. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 1, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency is publishing final regulations establishing Clean Water Act (CWA) technology-based Effluent Limitations Guidelines and New Source Performance Standards for the Construction and Development (C&D) point source category. EPA expects compliance with this regulation to reduce the amount of sediment andother pollutants discharged from construction and development sites by approximately 4 billion pounds per year.
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Agriculture interests fighting new clean water permitting for pesticides. — Katie Redding, The Colorado Independent, December 1, 2009
The agriculture industry is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling requiring anyone spraying pesticides on or near water to hold a Clean Water Act permit. Earlier this year, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that farmers who apply pesticides near or over water need to apply for permits. At the time, environmental groups celebrated the victory:
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EPA: Algae responsible for Pa./W.Va. fish kill. — The Associated Press, December 5, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency says toxic algae was responsible for killing fish, mussels and other aquatic life in nearly the entire 43-mile length of a creek along the southwestern Pennsylvania-West Virginia border. The EPA’s report says high levels of total dissolved solids, or impurities, created favorable conditions for September’s golden algae bloom in Dunkard Creek. The impurities appear to be from treated mine water discharge.
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EPA pins killing of Dunkard Creek on mine discharges. — Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 4, 2009
A new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report blames a September bloom of toxic golden algae for wiping out almost all fish, mussels, salamanders and aquatic life on 43 miles of Dunkard Creek along the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border. The 17-page interim report released Tuesday also tied mine treatment discharges high in total dissolved solids to the creation of salty water conditions that allowed the algae, normally found in brackish waters in Southern and Southwestern states, to thrive and bloom. Although the EPA report confirms a late September West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection finding fingering the algae, it offers no explanation of how the algae got in the creek and said it will be almost impossible to remove. The only way to control its growth and toxicity and foster stream restoration, the study said, is to limit mine drainage containing high TDS.
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Environmentalists fear possible loophole in EPA coal ash rules. — Jason Hancock, The Iowa Independent, December 4, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is on schedule to release federal guidelines for the disposal of coal ash some time this month, but a potential loophole in the new rules has some worried they will leave Iowans unprotected. For three decades, rules governing the disposal coal ash, the toxic byproduct of burning coal, have been left up to states, creating a patchwork of differing regulations with questionable effectiveness. However, after the massive coal ash spill in Kingston, Tenn., last year, which resulted in nearly a billion gallons of coal ash sludge flooding 300 acres of land, the EPA promised it would finally regulate coal ash. But some fear the new rules may only cover ash stored in wet ponds, leaving sites many consider the most dangerous in the Hawkeye State unregulated.
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Fla., EPA cooperation sought on surface water regs. — The Associated Press, December 3, 2009
Florida’s congressional delegation has asked the nation’s top environmental regulator to work closely with the state when setting water pollution standards. Florida’s two U.S. senators and 23 of its 25 representatives sent a letter Thursday to Environmental Protection Agency Administration Lisa Jackson. A federal judge last month approved an agreement between EPA and environmental groups to set first-in-the-nation standards for Florida to limit nutrients that have been blamed for causing algae blooms.
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EPA withdraws discharge permit for Arizona mine. — Felicia Fonseca, The Associated Press, December 3, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn a water discharge permit for a controversial coal-mining operation in northern Arizona pending public hearings. The EPA’s decision about the permit for Peabody Energy’s Black Mesa mine complex comes after an appeal by environmentalists who contend the discharge of heavy metal and pollutants threatens water sources that nearby Navajo and Hopi communities depend on for drinking, farming and ranching.
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U.S. EPA Directs Bay Area Wastewater Collection Systems to Protect San Francisco Bay from Sewage Discharges. — EPA News Release, December 4, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered seven municipal sewage collection systems in the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) to take steps to work with EPA and EBMUD to address inadequately treated sewage discharges from EBMUD Wet Weather Facilities to the San Francisco Bay. The November 2009 administrative orders apply to Oakland, Emeryville, Piedmont, Berkeley, Alameda, Albany, and the Stege Sanitary District (which serves Kensington, El Cerrito and the Richmond Annex section of Richmond).
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EPA Updates Gowanus On Canal Cleanup. — NY1 News, December 4, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency told Brooklyn residents Thursday that the cleanup of the badly-contaminated Gowanus Canal is moving forward. At a briefing at P.S. 32 in Gowanus Thursday night, agency officials said they’re still waiting to learn if the canal cleanup will receive superfund status. In the meantime, the EPA is planning to sample canal sediment to learn the extent of the contamination and how risky it would be to remove it.
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Florida utilities, state politicians take on federal EPA over clean water regulations. — Fred Hiers, The Gainesville Sun, December 5, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency is continuing on its course to set new Florida water quality standards by next year, despite pleas from utilities that the new criteria would be too stringent and cost billions of dollars to meet. As those parties battle, federal lawmakers who represent Florida are trying to slow down the EPA. More than two dozen Florida lawmakers, including Sens. Bill Nelson and George LeMieux, wrote EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on Thursday asking that her agency tread cautiously in deciding its water quality standards for the state. They also asked that federal scientists work more closely with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, known as FDEP, before setting standards in January.
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Waste
State Agency: BP Alaska Pipeline Leaks Hydrocarbons. — Angel Gonzalez, Dow Jones Newswires, November 30, 2009
t of an 18-inch common line carrying a mixture of petroleum, produced water and natural gas, was discovered Sunday at 3:05 a.m. local time during a routine check, according to a report by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. BP, which activated its spill response team shortly after discovering the incident, estimated that about 8,400 square feet of snow-covered tundra had been affected, according to the report. No spill has been observed in the Prudhoe Bay area, the report added. The cause of the spill is unknown and is being investigated, the agency said. In an updated report released late Monday, the agency said that BP constructed a snow berm to prevent the spilled oil from migrating north towards Prudhoe Bay.
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High levels of Sparrows Point benzene confirmed by Port study, chemical may have reached nearby communities. — Mark Reutter, Baltimore Brew, December 2, 2009
A widely anticipated Maryland Port Administration study mapping pollution coming from the Sparrows Point steel mill confirms that cancer-causing benzene has infiltrated Baltimore harbor and may have migrated to shorefront communities through harbor currents and tides. The report, dated Nov. 2009, has not yet been posted on the agency’s website or publicly released. The Brew obtained a copy from sources. The 202-page report confirms earlier studies that benzene and other harmful substances, including naphthalene, lead, arsenic, vanadium and toluene, have been leaking into Baltimore harbor from the mill. Using “chemical fingerprinting,” the researchers traced the contamination back to an abandoned coke oven plant.
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EPA Drops Rule Allowing Hazardous Waste to be Burned as Fuel. — ENS News Wire, December 3, 2009
Environmental groups are applauding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its plan to repeal a rule that would have permitted the burning of hazardous waste as fuel. The so-called Emissions Comparable Fuels rule took effect on the very last day of the Bush administration, January 20, 2009. It allowed industries to burn fuel that would otherwise be regulated as hazardous waste, but that generates emissions comparable to fuel oil. The rule, requested by the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Chemistry Council, would have allowed more than 100,000 tons of hazardous waste to be burned without federal hazardous waste protections.
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EPA updates Rialto on perchlorate cleanup process. — Josh Dulaney, Conra Costa Times, December 3, 2009
A water contamination problem decades in the making will take decades to fix, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials. “A long time,” said EPA Project Manager Wayne Praskins at a joint community meeting held by the EPA and the California Department of Public Health this week to address how the agencies were tackling perchlorate contamination at a 160-acre site on the north side where fireworks companies and defense contractors operated after World War II. Praskins told residents the agency “may have to operate for decades” here in order to clean up the contaminate, which is a rocket-fuel additive that in high doses can interfere with the thyroid gland.
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Climate Change
Forest Service ‘Dramatically Reshaping’ Plans in Response to Climate Change. — Noelle Straub, Greenwire in The New York Times, November 30, 2009
Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell has directed the agency’s regions and research stations to jointly produce draft “landscape conservation action plans” by March 1 to guide its day-to-day response to climate change. In a memo (pdf) earlier this month requesting the plans, Tidwell said climate change is “dramatically reshaping” how the agency will deliver on its mission of sustaining the health and diversity of the nation’s forests. He focused particularly on water management.
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U. S. Business Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) Reporting, 30 Days and Counting. — GLG Expert Contributor, Gerson Lehrman Group, November 29, 2009
On January 1, 2010, many North American manufacturing facilities, distributors, importers etc.. releasing green house gases (Carbon footprint) will be required to begin monitoring their emissions of greenhouse gas. The first greenhouse gas data reported must be submitted by March 31, 2011 directly to the EPA. This EPA rule adds teeth to the U.S. CO2 trading markets.
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USDA offers climate change cost estimates for produce. — Tom Karst, The Packer, December 3, 2009
Proposed climate change legislation will increase average costs for fruit and vegetable growers by about 2% in the short term and close to 4% over several decades, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. USDA economist Joe Glauber testified Dec. 2 before the House Agriculture Committee, subcommittee on conservation, credit, energy and research about costs associated with climate change legislation. Though his testimony was focused on cost consequences of climate change legislation, Glauber said opportunities to provide carbon offsets to other industries would make climate change legislation a net positive for the farm community over the long term.
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Other
EPA’s Letter to Growth Energy Delaying Its Review of Ethanol Content of Gasoline. — EPA Letter to Growth Energy, November 30, 2009
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Ethanol Industry Reacts to EPA Decision. — Cindy Zimmerman, Domestic Fuel, December 1, 2009
Ethanol industry groups are reacting to the announcement this morning from the Environmental Protection Agency that may be another six months before a final decision can be made on increasing the allowable ethanol content in fuel to 15 percent. Growth Energy, the coalition of U.S. ethanol supporters that filed the Green Jobs Waiver seeking E15, is optimistic that the agency will approve E15 upon the completion of ongoing tests early next year.
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E.P.A. Postpones Ethanol Blend Decision. — Kate Galbraith and Matthew L. Wald, The New York Times, December 1, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency has put off, until the middle of next year, any decision about whether to increase the amount of ethanol allowed into the nation’s fuel. In a letter released on Tuesday to Growth Energy, an ethanol lobby group, the agency said that more testing was necessary, but that some initial results indicate that raising the amount of ethanol blended into gasoline would be feasible for newer cars. Growth Energy has pushed to raise the maximum amount of ethanol sold in most gasoline to 15 percent from 10 percent.
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US Govt delays decision on more ethanol in gasoline. — James Pethokoukis, Reuters, December 1, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday it needs more time to decide whether to approve an industry request to boost the amount of ethanol blended into gasoline. The EPA was supposed to decide by Dec. 1 on a petition from Growth Energy and 54 ethanol manufacturers on whether to let gasoline contain up to 15 percent of ethanol. U.S. gasoline is now approved to contain up to 10 percent ethanol, which in the United States is made mostly from corn.
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The High-Stakes Fight Over Ethanol Content in Gasoline. — Jim Motavalli, BNET Auto Blog, December 1, 2009
Should gasoline have more ethanol in it? This is a story about a five percent change, and if you don’t think that’s significant, just multiply it by billions of gallons annually. Unfortunately, the auto industry (which is worried about engine damage) isn’t going along. The environmental community is not too keen on the idea, either. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) delayed a decision on the issue Monday, causing both sides to claim victory. But the EPA’s position, despite the delay, seems to be favoring the ethanol industry.
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EPA Makes Right Decision to Delay Allowing More Ethanol In Gasoline. — Union of Concerned Scientists News Release, December 1, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to postpone approving any increase in the amount of ethanol allowed in gasoline until it can determine its impact “puts science first,” according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). More ethanol in gasoline could increase tailpipe pollution or damage older vehicles, the group said. Today’s EPA announcement was in response to a petition from Growth Energy, an ethanol industry group, which had asked the agency to increase the amount of ethanol allowed in gasoline from the current level of 10 percent to 15 percent.
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NOI for Proposed Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project NOI. — Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Federal Register, November 26, 2009
In compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, as amended, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Battle Mountain District Office, Tonopah Field Office, Nevada intends to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project located on public lands in Nye County, Nevada.
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NOI for Proposed Chevron Energy Solutions/Solar Millennium Solar Power Projects. — Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Federal Register, November 26, 2009
In compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, as amended, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, as amended, and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Palm Springs South Coast Field Office, Palm Springs, California, together with the California Energy Commission (CEC), intend to prepare two Environmental Impact Statements (EIS)/Staff Assessments (SAs), which may include an amendment to the California Desert Conservation Area (CDCA) Plan (1980, as amended) and by this notice are announcing the beginning of the scoping process to solicit public comments and identify issues.
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EPA Will Test Hundreds in Lawrence Co. — WAAY TV, December 2, 2009
A surprising announcement at a community meeting in Moulton last night. The Environmental Protection Agency wants to test about 200 Lawrence County residents for exposure to perfluorinated chemicals, or PFC’s. The EPA says the chemicals have made their way into some ground water at a few privately owned wells. The chemical comes from wastewater sludge that Decatur Utilities has been giving to farmers to use as fertilizer for the last three decades.
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Federal agency says prairie dogs not endangered. — Matthew Brown, The Associated Press, December 3, 2009
Black-tailed prairie dogs were denied protection under the Endangered Species Act on Wednesday after federal officials concluded the once prevalent species shows signs of rebounding. Decades of poisoning, shootings, the plague and loss of habitat to agriculture are blamed for a dramatic drop in prairie dog numbers since the early 1900s, from roughly one billion animals to an estimated 24 million today.
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BLM to open lease sale for 3,322 acres east of Salton Sea/ Imperial County. — Think GeoEnergy News, December 4, 2009
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced it will make 3,322 acres of BLM-managed lands on the east side of the Salton Sea in Imperial County, Calif. open for geothermal leasing and has already received 2 applications.
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DEIS for Clear Creek Released for Comment. — Bureau of Land Management, Federal Register, December 4, 2009
In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has prepared a Draft Resource Management Plan and Draft Environmental Impact Statement (RMP/EIS) for the Clear Creek Management Area (CCMA), and by this notice, announces the opening of the public comment period.
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Comments sought on Spooner forest project. — Lake Tahoe News, December 4, 2009
The U.S. Forest Service, Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit is providing a second opportunity for the public to comment on the Spooner Hazardous Fuels Reduction and Healthy Forest Restoration Project. The comment period is open though Dec. 17. The Spooner project is located on the eastern side of the Lake Tahoe Basin along both sides of portions of highways 50 and 28 between Logan House Creek-Lincoln Park to the south and Sand Harbor State Recreation Area to the north. This project is in portions of Washoe County, Douglas County and Carson County.
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STATE & FEDERAL ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION
Lawmakers’ dilemma: Raise ADEQ fees or risk EPA intervention. — Jeremy Duda, Az Capitol Times, November 30, 2009
Policymakers in Arizona may have to choose between two undesirable options – greater environmental fees for businesses or greater federal intervention in local affairs. Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are considering taking more control of some state-run Superfund cleanup projects and perhaps asserting more influence over enforcement efforts that are handled by the state.
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Water cleanup bill in delicate dance with mining law reform. — Katie Redding, The Colorado Independent, November 30, 2009
Just outside of Central City in Colorado’s Gilpin County, the historic Perigo gold mine drains metal-laden water at an average of 70 gallons per minute into a small perennial stream known as Gamble Gulch. Below the mine for six miles, the gulch is virtually devoid of life, according to the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety. A design for a proposed cleanup project has been completed, but the state won’t bid it out because officials worry that if it does, it open itself up, in perpetuity, to a lawsuit under the Clean Water Act. Poisoned Gamble Gulch — and likewise toxic waterways around the state and country — are at the center of a legislative tug of war.
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Greenhouse legislation sparks protest in the Loop. — Cynthia Dizikes, Chicago Tribune, November 30, 2009
Marking the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle, a group of about 100 activists took to the streets in the Loop this morning to rally against “cap-and-trade” legislation, arguing it would do too little to curb greenhouse emissions. As the group reached LaSalle and Adams streets, in front of the Chicago Climate Exchange, about a dozen protesters laid down in the street. Chicago police officers picked them up and put them in a squadrol. Other officers moved other activists off the street.
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Industrial groups warn over US climate law. — Hal Weitzman, Financial Times, November 30, 2009
Industrial companies operating in the US are warning that they will face a heavy regulatory burden should US Congress fail to pass climate change legislation. The companies fear that without legislation, the US Environmental Protection Agency would impose its own rules on greenhouse-gas emissions or states would introduce different carbon pollution regimes.
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Legislation with teeth offers hope for bay. — Parris N. Glendening, The Baltimore Sun, December 1, 2009
The Chesapeake Bay may be a beloved resource, but we have cruelly mistreated the object of our affections. After many years of knowing how urgently we must protect it, the bay is still far from the clean, vital, vibrant watershed it should be. Its poor health reflects a failure by all of us over decades. By relying on a “voluntary” approach in our cleanup efforts, we are nowhere near the goals that were set to restore this national treasure, and nowhere near a healthy bay.
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Policy Options for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions. — U.S. Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources Press Release, December 2, 2009
“Today the committee will hear testimony on policy options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Over the last two months, the committee has held several hearings on global climate change policy, most of which specifically investigated the impacts of cap-and-trade programs on the energy sector and consumers. “These hearings, I think, have been a useful in educating Members of the committee and to engage in a dialogue about the important components of sound climate policy. “In many of the hearings, we have heard a number of alternative policies to reducing greenhouse gas emissions mentioned that have been cited as either more, or less, desirable than cap-and-trade.
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Boxer Opening Statement: EPW Hearing on Toxic Substances Control Act. — U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works Press Release, December 2, 2009
When President Ford signed the Toxic Substances Control Act, TSCA in 1976, the law was supposed to help assure that toxic chemicals would be restricted or banned if they were hazardous. However, more than three decades later, TSCA has not lived up to that promise. Court decisions and poor implementation have severely weakened the Act’s effectiveness over the years, and TSCA does not include sufficient protections for pregnant women, infants, children and others who are particularly vulnerable to chemical exposures. In March 2009, the Government Accountability Office put EPA’s chemical management program on GAO’s list of “high risk” programs.
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Statement of Lisa P. Jackson Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Legislative Hearing on the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works December 2, 2009. — EPA News Release, December 2, 2009
Chairman Lautenberg, Chairman Boxer, Ranking Member Inhofe and other members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak about how we can improve our framework for assessing and managing chemical risks. Understandably, the public is turning to government for assurance that chemicals that are ubiquitous in our economy, our environment and our bodies have been assessed using the best available science, and that unacceptable risks have been eliminated. But, under existing law, we cannot give that assurance. Restoring confidence in our chemical management system is a top priority for me, and a top environmental priority for the Obama Administration.
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Chemical Regulation: Observations on Improving the Toxic Substances Control Act. — John Stephenson, Government Accountability Office, December 2, 2009
EPA lacks adequate scientific information on the toxicity of many chemicals. One major reason is that TSCA generally places the burden of obtaining data about existing chemicals on EPA rather than on chemical companies. For example, the act requires EPA to demonstrate certain health or environmental risks before it can require companies to further test their chemicals. As a result, EPA does not routinely assess the risks of the over 83,000 chemicals already in use. Moreover, TSCA does not require chemical companies to test the approximately 700 new chemicals introduced into commerce each year for toxicity, and companies generally do not voluntarily perform such testing.
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Schwarzenegger Releases Unique Comprehensive Climate Adaptation Strategy. — News Blaze, December 3, 2009
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today released California’s Climate Adaptation Strategy (CAS) final report, a first-of-its-kind comprehensive, multi-sector analysis that will enhance the state’s management of climate impacts from sea level rise, increased temperatures, shifting precipitation and extreme natural events, as ordered by Executive Order S-13-08. The Governor also took action on two of the recommendations in the report today by announcing the creation of the Climate Adaptation Advisory Panel and announcing a new Google Earth-based application, Cal-Adapt, that will allow Californians to see the risks of climate change impacts in their communities.
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Kerry Introduces Legislation To Address Security Risks Of Climate Change. — RTT News, December 3, 2009
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., unveiled legislation Thursday intended to addresses the global security risks of climate change. Kerry said the International Climate Change Investment Act of 2009 would also promote U.S. economic leadership and competitiveness by enhancing demand for American clean energy products. In addition, the legislation supports a global agreement at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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Subcommittee Focuses on Climate Change Bill. — Michigan Farmer, December 3, 2009
The House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research held a hearing Wednesday to review economic analyses of the potential economic impacts of climate change on the farm sector. Subcommittee chairman Tim Holden, D-Penn., says it is clear there is still a lot of uncertainty with some of the modeling assumptions and data used to estimate the potential impact of climate change and climate change legislation on agriculture. Holden concluded that additional questions must be asked and answered before drawing any definitive conclusions.
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Maryland Farmers Could Get $85M Annually. — The Baynet.com, December 4, 2009
A new analysis of the nutrient trading program contained in the proposed federal Chesapeake Clean Water Act has determined that Maryland farmers could be paid as much as $85 million annually to reduce nitrogen pollution, creating jobs and bolstering the agricultural economy. The analysis by the World Resources Institute (WRI), an international leader in market based environmental programs, found that water quality trading could potentially double conservation funding compared to what is currently available in the federal Farm Bill.
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OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS
Air
Memphis airport accused of pollution violations. — Tom Charlier, The Commercial Appeal, December 1, 2009
From the exhaust of baggage tractors to the vapors from de-icing operations, Memphis International Airport annually generates thousands of tons of air pollution for which it never received proper regulatory approval, an Ohio man claims. Pram Nguyen, a Cleveland resident who has filed legal actions against several other major airports across the nation, sent a letter to Memphis airport officials and local elected leaders outlining what he says are violations of the federal Clean Air Act. If the violations aren’t remedied, the letter states, Nguyen will file suit, potentially subjecting the Memphis and Shelby County Airport Authority to “substantial fines and penalties.”
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2 More Utilities Retiring Aging Coal Plants in Wake of Health Report. — Mara MacKinnon, Solve Climate, December 3, 2009
Two of the nation’s biggest power providers, Exelon and Progress Energy, announced plans this week to retire more than a dozen of their aging coal-fired power plants. While the decisions were based on economics, they ultimately will have an impact on human health. In North Carolina, Progress Energy, under pressure from the state to upgrade its emissions scrubbing equipment, announced Tuesday that it would close 11 coal-fired units by the end of 2017 and shift to cleaner-burning natural gas. The targeted units represent nearly 30 percent of the company’s statewide coal fleet.
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Air tests at natural gas drilling sites fuel concerns in North Texas. — Jeff Mosier, The Dallas Morning News, December 4, 2009
Anxiety about the risks of natural gas drilling has stayed mostly below the surface in North Texas. Critics feared everything from polluted groundwater in the Barnett Shale to high-pressure gas lines beneath their front yards. Now the biggest concern – at least the one that governments are watching closely – is in the air. Tests showing high concentrations of benzene and other toxic chemicals in air near drill sites and related facilities have brought a new focus on the natural gas industry and public health. Cities, counties and the state’s environmental agency are anxiously awaiting an analysis of regional testing and any potential action that could follow.
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Newark residents say garbage incinerator poses health risks. — Brian T. Murray, The Star Ledger, December 5, 2009
The garbage incinerator operating in the industrialized Ironbound section of Newark for 18 years, the largest of New Jersey’s five government trash burners, advertises itself these days as a soldier in the war against global warming. It’s a source of “renewable energy,” generating electricity for 50,000 households by burning nearly 1 million tons of trash each year at the Raymond Boulevard site, according Covanta Energy, the corporate operator.
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Water
Group accuses Va. fish plant of polluting bay. — The Associated Press, November 30, 2009
Virginia and federal regulators are investigating allegations that the nation’s top menhaden processor has been dumping oxygen-choking fish waste into the Chesapeake Bay. The Southern Environmental Law Center accuses Omega Protein Corp. of routine discharges comparable to a large wastewater-treatment plant. Excessive nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorus, create “dead zones” that kill blue crabs and other marine life.
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Minnesota Clean Water Action introduces Ripple Effects campaign. — Michelle Alimordi, Twin Cities Daily Planet, December 1, 2009
“Pesticides are everywhere…most people do not even know that -cide means ‘to kill,’” said Becky Sheets of Staples, Minnesota. Sheets shared her story as part of Minnesota Clean Water Action’s newly launched Ripple Effects campaign. Sheets explained how she developed chemically-induced asthma from exposure to three types of pesticides while working for a research center for crop production. Her exposure came mainly from crop dusting, a common practice in the many agricultural towns of Minnesota.
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Crews cleaning Prudhoe Bay oil spill estimated at 3/4 acre. — James Halpin, Anchorage Daily News, December 1, 2009
Cleanup efforts continued Tuesday on a three-quarter-acre area of tundra affected by a spill of oil and water near BP’s Lisburne Processing Center on the North Slope. More than half of the affected area was coated by a sprayed mist from an 18-inch flow line, a pipeline that carries raw oil, water and gas to the center for separation, according to officials with BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., the company that runs most North Slope oil fields.
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BP dealing with 2 Alaska spills. — UPI, December 4, 2009
BP reported a second pipeline leak while battling an earlier oil spill on the North Slope in Alaska, officials said Thursday. The new spill, which was discovered and reported Wednesday, came from a 6-inch pipeline carrying what is known as produced water, which is pumped from wells and separated from the crude oil, the Anchorage Daily News reported. BP said about 7,000 gallons spilled, with much of it trapped in a building.
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Clean water won’t hurt economy. — Tampa Bay Online, December 3, 2009
State Agriculture Secretary Charles Bronson and other opponents of a federal plan to decrease the pollution of Florida’s rivers, lakes and bays say the restrictions would generate billions of dollars of costs for businesses and local governments. They want Florida’s congressional delegation to curb the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to limit nutrient pollution. But the delegation, rather than heeding Bronson’s scare tactics, should recognize nutrients are the leading cause of water pollution in Florida. Existing rules are inadequate.
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Loopholes polluting Illinois waters. — Kennedy Eilliott & Joe Piaskowy, Medill Reports Chicago, December 3, 2009
It has all the makings of a best-selling novel. A rural county polarized. A heated trial against a mega dairy farm owner. A small group of community members fighting a multi-million dollar company. Threats of big business possibly polluting the water supply. Even the name of the defendant – the mega dairy owner – is pronounced “boss.” This real-life drama is playing out in the rolling hills of Jo Daviess County in Northwest Illinois. The small towns of Warren, Nora and Stockton are split in a battle over the development of a mega dairy only miles away from residential homes and farm land.
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Feds are now the real enemy in Appalachian coal wars. — Dorothy Kosich, Mineweb, December 4, 2009
Notwithstanding, the protestors who chain themselves to mining equipment or the Hollywood types arrested during demonstrations, in the on-going coal wars in Appalachia, mining attorney Robert McCluskey says “The enemy has kind of shifted from the anti-mining groups to the [federal] government.” During a presentation to the Northwest Mining Association meeting in Reno, McCluskey noted the EPA is threatening to veto Clean Water Section 404 permits that had already been approved and issued to coal mining operations by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Meanwhile, what McCluskey called a “significant fight” is now brewing between state and federal governments as to who makes and implements Section 404 standards regulating coal mining operations. In Appalachia, waste material from coal surface mining operations is deposited or discharged into U.S. waters.
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Drainage from mines threat to all streams. — Observer-Reporter, December 4,, 2009
An article in yesterday’s newspaper reported that the Environmental Protection Agency has confirmed earlier findings that toxins created by a bloom of golden algae were responsible for the massive fish kill in Dunkard Creek in September. The state Department of Environmental Protection had come to the same conclusion. That the algae that is fatal to fish and other gill-breathing organisms is the cause is not in question. Nor is it unknown what caused the algae to bloom: elevated levels of total dissolved solids and chloride, a component of TDS, which created favorable conditions for the algae to grow and produce toxins. And the EPA has concluded that the TDS and chloride came from mine drainage, most likely from the Consol Blacksville No. 2 Mine. What is not known is how such high levels of TDS and chloride got into drainage for the mines.
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Climate Change
Indian officials dismiss Danish climate proposal. — Muneeza Naqvi, The Associated Press, November 30, 2009
Top Indian officials dismissed a draft climate change proposal by Denmark that expects developing economies to peak their greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, news reports said Monday. The draft document was circulated to a few countries ahead of the Dec. 7-18 summit in Copenhagen, which is supposed to draw up an agreement for controlling emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases causing global warming.
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CLIMATE CHANGE: Commonwealth Champions Adaptation Fund. — Peter Richards, IPS News, November 30, 2009
South African President Jacob Zuma admits that before to coming to Trinidad for the bi-annual Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), he met with its secretary general, Kamalesh Sharma, to discuss the relevance of the grouping in today’s evolving global power structure. But at the end of their three-day meeting on Sunday, Zuma said, “I think some of my questions have been answered,” noting that the manner in which the summit dealt with the issue of climate change “indicates we are dealing with a CHOGM of today”. The Port of Spain Climate Change Consensus that Commonwealth leaders adopted was reached at the end of a special meeting also attended by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.
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Holland-Bartels: Pioneering new climate-change policies. — Partnership for Public Service, The Washington Post, November 30, 2009
For Leslie Holland-Bartels of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the inclusion of Alaska’s polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act was a great accomplishment. But the 2008 federal designation also signaled much more — the broader scientific linkage between global warming and significant changes to wildlife, critical ecosystems and biodiversity.
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Carbon dioxide not the only climate enemy: UCSD scientists focusing on others. — Mike Lee, Sign On San Diego, November 29, 2009
When it comes to climate change, carbon dioxide is seen by many as the biggest villain and the main target of a much-anticipated meeting next month in Copenhagen to fashion an international strategy on global warming. But two high-powered scientists at the University of California San Diego and their colleagues are trying to focus attention on a handful of other climate enemies that lurk in the shadows. By quickly arresting soot, methane, low-level ozone and hydrofluorocarbons, the researchers said the world can delay climate change by roughly 40 years — enough time to significantly trim emissions of carbon dioxide.
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Copenhagen’s missing ingredient: water. — James G Workman, Los Angeles Times, November 30, 2009
Climate change conjures up factory smoke, corn ethanol, cap-and-trade, hybrid cars. It also evokes Al Gore, drowning polar bears, African famine and Hurricane Katrina. All these triggers and the issues they invoke, backed by mounting evidence of irreversible risks to humankind, will converge next week in Copenhagen. Our collective political will may yet secure the Earth’s equilibrium through an overarching deal — though short of a treaty — by the end of the U.N. climate-change conference there. Or it could all come unglued. Delegates from around the world chosen to decide our fate have deliberately removed the one element that can tip the scales.
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The Climate Science Isn’t Settled. — Richard S. Lindzen, The Wall Street Journal, December 1, 2009
Is there a reason to be alarmed by the prospect of global warming? Consider that the measurement used, the globally averaged temperature anomaly (GATA), is always changing. Sometimes it goes up, sometimes down, and occasionally—such as for the last dozen years or so—it does little that can be discerned. Claims that climate change is accelerating are bizarre. There is general support for the assertion that GATA has increased about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit since the middle of the 19th century. The quality of the data is poor, though, and because the changes are small, it is easy to nudge such data a few tenths of a degree in any direction. Several of the emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (CRU) that have caused such a public ruckus dealt with how to do this so as to maximize apparent changes.
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Moves by U.S., China induce India to do its bit on climate. — Rama Lakshmi, The Washington Post, December 2, 2009
Recent announcements by the United States and China to cut carbon dioxide emissions are propelling India to make its own commitment to slow greenhouse gas emissions and go to the upcoming Copenhagen climate summit with a firm proposal on reductions. The move marks a significant shift for India, which until recently had insisted that wealthier nations should bear the brunt of carbon cuts rather than emerging nations, whose economies are less developed.
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U.S. Proposes Climate Fund for Poor Nations. — Lisa Friedman, Climatewire in The New york Times, December 2, 2009
The United States has proposed a new global fund that would direct billions of dollars to help poor countries prepare for climate disasters and adjust to low-carbon economies. The fund would likely operate under the World Bank, U.S. Treasury officials said, and would be the main vehicle to deliver emissions reduction and adaptation measures throughout the world.
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California Dams to Feel Impact of Climate Change. — John Collins Rudolf, The New York Times, December 2, 2009
California’s high-elevation dams could generate considerably less power over the next 40 years as a result of rising temperatures associated with climate change, according to a recent study by researchers at the University of California, Davis. Under a warmer, drier climate projected in computer models, hydroelectric dams above 1,000 feet in elevation in the state would produce about 20 percent less power by 2050, the researchers found. Under this climate scenario, electricity production would also occur earlier in the year, when demand for power is lower.
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EPA Commends Corporate Leaders for Major Greenhouse Gas Reductions. — EPA News Release, December 2, 2009
EPA is recognizing eight companies for achieving significant goals to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through the agency’s Climate Leaders program. Twenty-seven companies are also being commended for announcing aggressive GHG reduction goals. Combined, the Climate Leaders companies are reducing greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 50 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents per year. “EPA’s Climate Leaders are sending a clear message that the choice between our economy and our environment is a false choice,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “They’re doing their part in the fight against climate change and giving consumers the power to support environmentally responsible choices. That leads to a better bottom line and a brighter future for everyone.”
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Google Earth explores climate risks to California. — The Associated Press, December 2, 2009
Google Inc. is launching a new feature to let Californians explore the risks to their communities from climate change. Google unveiled the new interactive tool in San Francisco on Wednesday as part of a climate change press conference held by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The state is partnering with Google on the new venture. It was one of the recommendations in a report released Wednesday detailing how California should prepare for rising sea levels, hotter weather and water shortages. Google chief executive Eric Schmidt says the feature, called CalAdapt, will let Internet users see the irreversible affect of climate change facing California before they happen.
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The Science and Politics of Climate Change. — Mike Hulme, The Wall Street Journal, December 2, 2009
I am a climate scientist who worked in the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia in the 1990s. I have been reflecting on the bigger lessons to be learned from the stolen emails, some of which were mine. One thing the episode has made clear is that it has become difficult to disentangle political arguments about climate policies from scientific arguments about the evidence for man-made climate change and the confidence placed in predictions of future change. The quality of both political debate and scientific practice suffers as a consequence.
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Rising Partisanship Sharply Erodes U.S. Public’s Belief in Global Warming. — Nathanial Gronewald and Crista Marshall, Climatewire in The New York Times, December 3, 2009
On the eve of major international climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, belief in global warming in the United States has slipped to the lowest point in 12 years of measuring, according to a poll from New York-based Harris Interactive Inc. As U.S. negotiators fly to the Danish capital to forge a political agreement based on President Obama’s proposal to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by about 17 percent, most of the American public doesn’t know what the talks are about, according to the Harris survey.
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China backs India’s stand on climate change. — Indian Express, December 3, 2009
Ahead of the Copenhagen meet, China on Thursday backed India’s stand that developing nations have no obligation to binding emission reduction targets and said it is ready to enhance “cooperation and coordination” between the two countries, which it termed as “victims” of climate change. “We understand the current situation in India. We should take adaptation and mitigation measures based on our national conditions and capacity,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters here. He said China is ready to strengthen “communication, coordination and cooperation” with India on climate change.
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Setting A Higher Bar For Climate Change. — Michael Dell, Forbes, December 3, 2009
Next week, world leaders will meet at the UN-led climate conference in Copenhagen, where their goal is to agree on global greenhouse gas reduction targets. The responsibility to mitigate climate change, however, does not fall solely to the Copenhagen delegation. Solving the global climate crisis starts with us–the world’s businesses and organizations. The scientific community has reported that by 2050, global emissions must be reduced by 50 to 85% from 2000 levels to bring greenhouse gas emissions to acceptable levels. While these conclusions are not the last word, they do contribute to the framework our leaders in Copenhagen will consider for building a broad policy consensus. These are aggressive targets that require action from us all.
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Top climate change expert hopes science got it wrong. — Erik Kirschbaum, Reuters, December 3, 2009
Germany’s top climate researcher says he hopes he and his fellow scientists around the world have got it all wrong about global warming. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told Reuters he gets no pleasure at all in being a prophet of doom and hopes he and his colleagues have overlooked effects that could still arrest climate change. “It would be wonderful if some mechanism that we haven’t yet been able to understand could still have an impact and manage to stabilize global warming at a high level for a while,” he said in an interview in his institute’s office outside Berlin.
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British university to probe climate-data allegations. — USA Today, December 3, 2009
The British university at the heart of the “Climategate” storm announced today that it will investigate whether scientists manipulated data on global warming to suppress contrary findings. Last month a hacker posted documents and e-mails between leading climatologists that were stolen from a University of East Anglia server. Skeptics contend the correspondences show a conspiracy among scientists to hide research that undercuts the general consensus that climate change is primarily man-made and not natural. Proponents counter that the e-mails have been taken out of context, do not support the skeptics’ claims and are an attempt to sabotage the U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen next week .
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Nepalese Government Holds Meeting Near Mount Everest. — Dave McCombs, Bloomberg.com, December 4, 2009
Nepal’s Cabinet issued a declaration on climate change after an outdoor meeting in the shadow of Mount Everest, in a region where shrinking glaciers threaten rivers essential to development in China, India and Pakistan. Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal delivered the statement after he and more than 20 ministers, officials, journalists, and technicians returned by helicopter, according to Nepalnews.com. The group brought oxygen masks and a team of six doctors for the 20-minute meeting on the Kalapatthar plateau, 5,240 meters (17,192 feet) above sea level.
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Recession Takes a Bite Out of U.S. GHG Emissions. — Kirsten Korosec, BNET Energy Blog, December 3, 2009
The 2008 greenhouse gas emissions report from the Energy Department provides further fodder to the power of a recession. Total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2008 fell by 2.2 percent from 2007 to 7.053 billion metric tons, according to a U.S. Energy Information Administration report released Thursday afternoon. That’s a remarkable change from what has been occurring in the United States for nearly two decades. Total GHG emissions grew at an average annual rate of 0.7 percent every year since 1990. That is until 2008 came along.
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Penn St. prof. welcomes climate change scrutiny. — Genaro Armas, The Associated Press, December 3, 2009
A Penn State professor and climate researcher said he welcomes scrutiny into leaked e-mails at the center of an international controversy over what’s causing global warming after the university said it would look into the issue. Hackers breached servers at a climate change research center in London two weeks ago, stealing thousands of e-mails and other documents and posting them on the Internet. The correspondence covered more than a decade of communication between leading British and U.S. scientists, including Penn State meteorology professor Michael Mann. His research has been a target of criticism for years from skeptics of man-made global warming theories.
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United Nations to probe climate e-mail leak. — Rapheal G. Satter, The Associated Press, December 4, 2009
The United Nations will conduct its own investigation into e-mails leaked from a leading British climate science center in addition to the probe by the University of East Anglia, a senior U.N. climate official said in comments broadcast Friday. E-mails stolen from the climate unit at the University of East Anglia appeared to show some of world’s leading scientists discussing ways to shield data from public scrutiny and suppress others’ work. Those who deny the influence of man-made climate change have seized on the correspondence to argue that scientists have been conspiring to hide evidence about global warming.
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Global warming may require higher dams, stilts. — Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press, December 4, 2009
With the world losing the battle against global warming so far, experts are warning that humans need to follow nature’s example: Adapt or die. That means elevating buildings, making taller and stronger dams and seawalls, rerouting water systems, restricting certain developments, changing farming practices and ultimately moving people, plants and animals out of harm’s way. Adapting to rising seas and higher temperatures is expected to be a big topic at the U.N. climate-change talks in Copenhagen next week, along with the projected cost — hundreds of billions of dollars, much of it going to countries that cannot afford it.
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Nepal’s Everest message on climate change. — Euronews, December 4, 2009
Nepal’s cabinet has taken an unusual step in meeting outdoors amid the frigid thin air of Mount Everest to highlight the dangers of climate change. The prime minister and more than 20 ministers flew in by helicopter to Everest’s base camp; more than 5,000 metres above sea level. Coming just days before global climate talks start in Copenhagen, the Nepalese government billed the event as the world’s highest cabinet meeting, so topping the agenda was the serious impact of climate change. Nepal is already experiencing erratic rains, longer dry spells, melting glaciers and unprecedented forest fires, according to experts. Many scientists say the Himalayan glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, creating lakes with walls that could burst and flood villages below. The meeting follows that of the Maldives, which held the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting in October to underline how rising sea levels threaten the Indian Ocean’s archipelago’s existence.
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The Tragedy of the Himalayas. — Bryan Walsh, Time, December 4, 2009
The road to Khardung La begins in the Indian town of Leh on the northwestern fringe of the Himalayas. Exhaust-spewing army trucks rattle up the side of dry rock, past Buddhist monasteries clinging to the craggy mountainside and alongside small farms barely scraping fertility from the earth. Khardung La, the highest motorable mountain pass in the world, is more than 18,000 ft. above sea level, the air so thin that just standing there a few minutes leaves you feeling as if your head might lift off like a balloon. But if 65-year-old Syed Iqbal Hasnain is bothered by the altitude, he isn’t showing it. The Indian glaciologist hops lightly from a car and walks to the edge of the pass, beneath fluttering Buddhist prayer flags. The rock is dusted with early winter snow, and there might not be much more this season or next, he says.
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Leading Climate Change Scientist: ‘Cap and trade won’t work’. — Jack P, Before It’s News, December 4, 2009
A leading global warming scientist, James Hansen, made recent statements on Friday that he hopes the Copenhagen summit will fail, according to a Washingtonsblog posting: He is vehemently opposed to the carbon market schemes – in which permits to pollute are bought and sold – which are seen by the EU and other governments as the most efficient way to cut emissions and move to a new clean energy economy. Hanson, who was quoted in he Guardian, said: “I would rather it not happen if people accept that as being the right track because it’s a disaster track,” said Hansen, who heads the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.”
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Obama switches climate change visit to end of summit. — BBC News, December 4, 2009
US President Barack Obama has changed his plans to attend the UN summit on climate change in Copenhagen next week, the White House has announced. He will arrive later than initially planned, moving his appearance from 9 December to 18 December
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The Copenhagen Communiqué on Climate Change. — Newsweek, December 5, 2009
This communiqué calls for an ambitious, robust, and equitable global deal on climate change that responds credibly to the scale and urgency of the crises facing the world today. Economic development will not be sustained in the long term unless the climate is stabilized. It is critical that we exit this recession in a way that lays the foundation for low-carbon growth and avoids locking us into a high-carbon future. These are difficult and challenging times for the international business community, and a poor outcome from Copenhagen will only make them more so, by creating uncertainty and undermining confidence.
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Dutch defense against climate change: Adapt. — Anthony Faiola and Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post, December 6, 2009
With the Copenhagen summit starting Monday, chances remain uncertain for a historic breakthrough in the fight to prevent climate change, but the Netherlands is leading a fight of a different kind: How to live with global warming. As sea levels swell and storms intensify, the Dutch are spending billions of euros on “floating communities” that can rise with surging flood waters, on cavernous garages that double as urban floodplains and on re-engineering parts of a coastline as long as North Carolina’s. The government is engaging in “selective relocation” of farmers from flood-prone areas and expanding rivers and canals to contain anticipated swells.
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Other
Asheville-based protesters lock themselves to generator near Greenville, SC. — John Boyle, Asheville Citizen-Times, November 30, 2009
Four protesters from Asheville were arrested this morning in South Carolina, including two who locked themselves to a 1.5-million pound generator headed for the Cliffside coal-fired plant site in Rutherford County. Those arrested were Julia Allen Page, Paul Webb Loomis, Catherine Ann MacDougal, and Rachel Anne Scarano, according to Rising Tide North American, an environmental advocacy group. The protesters had vowed to prevent the generator, which has been traveling across South Carolina, from reaching the coal-fired Duke Energy plant, according to a press release from Rising Tide. The groups Asheville Rising Tide and Croatan Earth First! organized the protest, part of a national day of action with dozens of protests nationwide.
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Turning corn stubble into biochar. — Farm Progress, Stock & Land, November 30, 2009
Researchers around the world are trying to economically convert cellulosic biomass such as corn stover into “cellulosic ethanol.” But Agricultural Research Service scientists have found that it might be more cost-effective, energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable to use corn stover for generating an energy-rich oil called bio-oil and for making biochar to enrich soils and sequester carbon. The research, under-written by the National Corn Growers Association, suggests it could be more cost-effective to produce bio-oil through a distributed network of small pyrolyzers and then transport the crude bio-oil to central refining plants to make “green gasoline”, rather than transporting bulky stover to a large centralised cellulosic ethanol plant.
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S. Side solar energy plant to power 1,500 homes. — Paul Meincke, ABC7 – Chicago, November 30, 2009
Chicago is home to the largest big-city solar generating plant in the country. The Exelon plant is being built on the South Side. It won’t produce a lot of electricity. But the company says solar energy is an important part of its plans for the future. In an old far South Side industrial site, barren for years, 33,000 solar panels are being set up to follow the arc of the sun, and make electricity.
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US: Paper Mill Is Reborn, Sans Fossil Fuels. — Violet Snow, Inter Press Service, November 29, 2009
A paper mill that runs without fossil fuels and has a neutral carbon footprint? That’s the goal for Flambeau River Papers in Park Falls, Wisconsin, and the company is already on its way, thanks to a switch to biomass fuel, plus a biorefinery in the works. In timber-rich Wisconsin, paper mills have been a major industry since the 1800s. Small mills, suffering from the recession and high energy costs, are now shutting down, creating economic devastation for towns like Park Falls, where the mill provided jobs for 310 people in a town of about 3,000.
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California Companies Lauded for Taking Innovative Measures to Reduce Pesticide Risk. — EPA News Release, December 1, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has presented awards to five members of the Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program (PESP) for their sustained excellence in integrated pest management (IPM). “These awards demonstrate that innovative pest management practices really do work,” said Steve Owens, assistant administrator for the Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances, “EPA is helping growers and other pesticide users make the transition to safer practices and thereby reduce pesticide risk to people and the environment.”
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P4 Production, LLC, Begins Comprehensive Mine Cleanup Planning in Southeast Idaho. — EPA News Release, December 1, 2009
P4 Production LLC, a southeast Idaho phosphate mining company, has reached agreement with five federal and state agencies, as well as the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, to develop comprehensive cleanup plans for three phosphate mines near Soda Springs, Idaho. The agreement requires P4 Production (a subsidiary of the Monsanto Company) to complete remedial investigations and feasibility studies for the Ballard, Henry, and Enoch Valley mines. The Ballard Mine was operated from 1951 to 1969, the Henry Mine was operated from 1969 to 1989, and Enoch Valley Mine was operated from 1989 until recently. They are all currently inactive.
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Progress Energy to shut down Wilmington’s Sutton Plant in 2014. — McClatchy Tribune Information Services, December 1, 2009
Progress Energy
said Tuesday it intends to shut down Wilmington’s L.V. Sutton Plant along with three other coal-fired plants that do not have scrubbers to control emissions The utility also said it plans to replace the coal-fired facility here with one fired by natural gas on the same site. Progress Energy Carolinas, the Raleigh-based utility’s operating unit in North and South Carolina, outlined its plan to close four power plants capable of generating nearly 1,500 megawatts of electricity in a report to the N.C. Utilities Commission.
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BCC opposes mining ban; demands coordination. — Scott Jorgensen, Illinois Valley News, December 2, 2009
Some Oregon officials have called for action to prohibit mining in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area, but the Josephine County Board of Commissioners will not be among them. During a Tuesday, Nov. 24 administrative meeting in the commission conference room at the courthouse in Grants Pass, the board voted 2-1, with Commissioner Dave Toler voting against the move, to send a letter expressing opposition to the proposed withdrawal.
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New Policy on Lobbyists Could Spur Shake-Up for EPA Advisory Pane. — Robin Bravender, Sara Goodman, and Taryn Luntz, The New York Times, December 4, 2009
A sweeping new White House policy aimed at ousting special interests from federal advisory panels might sweep registered lobbyists off some U.S. EPA advisory panels. The policy could affect more than 20 EPA committees, which include representatives of environmental groups, industry and trade associations, and public health and academic institutions. The committees offer advice on issues ranging from air pollution and drinking water to children’s health and environmental justice. It remains unclear exactly how the White House directive will apply to EPA and which committees will be affected, but many of the registered lobbyists on agency boards may see their memberships terminated once their current appointments end.
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Fish kill called necessary to save the Great Lakes. — Kari Lydersen and Peter Slevin, The Washington Post, December 6, 2009
The poisoned fish began floating to the surface in the cold Illinois dawn, but as scientists and ecologists began hauling their lifeless catch to shore, they found only one carcass of the predator they targeted — the ravenous Asian carp. Never before have Illinois agencies tried to kill so many fish at one time. By the time the poison dissipates in a few days, state officials estimate that 200,000 pounds of fish will be bound for landfills. But they say the stakes — the Great Lakes ecosystem and its healthy fish population — could hardly be higher.
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BLOGS
EPA’s Decision to Delay Its Review of Ethanol Content of Gasoline. — Steven M. Taber, Environmental Law and Climate Change Law Blog, December 1, 2009
In what is considered to be a blow to U.S. corn growers, the EPA today sent a letter to the Gen. Wesley Clark chaired trade association “Growth Energy” indicating that the EPA needed more time to complete tests on how an increase by 5% (from 10% ethanol to 15% ethanol) in ethanol content may damage engines and fuel lines. The good news for Growth Energy, which formally petitioned for the increase, was that the EPA reported that two tests showed that engines in newer cars can handle the higher blend. “The announcement is a strong signal that we are preparing to move to E15,” Growth Energy said in a statement, asserting that the switch would mean 136,000 new jobs.
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Emerging “Middle Stance” In The Climate Change Debate. — Steven M. Taber, Environmental Law and Climate Change Law Blog, December 3, 2009
Two articles appeared yesterday regarding how “Climategate” has given voice to an emerging middle road in the debate of what to do about climate change. The first an op-ed piece by Mike Hulme, a climate professor at East Anglia University in which he argues that cl…imate science has been overtaken by politics. Politics, however, demands certainty, but climate scientists do not know what the risks or the outcomes will be: “Yes, science has clearly revealed that humans are influencing global climate and will continue to do so, but we don’t know the full scale of the risks involved, nor how rapidly they will evolve, nor indeed—with clear insight—the relative roles of all the forcing agents involved at different scales.”
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SETTLEMENTS
Proposed Consent Decree, Clean Air Act Citizen Suit. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, November 30, 2009
In accordance with section 113(g) of the Clean Air Act, as amended (‘‘CAA’’ or the ‘‘Act’’), 42 U.S.C. 7413(g), notice is hereby given of a proposed consent decree to address a lawsuit filed by Comite Civico Del Valle, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California: Comite Civico Del Valle, Inc. v. Jackson, No. C09–04095 PJH (N.D. Cal.). Plaintiff filed a deadline suit to compel the Administrator to take final action under section 110(k) of the Act on Imperial County Air Pollution Control District (ICAPCD) Rules 800 through 806 submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by the California Air Resources Board as revisions to the state implementation plan. The proposed consent decree establishes a deadline for EPA action on ICAPCD Rules 800 through 806.
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Apartment Complex Owner Pays Fine for Failing to Warn Tenants about Lead Paint in Springfield, Mass. — EPA News Release, November 30, 2009
The owner of a 25-unit apartment building in Springfield, Mass. has agreed to pay a fine of $10,000 to settle an EPA enforcement action alleging violations of federal lead-based paint disclosure requirements.
The real estate company, MA No. 2, LLC (MA2), is a Nevada corporation that owns the Parkview Apartments on Federal Street in Springfield. In March 2006, EPA issued a subpoena seeking information regarding lead disclosure at Parkview. The subpoena response provided EPA with information leading to this enforcement case and the underlying allegations that eight lease transactions from 2004 and 2005 by MA2 were in violation of the Lead Disclosure Rule.
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EPA reaches agreement with Sauder on clean-air violations. — EPA News Release, December 1, 2009
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has reached an agreement with Sauder Woodworking Co. on alleged Clean Air Act violations at the company’s cogeneration plant at 820 W. Barre Road, Archbold, Ohio. The agreement, which includes a $79,500 penalty, resolves EPA allegations that, among other things, Sauder violated federal and state regulations by emitting excessive amounts of visible particulates (smoke, dust, ash), nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds from its wood-fired boilers.
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Settlement reached with ethanol plant. — Fond Du Lac Reporter, December 1, 2009
A settlement agreement has been reached between an environmental group and an ethanol plant near Oshkosh. Clean Water Action Council of Northeastern Wisconsin (CWAC) maintained that Utica Energy LLC had repeatedly violated the Clean Water Act by discharging zinc, sediment and other pollutants into Sawyer Creek in excess of limits outlined in the company’s DNR-issued wastewater discharge permit. The agreement was filed by CWAC’s legal representatives, Midwest Environmental Advocates (MEA), on Nov. 24 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin
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DECISIONS
EPA cites Bucklen Equipment for damages to the Cache la Poudre River in Greeley. — EPA News Release, December 1, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached an agreement with Bucklen Equipment Company, Inc. to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Water Act in Weld County, Colorado. The alleged violations include unauthorized discharges of pollutants to the Cache la Poudre River and its adjacent wetlands within the City of Greeley. Under the consent agreement, the company will pay a penalty of $16,000 and will remove any remaining gravel piles from wetlands along the river.
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Former Harlem water official gets year in prison. — Sandy Hodson, Augusta Chronicle, December 1, 2009
Harlem’s former public works director was sentenced today to 12 months and one day in jail for releasing untreated wastewater and falsifying water quality reports. Although Daniel W. Cason, 66, pleaded guilty to three federal crimes in March, Mr. Cason declared Tuesday, “I am not a criminal.” Violating the Clean Water Act, however, is a federal offense because the American people want clean water and must trust those in charge of water treatment plants to do their jobs faithfully, countered Assistant U.S. Attorney David Stewart.
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Center for Biological Diversity v. Kempthorne: Ninth Circuit Affirms District Court Finding of No Violation of NEPA or Marine Mammals Act. — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, December 2, 2009
The Ninth Circuit held that the Department of Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service did not violate either the Marine Mammals Protection Act or the National Environmental Policy Act when it issued its regulations that allow the incidental “take” of marine animals.
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Barrick Gold to work on mine despite court ruling. — The Associated Press, December 4, 2009
Global mining giant Barrick Gold Corp. will continue work on a massive gold mine project in Nevada even though a U.S. court of appeals ordered more environmental analysis on the mining project, a company spokesman said Friday. Vincent Borg said work will continue on its new $500 million Cortez Hills mine a day after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit granted an injunction to force Barrick Gold to postpone digging a 2,000-foot deep open pit at the mine. The appeals court ruling will be interpreted by a Nevada District Court, which will determine what action, including any suspension of operations, may be required to respond to the decision of the U.S. court of appeals.
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National Union Fire Insurance Company et al. v. Standard Fusee Corporation. — Court of Appeals of Indiana, Leagle, December 3, 2009
Because we find that the pollution exclusion is ambiguous and unenforceable under Kiger and the line of cases following Kiger, we need not address the Insurers’ argument about conversations about pollution claims between SFC and insurance brokers. The pollution exclusion does not relieve the Insurers of their duty to defend SFC.
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Judge: Livingston broke the law. — Jonah Owen Lamb, Merced Sun-Star, December 5, 2009
Livingston broke state law when it approved its 2025 general plan update and certified the requisite environmental documents, a Merced Superior Court judge has ruled. The ruling decided a nearly year-old lawsuit against the city and ordered Livingston to send its controversial 2025 general plan — which projects the city to grow to roughly 100,000 — back to the drawing board. The lawsuit was filed by the Merced Farm Bureau in December 2008.
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Justices deliver a blow to coal plant. — Judy Fahys, Salt Lake Tribune, December 4, 2009
Two rulings by the Utah Supreme Court are making the company behind a coal-fired power plant proposal wonder if the project still makes sense. The court threw new obstacles Friday in front of the Sevier Power Co. by requiring a substantial updating of its air-pollution permit for a 270-megawatt, $600 million electric generator in Sigurd. The extra work, basically requiring the company to ensure the cleanest possible technology is used, could cost millions and take months, if not years. Justices unanimously backed arguments made by the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club and two Sevier County retirees, firefighter Jim Kennon and boat-designer Dick Cumiskey, who have led local opposition to the proposed plant and argued their case directly before the justices last year.
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LAWSUITS AND ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS FILED
North Carolina Poultry Processing Plant and Manager Indicted for Violations of Clean Water Act. — Department of Justice News Release, November 30, 2009
A federal grand jury in Greensboro, N.C., returned an indictment today charging a poultry processor and a plant manager with multiple violations of the Clean Water Act for illegally discharging wastewater from its Raeford, N.C., based facility, the Justice Department announced. House of Raeford Farms Inc. and its plant manager, Gregory Steenblock, were both charged with 14 counts of violating the Clean Water Act. House of Raeford is a turkey slaughter and processing facility located in Raeford.
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:
Indictment: Poultry plant wouldn’t slow wastewater. — Emery P. Dalesio, The Associated Press, December 1, 2009
A poultry plant facing federal charges of discharging water containing untreated turkey waste wouldn’t slow its processes after its output of polluted water overwhelmed its onsite treatment capacity, a federal indictment released Tuesday said. A federal grand jury on Monday indicted House of Raeford Farms and plant manager Gregory Steenblock on 14 counts of violating the federal Clean Water Act. The indictment accuses the company and Steenblock of knowingly bypassing its water treatment system at its Raeford turkey processing plant 14 times between 2005 and 2006. The wastewater was sent directly to the city’s municipal sewage treatment works, the indictment said.
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EPA unhappy with Columbus Steel Castings: Violation of pollution order alleged. — Spencer Hunt, The Columbus Dispatch, December 1, 2009
Columbus Steel Castings has failed to follow through on a court-ordered plan to identify and fix air-pollution problems at its South Side foundry, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency officials said yesterday. The Ohio EPA took the foundry, which makes metal parts for rail cars, to court in June 2008 over air-pollution violations that included excessive smoke and dust at its plant at 2211 Parsons Ave. In April, Franklin County Municipal Judge Harland H. Hale ordered the company to conduct an audit of air-pollution issues and eliminate those problems by Nov. 18.
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Sierra Club appeals gas plant permit. — Tesa Culli, Mt. Vernon Register-News, December 1, 2009
The Sierra Club has filed an appeal to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency construction permit granted to Power Holdings, Inc., for a synthetic natural gas plant to be built near Waltonville. In late October, the IEPA issued the construction permit for the proposed plant, which is slated for construction on Tomahawk Lane. According to the permit, the facility would use gasification technology to produce pipeline quality natural gas. The plant would utilize coal from Herrin No. 6 creating a “clean synthesis gas which would be further processed by methanation to produce synthetic natural gas, which would be sold to natural gas suppliers,” according to the permit. The IEPA stated under design specifications for the plant, all standards are under compliance.
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Murchison cited for buried waste: `He Didn’t Know Any Better’. — Paul Bryant, The Chandler & Brownsboro Statesman, December 3, 2009
Murchison Mayor Mike Hill told investigators with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality he didn’t know it was illegal to bury solid waste instead of discarding it at a licensed facility, a state official told the Statesman following a month-long investigation. “He said he didn’t know any better,” Craig Conner said. “That is a typical response for things like that. We cited them, but they were pretty cooperative with us.” The newspaper on Oct. 5 sent an email to TCEQ’s Tyler office notifying officials there that two Murchison witnesses had reported Hill ordered the burial of scrap metal and other materials at the city’s wastewater treatment plant in July.
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Bahr et al. v. Jackson, U.S.District Court for District of Arizona. — Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, Complaint, December 2, 2009
This is an action to compel the United States Environmental Protection Agency and its Administrator (collectively “the Administrator”) to perform nondiscretionary duties under the Clean Air Act (the “Act”). Specifically, the Administrator has a duty to act upon the “MAG 2007 Five Percent Plan for PM-10 for the Maricopa County Nonattainment Area,” Maricopa Association of Governments, 2007 (“5% Plan”) which was submitted by the State of Arizona. The Administrator has failed to take action on the 5% Plan as required by 42 U.S.C. §7410(k)(2).
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EPA Blows off Phoenix’s Foul Air, Citizens Say. — Jamie Ross, Courthouse News Services, December 4, 2009
Phoenix residents say the Environmental Protection Agency failed to take action on a state plan to reduce airborne particulates in the Phoenix metro area by 5 percent to meet National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Phoenix was given a “D” grade by the American Lung Association for particulate pollution this spring. Sandra L. Bahr, Diane E. Brown and David Matusow say the health of other Phoenix residents is endangered by breathing air “that is less pure than required” by the Clean Air Act. EPA administrator Lisa Jackson had until June 30 to approve or reject the state’s plan, according to the federal complaint. The EPA considers Phoenix a “serious nonattainment” area, which fails to meet federal health and welfare standards for air pollutants. Air particulates include airborne dust, soot and dirt emitted or tossed up by cars, construction and wind. The particulates can damage lung tissue, the respiratory system and “the body’s defense systems against foreign materials.”
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U.S. lawsuit targets pesticide impact on polar bears. — Yereth Rosen, Reuters, December 3, 2009
The U.S. government violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to curb use of pesticides that have been accumulating in the Arctic food chain and in the fat of polar bears, a species listed as threatened, environmentalists charged in a lawsuit on Thursday. While the biggest threat to polar bears comes from the rapidly warming Arctic climate and the disappearance of sea ice, the pesticide onslaught creates more woes for an already stressed population, said Rebecca Noblin, a Center for Biological Diversity staff attorney in Anchorage. “The health impacts of pesticides tend to make polar bears more susceptible to disease, to lower cub survival,” Noblin said. “Since polar bears are already struggling, the combined impacts of the two could lead to more problems.”
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Polar bear lawsuit filed. — The Associated Press, December 4, 2009
An environmental group sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, claiming it has not reviewed the detrimental effects of pesticides on polar bears and their Arctic habitat. “We’re asking EPA to fulfill its obligations under the Endangered Species Act,” said Rebecca Noblin, an attorney and spokeswoman for the Center for Biological Diversity. Polar bears were listed as a threatened species in May 2008 because of the dramatic loss in their primary habitat, sea ice. EPA spokesman Mark MacIntyre in Seattle said he had not seen the lawsuit and noted the agency generally does not comment on pending litigation.
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South Fork Band Council of Western Shoshone of Nevada v. Department of Interior. — Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Opinion, December 2, 2009
The Tribes fail to point to any relevant action on BLM’s part that was arbitrary or unreasonable. We will not second guess the agency’s weighing of the compliant and noncompliant visual resource areas in light of its experience and expertise. Trout Unlimited v. Lohn, 559 F.3d 946, 955 (9th Cir. 2009). We affirm the district court’s determination that the Tribes failed to show a likelihood of succeeding on their FLPMA claims. However, the Court concluded that the Bureau of Land Management did not take the requisite “hard look” under NEPA, so it reversed the District Court and remanded the matter.
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Secret coal ash ponds spark legal action. — Facing South, December 2, 2009
The public does not have access to information about more than 70 coal ash waste storage sites because the Environmental Protection Agency is withholding at the request of the power companies, which claim it represents “confidential business information.” Among the companies demanding that the information be kept secret are North Carolina-based Duke Energy and Southern Company subsidiaries Georgia Power and Alabama Power. But the EPA may be forced to hand over the information thanks to an action taken this week by three environmental advocacy groups.
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REGULATORY ACTIONS
Air
Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Utah; Redesignation Request and Maintenance Plan for Salt Lake County; Utah County; Ogden City PM10 Nonattainment Area. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 1, 2009
EPA is proposing to disapprove the State of Utah’s requests under the Clean Air Act to redesignate the Salt Lake County, Utah County, and Ogden City PM10 nonattainment areas to attainment, and to approve some and disapprove other associated State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions. The Governor of Utah submitted the redesignation requests and associated SIP revisions on September 2, 2005. EPA is proposing to disapprove the redesignation requests because the areas do not meet all Clean Air Act requirements for redesignation.
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:
Feds reject one Utah plan to clean up air. — Judy Fahys, The Salt Lake Tribune, December 1, 2009
Federal environmental officials don’t think Utah has done a good-enough job of cleaning up urban Utah’s air. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said today the state must do more to deal with PM 10, a type of airborne soot and pollution. In a Federal Register notice published Tuesday, the EPA says that Utah and Salt Lake counties, along with the city of Ogden, still violate the federal standard for PM 10, and the Utah Division of Air Quality’s plan to clean it up falls short. The state first began to petition the EPA in 2005 to remove the Utah counties from the list of areas that do not meet the Clean Air Act standards for PM 10. Tuesday’s notice rejects a number of those requests and sends the state back to the planning stage in search of better ways to reduce PM 10 emissions.
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Idaho sets stringent clean coal’ rules for proposed plant. — Rocky Barker, McClatchy Newspapers, December 1, 2009
The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality set a national precedent Monday when it issued a permit requiring a proposed Power County fertilizer plant to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 58 percent of what a comparable facility now emits. The permit – hashed out over several months among Southeast Idaho Energy, the state, the Sierra Club and the Idaho Conservation League – was issued only days before negotiators from around the world arrive in Copenhagen, Denmark, to write a new treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Southeast Idaho Energy’s facility would turn coal into gas that would both produce nitrogen fertilizer and sulfur.
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MEMA seeks clearly defined GHG, fuel economy standards. — Fleet Owner, December 1, 2009
The Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA) wants the U.S. government agencies in charge of developing new light-duty vehicle greenhouse gas emission (GHG) and corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) regulations to establish and follow “compatible and consistent” standards to ease the financial burden on its members. In comments submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about the joint proposed rulemaking, MEMA president & CEO Bob McKenna said that vehicle manufacturers “focus their resources on investing in the best technologies, which, in turn, feeds the ability of the supplier base to advance development and transfer research technologies into commercially viable products.”
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EPA Announces Proposal to Withdraw the Emission Comparable Fuels Rule. — EPA News Release, December 2, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed to withdraw the Emission Comparable Fuels (ECF) rule, which became effective on Jan. 20, 2009. The ECF rule governs fuel that would otherwise be regulated as hazardous waste, but that generates emissions that are comparable to fuel oil. EPA issued a rule in January 2009 that classifies ECF as a product rather than a hazardous waste. However, EPA is now proposing to withdraw the January 2009 rule due to the difficulty of ensuring that emissions from burning ECF are comparable to emissions from burning fuel oil, and the limited savings of burning ECF.
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EPA Petitioned to Regulate CO2 Using Clean Air Act, Cap At 350ppm. — Matthew McDermott, Treehugger, December 2, 2009
On and off for the past year we’ve heard statements about how the Environmental Protection Agency could really make an end run around Congressional inaction on climate and set a cap on carbon dioxide emissions though the Clean Air Act. Even Al Gore hinted at it during Climate Week NYC. Well now the Center for Biological Diversity and 350.org have petitioned the EPA to do just that:
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Groups want national limit on greenhouse gases. — Jim Snyder. The Hill, December 2, 2009
The Center for Biological Diversity and 350.org want EPA to use the Clean Air Act to dramatically scale back greenhouse gas emissions. “The Clean Air Act provides the tools necessary for the U.S. to commit to the deep and rapid greenhouse emissions reductions – on the order of 45 percent or more below 1990 levels by 2020 – needed to avert the worst impacts of climate change,” a petition the groups sent EPA states.
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Groups Petition EPA to Set Greenhouse Gas Limits Under Clean Air Act. — Robin Bravender, Greenwire in The New York Times, December 2, 2009
Two environmental groups petitioned U.S. EPA today to set national limits for greenhouse gases using the Clean Air Act. The Center for Biological Diversity and 350.org petitioned (pdf) EPA to designate greenhouse gases as “criteria” air pollutants, which would require EPA to establish allowable nationwide concentrations for the gases. The groups are asking the agency to cap atmospheric concentrations of CO2 at 350 parts per million (ppm) — a level the groups and some scientists say is necessary to avoid the worst effects of global warming. “It’s time to use our strongest existing tool for reducing greenhouse gas pollution — the Clean Air Act,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “For four decades, this law has protected the air we breathe — and it’s done that through a proven, successful system of pollution control that saves lives and creates economic benefits vastly exceeding its costs.”
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National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Area Sources: Asphalt Processing and Asphalt Roofing Manufacturing. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 2, 2009
EPA is promulgating national emissions standards for the control of emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAP) from the asphalt processing and asphalt roofing manufacturing area source category. These final emissions standards for new and existing sources are based upon EPA’s final determination as to what constitutes the generally available control technology or management practices (GACT) for the source category.
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National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Area Source Standards for Paints and Allied Products Manufacturing. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 3, 2009
EPA is issuing national emission standards for control of hazardous air pollutants (HAP) for the Paints and Allied Products Manufacturing area source category. The final rule establishes emission standards in the form of management practices for volatile HAP, and emission standards in the form of equipment standards for particulate HAP. The emissions standards for new and existing sources are based on EPA’s determination as to what constitutes the generally available control technology or management practices (GACT) for the area source category.
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EPA asked to give reasons for pollution decision. — Judy Fahys, Salt Lake Tribune, December 2, 2009
State environmental officials want federal regulators to explain what’s wrong with Utah’s plan to keep fine soot and dust out of the air. The state Air Quality Board is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to answer its questions at a Jan. 6 meeting. The board also wants the agency to provide more time for state comment on those explanations. “I think it would be useful to hear [EPA] Region 8’s thinking on this,” said Cheryl Heying, director of Utah’s Air Quality Division. On Tuesday, EPA announced plans to reject Utah’s 4-year-old proposal to give the state’s urban areas a passing grade for PM 10, a kind of microscopic soot and dust pollution. At the heart of the rejection is a disagreement between state and federal regulators about whether to count periodic dust episodes in Utah County, Salt Lake County and the city of Ogden.
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CARLSBAD: Air pollution concerns dominate at power plant meeting. — Barbara Henry, North County Times, December 2, 2009
New air pollution maps for a proposed 558-megawatt power plant indicate that communities east of Carlsbad will experience the plant’s emissions more than some areas within the city limits. That’s because of the proposed height of the project’s two 139-foot-tall smoke stacks, as well as regional topography, air quality officials said at a workshop Wednesday. One area within Carlsbad that is forecast to have a higher pollution exposure is the strawberry fields region directly east of the Encina Power Station, officials said during a presentation at a state Energy Commission meeting. The officials repeatedly stressed that the various pollutants were well below any level of significance that would lead to denying the project the permits it needs.
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Approval of Section 112(l) Authority for Hazardous Air Pollutants; Equivalency by Permit Provisions; National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants; Plywood and Composite Wood Products. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 4, 2009
On August 26, 2003, the EPA published in the Federal Register a direct final rule to approve the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resource’s (NC DENR) equivalency by permit program, pursuant to section 112(l) of the Clean Air Act, to implement and enforce State permit terms and conditions that substitute for the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants from the pulp and paper industry for the International Paper Riegelwood mill in Riegelwood, North Carolina. Then, on April 12, 2004, the EPA published in the Federal Register a direct final rule to amend the August 26, 2003, direct final rule in order to extend its coverage to include an additional four mills in North Carolina. This action is taken to once again amend the August 26, 2003, direct final rule in order to expand the NC DENR equivalency by permit program coverage to include all 32 sources in North Carolina subject to the plywood and composite wood products rule.
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EPA rule change leaves too many questions unanswered. — The Prairie Star, December 3, 2009
At the present time, meetings are taking place across the country among farmers and farm organizations as they discuss the Environmental Protection Agency’s permitting process for spraying pesticides on or near water. What’s come out of those meetings thus far is a lot of unanswered questions.
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Sulfur rule could affect industry. — Claire Johnson, The Billings Gazette, December 4, 2009
Despite big reductions in sulfur dioxide pollution in the Yellowstone Valley, area industries may have more work to do to comply with a proposed new federal standard. The Environmental Protection Agency announced last week that it intends to adopt an hourly standard for sulfur dioxide pollution to better protect the health of people who suffer from asthma and other respiratory diseases. Research has shown that exposure even to short-term spikes of sulfur dioxide can make breathing difficult for people with asthma when they’re active outdoors.
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Selenium from power plants poses ecological risks, spurs EPA review. — Sarah Coefield, Environmental Health News, December 4, 2009
Selenium is an essential nutrient, but excess amounts can be dangerous to wildlife and people. Now the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is preparing a new regulation that would require more than 600 coal-fired power plants to clean up — perhaps even eliminate — wastewater discharged into lakes, rivers and other waterways. The national standards would replace a patchwork of state regulations that EPA officials say are too lax to protect fish and wildlife from toxic metals and other elements, particularly selenium, in the plants’ wastewater. Some states allow the plants to emit selenium at levels hundreds of times higher than EPA’s water-quality standards, while others don’t even require monitoring for it.
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EPA Poised to Declare CO2 a Public Danger. — Ian Talley, The Wall Street Journal, December 5, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will early next week, possibly as soon as Monday, officially declare carbon dioxide a public danger, a trigger that could mean regulation for emitters across the economy, according to several people close to the matter. Such an “endangerment” decision is necessary for the EPA to move ahead early next year with new emission standards for cars. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has said it could also mean large emitters such as power stations, cement kilns, crude-oil refineries and chemical plants would have to curb their greenhouse gas output. The announcement would also give President Barack Obama and his climate envoy negotiating leverage at a global climate summit starting next week in Copenhagen, Denmark and increase pressure on Congress to pass a climate bill that would modify the price of polluting.
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Water
Va. Farm Bureau takes aim at new bay rules. — Steve Szkotak, The Associated Press, November 28, 2009
Virginia’s largest agricultural advocacy group is rallying against a proposed clean-up plan for the Chesapeake Bay, contending the new federal regulations could put small farmers out of business. The Virginia Farm Bureau Federation begins its annual convention Monday in Richmond, and the proposed regulations are likely to be the buzz among 800 farmers and others attending. Farm Bureau officials will outline their opposition to elements of the clean-up plan at a news conference Wednesday, the final day of the convention.
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EPA Finalizes Nationwide Numeric Limit, Prescriptive Stormwater Controls For All Construction Sites. — Environmental Observer, The Associated General Contractors of America, November 30, 2009
On Nov. 23, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its Construction and Development Effluent Limitations Guidelines (C&D ELG) rule. EPA has for the first time imposed nationwide monitoring requirements and enforceable numeric limits on the amount of sediment that can run off any construction site that impacts 10 or more acres of land at any one time. The rule also specifies the exact types of erosion and sediment controls that contractors must use, at a bare minimum, to control stormwater runoff on all construction sites that disturb one or more acres of land. The rule will take effect in February 2010 and be phased in over four years. A 250-page “pre-publication” version is available on EPA’s Web site.
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Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Construction and Development Point Source Category. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 1, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency is publishing final regulations establishing Clean Water Act (CWA) technology-based Effluent Limitations Guidelines and New Source Performance Standards for the Construction and Development (C&D) point source category. EPA expects compliance with this regulation to reduce the amount of sediment andother pollutants discharged from construction and development sites by approximately 4 billion pounds per year.
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Agriculture interests fighting new clean water permitting for pesticides. — Katie Redding, The Colorado Independent, December 1, 2009
The agriculture industry is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling requiring anyone spraying pesticides on or near water to hold a Clean Water Act permit. Earlier this year, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that farmers who apply pesticides near or over water need to apply for permits. At the time, environmental groups celebrated the victory:
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EPA: Algae responsible for Pa./W.Va. fish kill. — The Associated Press, December 5, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency says toxic algae was responsible for killing fish, mussels and other aquatic life in nearly the entire 43-mile length of a creek along the southwestern Pennsylvania-West Virginia border. The EPA’s report says high levels of total dissolved solids, or impurities, created favorable conditions for September’s golden algae bloom in Dunkard Creek. The impurities appear to be from treated mine water discharge.
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EPA pins killing of Dunkard Creek on mine discharges. — Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 4, 2009
A new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report blames a September bloom of toxic golden algae for wiping out almost all fish, mussels, salamanders and aquatic life on 43 miles of Dunkard Creek along the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border. The 17-page interim report released Tuesday also tied mine treatment discharges high in total dissolved solids to the creation of salty water conditions that allowed the algae, normally found in brackish waters in Southern and Southwestern states, to thrive and bloom. Although the EPA report confirms a late September West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection finding fingering the algae, it offers no explanation of how the algae got in the creek and said it will be almost impossible to remove. The only way to control its growth and toxicity and foster stream restoration, the study said, is to limit mine drainage containing high TDS.
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Environmentalists fear possible loophole in EPA coal ash rules. — Jason Hancock, The Iowa Independent, December 4, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is on schedule to release federal guidelines for the disposal of coal ash some time this month, but a potential loophole in the new rules has some worried they will leave Iowans unprotected. For three decades, rules governing the disposal coal ash, the toxic byproduct of burning coal, have been left up to states, creating a patchwork of differing regulations with questionable effectiveness. However, after the massive coal ash spill in Kingston, Tenn., last year, which resulted in nearly a billion gallons of coal ash sludge flooding 300 acres of land, the EPA promised it would finally regulate coal ash. But some fear the new rules may only cover ash stored in wet ponds, leaving sites many consider the most dangerous in the Hawkeye State unregulated.
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Fla., EPA cooperation sought on surface water regs. — The Associated Press, December 3, 2009
Florida’s congressional delegation has asked the nation’s top environmental regulator to work closely with the state when setting water pollution standards. Florida’s two U.S. senators and 23 of its 25 representatives sent a letter Thursday to Environmental Protection Agency Administration Lisa Jackson. A federal judge last month approved an agreement between EPA and environmental groups to set first-in-the-nation standards for Florida to limit nutrients that have been blamed for causing algae blooms.
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EPA withdraws discharge permit for Arizona mine. — Felicia Fonseca, The Associated Press, December 3, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn a water discharge permit for a controversial coal-mining operation in northern Arizona pending public hearings. The EPA’s decision about the permit for Peabody Energy’s Black Mesa mine complex comes after an appeal by environmentalists who contend the discharge of heavy metal and pollutants threatens water sources that nearby Navajo and Hopi communities depend on for drinking, farming and ranching.
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U.S. EPA Directs Bay Area Wastewater Collection Systems to Protect San Francisco Bay from Sewage Discharges. — EPA News Release, December 4, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered seven municipal sewage collection systems in the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) to take steps to work with EPA and EBMUD to address inadequately treated sewage discharges from EBMUD Wet Weather Facilities to the San Francisco Bay. The November 2009 administrative orders apply to Oakland, Emeryville, Piedmont, Berkeley, Alameda, Albany, and the Stege Sanitary District (which serves Kensington, El Cerrito and the Richmond Annex section of Richmond).
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EPA Updates Gowanus On Canal Cleanup. — NY1 News, December 4, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency told Brooklyn residents Thursday that the cleanup of the badly-contaminated Gowanus Canal is moving forward. At a briefing at P.S. 32 in Gowanus Thursday night, agency officials said they’re still waiting to learn if the canal cleanup will receive superfund status. In the meantime, the EPA is planning to sample canal sediment to learn the extent of the contamination and how risky it would be to remove it.
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Florida utilities, state politicians take on federal EPA over clean water regulations. — Fred Hiers, The Gainesville Sun, December 5, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency is continuing on its course to set new Florida water quality standards by next year, despite pleas from utilities that the new criteria would be too stringent and cost billions of dollars to meet. As those parties battle, federal lawmakers who represent Florida are trying to slow down the EPA. More than two dozen Florida lawmakers, including Sens. Bill Nelson and George LeMieux, wrote EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on Thursday asking that her agency tread cautiously in deciding its water quality standards for the state. They also asked that federal scientists work more closely with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, known as FDEP, before setting standards in January.
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Waste
State Agency: BP Alaska Pipeline Leaks Hydrocarbons. — Angel Gonzalez, Dow Jones Newswires, November 30, 2009
t of an 18-inch common line carrying a mixture of petroleum, produced water and natural gas, was discovered Sunday at 3:05 a.m. local time during a routine check, according to a report by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. BP, which activated its spill response team shortly after discovering the incident, estimated that about 8,400 square feet of snow-covered tundra had been affected, according to the report. No spill has been observed in the Prudhoe Bay area, the report added. The cause of the spill is unknown and is being investigated, the agency said. In an updated report released late Monday, the agency said that BP constructed a snow berm to prevent the spilled oil from migrating north towards Prudhoe Bay.
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High levels of Sparrows Point benzene confirmed by Port study, chemical may have reached nearby communities. — Mark Reutter, Baltimore Brew, December 2, 2009
A widely anticipated Maryland Port Administration study mapping pollution coming from the Sparrows Point steel mill confirms that cancer-causing benzene has infiltrated Baltimore harbor and may have migrated to shorefront communities through harbor currents and tides. The report, dated Nov. 2009, has not yet been posted on the agency’s website or publicly released. The Brew obtained a copy from sources. The 202-page report confirms earlier studies that benzene and other harmful substances, including naphthalene, lead, arsenic, vanadium and toluene, have been leaking into Baltimore harbor from the mill. Using “chemical fingerprinting,” the researchers traced the contamination back to an abandoned coke oven plant.
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EPA Drops Rule Allowing Hazardous Waste to be Burned as Fuel. — ENS News Wire, December 3, 2009
Environmental groups are applauding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its plan to repeal a rule that would have permitted the burning of hazardous waste as fuel. The so-called Emissions Comparable Fuels rule took effect on the very last day of the Bush administration, January 20, 2009. It allowed industries to burn fuel that would otherwise be regulated as hazardous waste, but that generates emissions comparable to fuel oil. The rule, requested by the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Chemistry Council, would have allowed more than 100,000 tons of hazardous waste to be burned without federal hazardous waste protections.
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EPA updates Rialto on perchlorate cleanup process. — Josh Dulaney, Conra Costa Times, December 3, 2009
A water contamination problem decades in the making will take decades to fix, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials. “A long time,” said EPA Project Manager Wayne Praskins at a joint community meeting held by the EPA and the California Department of Public Health this week to address how the agencies were tackling perchlorate contamination at a 160-acre site on the north side where fireworks companies and defense contractors operated after World War II. Praskins told residents the agency “may have to operate for decades” here in order to clean up the contaminate, which is a rocket-fuel additive that in high doses can interfere with the thyroid gland.
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Climate Change
Forest Service ‘Dramatically Reshaping’ Plans in Response to Climate Change. — Noelle Straub, Greenwire in The New York Times, November 30, 2009
Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell has directed the agency’s regions and research stations to jointly produce draft “landscape conservation action plans” by March 1 to guide its day-to-day response to climate change. In a memo (pdf) earlier this month requesting the plans, Tidwell said climate change is “dramatically reshaping” how the agency will deliver on its mission of sustaining the health and diversity of the nation’s forests. He focused particularly on water management.
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U. S. Business Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) Reporting, 30 Days and Counting. — GLG Expert Contributor, Gerson Lehrman Group, November 29, 2009
On January 1, 2010, many North American manufacturing facilities, distributors, importers etc.. releasing green house gases (Carbon footprint) will be required to begin monitoring their emissions of greenhouse gas. The first greenhouse gas data reported must be submitted by March 31, 2011 directly to the EPA. This EPA rule adds teeth to the U.S. CO2 trading markets.
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USDA offers climate change cost estimates for produce. — Tom Karst, The Packer, December 3, 2009
Proposed climate change legislation will increase average costs for fruit and vegetable growers by about 2% in the short term and close to 4% over several decades, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. USDA economist Joe Glauber testified Dec. 2 before the House Agriculture Committee, subcommittee on conservation, credit, energy and research about costs associated with climate change legislation. Though his testimony was focused on cost consequences of climate change legislation, Glauber said opportunities to provide carbon offsets to other industries would make climate change legislation a net positive for the farm community over the long term.
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Other
EPA’s Letter to Growth Energy Delaying Its Review of Ethanol Content of Gasoline. — EPA Letter to Growth Energy, November 30, 2009
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Ethanol Industry Reacts to EPA Decision. — Cindy Zimmerman, Domestic Fuel, December 1, 2009
Ethanol industry groups are reacting to the announcement this morning from the Environmental Protection Agency that may be another six months before a final decision can be made on increasing the allowable ethanol content in fuel to 15 percent. Growth Energy, the coalition of U.S. ethanol supporters that filed the Green Jobs Waiver seeking E15, is optimistic that the agency will approve E15 upon the completion of ongoing tests early next year.
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E.P.A. Postpones Ethanol Blend Decision. — Kate Galbraith and Matthew L. Wald, The New York Times, December 1, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency has put off, until the middle of next year, any decision about whether to increase the amount of ethanol allowed into the nation’s fuel. In a letter released on Tuesday to Growth Energy, an ethanol lobby group, the agency said that more testing was necessary, but that some initial results indicate that raising the amount of ethanol blended into gasoline would be feasible for newer cars. Growth Energy has pushed to raise the maximum amount of ethanol sold in most gasoline to 15 percent from 10 percent.
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US Govt delays decision on more ethanol in gasoline. — James Pethokoukis, Reuters, December 1, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday it needs more time to decide whether to approve an industry request to boost the amount of ethanol blended into gasoline. The EPA was supposed to decide by Dec. 1 on a petition from Growth Energy and 54 ethanol manufacturers on whether to let gasoline contain up to 15 percent of ethanol. U.S. gasoline is now approved to contain up to 10 percent ethanol, which in the United States is made mostly from corn.
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The High-Stakes Fight Over Ethanol Content in Gasoline. — Jim Motavalli, BNET Auto Blog, December 1, 2009
Should gasoline have more ethanol in it? This is a story about a five percent change, and if you don’t think that’s significant, just multiply it by billions of gallons annually. Unfortunately, the auto industry (which is worried about engine damage) isn’t going along. The environmental community is not too keen on the idea, either. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) delayed a decision on the issue Monday, causing both sides to claim victory. But the EPA’s position, despite the delay, seems to be favoring the ethanol industry.
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EPA Makes Right Decision to Delay Allowing More Ethanol In Gasoline. — Union of Concerned Scientists News Release, December 1, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to postpone approving any increase in the amount of ethanol allowed in gasoline until it can determine its impact “puts science first,” according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). More ethanol in gasoline could increase tailpipe pollution or damage older vehicles, the group said. Today’s EPA announcement was in response to a petition from Growth Energy, an ethanol industry group, which had asked the agency to increase the amount of ethanol allowed in gasoline from the current level of 10 percent to 15 percent.
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ND Gov. Hoeven annoyed by EPA ethanol delay http://bit.ly/6Yoh7R
NOI for Proposed Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project NOI. — Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Federal Register, November 26, 2009
In compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, as amended, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Battle Mountain District Office, Tonopah Field Office, Nevada intends to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project located on public lands in Nye County, Nevada.
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NOI for Proposed Chevron Energy Solutions/Solar Millennium Solar Power Projects. — Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Federal Register, November 26, 2009
In compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, as amended, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, as amended, and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Palm Springs South Coast Field Office, Palm Springs, California, together with the California Energy Commission (CEC), intend to prepare two Environmental Impact Statements (EIS)/Staff Assessments (SAs), which may include an amendment to the California Desert Conservation Area (CDCA) Plan (1980, as amended) and by this notice are announcing the beginning of the scoping process to solicit public comments and identify issues.
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EPA Will Test Hundreds in Lawrence Co. — WAAY TV, December 2, 2009
A surprising announcement at a community meeting in Moulton last night. The Environmental Protection Agency wants to test about 200 Lawrence County residents for exposure to perfluorinated chemicals, or PFC’s. The EPA says the chemicals have made their way into some ground water at a few privately owned wells. The chemical comes from wastewater sludge that Decatur Utilities has been giving to farmers to use as fertilizer for the last three decades.
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Federal agency says prairie dogs not endangered. — Matthew Brown, The Associated Press, December 3, 2009
Black-tailed prairie dogs were denied protection under the Endangered Species Act on Wednesday after federal officials concluded the once prevalent species shows signs of rebounding. Decades of poisoning, shootings, the plague and loss of habitat to agriculture are blamed for a dramatic drop in prairie dog numbers since the early 1900s, from roughly one billion animals to an estimated 24 million today.
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BLM to open lease sale for 3,322 acres east of Salton Sea/ Imperial County. — Think GeoEnergy News, December 4, 2009
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced it will make 3,322 acres of BLM-managed lands on the east side of the Salton Sea in Imperial County, Calif. open for geothermal leasing and has already received 2 applications.
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DEIS for Clear Creek Released for Comment. — Bureau of Land Management, Federal Register, December 4, 2009
In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has prepared a Draft Resource Management Plan and Draft Environmental Impact Statement (RMP/EIS) for the Clear Creek Management Area (CCMA), and by this notice, announces the opening of the public comment period.
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Comments sought on Spooner forest project. — Lake Tahoe News, December 4, 2009
The U.S. Forest Service, Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit is providing a second opportunity for the public to comment on the Spooner Hazardous Fuels Reduction and Healthy Forest Restoration Project. The comment period is open though Dec. 17. The Spooner project is located on the eastern side of the Lake Tahoe Basin along both sides of portions of highways 50 and 28 between Logan House Creek-Lincoln Park to the south and Sand Harbor State Recreation Area to the north. This project is in portions of Washoe County, Douglas County and Carson County.
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STATE & FEDERAL ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION
Lawmakers’ dilemma: Raise ADEQ fees or risk EPA intervention. — Jeremy Duda, Az Capitol Times, November 30, 2009
Policymakers in Arizona may have to choose between two undesirable options – greater environmental fees for businesses or greater federal intervention in local affairs. Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are considering taking more control of some state-run Superfund cleanup projects and perhaps asserting more influence over enforcement efforts that are handled by the state.
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Water cleanup bill in delicate dance with mining law reform. — Katie Redding, The Colorado Independent, November 30, 2009
Just outside of Central City in Colorado’s Gilpin County, the historic Perigo gold mine drains metal-laden water at an average of 70 gallons per minute into a small perennial stream known as Gamble Gulch. Below the mine for six miles, the gulch is virtually devoid of life, according to the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety. A design for a proposed cleanup project has been completed, but the state won’t bid it out because officials worry that if it does, it open itself up, in perpetuity, to a lawsuit under the Clean Water Act. Poisoned Gamble Gulch — and likewise toxic waterways around the state and country — are at the center of a legislative tug of war.
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Greenhouse legislation sparks protest in the Loop. — Cynthia Dizikes, Chicago Tribune, November 30, 2009
Marking the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle, a group of about 100 activists took to the streets in the Loop this morning to rally against “cap-and-trade” legislation, arguing it would do too little to curb greenhouse emissions. As the group reached LaSalle and Adams streets, in front of the Chicago Climate Exchange, about a dozen protesters laid down in the street. Chicago police officers picked them up and put them in a squadrol. Other officers moved other activists off the street.
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Industrial groups warn over US climate law. — Hal Weitzman, Financial Times, November 30, 2009
Industrial companies operating in the US are warning that they will face a heavy regulatory burden should US Congress fail to pass climate change legislation. The companies fear that without legislation, the US Environmental Protection Agency would impose its own rules on greenhouse-gas emissions or states would introduce different carbon pollution regimes.
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Legislation with teeth offers hope for bay. — Parris N. Glendening, The Baltimore Sun, December 1, 2009
The Chesapeake Bay may be a beloved resource, but we have cruelly mistreated the object of our affections. After many years of knowing how urgently we must protect it, the bay is still far from the clean, vital, vibrant watershed it should be. Its poor health reflects a failure by all of us over decades. By relying on a “voluntary” approach in our cleanup efforts, we are nowhere near the goals that were set to restore this national treasure, and nowhere near a healthy bay.
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Policy Options for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions. — U.S. Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources Press Release, December 2, 2009
“Today the committee will hear testimony on policy options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Over the last two months, the committee has held several hearings on global climate change policy, most of which specifically investigated the impacts of cap-and-trade programs on the energy sector and consumers. “These hearings, I think, have been a useful in educating Members of the committee and to engage in a dialogue about the important components of sound climate policy. “In many of the hearings, we have heard a number of alternative policies to reducing greenhouse gas emissions mentioned that have been cited as either more, or less, desirable than cap-and-trade.
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Boxer Opening Statement: EPW Hearing on Toxic Substances Control Act. — U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works Press Release, December 2, 2009
When President Ford signed the Toxic Substances Control Act, TSCA in 1976, the law was supposed to help assure that toxic chemicals would be restricted or banned if they were hazardous. However, more than three decades later, TSCA has not lived up to that promise. Court decisions and poor implementation have severely weakened the Act’s effectiveness over the years, and TSCA does not include sufficient protections for pregnant women, infants, children and others who are particularly vulnerable to chemical exposures. In March 2009, the Government Accountability Office put EPA’s chemical management program on GAO’s list of “high risk” programs.
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:
Statement of Lisa P. Jackson Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Legislative Hearing on the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works December 2, 2009. — EPA News Release, December 2, 2009
Chairman Lautenberg, Chairman Boxer, Ranking Member Inhofe and other members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak about how we can improve our framework for assessing and managing chemical risks. Understandably, the public is turning to government for assurance that chemicals that are ubiquitous in our economy, our environment and our bodies have been assessed using the best available science, and that unacceptable risks have been eliminated. But, under existing law, we cannot give that assurance. Restoring confidence in our chemical management system is a top priority for me, and a top environmental priority for the Obama Administration.
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Chemical Regulation: Observations on Improving the Toxic Substances Control Act. — John Stephenson, Government Accountability Office, December 2, 2009
EPA lacks adequate scientific information on the toxicity of many chemicals. One major reason is that TSCA generally places the burden of obtaining data about existing chemicals on EPA rather than on chemical companies. For example, the act requires EPA to demonstrate certain health or environmental risks before it can require companies to further test their chemicals. As a result, EPA does not routinely assess the risks of the over 83,000 chemicals already in use. Moreover, TSCA does not require chemical companies to test the approximately 700 new chemicals introduced into commerce each year for toxicity, and companies generally do not voluntarily perform such testing.
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Schwarzenegger Releases Unique Comprehensive Climate Adaptation Strategy. — News Blaze, December 3, 2009
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today released California’s Climate Adaptation Strategy (CAS) final report, a first-of-its-kind comprehensive, multi-sector analysis that will enhance the state’s management of climate impacts from sea level rise, increased temperatures, shifting precipitation and extreme natural events, as ordered by Executive Order S-13-08. The Governor also took action on two of the recommendations in the report today by announcing the creation of the Climate Adaptation Advisory Panel and announcing a new Google Earth-based application, Cal-Adapt, that will allow Californians to see the risks of climate change impacts in their communities.
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. — RTT News, December 3, 2009
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., unveiled legislation Thursday intended to addresses the global security risks of climate change. Kerry said the International Climate Change Investment Act of 2009 would also promote U.S. economic leadership and competitiveness by enhancing demand for American clean energy products. In addition, the legislation supports a global agreement at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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Subcommittee Focuses on Climate Change Bill. — Michigan Farmer, December 3, 2009
The House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research held a hearing Wednesday to review economic analyses of the potential economic impacts of climate change on the farm sector. Subcommittee chairman Tim Holden, D-Penn., says it is clear there is still a lot of uncertainty with some of the modeling assumptions and data used to estimate the potential impact of climate change and climate change legislation on agriculture. Holden concluded that additional questions must be asked and answered before drawing any definitive conclusions.
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Maryland Farmers Could Get $85M Annually. — The Baynet.com, December 4, 2009
A new analysis of the nutrient trading program contained in the proposed federal Chesapeake Clean Water Act has determined that Maryland farmers could be paid as much as $85 million annually to reduce nitrogen pollution, creating jobs and bolstering the agricultural economy. The analysis by the World Resources Institute (WRI), an international leader in market based environmental programs, found that water quality trading could potentially double conservation funding compared to what is currently available in the federal Farm Bill.
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OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS
Air
Memphis airport accused of pollution violations. — Tom Charlier, The Commercial Appeal, December 1, 2009
From the exhaust of baggage tractors to the vapors from de-icing operations, Memphis International Airport annually generates thousands of tons of air pollution for which it never received proper regulatory approval, an Ohio man claims. Pram Nguyen, a Cleveland resident who has filed legal actions against several other major airports across the nation, sent a letter to Memphis airport officials and local elected leaders outlining what he says are violations of the federal Clean Air Act. If the violations aren’t remedied, the letter states, Nguyen will file suit, potentially subjecting the Memphis and Shelby County Airport Authority to “substantial fines and penalties.”
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2 More Utilities Retiring Aging Coal Plants in Wake of Health Report. — Mara MacKinnon, Solve Climate, December 3, 2009
Two of the nation’s biggest power providers, Exelon and Progress Energy, announced plans this week to retire more than a dozen of their aging coal-fired power plants. While the decisions were based on economics, they ultimately will have an impact on human health. In North Carolina, Progress Energy, under pressure from the state to upgrade its emissions scrubbing equipment, announced Tuesday that it would close 11 coal-fired units by the end of 2017 and shift to cleaner-burning natural gas. The targeted units represent nearly 30 percent of the company’s statewide coal fleet.
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Air tests at natural gas drilling sites fuel concerns in North Texas. — Jeff Mosier, The Dallas Morning News, December 4, 2009
Anxiety about the risks of natural gas drilling has stayed mostly below the surface in North Texas. Critics feared everything from polluted groundwater in the Barnett Shale to high-pressure gas lines beneath their front yards. Now the biggest concern – at least the one that governments are watching closely – is in the air. Tests showing high concentrations of benzene and other toxic chemicals in air near drill sites and related facilities have brought a new focus on the natural gas industry and public health. Cities, counties and the state’s environmental agency are anxiously awaiting an analysis of regional testing and any potential action that could follow.
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Newark residents say garbage incinerator poses health risks. — Brian T. Murray, The Star Ledger, December 5, 2009
The garbage incinerator operating in the industrialized Ironbound section of Newark for 18 years, the largest of New Jersey’s five government trash burners, advertises itself these days as a soldier in the war against global warming. It’s a source of “renewable energy,” generating electricity for 50,000 households by burning nearly 1 million tons of trash each year at the Raymond Boulevard site, according Covanta Energy, the corporate operator.
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Water
Group accuses Va. fish plant of polluting bay. — The Associated Press, November 30, 2009
Virginia and federal regulators are investigating allegations that the nation’s top menhaden processor has been dumping oxygen-choking fish waste into the Chesapeake Bay. The Southern Environmental Law Center accuses Omega Protein Corp. of routine discharges comparable to a large wastewater-treatment plant. Excessive nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorus, create “dead zones” that kill blue crabs and other marine life.
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Minnesota Clean Water Action introduces Ripple Effects campaign. — Michelle Alimordi, Twin Cities Daily Planet, December 1, 2009
“Pesticides are everywhere…most people do not even know that -cide means ‘to kill,’” said Becky Sheets of Staples, Minnesota. Sheets shared her story as part of Minnesota Clean Water Action’s newly launched Ripple Effects campaign. Sheets explained how she developed chemically-induced asthma from exposure to three types of pesticides while working for a research center for crop production. Her exposure came mainly from crop dusting, a common practice in the many agricultural towns of Minnesota.
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Crews cleaning Prudhoe Bay oil spill estimated at 3/4 acre. — James Halpin, Anchorage Daily News, December 1, 2009
Cleanup efforts continued Tuesday on a three-quarter-acre area of tundra affected by a spill of oil and water near BP’s Lisburne Processing Center on the North Slope. More than half of the affected area was coated by a sprayed mist from an 18-inch flow line, a pipeline that carries raw oil, water and gas to the center for separation, according to officials with BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., the company that runs most North Slope oil fields.
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:
BP dealing with 2 Alaska spills. — UPI, December 4, 2009
BP reported a second pipeline leak while battling an earlier oil spill on the North Slope in Alaska, officials said Thursday. The new spill, which was discovered and reported Wednesday, came from a 6-inch pipeline carrying what is known as produced water, which is pumped from wells and separated from the crude oil, the Anchorage Daily News reported. BP said about 7,000 gallons spilled, with much of it trapped in a building.
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Clean water won’t hurt economy. — Tampa Bay Online, December 3, 2009
State Agriculture Secretary Charles Bronson and other opponents of a federal plan to decrease the pollution of Florida’s rivers, lakes and bays say the restrictions would generate billions of dollars of costs for businesses and local governments. They want Florida’s congressional delegation to curb the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to limit nutrient pollution. But the delegation, rather than heeding Bronson’s scare tactics, should recognize nutrients are the leading cause of water pollution in Florida. Existing rules are inadequate.
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Loopholes polluting Illinois waters. — Kennedy Eilliott & Joe Piaskowy, Medill Reports Chicago, December 3, 2009
It has all the makings of a best-selling novel. A rural county polarized. A heated trial against a mega dairy farm owner. A small group of community members fighting a multi-million dollar company. Threats of big business possibly polluting the water supply. Even the name of the defendant – the mega dairy owner – is pronounced “boss.” This real-life drama is playing out in the rolling hills of Jo Daviess County in Northwest Illinois. The small towns of Warren, Nora and Stockton are split in a battle over the development of a mega dairy only miles away from residential homes and farm land.
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Feds are now the real enemy in Appalachian coal wars. — Dorothy Kosich, Mineweb, December 4, 2009
Notwithstanding, the protestors who chain themselves to mining equipment or the Hollywood types arrested during demonstrations, in the on-going coal wars in Appalachia, mining attorney Robert McCluskey says “The enemy has kind of shifted from the anti-mining groups to the [federal] government.” During a presentation to the Northwest Mining Association meeting in Reno, McCluskey noted the EPA is threatening to veto Clean Water Section 404 permits that had already been approved and issued to coal mining operations by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Meanwhile, what McCluskey called a “significant fight” is now brewing between state and federal governments as to who makes and implements Section 404 standards regulating coal mining operations. In Appalachia, waste material from coal surface mining operations is deposited or discharged into U.S. waters.
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Drainage from mines threat to all streams. — Observer-Reporter, December 4,, 2009
An article in yesterday’s newspaper reported that the Environmental Protection Agency has confirmed earlier findings that toxins created by a bloom of golden algae were responsible for the massive fish kill in Dunkard Creek in September. The state Department of Environmental Protection had come to the same conclusion. That the algae that is fatal to fish and other gill-breathing organisms is the cause is not in question. Nor is it unknown what caused the algae to bloom: elevated levels of total dissolved solids and chloride, a component of TDS, which created favorable conditions for the algae to grow and produce toxins. And the EPA has concluded that the TDS and chloride came from mine drainage, most likely from the Consol Blacksville No. 2 Mine. What is not known is how such high levels of TDS and chloride got into drainage for the mines.
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Climate Change
Indian officials dismiss Danish climate proposal. — Muneeza Naqvi, The Associated Press, November 30, 2009
Top Indian officials dismissed a draft climate change proposal by Denmark that expects developing economies to peak their greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, news reports said Monday. The draft document was circulated to a few countries ahead of the Dec. 7-18 summit in Copenhagen, which is supposed to draw up an agreement for controlling emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases causing global warming.
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CLIMATE CHANGE: Commonwealth Champions Adaptation Fund. — Peter Richards, IPS News, November 30, 2009
South African President Jacob Zuma admits that before to coming to Trinidad for the bi-annual Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), he met with its secretary general, Kamalesh Sharma, to discuss the relevance of the grouping in today’s evolving global power structure. But at the end of their three-day meeting on Sunday, Zuma said, “I think some of my questions have been answered,” noting that the manner in which the summit dealt with the issue of climate change “indicates we are dealing with a CHOGM of today”. The Port of Spain Climate Change Consensus that Commonwealth leaders adopted was reached at the end of a special meeting also attended by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.
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Holland-Bartels: Pioneering new climate-change policies. — Partnership for Public Service, The Washington Post, November 30, 2009
For Leslie Holland-Bartels of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the inclusion of Alaska’s polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act was a great accomplishment. But the 2008 federal designation also signaled much more — the broader scientific linkage between global warming and significant changes to wildlife, critical ecosystems and biodiversity.
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Carbon dioxide not the only climate enemy: UCSD scientists focusing on others. — Mike Lee, Sign On San Diego, November 29, 2009
When it comes to climate change, carbon dioxide is seen by many as the biggest villain and the main target of a much-anticipated meeting next month in Copenhagen to fashion an international strategy on global warming. But two high-powered scientists at the University of California San Diego and their colleagues are trying to focus attention on a handful of other climate enemies that lurk in the shadows. By quickly arresting soot, methane, low-level ozone and hydrofluorocarbons, the researchers said the world can delay climate change by roughly 40 years — enough time to significantly trim emissions of carbon dioxide.
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Copenhagen’s missing ingredient: water. — James G Workman, Los Angeles Times, November 30, 2009
Climate change conjures up factory smoke, corn ethanol, cap-and-trade, hybrid cars. It also evokes Al Gore, drowning polar bears, African famine and Hurricane Katrina. All these triggers and the issues they invoke, backed by mounting evidence of irreversible risks to humankind, will converge next week in Copenhagen. Our collective political will may yet secure the Earth’s equilibrium through an overarching deal — though short of a treaty — by the end of the U.N. climate-change conference there. Or it could all come unglued. Delegates from around the world chosen to decide our fate have deliberately removed the one element that can tip the scales.
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The Climate Science Isn’t Settled. — Richard S. Lindzen, The Wall Street Journal, December 1, 2009
Is there a reason to be alarmed by the prospect of global warming? Consider that the measurement used, the globally averaged temperature anomaly (GATA), is always changing. Sometimes it goes up, sometimes down, and occasionally—such as for the last dozen years or so—it does little that can be discerned. Claims that climate change is accelerating are bizarre. There is general support for the assertion that GATA has increased about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit since the middle of the 19th century. The quality of the data is poor, though, and because the changes are small, it is easy to nudge such data a few tenths of a degree in any direction. Several of the emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (CRU) that have caused such a public ruckus dealt with how to do this so as to maximize apparent changes.
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Moves by U.S., China induce India to do its bit on climate. — Rama Lakshmi, The Washington Post, December 2, 2009
Recent announcements by the United States and China to cut carbon dioxide emissions are propelling India to make its own commitment to slow greenhouse gas emissions and go to the upcoming Copenhagen climate summit with a firm proposal on reductions. The move marks a significant shift for India, which until recently had insisted that wealthier nations should bear the brunt of carbon cuts rather than emerging nations, whose economies are less developed.
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U.S. Proposes Climate Fund for Poor Nations. — Lisa Friedman, Climatewire in The New york Times, December 2, 2009
The United States has proposed a new global fund that would direct billions of dollars to help poor countries prepare for climate disasters and adjust to low-carbon economies. The fund would likely operate under the World Bank, U.S. Treasury officials said, and would be the main vehicle to deliver emissions reduction and adaptation measures throughout the world.
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California Dams to Feel Impact of Climate Change. — John Collins Rudolf, The New York Times, December 2, 2009
California’s high-elevation dams could generate considerably less power over the next 40 years as a result of rising temperatures associated with climate change, according to a recent study by researchers at the University of California, Davis. Under a warmer, drier climate projected in computer models, hydroelectric dams above 1,000 feet in elevation in the state would produce about 20 percent less power by 2050, the researchers found. Under this climate scenario, electricity production would also occur earlier in the year, when demand for power is lower.
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EPA Commends Corporate Leaders for Major Greenhouse Gas Reductions. — EPA News Release, December 2, 2009
EPA is recognizing eight companies for achieving significant goals to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through the agency’s Climate Leaders program. Twenty-seven companies are also being commended for announcing aggressive GHG reduction goals. Combined, the Climate Leaders companies are reducing greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 50 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents per year. “EPA’s Climate Leaders are sending a clear message that the choice between our economy and our environment is a false choice,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “They’re doing their part in the fight against climate change and giving consumers the power to support environmentally responsible choices. That leads to a better bottom line and a brighter future for everyone.”
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Google Earth explores climate risks to California. — The Associated Press, December 2, 2009
Google Inc. is launching a new feature to let Californians explore the risks to their communities from climate change. Google unveiled the new interactive tool in San Francisco on Wednesday as part of a climate change press conference held by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The state is partnering with Google on the new venture. It was one of the recommendations in a report released Wednesday detailing how California should prepare for rising sea levels, hotter weather and water shortages. Google chief executive Eric Schmidt says the feature, called CalAdapt, will let Internet users see the irreversible affect of climate change facing California before they happen.
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The Science and Politics of Climate Change. — Mike Hulme, The Wall Street Journal, December 2, 2009
I am a climate scientist who worked in the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia in the 1990s. I have been reflecting on the bigger lessons to be learned from the stolen emails, some of which were mine. One thing the episode has made clear is that it has become difficult to disentangle political arguments about climate policies from scientific arguments about the evidence for man-made climate change and the confidence placed in predictions of future change. The quality of both political debate and scientific practice suffers as a consequence.
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Rising Partisanship Sharply Erodes U.S. Public’s Belief in Global Warming. — Nathanial Gronewald and Crista Marshall, Climatewire in The New York Times, December 3, 2009
On the eve of major international climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, belief in global warming in the United States has slipped to the lowest point in 12 years of measuring, according to a poll from New York-based Harris Interactive Inc. As U.S. negotiators fly to the Danish capital to forge a political agreement based on President Obama’s proposal to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by about 17 percent, most of the American public doesn’t know what the talks are about, according to the Harris survey.
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China backs India’s stand on climate change. — Indian Express, December 3, 2009
Ahead of the Copenhagen meet, China on Thursday backed India’s stand that developing nations have no obligation to binding emission reduction targets and said it is ready to enhance “cooperation and coordination” between the two countries, which it termed as “victims” of climate change. “We understand the current situation in India. We should take adaptation and mitigation measures based on our national conditions and capacity,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters here. He said China is ready to strengthen “communication, coordination and cooperation” with India on climate change.
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Setting A Higher Bar For Climate Change. — Michael Dell, Forbes, December 3, 2009
Next week, world leaders will meet at the UN-led climate conference in Copenhagen, where their goal is to agree on global greenhouse gas reduction targets. The responsibility to mitigate climate change, however, does not fall solely to the Copenhagen delegation. Solving the global climate crisis starts with us–the world’s businesses and organizations. The scientific community has reported that by 2050, global emissions must be reduced by 50 to 85% from 2000 levels to bring greenhouse gas emissions to acceptable levels. While these conclusions are not the last word, they do contribute to the framework our leaders in Copenhagen will consider for building a broad policy consensus. These are aggressive targets that require action from us all.
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Top climate change expert hopes science got it wrong. — Erik Kirschbaum, Reuters, December 3, 2009
Germany’s top climate researcher says he hopes he and his fellow scientists around the world have got it all wrong about global warming. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told Reuters he gets no pleasure at all in being a prophet of doom and hopes he and his colleagues have overlooked effects that could still arrest climate change. “It would be wonderful if some mechanism that we haven’t yet been able to understand could still have an impact and manage to stabilize global warming at a high level for a while,” he said in an interview in his institute’s office outside Berlin.
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British university to probe climate-data allegations. — USA Today, December 3, 2009
The British university at the heart of the “Climategate” storm announced today that it will investigate whether scientists manipulated data on global warming to suppress contrary findings. Last month a hacker posted documents and e-mails between leading climatologists that were stolen from a University of East Anglia server. Skeptics contend the correspondences show a conspiracy among scientists to hide research that undercuts the general consensus that climate change is primarily man-made and not natural. Proponents counter that the e-mails have been taken out of context, do not support the skeptics’ claims and are an attempt to sabotage the U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen next week .
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Nepalese Government Holds Meeting Near Mount Everest. — Dave McCombs, Bloomberg.com, December 4, 2009
Nepal’s Cabinet issued a declaration on climate change after an outdoor meeting in the shadow of Mount Everest, in a region where shrinking glaciers threaten rivers essential to development in China, India and Pakistan. Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal delivered the statement after he and more than 20 ministers, officials, journalists, and technicians returned by helicopter, according to Nepalnews.com. The group brought oxygen masks and a team of six doctors for the 20-minute meeting on the Kalapatthar plateau, 5,240 meters (17,192 feet) above sea level.
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Recession Takes a Bite Out of U.S. GHG Emissions. — Kirsten Korosec, BNET Energy Blog, December 3, 2009
The 2008 greenhouse gas emissions report from the Energy Department provides further fodder to the power of a recession. Total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2008 fell by 2.2 percent from 2007 to 7.053 billion metric tons, according to a U.S. Energy Information Administration report released Thursday afternoon. That’s a remarkable change from what has been occurring in the United States for nearly two decades. Total GHG emissions grew at an average annual rate of 0.7 percent every year since 1990. That is until 2008 came along.
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Penn St. prof. welcomes climate change scrutiny. — Genaro Armas, The Associated Press, December 3, 2009
A Penn State professor and climate researcher said he welcomes scrutiny into leaked e-mails at the center of an international controversy over what’s causing global warming after the university said it would look into the issue. Hackers breached servers at a climate change research center in London two weeks ago, stealing thousands of e-mails and other documents and posting them on the Internet. The correspondence covered more than a decade of communication between leading British and U.S. scientists, including Penn State meteorology professor Michael Mann. His research has been a target of criticism for years from skeptics of man-made global warming theories.
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United Nations to probe climate e-mail leak. — Rapheal G. Satter, The Associated Press, December 4, 2009
The United Nations will conduct its own investigation into e-mails leaked from a leading British climate science center in addition to the probe by the University of East Anglia, a senior U.N. climate official said in comments broadcast Friday. E-mails stolen from the climate unit at the University of East Anglia appeared to show some of world’s leading scientists discussing ways to shield data from public scrutiny and suppress others’ work. Those who deny the influence of man-made climate change have seized on the correspondence to argue that scientists have been conspiring to hide evidence about global warming.
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Global warming may require higher dams, stilts. — Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press, December 4, 2009
With the world losing the battle against global warming so far, experts are warning that humans need to follow nature’s example: Adapt or die. That means elevating buildings, making taller and stronger dams and seawalls, rerouting water systems, restricting certain developments, changing farming practices and ultimately moving people, plants and animals out of harm’s way. Adapting to rising seas and higher temperatures is expected to be a big topic at the U.N. climate-change talks in Copenhagen next week, along with the projected cost — hundreds of billions of dollars, much of it going to countries that cannot afford it.
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Nepal’s Everest message on climate change. — Euronews, December 4, 2009
Nepal’s cabinet has taken an unusual step in meeting outdoors amid the frigid thin air of Mount Everest to highlight the dangers of climate change. The prime minister and more than 20 ministers flew in by helicopter to Everest’s base camp; more than 5,000 metres above sea level. Coming just days before global climate talks start in Copenhagen, the Nepalese government billed the event as the world’s highest cabinet meeting, so topping the agenda was the serious impact of climate change. Nepal is already experiencing erratic rains, longer dry spells, melting glaciers and unprecedented forest fires, according to experts. Many scientists say the Himalayan glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, creating lakes with walls that could burst and flood villages below. The meeting follows that of the Maldives, which held the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting in October to underline how rising sea levels threaten the Indian Ocean’s archipelago’s existence.
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The Tragedy of the Himalayas. — Bryan Walsh, Time, December 4, 2009
The road to Khardung La begins in the Indian town of Leh on the northwestern fringe of the Himalayas. Exhaust-spewing army trucks rattle up the side of dry rock, past Buddhist monasteries clinging to the craggy mountainside and alongside small farms barely scraping fertility from the earth. Khardung La, the highest motorable mountain pass in the world, is more than 18,000 ft. above sea level, the air so thin that just standing there a few minutes leaves you feeling as if your head might lift off like a balloon. But if 65-year-old Syed Iqbal Hasnain is bothered by the altitude, he isn’t showing it. The Indian glaciologist hops lightly from a car and walks to the edge of the pass, beneath fluttering Buddhist prayer flags. The rock is dusted with early winter snow, and there might not be much more this season or next, he says.
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Leading Climate Change Scientist: ‘Cap and trade won’t work’. — Jack P, Before It’s News, December 4, 2009
A leading global warming scientist, James Hansen, made recent statements on Friday that he hopes the Copenhagen summit will fail, according to a Washingtonsblog posting: He is vehemently opposed to the carbon market schemes – in which permits to pollute are bought and sold – which are seen by the EU and other governments as the most efficient way to cut emissions and move to a new clean energy economy. Hanson, who was quoted in he Guardian, said: “I would rather it not happen if people accept that as being the right track because it’s a disaster track,” said Hansen, who heads the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.”
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Obama switches climate change visit to end of summit. — BBC News, December 4, 2009
US President Barack Obama has changed his plans to attend the UN summit on climate change in Copenhagen next week, the White House has announced. He will arrive later than initially planned, moving his appearance from 9 December to 18 December
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The Copenhagen Communiqué on Climate Change. — Newsweek, December 5, 2009
This communiqué calls for an ambitious, robust, and equitable global deal on climate change that responds credibly to the scale and urgency of the crises facing the world today. Economic development will not be sustained in the long term unless the climate is stabilized. It is critical that we exit this recession in a way that lays the foundation for low-carbon growth and avoids locking us into a high-carbon future. These are difficult and challenging times for the international business community, and a poor outcome from Copenhagen will only make them more so, by creating uncertainty and undermining confidence.
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Dutch defense against climate change: Adapt. — Anthony Faiola and Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post, December 6, 2009
With the Copenhagen summit starting Monday, chances remain uncertain for a historic breakthrough in the fight to prevent climate change, but the Netherlands is leading a fight of a different kind: How to live with global warming. As sea levels swell and storms intensify, the Dutch are spending billions of euros on “floating communities” that can rise with surging flood waters, on cavernous garages that double as urban floodplains and on re-engineering parts of a coastline as long as North Carolina’s. The government is engaging in “selective relocation” of farmers from flood-prone areas and expanding rivers and canals to contain anticipated swells.
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Other
Asheville-based protesters lock themselves to generator near Greenville, SC. — John Boyle, Asheville Citizen-Times, November 30, 2009
Four protesters from Asheville were arrested this morning in South Carolina, including two who locked themselves to a 1.5-million pound generator headed for the Cliffside coal-fired plant site in Rutherford County. Those arrested were Julia Allen Page, Paul Webb Loomis, Catherine Ann MacDougal, and Rachel Anne Scarano, according to Rising Tide North American, an environmental advocacy group. The protesters had vowed to prevent the generator, which has been traveling across South Carolina, from reaching the coal-fired Duke Energy plant, according to a press release from Rising Tide. The groups Asheville Rising Tide and Croatan Earth First! organized the protest, part of a national day of action with dozens of protests nationwide.
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Turning corn stubble into biochar. — Farm Progress, Stock & Land, November 30, 2009
Researchers around the world are trying to economically convert cellulosic biomass such as corn stover into “cellulosic ethanol.” But Agricultural Research Service scientists have found that it might be more cost-effective, energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable to use corn stover for generating an energy-rich oil called bio-oil and for making biochar to enrich soils and sequester carbon. The research, under-written by the National Corn Growers Association, suggests it could be more cost-effective to produce bio-oil through a distributed network of small pyrolyzers and then transport the crude bio-oil to central refining plants to make “green gasoline”, rather than transporting bulky stover to a large centralised cellulosic ethanol plant.
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S. Side solar energy plant to power 1,500 homes. — Paul Meincke, ABC7 – Chicago, November 30, 2009
Chicago is home to the largest big-city solar generating plant in the country. The Exelon plant is being built on the South Side. It won’t produce a lot of electricity. But the company says solar energy is an important part of its plans for the future. In an old far South Side industrial site, barren for years, 33,000 solar panels are being set up to follow the arc of the sun, and make electricity.
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US: Paper Mill Is Reborn, Sans Fossil Fuels. — Violet Snow, Inter Press Service, November 29, 2009
A paper mill that runs without fossil fuels and has a neutral carbon footprint? That’s the goal for Flambeau River Papers in Park Falls, Wisconsin, and the company is already on its way, thanks to a switch to biomass fuel, plus a biorefinery in the works. In timber-rich Wisconsin, paper mills have been a major industry since the 1800s. Small mills, suffering from the recession and high energy costs, are now shutting down, creating economic devastation for towns like Park Falls, where the mill provided jobs for 310 people in a town of about 3,000.
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California Companies Lauded for Taking Innovative Measures to Reduce Pesticide Risk. — EPA News Release, December 1, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has presented awards to five members of the Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program (PESP) for their sustained excellence in integrated pest management (IPM). “These awards demonstrate that innovative pest management practices really do work,” said Steve Owens, assistant administrator for the Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances, “EPA is helping growers and other pesticide users make the transition to safer practices and thereby reduce pesticide risk to people and the environment.”
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P4 Production, LLC, Begins Comprehensive Mine Cleanup Planning in Southeast Idaho. — EPA News Release, December 1, 2009
P4 Production LLC, a southeast Idaho phosphate mining company, has reached agreement with five federal and state agencies, as well as the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, to develop comprehensive cleanup plans for three phosphate mines near Soda Springs, Idaho. The agreement requires P4 Production (a subsidiary of the Monsanto Company) to complete remedial investigations and feasibility studies for the Ballard, Henry, and Enoch Valley mines. The Ballard Mine was operated from 1951 to 1969, the Henry Mine was operated from 1969 to 1989, and Enoch Valley Mine was operated from 1989 until recently. They are all currently inactive.
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Progress Energy to shut down Wilmington’s Sutton Plant in 2014. — McClatchy Tribune Information Services, December 1, 2009
Progress Energy 
said Tuesday it intends to shut down Wilmington’s L.V. Sutton Plant along with three other coal-fired plants that do not have scrubbers to control emissions
The utility also said it plans to replace the coal-fired facility here with one fired by natural gas on the same site. Progress Energy Carolinas, the Raleigh-based utility’s operating unit in North and South Carolina, outlined its plan to close four power plants capable of generating nearly 1,500 megawatts of electricity in a report to the N.C. Utilities Commission.
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BCC opposes mining ban; demands coordination. — Scott Jorgensen, Illinois Valley News, December 2, 2009
Some Oregon officials have called for action to prohibit mining in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area, but the Josephine County Board of Commissioners will not be among them. During a Tuesday, Nov. 24 administrative meeting in the commission conference room at the courthouse in Grants Pass, the board voted 2-1, with Commissioner Dave Toler voting against the move, to send a letter expressing opposition to the proposed withdrawal.
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New Policy on Lobbyists Could Spur Shake-Up for EPA Advisory Pane. — Robin Bravender, Sara Goodman, and Taryn Luntz, The New York Times, December 4, 2009
A sweeping new White House policy aimed at ousting special interests from federal advisory panels might sweep registered lobbyists off some U.S. EPA advisory panels. The policy could affect more than 20 EPA committees, which include representatives of environmental groups, industry and trade associations, and public health and academic institutions. The committees offer advice on issues ranging from air pollution and drinking water to children’s health and environmental justice. It remains unclear exactly how the White House directive will apply to EPA and which committees will be affected, but many of the registered lobbyists on agency boards may see their memberships terminated once their current appointments end.
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Fish kill called necessary to save the Great Lakes. — Kari Lydersen and Peter Slevin, The Washington Post, December 6, 2009
The poisoned fish began floating to the surface in the cold Illinois dawn, but as scientists and ecologists began hauling their lifeless catch to shore, they found only one carcass of the predator they targeted — the ravenous Asian carp. Never before have Illinois agencies tried to kill so many fish at one time. By the time the poison dissipates in a few days, state officials estimate that 200,000 pounds of fish will be bound for landfills. But they say the stakes — the Great Lakes ecosystem and its healthy fish population — could hardly be higher.
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BLOGS
EPA’s Decision to Delay Its Review of Ethanol Content of Gasoline. — Steven M. Taber, Environmental Law and Climate Change Law Blog, December 1, 2009
In what is considered to be a blow to U.S. corn growers, the EPA today sent a letter to the Gen. Wesley Clark chaired trade association “Growth Energy” indicating that the EPA needed more time to complete tests on how an increase by 5% (from 10% ethanol to 15% ethanol) in ethanol content may damage engines and fuel lines. The good news for Growth Energy, which formally petitioned for the increase, was that the EPA reported that two tests showed that engines in newer cars can handle the higher blend. “The announcement is a strong signal that we are preparing to move to E15,” Growth Energy said in a statement, asserting that the switch would mean 136,000 new jobs.
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Emerging “Middle Stance” In The Climate Change Debate. — Steven M. Taber, Environmental Law and Climate Change Law Blog, December 3, 2009
Two articles appeared yesterday regarding how “Climategate” has given voice to an emerging middle road in the debate of what to do about climate change. The first an op-ed piece by Mike Hulme, a climate professor at East Anglia University in which he argues that cl…imate science has been overtaken by politics. Politics, however, demands certainty, but climate scientists do not know what the risks or the outcomes will be: “Yes, science has clearly revealed that humans are influencing global climate and will continue to do so, but we don’t know the full scale of the risks involved, nor how rapidly they will evolve, nor indeed—with clear insight—the relative roles of all the forcing agents involved at different scales.”
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