December 14, 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. For the next two weeks, I have added a special section on the Copenhagen Climate Talks.  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.

COPENHAGEN CLIMATE CHANGE SUMMIT

Copenhagen climate talks will hinge on economics. — Jim Tankersley, The Los Angeles Times, December 7, 2009
When world leaders gather in Copenhagen today for negotiations on a new agreement to combat climate change, their success or failure will ride on economics, not environmental science. Theoretically, the two-week conference will focus on measures to limit emissions of the heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming. But the major debates will center on money: How could emission limits affect major industries and the jobs they provide? How could a new climate treaty reshape the global economic playing field? Those issues sharply divide some of the most important players at the conference, as they ponder the economic possibilities and pitfalls.
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UN climate science head hopes for more US action. — Charles J. Hanley, The Associated Press, December 6, 2009
By executive action, the Obama administration can boost the U.S. target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions beyond levels envisioned in legislation working its way through Congress, the head of the U.N. climate science network said Sunday. “There is scope for going above what is going to be legislated,” Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told The Associated Press on the eve of the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen. Senate and House bills capping carbon dioxide emissions would reduce them by 17 to 20 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels. Compared with 1990 levels, the standard U.N. benchmark, that’s only a 3-4 percent reduction, experts calculate, a contribution far short of what scientists say is needed among industrial countries to avoid dangerous climate change.
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U.S. urged to do more on climate. — Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post, December 7, 2009
The Obama administration’s opening bid in the climate talks beginning Monday in Copenhagen is not impressing some key constituencies. Kevin Conrad, executive director of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations and a special envoy for Papua New Guinea, said in an interview that while Obama has improved the rhetoric, “when you look at what they’re proposing, it’s absolutely unimpressive.” The United States has pledged to reduce its greenhouse emissions “in the range of 17 percent” compared with 2005 levels — equivalent to a 3.4 percent cut from 1990 levels, the baseline most of the world uses.
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U.S. action on climate policy is key to international treaty. — Renee Schoof, McClatchy Newspapers, December 6, 2009
Negotiators in Copenhagen will try to nail down all the main elements of a treaty to curb global warming in the next two weeks, but a final agreement won’t be possible until the United States figures out what it will do to reduce emissions of heat-trapping pollution. President Barack Obama plans to visit the talks on their final day to promise that the U.S. will cut its share of emissions and to press for a strong agreement. The world, however, will be watching to see whether he also signals a willingness to pressure Congress to enact the law that’s needed to make that happen. Despite charges by some critics that data on global temperatures have been altered, the evidence of climate change is conclusive and worsening.
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Adapting to climate change: It’s do or die, experts say. U.N. conferees are ready to discuss. — Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press, December 6, 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 this 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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‘Hopenhagen’ is the mood as global climate summit opens. — Jim Tankersley, The Los Angeles Times, December 7, 2009
After a long day of dire warnings and impassioned pleas about the world’s changing climate, hundreds of Danes and visitors from around the globe bundled themselves against a damp cold Monday and filled the Copenhagen town square. They jumped with a live rock band, pedaled stationary bikes on display and gazed at a 65-foot rotating globe. At the party entrance hung a banner, stenciled in green with a play on words that summed up the crowd’s mood: “Hopenhagen.”
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Copenhagen: Focus on the (Carbon) Negative. — Nicholas Eisenberger & David Gottesman, Harvard Business Publishing, December 7, 2009
There are plenty of reasons to be disappointed with the Copenhagen climate talks that start today: the meeting will not result in a binding agreement, the timeframe for such an agreement is potentially years away, and of course, neither the US nor China has committed to binding reductions. While all this is certainly disappointing, the problem with the talks is actually much more serious. Even if the meeting did result in aggressive, binding reduction targets, achieving those reductions won’t reduce atmospheric CO2 enough to prevent catastrophic climate change.
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U.S. Climate Change Plan Is Idea Rich, Cash Poor. — Christopher Joyce, National Public Radio, December 7, 2009
The United States has all the tools it needs to replace its old coal energy economy and drastically cut greenhouse emissions. So what’s missing? Political will — and money. The warming climate is driving several thousand people north, to Copenhagen — for two weeks, anyway. Representatives from nearly 200 countries are gathering there to try to work out a new international treaty to curb global warming, one that would supplant the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. Prospects are dim, though, for a binding agreement at the Conference of the Parties to the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change. But negotiators say they hope to at least plot a course toward a new agreement that could be signed at next year’s climate conference in Mexico City.
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Hidden climate change bill haunts developing nations: $30 billion estimate just a down payment on future funding, U.N. says. — Eric Johnston, The Japan Times, December 9, 2009
After the debate over emissions reductions targets, but very much connected to it, the question of how much it will cost to mitigate environmental disasters in the poorest countries — and how much money will be needed to help them get technology and financing to adapt to worsening weather patterns — is a key element of the Copenhagen climate talks. The U.N. wants rich nations to put up $10 billion annually between 2010 and 2012 for climate change mitigation. Japan, under the Hatoyama Initiative, has pledged more than $9 billion, according to Environment Minister Sakihito Ozawa, but the exact amount is still being discussed. However the U.N. says $30 billion is only a down payment on future funding, and that the final cost will likely run into hundreds of billions of dollars.
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Copenhagen Roundup: Day 3. — Environmental Leader, December 9, 2009
A leak of a Danish draft proposal, which by all accounts has put a bigger wedge between rich and poor nations, set the tone for day three (Dec. 9) of the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen. In what is shaping up to be a developed versus developing country slugfest of words, developing countries have released a draft of their own. The heated discussions began Dec. 8 when news leaked of a Danish draft proposal that was described by the Guardian as a document “prepared in secret” by a group of individuals known as “the circle of commitment”.
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Climate Change and the Precautionary Principle. — Ross Douthat, The New York Times, December 9, 2009
In his column today, my colleague Thomas Friedman argues eloquently for a Dick Cheney-esque, “one percent doctrine” approach to climate change, which would treat caps on greenhouse emissions as a rational way to “buy insurance” against a potentially catastrophic outcome. Along the way, he cites Cass Sunstein on the “precautionary principle,” which (per Sunstein) holds that “it is appropriate to respond aggressively to low-probability, high-impact events.” It’s worth noting, though, that Sunstein himself is somewhat skeptical of using the precautionary principle as a guide to policymaking. Further on in the blog post cited in Friedman’s column, he points out that “a firm response” to a low-probability risk “might impose costs and create risks of its own.”
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UNFCCC De Boer: Good Progress Being Made At Climate Talks. — The Wall Street Journal, December 10, 2009
he more than 190 countries negotiating an accord to limit global warming at the Copenhagen summit are making good progress, especially in the area of technology to fight climate change in developing countries, the United Nations climate chief said Thursday. “There is real seriousness now to negotiate, good progress is being made in a number of areas, especially in the area of technology,”
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UN official warns of climate change’s human costs. — The Associated Press, December 10, 2009
The U.N.’s Emergency Relief Coordinator says the effects of climate change are already being felt across the developing world and he hopes much of the money devoted to the problem will go toward helping it adapt. John Holmes said Thursday that regardless of what is decided at the climate conference in Copenhagen, the effects, including more intense rains and longer droughts, will be with us for at least 50 years.
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U.N. group drafts plan to reduce emissions. — Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post, December 12, 2009
The U.N.-sponsored climate conference — characterized so far by unruly posturing and mutual recriminations — gained renewed focus Friday with the release of a document outlining ambitious greenhouse-gas reductions over the next 40 years, with industrialized nations shouldering most of the burden in the near term.
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Schwarzenegger will share California climate change story at Copenhagen. — The Associated Press, December 10, 2009
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to carry California’s climate change story to a conference in Copenhagen next week, a move that will burnish his international image as a leader in the war on global warming. He’ll also take an entourage of 20 administration officials to Denmark. Three nonprofit organizations are picking up the tab. Administration officials say the trip and a speech Schwarzenegger will deliver on Tuesday at the United Nations conference will underscore how he has fought a political guerrilla war to cut greenhouse gas emissions – often against naysayers in his own Republican Party – as a state executive acting on what is usually considered a national or international issue.
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Copenhagen Field Notes. — Dan Shepard, Gateway to the UN System’s Work on Climate Change, December 11, 2009
The hallmark of the first week has been the jockeying for position, in the negotiating rooms and in the press conference room. It seems that every country or group of countries has held a press conference, either to explain its position or just to let the press know they are there.  Most prominent have been the Group of 77, representing developing countries, the European Union, the United States, and China. There have been other groupings, such as ALBA, which includes Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.  Today marked the first official press briefing of the Least Developed Countries, attended by Lesotho, Benin, Zambia, The Gambia and Timor-Leste. But mastering the art of a press briefing also involves leaving time for questions and answers—in this case there was time for one question but no time for the answer.
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Copenhagen is center of day of climate action. — Aubrey Ann Parker, Detroit Free Press, December 12, 2009
“Today is going to be the most exciting day of the whole conference,” Brian told me this morning, after I got off the phone with my mom, the birthday girl. Dubbed “Real Deal Day,” an estimated 5,000 climate demonstrations staged for today, 12/12/09, around the world are asking for only one thing — a real deal to come out of the Copenhagen climate negotiations. Today one clear, united, and very loud voice is traversing the globe like wildfire — starting with the dawn of the day in the South Pacific, in the far east of the world.
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Thousands March in Copenhagen, Calling for Action. — Tom Zeller, Jr., The New York Times, December 10, 2009
Waving a panoply of signs warning that the planet is in peril and that powerful nations should take note, tens of thousands of demonstrators from around the globe took to the streets here on Saturday for the largest protest planned in two weeks of talks on a global strategy to combat climate change.
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Failure at Copenhagen will be major setback: RK Pachauri. — DNA India.com, December 12, 2009
RK Pachauri, head of the Nobel-winning UN panel on climate change, today said a failure to come out with an agreement to combat global warming at Copenhagen will be a “major setback” to the world.
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GOP: US competitiveness at risk from climate pact. — The Associated Press, December 12, 2009
A Republican lawmaker says U.S. participation in an international agreement on climate change would result in soaring energy prices and damage America’s economic competitiveness. Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee is among a group of GOP congressional critics of Democratic climate legislation who plan to travel to the climate conference in Copenhagen next week to voice opposition to the blueprint offered by President Barack Obama.
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Businesspeople join the ranks of climate treaty proponents. — Jim Tankersley, The Los Angeles Times, December 10, 2009
Reporting from Copenhagen – From the legions of environmental Cassandras gathered here for international climate negotiations, an unlikely batch of advocates has emerged to champion a new global warming agreement: businesspeople. Corporate leaders, the rarest of commodities at the first climate talks nearly two decades ago, have staked a claim to the title of biggest player in Copenhagen aside from the official negotiators.
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Climate change summit draft released. — ANTARA News, December 12, 2009
Indonesian delegation member Agus Purnomo said that the delegation has received copies of three Climate Change Summit draft decisions of the AWG-LCA, AWG-KP and SBSTA sessions on Friday. The AWG-LCA (Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention) of the participating countries in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that addresses long-term cooperation in dealing with the impacts of climate change. Meanwhile, the AWG-KP (Ad Hoc Working Group on Further commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol) held negotiations UNFCCC states that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol. While the SBSTA (Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice) is an additional body of the UNFCCC to discuss and provide inputs of science, technology and methodology.
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The basis of the Copenhagen climate talks. — Physics Today, December 10, 2009
While negotiations continue over the formation of an international emissions treaty in Copenhagen (COP15), the run up to the conference helped develop a rash of announcements regarding emission caps and research and development from Brazil, China, India, South Africa and the US. Although many of these announcements fall short in meeting the goal of trying to limit the mean global temperature rise to 2 °C, it is progress compared to their earlier commitments and lays the groundwork for further negotiation at the COP15 meeting. All emission data was obtained from http://wwww.climateactiontracker.org
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Chinese official calls US negotiator irresponsible. — The Associated Press, December 11, 2009
China’s Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei on Friday said the chief U.S. climate negotiator either lacks common sense or is “extremely irresponsible” for saying that no U.S. climate financing should be going to China. In unusually blunt language, He said he was “shocked” by U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern’s comments earlier this week that China shouldn’t expect any American climate aid money and that the United States was not in any debt to the world for its historical carbon emissions.
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SETTLEMENTS

Proposed Consent Decree, Clean Air Act Citizen Suit. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 7, 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 WildEarth Guardians in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado: WildEarth Guardians v. Jackson, No. 09–cv– 02109–MSK–KLM (D. CO.). On September 3, 2009, Plaintiff filed a complaint alleging: (a) That EPA failed to perform a mandatory duty under section 110(k)(5) of the CAA, 42 U.S.C. 7410(k)(5), to require the State of Utah to revise the State Implementation Plan regarding Utah Regulation 307–107–1 through 307–107–5 (‘‘the Utah breakdown provision’’), relating to excess emissions resulting from the breakdown of pollution control equipment, and (b) that EPA failed to timely respond to a petition from WildEarth Guardians requesting EPA to require Utah to revise the Utah breakdown provision consistent with CAA section 110(k)(5). The proposed consent decree establishes a deadline for EPA to take final action either issuing a rule under section 110(k)(5) requiring Utah to revise the Utah breakdown provision or determining that a revision is unnecessary.
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Proposed Consent Decree, Clean Air Act Citizen Suit. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 7, 2009
In accordance with section 113(g) of the Clean Air Act, as amended (‘‘Act’’), 42 U.S.C. 7413(g), notice is hereby given of a proposed consent decree to address a lawsuit filed by WildEarth Guardians in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California: WildEarth Guardians v. Jackson, No. 4:09–CV–02453–CW (N.D. CA). On June 3, 2009, Plaintiff filed a complaint alleging that EPA failed to perform a nondiscretionary duty to either approve a State Implementation Plan (‘‘SIP’’) or promulgate a Federal Implementation Plan (‘‘FIP’’) for California, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Oregon to satisfy the requirements of Clean Air Act section 110(a)(2)(D)(i), 42 U.S.C. 7410(a)(2)(D)(i), with regard to the 1997 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (‘‘NAAQS’’) for 8-hour ozone and fine particulate matter (‘‘PM2.5’’). Under the terms of the proposed consent decree, deadlines are established for EPA to take action.
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EPA settles with G and S Titanium on hazardous waste violations; $33,600 penalty set. — EPA News Release, December 8, 2009
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has settled with G & S Titanium Inc., Wooster, Ohio, for alleged violations of the authorized Ohio Resource Conservation and Recovery Act requirement for treatment, storage and disposal facilities. A $33,600 penalty has been set. The company failed to have a storage permit, conduct daily inspections of and keep records on its hazardous waste tank, provide annual employee training and keep records about it and maintain written job descriptions. G & S, a titanium manufacturer, generates hazardous waste acid and chromium sludge that requires proper management by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Under the RCRA, EPA controls hazardous waste from its production to final disposal.
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Proposed Administrative Cost Recovery Settlement Under Section 122(h) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act, as Amended, 42 U.S.C. 9622(h), Coffeyville Resources Refining & Marketing, LLC, Coffeyville, KS. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 10, 2009
In accordance with Section 122(i) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act, as amended (CERCLA), 42 U.S.C. 9622(i), notice is hereby given of a proposed administrative settlement with Coffeyville Resources Refining & Marketing, LLC (CRRM), Coffeyville, Kansas, for recovery of past response costs concerning the response actions taken by CRRM relative to the manufacture of propane containing higher than normal concentrations of organic fluoride. The settlement requires CRRM to pay the Hazardous Substances Superfund for costs incurred by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7, in response to overseeing and investigating this response. The settlement requires CRRM to pay $54,625.06, to the Hazardous Substances Superfund. The settlement includes a covenant not to sue the settling party pursuant to Section 107(a) of CERCLA, 42 U.S.C. 9607(a).
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Tri-State, environmentalists reach regulatory deal. — Judith Kohler, The Associated Press, December 10, 2009
A regional rural electric provider agreed Wednesday to open up its planning process, settling a dispute over whether Colorado officials have the authority to regulate the utility. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission accepted the agreement between Colorado-based Tri-State Generation and Transmission Co. and Western Resource Advocates, a Boulder-based environmental law and policy group. Under the terms, the public and state regulators will have more input into Tri-State’s resource plans, which includes projected demands for electric power and the source and type of power the utility expects to use.
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EPA reaches agreement with Dow Agrosciences on clean-air violations. — EPA News Releases, December 10, 2009
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has reached an agreement with Dow AgroSciences LLC on alleged Clean Air Act violations at the company’s pesticide production facility at 305 N. Huron Ave., Harbor Beach, Mich. The agreement, which includes a $70,000 penalty, resolves EPA allegations that Dow Agro violated national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants at its Harbor Beach plant. The company generates methanol and uses xylene, both hazardous air pollutants, in making pesticide active ingredients at the plant.
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Government settlement to pay for Treece cleanup. — Matthew Clark, The Morning Sun, December 12, 2009
A sizable government settlement with a mining company will pay some dividends to a rural southeast Kansas community that has been struggling for years. On Thursday, the federal government announced that it reached a settlement with Asarco LLC for $1.79 billion. The settlement will pay for cleanup at 80 polluted sites nationwide, including the one in Treece. The settlement includes $25.1 million to help with the cleanup and restoration of the Superfund site in Cherokee County.
“The efforts are already underway,” said Rep. Doug Gatewood, D-Columbus. “The final stage was for $66 million and this will get those efforts underway.”
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DECISIONS

TE Product Pipeline Company, LLC, Fined for Violating the Clean Water Act. — EPA News Release, December 8, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has fined the TE Product Pipeline Company, LLC, of Baytown, Texas, $25,855 for violating the Clean Water Act. Today’s announcement settles a Clean Water Act violation for a 1,470-gallon oil spill into Cedar Bayou, a tributary of Galveston Bay, and adjoining shorelines, in Chambers County, Texas, on April 28, 2009.
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Equipment company to pay for illegal hazardous waste dump. — Herald Staff Report, The Monterey County Herald, December 8, 2009
A heavy equipment dealer has agreed to pay $375,000 in penalties after being investigated for illegally dumping hazardous waste at the Sun Street Transfer Station in Salinas. Monterey County prosecutors said the Quinn Group agreed to pay the fines and train employees in how to handle hazardous materials and waste. Prosecutors said the company did not admit any wrongdoing as part of a settlement with the county. Two of Quinn Group’s subsidiaries are Alta Lift and Quinn Company, which sells, rents and services Caterpillar brand machines and has a location at 1300 Abbott St. in Salinas. The company improperly transported and disposed of containers with residual oil and transmission fluid, coolant, brake pads and other items to the transfer station in violation of environmental law, prosecutors said. Of the money Quinn agreed to pay, $200,000 is for civil penalties, $100,000 for the cost of enforcement by the county’s Environmental Health Division, and $75,000 will go to fund environmental outreach education programs in Monterey County, prosecutors said.
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EPA Orders Thomas Exploration Company to Stop Discharging. — EPA News Release, December 9, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a cease and desist administrative order to the Thomas Exploration Company of Tulsa, Oklahoma, for violations of the federal Clean Water Act. An October 13, 2009, EPA inspection of the company’s oil field production and brine disposal facility in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, found an unauthorized discharge of oil field brine generated by production activities into a tributary of the Deep Fork River. The inspection also revealed that water located at the discharge point of entry into the tributary of the Deep Fork River was contaminated from brine discharges and salts.
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EPA Fines Puerto Rico Air National Guard for Improperly Managing Underground Petroleum Storage Tanks. — EPA News Release, December 9, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a complaint to the Puerto Rico Air National Guard, part of the U.S. Air Force, for improperly managing underground tanks used to store diesel fuel and gasoline at its facility in Toa Baja. Leaking underground storage tanks pose significant threats to soil, surface water and ground water. EPA cited the Puerto Rico Air National Guard for failing to properly monitor its storage tanks for leaks and maintain records of release detection for two underground storage tank systems; the Agency is seeking a civil penalty of $154,353.
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Bristol company fined for violating Clean Water Act. — Diane Church, The Bristol Press, December 11, 2009
A Bristol construction company was fined $21,600 for violating the Clean Water Act when it allowed unpermitted fill and sediment to enter wetlands in town.The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District issued a Class 1 Administrative Penalty against Carpenter Realty Co. of Bristol. The company was issued a permit in May of 2005 authorizing it to place fill material in 999 square feet of wetlands as it built a road for access to an industrial subdivision off Queen Street. The Army Corps said the permit was violated because fill material or disturbance occurred in waters and wetlands at five separate locations during grading of the site. Allowing unpermitted fill in wetlands and U.S. waters and failure to adequately install or maintain erosion control devices were violations of the permit.
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Road Builders Lose Appeal of EPA Clean Air Act Rules. — Cary O’Reilly, Bloomberg, December 11, 2009
The biggest U.S. industry group for road builders lost a court bid to force the Environmental Protection Agency to declare that federal law trumps state regulations governing construction vehicle emissions. The American Road and Transportation Builders Association, which represents builders and suppliers of highway, airport and public-transportation projects, waited too long to file its challenge over EPA’s enforcement of the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington ruled today.
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Second Circuit upholds Decision to Allow Recovery of Costs under CERCLA in Rochester Gas & Electric v. GPU, Inc. — Leagle, December 10, 2009
Upon due consideration it is hereby ordered, adjudged and decreed that the judgment and order of the district court entered on January 6, 2009, and March 31, 2009, respectively, are AFFIRMED.  Defendant GPU, Inc. (“FirstEnergy”)^{[ 1 ]} appeals from a judgment in favor of plaintiff Rochester Gas and Electric Corp. (“RG&E”) entered after a bench trial on RG&E’s suit under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (“CERCLA”), 42 U.S.C. § 9601 et seq., to recover costs incurred during the voluntary cleanup of two manufactured gas plants. FirstEnergy argues that the district court (1) misapplied established principles of New York law in allowing RG&E to pierce its own corporate veil; (2) improperly considered and adopted the legal conclusions of RG&E’s expert on corporate governance; (3) erred in concluding that FirstEnergy was derivatively liable under CERCLA as the corporate successor to Associated Gas and Electric Company (“AGECO”), RG&E’s former corporate parent; and (4) erred in concluding that AGECO’s bankruptcy did not extinguish RG&E’s CERCLA claim.
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LAWSUITS AND ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS FILED

Civil Conspiracy Lawsuits Filed Against Climate Change Deniers. — Linda McClure, Solve Climate, December 6, 2009
The need for climate legislation is based upon a wide body of scientific evidence that shows global warming is happening now and warns of climactic changes as that warming continues. Skeptics and some in the fossil fuels industries have joined forces to claim that the climate science is invalid, hoping to decrease public and Congressional support by tainting the foundation for legislation. In many ways, their disinformation campaign carries similarities to the tactics of the tobacco industry that “misled the public about the scientific evidence linking smoking to lung cancer and heart disease,” the Union of Concerned Scientists notes in its report Smoke, Mirrors and Hot air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco’s Tactics to Manufacture Uncertainty on Climate Science.”
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JEFFERSON CITY: DNR wants legal action over asbestos removal. — St. Louis Dispatch, December 7, 2009
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources and its Air Conservation Commission have asked the attorney general to pursue legal action against Northeast Ambulance and Fire District Chief Joseph L. Washington for alleged violations regarding asbestos at a fire district building. The state agency is accusing Washington, while in his former position as fire board president, of violations regarding improper removal and disposal of asbestos-containing floor tile from the district’s building in Beverly Hills. Washington is scheduled for trial in federal court on Dec. 14 on five counts of violating the Clean Air Act. Those charges also stem from asbestos removal at the district building.
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:

Missouri DNR to Pursue Asbestos Charges against Fire Chief Washington. — Mesothelioma, December 10, 2009
Charges filed against Joseph Washington and the Northeast Ambulance and Fire Protection District on July 7 by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) are being expanded, exactly five months later, with the DNR asking the state’s Attorney General to take up the case against the fire district and its former head, Joseph Washington. Washington first ran afoul of the DNR when he authorized the 2008 removal of asbestos-laden floor tiles from the fire district’s 5,499-square-foot building by district workers rather than licensed asbestos professionals, and then discarded the tiles in a manner inconsistent with AHERA (Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act, or Title 2) provisions established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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Kennedy calls mountaintop removal mining in W.Va. a crime against people, nature. — Vicki Smith, Associated Press, December 7, 2009
Mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia is a crime, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Monday that if the American people could see it, there would be a revolution. “We are cutting down the Appalachian Mountains, these historic landscapes where Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett roamed that are so much a part of American culture,” the environmental attorney said at a rally to stop blasting on southern West Virginia’s Coal River Mountain.
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National Oil and Hazardous Substance Pollution Contingency Plan; National Priorities List. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 8, 2009
EPA, Region 5 is publishing a direct final Notice of Deletion of theKerr-McGee Reed-Keppler Park Superfund Site (Site), located in West Chicago, Illinois, from the National Priorities List (NPL). The NPL, promulgated pursuant to Section 105 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, as amended, is an appendix to the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP). This direct final deletion is being published by EPA with the concurrence of the State of Illinois, through the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA), because EPA has determined that all appropriate response actions under CERCLA have been completed. However, this deletion does not preclude future actions underSuperfund.
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Port of Olympia Sued Over Budd Inlet Pollution. — The Associated Press, December 8, 2009
An activist group is suing the Port of Olympia, claiming that discharges of stormwater from its terminal are polluting south Puget Sound. The nonprofit group Olympians for Public Accountability filed the Clean Water Act lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Monday. It says that despite previous promises, the port has failed to monitor and clean up its discharges into Budd Inlet, especially from Weyerhaueser Corp.’s log export facility. The lawsuit says the stormwater is depleted of oxygen and includes unacceptable levels of zinc, copper and other pollutants.
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Medical Waste Institute and Energy Recovery Council v. Environmental Protection Agency, Case No. 09-1297. — Petition for Review, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, December 7, 2009
Pursuant to Rule 15 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure and Section 307(b) of the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. 5 7607(b), the Medical Waste Institute and the Energy Recovery Council hereby petition the Court for review of a final agency action of the United States Environmental Protection Agency entitled “Standards of Performance for New Stationary Sources and Emissions Guidelines for Existing Sources: Hospital/Medical/Infectious Waste Incinerators; Final Rule,” published in the Federal Register at 74 Fed. Reg. 5 1,368 on October 6, 2009.
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New lawsuit could stall plans for 49ers stadium in Santa Clara. — John Cote, San Francisco Chronicle, December 8, 2009
The company that owns Great America has filed a lawsuit that would void a proposal between Santa Clara and the 49ers to build a 68,500-seat stadium on a city-owned parking lot used by the theme park. The lawsuit was filed on the eve of the Santa Clara City Council deciding Tuesday when to put the stadium proposal to its residents. Santa Clara officials were quick to downplay the lawsuit’s impact, and an attorney for Cedar Fair L.P., owner of Great America, told the city that the Ohio-based company was simply trying to protect its rights and would dismiss the lawsuit if ongoing talks with the city went well.
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Budd Inlet: Group claims port broke promises from 2007; port director says he’s surprised by suit. — John Dodge, The Olympian, December 9, 2009
The Port of Olympia’s stormwater management violates the federal Clean Water Act and leads to pollution of lower Budd Inlet, a citizen watchdog group claimed in a lawsuit filed in federal court. The nonprofit Olympians for Public Accountability charged that port officials have failed to live up to promises to better monitor and treat stormwater from their marine terminal operations. The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, seeks civil penalties of more than $30,000 per day of violation.
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Delaware in court to stop dredging of Delaware River. — Pete McCarthy, The News of Cumberland County, December 9, 2009
Referring to the Delaware River as one of the “most polluted” in the nation, a state’s attorney argued federal officials should not begin an effort to deepen the main shipping channel until all permits are in place. The State of Delaware was in U.S. District Court in Wilmington Tuesday morning to seek a preliminary injunction to stop the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from beginning the dredging project, which could commence by the end of this month. The plan is to deepen the main channel – which reaches from the mouth of bay north to Philadelphia – from 40 feet to 45 feet.
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Environmentalists threatens pollution lawsuit over city’s wastewater system. — The Associated Press, December 10, 2009
In a complaint documenting foamy sewage discharges and manholes that frequently overflow, an environmental group on Tuesday threatened to file a lawsuit forcing Memphis to clean up its wastewater system. The Tennessee Clean Water Network issued a 60-day notice of its intent to sue the city for allegedly violating pollution-discharge permits at its Maynard C. Stiles North Treatment Plant — one of Memphis’ two main treatment facilities along the Mississippi River.
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State environmental agency to face whooping crane lawsuit. — Asher Price, American Statesman, December 9, 2009
In an effort it says will protect the endangered whopping crane, an alliance of Gulf Coast environmental and business groups, led by a prominent South Texas family, announced Tuesday that it will sue Texas’ environmental agency over its water management. If successful, the planned suit could have consequences for water use in the Guadalupe River Basin — which includes Kerrville, New Braunfels, San Marcos and Victoria — and pumping from the Edwards Aquifer.
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EPA Orders Roberson Oil Company to Stop Discharging. — EPA News Release, December 10, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a cease and desist administrative order to the Roberson Oil Company, Inc. of Ada, Oklahoma, for violations of the federal Clean Water Act.
An October 26, 2009, EPA inspection of the company’s oil field production facility in Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, found an unauthorized discharge of oil field brine generated by production activities into a tributary of Clear Boggy Creek. The inspection also revealed that water located at the discharge point of entry into the tributary of Clear Boggy Creek was contaminated from brine discharges and salts.
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Largest Environmental Bankruptcy in U.S. History Will Result in Payment of $1.79 Billion towards Environmental Cleanup and Restoration / Largest recovery of money for hazardous waste clean up ever. — EPA News Release, December 10, 2009
As a result of the largest environmental bankruptcy in U.S. history, $1.79 billion has been paid to fund environmental cleanup and restoration under a bankruptcy reorganization of American Smelting and Refining Company LLC (ASARCO), the Justice Department, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Department of the Interior and Department of Agriculture announced today. ASARCO is a leading producer of copper and one of the largest nonferrous metal producers in the United States. It is based in Arizona and is responsible for sites around the country that are contaminated with hazardous waste.
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AG Sues Former Columbia Property Developer. — Maureen McCollum, KBIA.com, December 10, 2009
A former Columbia development business is under fire for violating the Clean Water Act. KBIA’s Maureen McCollum has more on the attorney general’s lawsuit. Although Garth Coleman Builders is no longer in business, the attorney general’s office wants it to pay for clean water violations. The Columbia developer had planned the Kinkade Crossing subdivision, but it was never completed. Garth Coleman Builders defaulted on a loan, so the property went into the possession of the bank.
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Groups Appeal for Environmental Review of Titan Cement Plant. — Southern Environmental Law Center, December 9, 2009
Groups today appealed to Wake County Superior Court for a comprehensive review of public health and environmental impacts from the proposed Titan America cement plant after a N.C. Department of Administration ruling allowed the plant to go forward without such a review. Built on the Northeast Cape Fear River in Castle Hayne, the cement kiln would be the fourth-largest cement plant in the country and a significant source of toxic emissions, such as mercury and hydrochloric acid. The mine for the limestone to make the cement would destroy about 1,000 acres of wetlands.
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EPA conducts search at Iowa GPC offices. — The Associated Press, December 10, 2009
Agents with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have served a search warrant at the Muscatine offices of Grain Processing Corp. GPC spokeswoman Janet Sichterman releasd a statement that acknowledges the search on Thursday. She says GPC is cooperating to provide the information the EPA is asking for but that the company is not aware of any particular allegations.
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300 Clean Water Act Violations! Illinois Citizens File Notice to Sue Reckless Coal Strip Mine. — Jeff Biggers, The Huffington Post, December 11, 2009
Dashing through the snow in the watersheds of some of the last old growth forest in Illinois … are discharges of illegal levels of pollutants, including manganese, total suspended solids, sulfates, iron, and acidic water, thanks to a reckless strip-mining coal operation. At the Fulton County Health Department in Canton, Illinois today, concerned Illinois citizens from the Sierra Club, Prairie Rivers Network, and the Environmental Law and Policy Center filed a notice of intent to sue Freeman United Coal Mining Company, regarding repeated and excessive violations of the Clean Water Act at their strip mine near Industry.
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REGULATORY ACTIONS

Air

Recent Posting to the Applicability Determination Index (ADI) Database System of Agency Applicability Determinations, Alternative Monitoring Decisions, and Regulatory Interpretations Pertaining to Standards of Performance for New Stationary Sources, National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants, and the Stratospheric Ozone Protection Program. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 7, 2009
This notice announces applicability determinations, alternative monitoring decisions, and regulatory interpretations that EPA has made under the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS); the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP); and the Stratospheric Ozone Protection Program.
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Small-Engine Makers Voice Worry As EPA Weighs New Ethanol Rule. — Mark Long, The Wall Street Journal, December 7, 2009
Boaters and small-engine-industry groups are worried their concerns about engine damage will be overlooked as the Environmental Protection Agency considers allowing as much as 15% ethanol in the nation’s gasoline. Since fuel with an ethanol content of up to 10% has been introduced across the U.S. in recent years, boaters have complained of problems. Now they are lobbying the EPA to test the effects of ethanol on small engines—in addition to the testing being done on car and truck engines—as the regulator weighs increasing the ethanol content.
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Ethanol and Smog: A Matter of Our Health. — Letter to the Editor, The New York Times, December 7, 2009
Re “E.P.A. Says It Expects to Raise Amount of Ethanol Allowed in Fuel Blends to 15%” (Business Day, Dec. 2): As the Environmental Protection Agency makes plans to raise the amount of ethanol allowed in fuel blends, there is a critical health and environmental issue to consider: burning ethanol/gasoline mixtures produces volatile organic compounds, like formaldehyde, precursors of smog. Smog (ground-level ozone) is toxic to the lining of the lungs and traps heat, worsening the “urban heat island effect” whereby the average temperatures are 7 degrees Fahrenheit above rural areas, making urban heat waves particularly lethal. Burning biofuels thus increases vulnerability to climate change and the accompanying increase in heat waves.
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Touted as Earth-friendly, incinerator accused of spewing poison. — Star Ledger Staff, Star Ledger, December 7, 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 to Covanta Energy, the corporate operator.
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Primary National Ambient Air Quality Standard for Sulfur Dioxide. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 8, 2009
Based on its review of the air quality criteria for oxides of sulfur and the primary national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for oxides of sulfur as measured by sulfur dioxide (SO2), EPA is proposing to revise the primary SO2 NAAQS to provide requisite protection of public health with an adequate margin of safety. Specifically, EPA proposes to establish a new 1-hour SO2 standard within the range of 50–100 parts per billion (ppb), based on the 3- year average of the annual 99^th percentile (or 4th highest) of 1-hour daily maximum concentrations. The EPA also proposes to revoke both the existing 24-hour and annual primary SO2 standards.
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Coal Dust In Appalachia Challenged. — Raviya Ismail, Earthjustice, December 8, 2009
On the very same day that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared global warming pollution as a threat to human health, Earthjustice challenged the agency on an air pollution standard affecting folks in Appalachia. Earthjustice, representing several clean air advocates, is calling on the agency to require coal preparation and processing plants to take any measures to limit the dangerous coal dust kicked up by trucks traveling on plant roads.
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Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Pennsylvania; Clean Air Interstate Rule; NOX SIP Call Rule; Amendments to NOX Control Rules. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 10, 2009
EPA is approving a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The revision addresses the requirements of EPA’s Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR)  and modifies other requirements in Pennsylvania’s SIP that interact with CAIR including: The termination of Pennsylvania’s NOX Budget Trading Program; statewide provisions for large, stationary internal combustion engines; statewide provisions for large cement kilns; provisions for small sources of NOX in the Pennsylvania portion of the Philadelphia 8-hour ozone nonattainment area; and emission reduction credits. EPA is determining that the SIP revision fully implements the CAIR requirements for Pennsylvania. Although the D.C. Circuit found CAIR to be flawed, the rule was remanded without vacatur and thus remains in place. Thus, EPA is continuing to take action on CAIR SIPs as appropriate. CAIR, as promulgated, requires States to reduce emissions of SO2 and NOX that significantly contribute to, or interfere with maintenance of, the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for fine particulates and/or ozone in any downwind state. CAIR establishes budgets for SO2 and NOX for States that contribute significantly to nonattainment in downwind States and requires the significantly contributing States to submit SIP revisions that implement these budgets. States have the flexibility to choose which control measures to adopt to achieve the budgets, including participation in EPAadministered cap-and-trade programs addressing SO2,  NOX annual, and NOX ozone season emissions. In the SIP revision that EPA is approving, Pennsylvania will meet CAIR requirements by participating in these cap-and-trade programs. EPA is approving the SIP revision, with the exceptions noted, as fully implementing the CAIR requirements for Pennsylvania. Consequently, this action will also cause the CAIR Federal Implementation Plans (CAIR FIPs) concerning SO2, NOX annual, and NOX ozone season emissions by Pennsylvania sources to be automatically withdrawn.
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Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Exhaust Emissions of Light-duty Vehicles in Metropolitan Detroit. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 10, 2009
In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), this document announces that EPA is planning to submit a request for a new Information Collection Request (ICR)  to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
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Regulators OK Limestone County Coal Plant Permit. — John McFarland, The Associated Press, December 9, 2009
Texas environmental regulators on Wednesday issued an air-pollution permit for a power plant expansion, the first coal-fired plant to be approved since the Environmental Protection Agency ruled part of the state’s permitting process didn’t conform to the Clean Air Act. Texas Commission on Environmental Quality commissioners approved NRG Limestone’s permit for an 800-megawatt expansion at the plant near Jewett, 100 miles south of Dallas. The facility has been opposed by environmental groups who fear increased pollution and plan to ask for a rehearing with the agency.
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Wisconsin steers clear of diesel debate. — Sean Ryan, The Daily Reporter, December 9, 2009
Builders nationwide are fighting a proposed California rule requiring reductions in diesel emissions from construction equipment. Industry groups fear California’s rule will set a standard for other states to adopt. But in Wisconsin, regulators are content partnering with, rather than policing, builders. “It’s always good to stay ahead of regulations,” said Jessica Lawent, air management specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. “The cleaner we can keep the air through voluntary methods, the less we need mandated regulations.” The California Air Resources Board is proposing a requirement that builders reduce diesel emissions from their heavy equipment. The rules would require builders buy new equipment or retrofit old machines for cleaner emissions.
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CARB to redo ‘stained’ report, mulls truck/bus delay. — Land Line, December 10, 2009
The California Air Resources Board will take a mulligan on its tainted research behind its mammoth Truck and Bus Rule, and may extend some of the rule’s enforcement options. CARB directed staff to re-research and write a report on diesel truck emissions and particulate matter. The report has been criticized by several board members after the report’s main researcher and statistician was proven to have lied about his education. Written under the authority of Assembly Bill 32 – the 2006 law that addresses global warming – the truck and bus rule requires trucking fleets to acquire diesel particulate matter filters and upgrade their truck engines beginning in 2012. Most small trucking businesses, including fleets of one to three trucks, will be exempt until 2014.
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EPA Signs Two Rules to Further Protect Ozone Layer. — EPA News Release, December 11, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced two final rules that will further cut ozone-depleting pollutants, protecting the Earth’s ozone layer and reducing harmful greenhouse gases. The rules reduce the availability and use of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), which are primarily used as refrigerants and harm the ozone layer. A diminished ozone layer allows more radiation to reach the Earth’s surface, leading to serious health effects, such as skin cancer, cataracts, and weakened immune systems.
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Other Articles on this Same Topic:

Protection of Stratospheric Ozone: Allocation of Essential Use Allowances for Calendar Year 2010. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 11, 2009
EPA is proposing to allocate essential use allowances for import and production of Class I ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) for calendar year 2010. Essential use allowances enable a person to obtain controlled Class I ODSs through an exemption to the regulatory ban on the production and import of these chemicals, which became effective as of January 1, 1996. EPA allocates essential use allowances for production or import of a specific quantity of Class I substances solely for the designated essential purpose. The proposed allocation in this action is 30.0 metric tons (MT) of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) for use in metered dose inhalers (MDIs) for 2010.
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Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and Nonattainment New Source Review (NSR): Inclusion of Fugitive Emissions; Interim Final Rule; Stay. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 11, 2009
EPA is making an interim final determination to provide an additional stay of the regulations concerning the inclusion of fugitive emissions.
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The Environmental Protection Agency issued its rules governing the availability and use of virgin HCFCs. — AHRI – Consulting-Specifying Engineer, December 11, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its long-awaited rules governing the availability and use of virgin HCFCs in 2010 and beyond. The new rules will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2010 as specified by the Montreal Protocol.
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Power Plants Continue to Decrease SO­2 Emissions under EPA Cap and Trade Program . — EPA News Release, December 11, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that power plants across the country decreased emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO₂), a precursor to acid rain, to 7.6 million tons in 2008. Emissions from sources in the Acid Rain Program fell by 52 percent compared with 1990 levels and are already below the statutory annual emission cap of 8.95 million tons set for compliance in 2010.
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U.S. EPA approves California’s 1-hour ozone plan in San Joaquin Valley/Action part of an ongoing effort to improve air quality. — EPA News Release, December 11, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today approved California’s plan and numerous rules to meet the federal 1-hour ozone health standard in the San Joaquin Valley beginning in 2010. “The rules and commitments in the plan are now enforceable by EPA and the public,” said Deborah Jordan, director of the Air Division for the EPA’s Pacific Southwest region. “Today’s action lays the groundwork for attainment of the more protective 8-hour ozone standard.”
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Water

Notice of Availability of Final Modification of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) General Permit for Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration, Development and Production Operations Off Southern California. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 7, 2009
IEPA Region 9 is today issuing certain final modifications of its general NPDES permit (permit No. CAG280000) for discharges from offshore oil and gas exploration, development and production facilities located in Federal waters off the coast of Southern California. Region 9 proposed the permit modifications on April 3, 2009 (74 FR 15267), and the public comment period for the  proposal concluded on May 4, 2009. During the public comment period, Region 9 received written comments from four parties concerning the proposed modifications. Region 9 has prepared a  separate document (‘‘Response to Public Comments’’) that discusses the comments in more detail and Region 9’s responses to the comments. The final permit modifications differ only slightly from the proposed modifications. The changes from the proposal are discussed in more detail in the Addendum to Fact Sheet and in the Response to Public Comments. The final modified general permit establishes effluent limitations, prohibitions, and other conditions on discharges from facilities authorized by this general permit. These conditions are based on the administrative record.
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EPA Withdraws Water Permit for Peabody Coal Black Mesa. — The Speed of Dreams, December 3, 2009
In response to an appeal brought by a diverse coalition of tribal and environmental groups, this week the Environmental Protection Agency withdrew a controversial water permit for the massive Black Mesa Coal Complex, a coal-mine complex located on Navajo Nation and Hopi lands in northeastern Arizona. EPA’s permit withdrawal means that discharges of heavy metal and pollutants – including selenium, nitrates, and other heavy metals and toxic pollutants from coal-mining operations at the Black Mesa Complex – are threatening washes, tributaries, groundwater, and the drinking water for local communities, but are not being regulated.
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BP oil spill likely to spark regulator ire. —  Gulf News, December 7, 2009
UK oil major BP has uncovered a spill on a pipeline in Alaska, which, following major corrosion and resulting spills revealed in 2006 at the field, is likely to raise the ire of regulators. While BP has yet to determine the cause or release the scale of the spill, it has said it occurred on a pipeline feeding into Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, the biggest oilfield in North America, and could have an impact on production. The field usually produces 400,000 barrels a day.
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Federal crackdown urged in clean-water laws State failing to enforce laws, riverkeepers say. — Pamela Wood and E.B. Furgurson III, The Capital, December 7, 2009
The waterkeepers who patrol Maryland’s rivers and bays said the state is failing to enforce clean-water laws, and the federal government should take over the task. The waterkeepers – including the four riverkeepers who monitor Anne Arundel County’s waterways – filed a petition seeking the move with the federal government this morning. “The Clean Water Act is not being enforced,” said Chris Trumbauer, the West/Rhode Riverkeeper. “We need to do something bold to set this on the right course.”
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EPA Releases Guidance to Help Federal Facilities Better Manage Stormwater. — EPA News Release, December 8, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued guidance to help federal agencies minimize the impact of federal development projects on nearby water bodies. The guidance is being issued in response to a change in law and an Executive Order signed by President Obama, which calls upon all federal agencies to lead by example to address a wide range of environmental issues, including stormwater runoff.  “EPA is proud to issue this new guidance to help federal facilities reduce stormwater pollution,” said Peter S. Silva, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Water. “By taking these steps to create more sustainable facilities, federal agencies can lead by example in reducing impacts in the local watershed.”
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TMDL ‘Pollution Diet’ Meeting Set for Delaware. — EPA News Release, December 8, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, along with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, will hold a public meeting in Laurel, DE on Thursday, Dec. 10 to discuss the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) – a strict “pollution diet” to protect local waters and restore the Chesapeake Bay.
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Group promotes tough stance by state on coal ash disposal. — The Des Moines Register, December 8, 2009
The environmental advocacy group Plains Justice has called on the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission to take a stand favoring regulation of coal ash as hazardous waste. The federal Environmental Protection Agency is drafting rules to address health risks associated with coal combustion waste. The rules are expected to be issued by Dec. 31. Before that happens, Plains Justice wants the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission to add its voice to calls for safeguards to better protect public health, surface water and groundwater, Plains Justice said in a letter sent Monday.
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EPA will review claims of leniency on water polluters. — Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun, December 8, 2009
Federal officials said Monday that they plan to review claims by a coalition of Maryland environmental groups that the state is going easy on water polluters. Evelyn MacKnight, chief of water pollution discharge permits in the Environmental Protection Agency’s mid-Atlantic regional office in Philadelphia, said agency staff just received the 58-page petition from Waterkeepers Chesapeake of Maryland. The Waterkeepers contend that the state Department of the Environment is not doing enough to limit pollution piped into rivers and the Chesapeake Bay from businesses, farms and sewage plants, and is not inspecting or enforcing tightly enough. An MDE spokeswoman called the groups’ allegations of lax enforcement “unfounded and baseless.”
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EPA Releases Guidance to Help Federal Facilities Better Manage Stormwater. — EPA News Release, December 8, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued guidance to help federal agencies minimize the impact of federal development projects on nearby water bodies. The guidance is being issued in response to a change in law and an Executive Order signed by President Obama, which calls upon all federal agencies to lead by example to address a wide range of environmental issues, including stormwater runoff.  “EPA is proud to issue this new guidance to help federal facilities reduce stormwater pollution,” said Peter S. Silva, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Water. “By taking these steps to create more sustainable facilities, federal agencies can lead by example in reducing impacts in the local watershed.”
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EPA unveils new policies on water at schools. — Kevin Freking, The Associated Press, December 8, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a new national strategy to enforce safe drinking water laws in small, rural communities on Tuesday and pledged to redouble efforts to protect children from toxic water in schools. The announcement came during a hearing by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held to examine reports of widespread water contamination and unsafe levels of lead and other toxics flowing through the pipes at thousands of U.S. schools.
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Report: Spill released huge load of heavy metals. — Scott Barker, Knoxville News Sentinel, December 9, 2009
Last year’s Kingston fly ash spill dumped more heavy metals into the Emory River than all the power plants discharged into all the nation’s waters the year before, an environmental group said in a report issued Tuesday. The Environmental Integrity Project report states the spill – at 5.4 million cubic yards – released roughly 4 1/2 times more lead and 2 1/2 times more arsenic than the entire power industry released in 2007. The project based its conclusions on data that industry supplied to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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State May Appeal EPA Clean Water Rules. — The Jacksonville Observer, December 9, 2009
State officials said Tuesday they’re considering going to court over an August consent decree requiring Florida to adopt federal clean water standards by late next year. With municipal governments, and public and private utilities saying it will cost them billions to comply, Gov. Charlie Crist and other Cabinet members said the consent decree entered between a coalition of environmental groups and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in August has the potential of undoing nearly a decade of state efforts to improve water quality standards.
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EPA Releases Final Specification for WaterSense New Homes: This will help homeowners increase water efficiency and save on their utility bills. — EPA News Release, December 10, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its final WaterSense single-family new homes specification today, creating the first national, voluntary, water-efficiency specification for an entire new home. “Home builders can now partner with EPA and earn the WaterSense label for their newly built homes, helping to create livable communities and quality homes that are easy to maintain,” said Peter S. Silva, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Water. “These homes will save homeowners as much as $200 a year on utility bills compared to their current homes.”
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EPA hears from valley on CAFO permit. — Nate Poppino, Times-News, December 10, 2009
Nick Peak got the audience he had hoped for. The regional confined-animal feeding operation coordinator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Peak is the public face of a draft general CAFO permit proposed for Idaho. That led to Wednesday morning, when he spent two hours fielding comments on the permit from state and county officials, CAFO operators and other industry representatives at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game office near Jerome. The new permit, drafted by the EPA, would be required for all CAFOs that expect to discharge any kind of fluids into Idaho surface waters — something only allowed during storms with high precipitation. Wednesday’s meeting was part of an effort by the federal agency to gather public comment on the draft, which will then be reviewed and revised in the coming months.
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Waste

State, groups to go after brownfield grants. — The Day, December 6, 2009
Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced Saturday the state is partnering with two regional organizations in an effort to obtain $1 million in brownfield-assessment funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The state, together with the Windham Region and Northeastern Connecticut councils of governments, have teamed up to create the Eastern Connecticut Brownfield Coalition, or ECBC. The two regional organizations represent a total of 21 rural eastern Connecticut towns.
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Cleanup to begin at abandoned Cushing refinery. — Tulsa World, December 7, 2009
A massive cleanup of an abandoned refinery in Cushing is expected to begin next month. The $9 million cleanup of the Hudson Refinery Superfund site is expected to be completed in September 2010. The project will involve the use of heavy equipment to renovate contaminated soil and clean out wastewater ponds. A letter-writing campaign by a group of eighth-graders in the late 1990s helped draw the Environmental Protection Agency’s attention to the towering, rusty remains of the abandoned refinery. The refinery is located on both sides of Oklahoma 33 and is surrounded by residential, agricultural and commercial properties.
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Withdrawal of the Emission-Comparable Fuel Exclusion Under RCRA. — Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Register, December 8, 2009
EPA is proposing to withdraw the conditional exclusion from regulations promulgated on December 19, 2008 under subtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) for so-called Emission Comparable Fuel (ECF). These are fuels produced from hazardous secondary materials which, when burned in industrial boilers under specified conditions, generate emissions that are comparable to emissions from burning fuel oil in those boilers. EPA is proposing to withdraw this conditional exclusion because ECF appears to be better regarded as being a discarded material and regulated as a hazardous waste. The exclusions for comparable fuel and synthesis gas fuel are not addressed or otherwise affected by this proposed rule.
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Fight against mountaintop removal making headway. — Facing South, December 8, 2009
An Associated Press story from yesterday gives props to the grassroots movement against mountaintop removal, a particularly destructive form of mining that involves blowing up Appalachian peaks to get to the coal below. Datelined Morgantown, W.Va., the article by reporter Vicki Smith observes that “[e]nvironmental activists have gained more momentum this year than in the past decade” against mountaintop removal.” It reports among other things that more than 65,000 people e-mailed the Environmental Protection Agency last month with their concerns about the practice.
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EPA tests soil around East Chicago homes for lead. — The Associated Press, December 9, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is testing for lead in the soil around homes in East Chicago that are near one the nation’s most polluted sites. The agency began collecting samples Monday from the front and back yards of the homes as part of testing that will continue for about two weeks. The EPA is trying to determine whether the yards are contaminated with lead.
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Climate Change

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.
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E.P.A. Sets Carbon Crackdown. — John M. Broder, The New York Times, December 7, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday will complete its determination that greenhouse gases pose a danger to human health and the environment, paving the way for regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles, power plants, factories refineries and other major sources.The agency finding also will allow Mr. Obama to tell delegates at the United Nations climate change conference that began today in Copenhagen that the United States is moving aggressively to address the problem.
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Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under the Clean Air Act. — EPA News Release, December 8, 2009
On December 7, 2009, the Administrator signed two distinct findings regarding greenhouse gases under section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act: (1) Endangerment Finding: The Administrator finds that the current and projected concentrations of the six key well-mixed greenhouse gases–carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆)–in the atmosphere threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations. (2) Cause or Contribute Finding: The Administrator finds that the combined emissions of these well-mixed greenhouse gases from new motor vehicles and new motor vehicle engines contribute to the greenhouse gas pollution which threatens public health and welfare.
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Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, Remarks on the Endangerment Finding on Greenhouse Gases, As Prepared. — EPA News Release, December 7, 2009
The scientific community, the business community and the policy world have spent decades studying greenhouse gas pollution and climate change. Scientists in the U.S. and around the world have tracked in the last century – and in particular the last three decades – alarming increases in the amount of greenhouse gases in our skies. That increase is deteriorating the natural balance in our atmosphere and changing our climate. There have and continue to be debates about how and how quickly climate change will happen if we fail to act. But the overwhelming amounts of scientific study show that the threat is real – as does the evidence before our very eyes. Polar ice caps crumbling into the oceans, changing migratory patterns of animals and broader ranges for deadly diseases, historic droughts, more powerful storms, and disappearing coastlines.
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Boxer Statement on Release of Global Warming Pollution Endangerment Finding. — U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, December 7, 2009
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, released the following statement regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s release of the finding that global warming pollution poses a threat to the American people. The endangerment finding is a key milestone in EPA’s efforts address global warming pollution under the Clean Air Act.
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EPA carbon finding sparks climate debate. — Foon Rhee, Political Intelligence, December 7, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency’s expected announcement this afternoon that it is declaring carbon dioxide a health hazard allows it to limit emissions from sources such as power plants and factories, even without congressional action. But on the opening day of an international climate summit in Copenhagen, the declaration is also rekindling the political fight over emails that, according to skeptics, show that scientists have massaged data to show that global warming is real.
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Industry: EPA climate regs would make energy more expensive and cut jobs . — Chris Kahn, Los Angeles Times, December 7, 2009
Political, costly, and likely to choke off growth. That’s how the energy industry and companies that use a lot of energy describe the Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement Monday that greenhouse gas emissions are a danger and must be regulated. Almost all energy and energy intense industries hope that Congress will step in with new climate laws, namely through a cap-and-trade system that limits greenhouse gas emissions while allowing companies to buy or sell emissions credits.
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Energy stocks rise as investors mull EPA endangerment finding. — Deborah Jian Lee, Los Angeles Times, December 7, 2009
Energy stocks were most higher Monday, as investors weighed the potential burden of an Environmental Protection Agency finding that declares greenhouse gases a hazard to human health and advances the push for regulation. The endangerment finding threatens the energy industry’s big polluters, such as refiners and coal-based utilities, while power companies with a greener portfolio and solar parts and panel makers could gain from stricter regulation, analysts said.
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EPA Ruling Steps Up Pressure on Congress. — Daniel Stone, Newsweek, December 8, 2009
Science, and especially government science, isn’t supposed to be political, but it certainly can be strategic. So when the Environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday its latest findings—that greenhouse gasses threaten public health and the environment—it at first seemed an odd precursor to the bigger news on carbon and global climate happening this week in Copenhagen. Except this was no coincidence. Rather, it was a well-timed maneuver to boost the U.S.’s voice in Copenhagen, and more important, a stunningly effective way to pressure the Senate to get moving on climate legislation.
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The Endangerment Finding. — Editorial, The New York Times, December 7, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency formally declared on Monday that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases constitute a threat to human health and welfare. The move empowers the agency to regulate these emissions and gives President Obama an important tool if Congress fails to pass legislation to reduce global warming emissions. Mr. Obama and the E.P.A. administrator, Lisa Jackson, have said repeatedly that they would much prefer a comprehensive legislative approach. But while the House has passed a broad climate change bill, the prospects in the Senate are uncertain. The threat of regulation gives Congress extra incentive to act; regulation would provide a strong backstop if it does not.
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Impact of EPA endangerment finding on trucking unclear. — Sean Kilcarr, Fleet Owner, December 8, 2009
Though the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has officially designated greenhouse gases (GHGs) a threat to the public health and welfare of the American people, and that GHG emissions from on-road vehicles contributes to that threat, the ultimate impact this will have on the trucking industry is unknown at this point. “The release of the endangerment finding is seen as an effort to focus more attention on pending federal climate change legislation – but it does not include any proposed regulations,” noted Glen Kedzie, an American Trucking Assns. (ATA) vp,  told FleetOwner. “[But] it’s unclear at this time how the EPA’s endangerment finding will affect the trucking industry.”
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Texas Says EPA Should Rethink “Job Killing” Carbon Dioxide Ruling. — Governor of Texas, The Gov Monitor, December 10, 2009
Governor Rick Perry today sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson urging her to withdraw the EPA’s recent ruling on the danger of carbon dioxide, especially in light of the recent “Climategate” scandal, which uncovered data had been manipulated and destroyed in order to falsely show a preordained result.
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Dealing with climate change: SC roundtable discusses ways to protect natural resources. — The Associated Press, December 10, 2009
Climate change and how it’s affecting South Carolina’s natural resources and tourism industry will be the focus of a round-table discussion in the state capital. The talks at the Capital City Club on Thursday include business owners, sportsmen, and natural resource regulators and will center on finding solutions to protect the state’s wildlife and natural resources.
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Pryor May Rethink Cap-Trade. — John Lyon, Arkansas News Bureau, December 10, 2009
Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., said Wednesday he may rethink his position on a proposed cap-and-trade program in light of the recent Environmental Protection Agency ruling that greenhouse gas emissions are a threat to the public health.Also Wednesday, the chairman and CEO of Entergy Corp. told an audience in Little Rock the EPA has sent a signal to Congress to act on climate change, and U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln said she has concerns about the agency’s ruling. “I’ve always been reluctant on cap and trade, but it (the EPA ruling) might put that in a different light,” Pryor said in a conference call with reporters. “I’ll just have to look at that and really spend some time reflecting on that and talking to not just colleagues but talking to people who really understand this and see if that does change my view on cap-and-trade.”
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Statement by Bob Stallman, President, American Farm Bureau Federation, Regarding EPA Endangerment Finding Related to Climate Change. — The Voice of Agriculture, December 7, 2009
Bob Stallman, Pres American Farm Bureau Federation, statement re EPA Endangerment Finding Related to Climate Change “The decision by the Environmental Protection Agency today to announce an endangerment finding on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases could carry severe consequences for America’s farmers and ranchers. “We firmly believe any regulations dealing with global warming that could negatively affect our ability to produce food and fiber for our nation and the world should come through the legislative process. While more and more questions are being raised about the scientific validity of global warming models it is not the time to begin making sweeping policy decisions based on the projections offered by those climate models.
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Businessmen, the Planet Needs You. — Georg Kell, The New York Times Op-Ed Contributor, December 11, 2009
As negotiating teams labor at the U.N. climate change conference, a rising chorus of business leaders is chanting “seal the deal.” Though notions of hammering out an actual climate treaty in Copenhagen have been put to rest, many captains of industry are nonetheless urging governments to agree on the core elements of a climate framework that can serve the basis of a treaty. Indeed, in recent months, scores of business leaders and some important investors have pursued what amounts to a global road-show to demonstrate the many initiatives and actions they are undertaking to combat climate change, despite the slowness of many governments to act.
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Other

Study of Desert Rock’s impact on endangered species due soon. — Marjorie Childress, The New Mexico Independent, December 7, 2009
In September, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rescinded the air permit it had issued in 2008 for a coal-fired power plant to be built near Farmington, saying the decision was made in part because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department hadn’t yet completed a study of potential impacts of the project on endangered species. That study has been underway and will be completed and turned over to the Bureau of Indian Affairs this month, Wally Murphy, supervisor of the Albuquerque office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department, told the Independent in an interview. Species potentially impacted by the proposed Desert Rock project — which would be the third coal-fired power plant located within 16 miles of each other — are the southwestern willow flycatcher, the Colorado pikeminnow, the razorback sucker, the silvery minnow, the Mancos milk-vetch and the Mesa Verde cactus.
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EPA to Strengthen Oversight of Pesticide’s Impact on Children and Farmworkers. — EPA News Release, December 8, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to strengthen its assessment of pesticide health risks. EPA’s proposal would include a more thorough assessment of risks to workers, including farmworkers and farm children, as well as risks posed by pesticides that are not used on food. The agency is asking the public to comment on the new approach and how best to implement the improvements.
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Modest proposal to delay drilling deserves approval. — Times Herald-Record, December 8, 2009
Several environmental groups have sent a letter to Gov. David Paterson with a very reasonable request. They want him to declare a 12-month moratorium on any drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale, taking that time to revisit the state’s environmental impact statement and to bring in the expertise of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. They do not say that the drilling cannot be done safely or that it is impossible for the state to come up with a set of regulations that would provide the necessary safeguards. They say, instead, that the evidence about contamination now being gathered on drilling sites in nearby Pennsylvania, for example, should be taken into consideration.
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EPA Reports Decrease in Toxic Chemical Pollution. — The Associated Press, December 8, 2009
When it comes to pollution, the economic downturn could have an upside.The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday reported that toxic chemical pollution from the nation’s industrial plants, mines and factories declined by 6 percent in 2008, the second year in a row that companies have reported releasing less pollution. Companies put 3.86 billion pounds of toxic chemicals into the air and water and onto land in 2008, down from 4.1 billion pounds in 2007 and 4.26 billion pounds in 2006.
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EPA Analysis Shows Reduction in 2008 Toxic Chemical Releases. — EPA News Release, December 8, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is releasing its annual national analysis of the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). The TRI database contains information on chemical releases into the air, land and water, as well as waste management and pollution prevention activities. The analysis of the 2008 data, the most recent data set available, shows that 3.86 billion pounds of toxic chemicals were released into the environment, a 6 percent decrease from 2007. This is the first time EPA has released its annual analysis in the same calendar year as the data were reported. In August, the agency released to the public the raw TRI data prior to EPA analysis for the first time. EPA has made the data available more quickly to increase transparency.
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EPA agrees to review oil, gas pollution standards. — The Associated Press, December 8, 2009
Federal officials have agreed to review air pollution standards for oil and gas operations to decide if they need to be updated. The proposed settlement of a complaint by two environmental groups calls for the Environmental Protection Agency to start the review in January 2011. The settlement needs court approval. WildEarth Guardians and the San Juan Citizens Alliance filed a complaint in January saying the EPA hasn’t updated air quality standards for oil and gas development despite increased activity. The groups also want the EPA to set standards for pollutants not currently regulated, including greenhouse gases.
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Uranerz Receives Draft EIS for Nichols Ranch ISR Uranium Project. — CNN Money.com, December 9, 2009
Uranerz Energy Corporation is pleased to announce that the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (“NRC”) has issued a draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Company’s Nichols Ranch ISR Uranium Project in Campbell and Johnson Counties, Wyoming, U.S.A. This draft Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”) for the Nichols Ranch ISR Project is issued as a “Supplement to the Generic Environmental Impact Statement for In-Situ Leach Uranium Milling Facilities”.  The issuance of the draft EIS represents a major milestone in the application process for a Source Material License. Obtaining the Source Material License, which allows the Company to receive, possess, use, transfer, and deliver radioactive materials, is required before an in-situ recovery (“ISR”) uranium mine can be constructed and operated.
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Lake County pollution bad despite reduction. — Gitte Laaby, Post-Tribune, December 9, 2009
New toxic release data from EPA shows Lake County industries released the ninth-most pollution in the nation in 2008 — more than 31.5 million pounds. The high ranking, released Tuesday, comes despite a 31.1 percent reduction in releases from Lake County industrial plants compared to 2007. The data, self-reported by the industries to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory, also shows that two Lake County steel mills are among the nation’s 50 biggest polluters.
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Full review sought on cement plant. — Lynn Bonner, News Observer, December 10, 2009
Environmental groups on Wednesday asked the courts to decide whether a controversial cement plant planned for the North Carolina coast should have a full review of how it will affect air, land and water before the state awards it permits. Titan America wants to build a plant in New Hanover County that would produce up to 2.4 million tons of cement a year. Production would include heating raw materials – mostly limestone mined nearby – in a coal-fired kiln. The plant would release toxins such as mercury, benzene and hydrogen chloride.
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Limited EPA Study Finds Low Level of Concern in Samples of Recycled Tires from Ballfield and Playground Surfaces. — EPA News Release, December 10, 2009
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released results of a limited field monitoring study of artificial-turf playing fields and playgrounds constructed with recycled tire material or tire crumb. The study was intended to gain experience conducting field monitoring of recreational surfaces that contain tire crumb. EPA will use the information to help determine possible next steps to address questions regarding the safety of tire crumb infill in recreational fields.
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STATE & FEDERAL ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION

California water plan faces challenges. — Harry Cline, Western Farm Press, December 7, 2009
The most comprehensive statewide California water conservation and development plan cobbled together in almost a half century seems to be springing leaks almost before it is launched. It is becoming obvious the five-bill package pact that was nailed and glued together in marathon legislative sessions earlier this fall has more leaks than the Titanic, if the comments from three water experts at the Western Growers annual conference are any indication.
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Environmental group alleges lax oversight in Maryland. — David A. Fahrenthold, The Washington Post, December 7, 2009
A group of environmental activists plans to petition the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday to take back oversight powers it has delegated to Maryland, saying the state has not done enough to stop pollution entering rivers and the Chesapeake Bay. The alliance of Waterkeepers, including those concerned with the Anacostia, Potomac and Patuxent rivers, says that Maryland should no longer give out and oversee water-pollution permits for sewage plants, factories and storm-sewer systems. It argues that the state has too few inspectors to enforce these rules and has allowed many violators to escape with small fines.
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James Hansen: Ditch ‘cap and trade’ for ‘fee and dividend’. — James Hansen, The Dallas Morning News, December 7, 2009
At the international climate talks in Copenhagen, President Barack Obama is expected to announce that the United States wants to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to about 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050. But at the heart of his plan is cap and trade, a market-based approach that has been widely praised but does little to slow global warming or reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. It merely allows polluters and Wall Street traders to fleece the public out of billions of dollars. Supporters of cap and trade point to the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments that capped sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from coal-burning power plants – the main pollutants in acid rain – at levels below what they were in 1980. Sulfur emissions have been reduced by 43 percent in the two decades since. Great success? Hardly.
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Lawmakers Reject Attempt to Handcuff EPA Greenhouse Gas Rules. — Allison Winter, Greenwire in The New York Times, December 9, 2009
House and Senate conferees last night rejected an attempt to block U.S. EPA’s work on regulations to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The vote came as part of the conference on a $446.8 billion omnibus spending bill that also sets the largest-ever budget for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Appropriators rejected, 5-9, the amendment from Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) to block any funding in the omnibus bill for Clean Air Act regulations based on the endangerment finding.
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Congressional subcommittee met Wednesday to discuss coal ash spill. — Nick Bona, WVLT-TV.com, December 10, 2009
A congressional panel was assembled Wednesday to discuss the ongoing cleanup of last year’s coal ash spill at the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County. The House Subcommittee on Water Resources features updates from TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore, TVA Inspector General Richard Moore and Stan Meiburg, the Environmental Protection Agency’s acting administrator for the region. Meiburg said the EPA had recently taken a pair of untreated river water samples from around the spill site that contained arsenic levels that exceeded acceptable drinking water standards. He did admit that treated samples from the site had elevated levels of pollutants, but still met acceptable drinking water standards.
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EPW Committee Passes Formaldehyde, Recycling, Invasive Species and Other Bills. — US Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works News Release, December 10, 2009
Today, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed several pieces of legislation, including a measure to create technology-based emissions standards for formaldehyde in wood products, a bill to help increase tools to more effectively recycle electronics, and a number of measures to address wildlife and invasive species issues. The committee also approved several U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers resolutions. All of the bills passed by voice vote, and now go to the full Senate for consideration.
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Senators unveil climate bill outline, a work in progress. — Recharge, December 10, 2009
Key US senators working on a sweeping climate change and energy bill have released an outline of their effort in a public letter to President Obama as he looks ahead to his Copenhagen visit next week. They seek to “combine the very best ideas from the public and private sectors and from across the ideological spectrum to achieve the structurally simplest, most economically responsible and environmentally effective result possible,” say Democrat John Kerry, Republican Lindsey Graham and Independent Joe Lieberman, the trio of senators working on the bill, say in their letter. The four-page summary (PDF) outlines ‘principles and guidelines’ the lawmakers will follow in an ongoing effort to draft legislation that can obtain the 60 votes necessary in the Senate. Because it borrows from prior legislative work, much of the outline is familiar, and, as promised, there are supports for coal, nuclear and oil and gas exploration.
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Other Articles on the Same Topic:

Executives hail U.S. climate-change deal. — UPI, December 11, 2009
Executives in the U.S. clean energy sector hailed a measure on energy and climate change introduced by bipartisan lawmakers in Washington. U.S. Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., in a letter to President Barack Obama outlined a measure on nuclear energy, regulation in carbon trading and reductions in the dependence on foreign oil, Politico reports. “We firmly believe that comprehensive domestic legislation will create jobs, reinvigorate the American economy and take back control of our energy,” Kerry said.
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Entergy CEO: EPA sending Congress message to act. — The Associated Press, December 10, 2009
The Obama administration’s moves toward regulating greenhouse gas emissions are sending Congress a message to act quickly on climate change legislation, Entergy Corp.’s chairman and chief executive said Wednesday. Wayne Leonard told reporters he believed the administration was acting because Congress has been too slow to address the problem. The Environmental Protection Agency declared Monday that carbon emissions could endanger human health and would be subject to federal regulation.
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Regulation of carbon provides new impetus for cap-and-trade. — Boston Globe Editorial, December 11, 2009
In declaring Monday that climate change threatens Americans’ well-being, the Environmental Protection Agency served a vital purpose, even if the agency never sets a hard limit on emissions from coal-fired power plants or gas-guzzling cars. The EPA action will instead put pressure on the Senate to pass the more flexible cap-and-trade system of regulating carbon pollution – an approach that was approved by the House last summer but has bogged down as critics tarred it as just another tax.
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Cattlemen’s Capitol Concerns: Greenhouse Gas Ruling, E15, Hong Kong Lifts Beef Imports. — The Associated Press, December 10, 2009
EPA Greenhouse Gas Ruling Could be Devastating to Agriculture. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) is extremely concerned about the potential impacts that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent greenhouse gas (GHG) ruling could have on agriculture operations. EPA’s decision, announced on Monday, claims that GHG emissions are an endangerment to public health and the environment. This sets the stage for greenhouse regulation under the Clean Air Act (CAA) and would give the EPA unprecedented control over every sector of the U.S. economy.
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State board moves to set regulation threshold for CO2 greenhouse gases. — Karl Puckett, Great Falls Tribune, December 12, 2009
In response to pending federal Environmental Protection Agency mandates, the state Board of Environmental Review voted 5-2 Friday to begin developing the state’s first greenhouse gas rule, a move seen by industry interests as premature and as “housekeeping” by an environmental organization. One of the EPA rules will require facilities such as coal-fired power plants that emit more than 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually to be regulated under the Clean Air Act, said Richard Opper, director of the state Department of Environmental Quality.
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Lawmakers demand action on Pompton Lakes cancer cluster. — Elaine D’Aurizo and James M. O’Neill, The Record, December 12, 2009
The state’s federal lawmakers are asking the U.S. environmental agency to review whether a DuPont pollution treatment project in Pompton Lakes is adequately protecting residents from harm by contaminants. The call Friday by Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez, joined by Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., followed a state health report that kidney cancer rates in women and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma rates in men are significantly elevated in a neighborhood perched above chemically contaminated groundwater.
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Montana To Consider Bill Protecting Fish Habitat and Forest Jobs. — Fly Talk, Field and Stream, December 11, 2009
Our friends over at Trout Unlimited alerted us to this bill making it’s way through the Montana Senate right now. Trout Unlimited, The Montana Wildlife Federation, and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership all have announced support of a bill for the state of Montana called the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, sponsored by Sen. Jon Tester. “This bill has broad support from hunters and anglers, simply because it keeps irreplaceable fish and game habitat intact,” said Tom Reed, a TU field director based in Bozeman. “The bill is a product of thoughtful compromise and represents the best possible relief for Montana’s long wilderness drought. By protecting habitat in perpetuity, the bill protects our rights to fish and hunt on public land in Montana for generations to come.”
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OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS

Air

Clock ticking on air quality in Pinal County, Maricopa. — Michael K. Rich, In Maricopa.com, December 7, 2009
For months county and city leaders in Pinal County have been anticipating a letter from the Environmental Protection Agency designating the county as a non-attainment zone; that letter has now arrived on Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s desk. The EPA’s letter to the governor marks the official beginning of a timeline of activity that will culminate in a comprehensive plan to deal with Pinal County’s air-quality issues. “This letter is the first step in defining the areas we need to target,” said Donald Gabrielson, the director of Pinal County’s Department of Development Services and Air-quality Control.
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Water

Small water systems, schools to get new look. — Water Tech Online.com, December 8, 2009
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to dedicate more resources to small water systems nationwide, according to a December 8 Associated Press (AP) report from ABC News. Members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on December 8 heard from EPA officials about a new effort to improve the enforcement of safe drinking water laws among small systems and to assist them in attaining compliance.
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What’s in the water? — Bettina Boxall, The Los Angeles Times, December 12, 2009
Lots of stuff, according to the Environmental Working Group. The public interest organization has created an online database of water quality test results from 45 states. The group’s analysis of utility information found that water agencies across the country have detected a total of more than 300 pollutants in supplies, more than half of which are not regulated by the government.
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Climate Change

Email scandal may be turning against climate change deniers. — Jeremy Hance, Monga Bay.com, December 7, 2009
It may be that climate change scientists and policymakers have simply had enough, and it may be that the emails which were hacked did not reveal the massive conspiracy that they were supposed to, either way climatologists and politicians have gone on the offensive against claims that the hacked emails from the East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit are evidence that climate change is a conspiracy or hoax. Showing perhaps how frustrated world leaders are with the situation, the Prime Minister of the UK, Gordon Brown, heavily criticized climate change deniers in the Guardian: “With only days to go before Copenhagen we mustn’t be distracted by the behind-the-times, anti-science, flat-earth climate sceptics. […] We know the science. We know what we must do.”
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Do Hacked E-mails Change Climate Debate? — National Journal Online, December 7, 2009
Should leaders of the world halt efforts to control greenhouse gases until they’ve investigated recent charges that some scientific studies linking human activity to climate change may have been overstated? In November, hackers released thousands of e-mails and other documents from a British university that allegedly call into question some of the scientific underpinnings of climate change. Opponents of global warming legislation claim that the e-mails prove that scientists manipulated the data. They want Congress and the EPA to suspend efforts to control U.S. greenhouse gas emissions until the charges are thoroughly scrutinized. However, Jane Lubchenco, a marine scientist who heads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told Congress that the hacked documents “do nothing to undermine the very strong scientific consensus” backing climate change.
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Has ‘Climategate’ Been Overblown? — Bryan Walsh, Time, December 7, 2009
The controversy over e-mails stolen from global-warming researchers at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at Britain’s University of East Anglia has become so divisive that there is even disagreement over what to call it. Skeptics of global warming, who have long considered climate change a fraud, refer to the incident as “Climategate,” with obvious intimations of scandal and cover-up. Advocates of action on warming call it “Swifthack,” a reference to the 2004 character attacks on presidential candidate Senator John Kerry by the group then known as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth — in other words, an invented scandal propagated by conservatives and the media that does nothing to change the scientific case for climate change.
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If It Warms Up, Who’s Going to Pay? — Samuel Fankhauser, The Wall Street Journal, December 8, 2009
As the most important environmental conference in more than a decade gets under way in Copenhagen this week, much of the talk, as usual, is on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. But there’s another issue that needs to be addressed—one that is crucial for reaching an overall agreement, but doesn’t get nearly as much attention. That issue is adaptation. Without a deal on how to cope with the possible effects of climate change, there will be no agreement in Copenhagen—or at any future conference, for that matter. That’s because developing countries, which likely will suffer some of the worst impact of any significant warming, have made it clear that they will not agree to an emissions-reduction package without substantial help in coping with the increased flooding, drought and disease that many scientists say will result from a warming planet. Reaching such a deal won’t be easy. But the good news is that it’s a lot more doable than it was just a few years ago, when just talking about adaptation was thought to mean giving up on reducing emissions. By contrast, a growing number of people now believe that some adaptation is unavoidable.
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For Public, Climate Change Not A Priority Issue. — Richard Harris, National Public Radio, December 7, 2009
Nearly 100 world leaders are expected to appear at the global warming talks that open Monday in Copenhagen. This is an unprecedented showing of leadership for the issue. Yet at the same time, public opinion of climate change is souring — particularly in the United States. A recent Harris Poll, among the latest of several over the past year, shows that barely half of the American public believes that the carbon dioxide that’s building up in the atmosphere could warm up our planet.
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The climate denial industry is out to dupe the public. And it’s working. — George Monbiot, The Guardian, December 7, 2009
When you survey the trail of wreckage left by the climate emails crisis, three things become clear. The first is the tendency of those who claim to be the champions of climate science to minimise their importance. Those who have most to lose if the science is wrong have perversely sought to justify the secretive and chummy ethos that some of the emails reveal. If science is not transparent and accountable, it’s not science.
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No Slowdown of Global Warming, Agency Says. — Andrew C. Revkin and James Kanter, The New York Times, December 8, 2009
The decade of 2000 to 2009 appears to be the warmest one in the modern record, the World Meteorological Organization reported in a new analysis on Tuesday. The announcement is likely to be viewed as a rejoinder to a renewed challenge from skeptics to the scientific evidence for global warming, as international negotiators here seek to devise a global response to climate change.
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Climate change skeptics argue among themselves. — Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star, December 8, 2009
Some scientists are in Copenhagen denying that man-made emissions are driving climate change. But there’s more to the story. And sorry, it’s not good news for the global warming deniers out there. As this news story makes clear, the scientists at the same press conference this week couldn’t seem to agree on some key points. Point No. 1: Is global warming occurring? Point No. 2: Are greenhouse gases a problem? For instance, put professor Henrik Svensmark on the side of global warming believers. He just says solar activity, not man, is causing the warming.
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On the Merits of a Carbon Tax. — Ted Gayer, Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, December 2, 2009
My testimony will make the following points: 1. Either a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade program will result in substantially lower economic costs than command-and-control regulations that mandate echnologies, fuels, or energy efficiency standards. 2. Given the uncertainty of the future costs of climate policy, a carbon tax is more economically efficient than cap-and-trade. 3. Carbon allowances in a cap-and-trade program would be susceptible to price volatility. Price volatility causes economic disruptions and complicates investment decisions. It also could lead to political pressure on Congress to repeal or substantially loosen the cap. 4. A carbon tax, in which the revenues are used to offset economically harmful taxes or to pay down our deficit, would substantially lower the cost of climate policy compared to a cap-and-trade program that gives away allowances for free. 5. The currently proposed climate bills rely heavily on offsets to reduce the overall costs of cap-and-trade. Given the substantial potential value of offsets, there is a very real concern that offset integrity will not be maintained. This would result in a weakening of the cap, undermining its environmental benefits.
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Re-examining climate change. — Sean Kilcarr, Fleet Owner, December 9, 2009
“The science of climate change is not settled; it is evolving rapidly with critically important discoveries, many of which contradict IPCC findings, coming out every month.” –Professor Robert Carter, Marine Geophysical Laboratory, James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, and advisor to the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC) I know, I know – the second post in as many days about climate change. Seems like the world talks of nothing else at the moment (well, that and the follies of Tiger Woods … but let’s not go there). Yet climate change is a gargantuan issue, no matter which side of the table you sit on, requiring more than mere blind acceptance of the solutions being bandied about this week in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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Private incentives for carbon emissions reductions needed to fill gaps until public measures created. — Vanderbilt University’s News Network, December 9, 2009
As the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit continues, two Vanderbilt researchers suggest that regardless of whether or not the meeting is successful in bringing public governance measures to bear, significant carbon reductions can be achieved by creating private incentives to reduce carbon emissions. In a forthcoming NYU Environmental Law Journal article, the researchers outline a method of creating incentives for developing countries to reduce carbon emissions as carbon-intensive production shifts away from developed countries. Specifically, they argue that requiring corporate carbon footprint disclosure and carbon product labeling would create important incentives for carbon emissions reductions among suppliers and nations in the developing world.
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Experts look for bottom line in carbon sequestration plan. — Matthew Weaver, Capital Press, December 12, 2009
The future of cap and trade legislation remains both uncertain and unlikely to help farmers break even. It appears unlikely that agriculture will be regulated for carbon sequestration under any greenhouse gas reduction program, said Stephanie Page, renewable energy specialist for the Oregon Department of Agriculture. “Ag is a relatively small percentage of greenhouse gas emissions nationally,” she said. Voluntary practices can help reduce emissions and sequester carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.
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Biochar as foundation for SEED. — The Star Online, December 11, 2009
The current hottest topic is the COP15 now taking place in Copenhagen 2009, where developed and developing countries are heckling over how best to bring global warming under control. In view of the poor and slow progress at COP15, responsible citizens and corporate bodies must now act. I’ve started a Wiki (http://biochar-seed.wikidot.com ) on Biochar as a foundation for SEED (Social Environmental Entrepreneurial Development) programs aimed at developing business start-ups / encouraging CSR practices connected with / deploying Biochar or Biochar Effect Economy (BEE). This is particularly urgent in view of the poor developments / progress now happening at COP15 at Copenhagen 2009.
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Final Draft Research Paper: the effects of animal agriculture on climate change. — Allison Martin and Maureen Sullivan, Writing for the Environment and Community Organizing, December 10, 2009
With the polar ice caps melting and the polar bears facing extinction, the world is forced to evaluate the state of its environment. Climate change caused by global warming is an issue that demands immediate attention and care. Measures are being taken to reduce green house gases (i.e. recycling, driving hybrid cars, other energy sources) but little change has been seen thus far. In today’s world, people like to see immediate results now rather than wait 10 years to see progress. It is going to take a lot of time for the trees to get rid of the CO₂ in the atmosphere especially with exponential amounts being added to the air every day. There is something that can be done in the now to reduce further contribution to the already excessive quantities. Animal agriculture releases extensive amounts of green house gases into the atmosphere. Reducing animal agriculture will mitigate climate change because less land will be degradated, water quality will increase, and green house gas emissions will go down.
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Rise in sea levels threatens California ports. — Ronald D. White, The Los Angeles Times, December 10, 2009
Global warming and a resulting rise in sea levels present a direct threat to the world’s seaports — and many of California’s harbors are nowhere near ready, state officials say. Sea levels in California are expected to increase 16 inches over the next 40 years, causing flooding and endangering facilities throughout the state, according to a report by the California State Lands Commission. By 2100, the ocean could rise as much as 55 inches, the report said. Most of the 40 ports and shipping hubs surveyed by the state said they were not prepared for the rise in sea levels.
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AP IMPACT: Science not faked, but not pretty. — The Associated Press, December 12, 2009
E-mails stolen from climate scientists show they stonewalled skeptics and discussed hiding data — but the messages don’t support claims that the science of global warming was faked, according to an exhaustive review by The Associated Press. The 1,073 e-mails examined by the AP show that scientists harbored private doubts, however slight and fleeting, even as they told the world they were certain about climate change. However, the exchanges don’t undercut the vast body of evidence showing the world is warming because of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
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Financing the Fight against Climate Change. — George Soros, Mmegi Online, December 10, 2009
It is now generally agreed that the developed countries will have to make a substantial financial contribution to enable the developing world to deal with climate change. Funds are needed to invest in new low-carbon energy sources, reforestation and protection of rain forests, land-use changes, and adaptation and mitigation. But there is no similar agreement on where the money will come from.
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The silliness of Climategate. — Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times, December 12, 2009
It wasn’t very long ago that a dinner party guest who wanted to spare the hostess any embarrassing contention simply avoided discussing religion or politics and stuck to the weather. Not anymore. In fact, it says something unutterably depressing about the state of the nation that we’ve finally managed to politicize even the climate. Take, for example, the controversy that erupted on the eve of the global climate conference in Copenhagen, when hackers skeptical about global warming stole and released e-mails and documents from computers at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Britain. The center is an important source of baseline historical data on climate change, and the hackers claim the e-mails show that scientists there manipulated, suppressed and even falsified numbers to make a case for global warming. Others who’ve looked at the material say taking e-mails out of context creates misleading impressions, and that the worst you can say about the British climatologists is that they evinced an arrogant desire to keep what they regarded as the skeptics’ “junk science” out of peer review journals.
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Select Committee staff analysis of the stolen electronic documents from the CRU. — The Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, December 10, 2009
Recently, thousands of emails and other electronic files were obtained illegally (hacked) from a server at the University of East Anglia (UEA). The conclusion that the Earth is warming and that most of this warming is caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases is unaffected by the release of these stolen personal emails from the UEA.
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Other

Battle Over Mountaintop Mining Slowly Gains Ground. — Vicki Smith, The Associated Press, December 6, 2009
Environmental activists gained more momentum this year than in the past decade against the destructive, uniquely Appalachian form of strip mining known as mountaintop removal, though they have yet to mobilize the millions of supporters they want. The activists have harnessed the power of the Web, social networking and satellite phones. They’ve chained themselves to heavy equipment, blocked haul roads and climbed trees to stop blasting. They’ve marched for miles, hung banners and been arrested.
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Energy Spotlight: January panel to explore forest biofuels as energy option. — Jim Long, The News Review, December 6, 2009
For renewable energies, forest waste materials can be burned, chemically converted into liquid fuels such as ethanol, or heated without oxygen to produce bio-oil, bio-char and gasses. Last summer, the Umpqua and Umatilla National Forests coordinated experiments to test one technology, called fast pyrolysis, to heat waste wood chips to produce useful products. These field trials will be featured at a public program held from noon to 3:30 p.m. Jan. 12 at the Roseburg Country Club, 5051 Garden Valley Road. The panel is sponsored by Lunch Bunch, a men’s discussion group. It is the fourth in a series of community discussions on Energy Options in Douglas County. Earlier panels focused on the “smart grid,” transportable nuclear power, and techniques to use Oregon coastal waves to generate electricity.
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AP Investigation: Political Clout Takes Over Timber Payment Decisions. — Courtney Lowery, New West Blog, December 7, 2009
Matthew Daly and Shannon Dininny of the Associated Press have a big story out today that uncovers a “vast entitlement” in the program most often referred to as county timber payments or as it was formerly know, the Secure Rural Schools and Self Determination Act. The law was originally passed in 2000 as a way to help rural communities that were seeing dramatic drops in revenue from logging on federal lands, namely rural schools that heavily relied on that income. The act came after concern for in the 1990s for the spotted owl and other endangered species spurred a reduction in timber harvests. Total, the legislation has allocated more than $3 billion to counties. And, as the AP reports, Oregon, California, Washington, Idaho and Montana got the majority of that money—80 percent. Oregon alone got $2 billion.
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Consol idling two mines, blames environmentalists. — Steve James, Reuters, December 8, 2009
Coal miner Consol Energy Inc (CNX.N) launched an attack on environmentalists on Tuesday, blaming ecological “activism” for forcing it to idle two mines in West Virginia that employ nearly 500 workers. “It is unfortunate, at a time when reliable and affordable energy is so desperately needed to reinvigorate our economy, that the nation’s energy industries are coming under repeated assault from nuisance lawsuits and appeals of environmental regulations,” said Chief Operating Officer Nicholas DeIuliis.
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New Mexico Dairy Pollution Sparks ‘Manure War’. — John Burnett, National Public Radio, December 8, 2009
The New Mexico Environment Department reports that two-thirds of the state’s 150 dairies are contaminating groundwater with excess nitrogen from cattle excrement. While no one wants to drive the milk cows out of the state, many want the dairies to clean up their act. The picture on many milk cartons shows cows grazing on a pasture next to a country barn and a silo — but the reality is very different. More and more milk comes from confined animal feeding operations, where large herds live in feedlots, waiting their thrice daily trip to the milking barn. And a factory farm with 2,000 cows produces as much sewage as a small city, yet there’s no treatment plant. Across the country, big dairies are coming under increased criticism for polluting the air and the water. In New Mexico, they’re in the midst of a manure war.
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Study Shows Action on Climate Change Compatible with Long-Term U.S. Economic Growth. — Carolina Newswire, December 10, 2009
Measures being proposed by the U.S. Climate Action Partnership to curb greenhouse gas emissions are unlikely to affect potential long-term economic growth in the United States, according to a study by RTI International. The study, which assessed the impacts of the partnership’s legislative plan, found that measures being proposed would cost the average American household $57, $89, and $269 in 2015, 2020, and 2030, respectively. Over the same time period, household consumption, a measure of household purchasing power, is expected to rise by around 70 percent, while emissions are being reduced.
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Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Officials Concerned Over Indiana’s Plans for Seawall. — Kurt Repanshek, National Park Traveler, December 11, 2009
Plans by the state of Indiana to build a hardened stone seawall along a portion of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore don’t sit well with lakeshore officials, who cite a number of problems, including the lack of permits from the National Park Service and requisite environmental studies. While lakeshore Superintendent Costa Dillon noted in a letter sent to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources that no map accompanied the announcement of the project, he said it appears the entire 4,700-foot-long seawall would be located within the lakeshore’s boundaries.
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Shell has more hurdles to clear before drilling off shore. — Tim Bradner, Alaska journal of Commerce, December 11, 2009
The U.S. Minerals Management Service has approved Shell’s plans for a $350 million exploration plans in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas next summer, but the company still has big hurdles to clear. One is an air quality permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is proving to a real challenge, said Shell Alaska President Pete Slaiby.
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BLOGS

EPA Issues Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding. — Steven M. Taber, Environmental Law and Climate Change Law Blog, December 7, 2009
At a press conference this afternoon in Washington D.C., Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson issued EPA’s finding that greenhouse gases threaten public health and the environment.  Administrator Jackson said that this decision is based on a “thorough examination of the scientific evidence and careful consideration of the over 400,000 public comments.  The EPA also found that the GHG emissions from on-road vehicles contribute to that threat, thereby providing the “legal foundation” for finalizing the “Clean Cars” program.
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To really save the planet, stop going green. — Mike Tidwell, The Washington Post, December 6, 2009
As President Obama heads to Copenhagen next week for global warming talks, there’s one simple step Americans back home can take to help out: Stop “going green.” Just stop it. No more compact fluorescent light bulbs. No more green wedding planning. No more organic toothpicks for holiday hors d’oeuvres. December should be national Green-Free Month. Instead of continuing our faddish and counterproductive emphasis on small, voluntary actions, we should follow the example of Americans during past moral crises and work toward large-scale change. The country’s last real moral and social revolution was set in motion by the civil rights movement. And in the 1960s, civil rights activists didn’t ask bigoted Southern governors and sheriffs to consider “10 Ways to Go Integrated” at their convenience. Green gestures we have in abundance in America. Green political action, not so much. And the gestures (“Look honey, another Vanity Fair Green Issue!”) lure us into believing that broad change is happening when the data shows that it isn’t. Despite all our talk about washing clothes in cold water, we aren’t making much of a difference.
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What Does EPA’s Finding that Greenhouse Gas Emissions Endanger Public Health and the Environment Mean to Business? — Steven M. Taber, Environmental Law & Climate Change Law Blog, December 11, 2009
When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued its final finding that emission of six greenhouse gases endangered the public’s health and the environment because of their effect on climate change, the business community wondered how it should respond to the news.  At first glance, there seems to be blinding maze of legal and policy issues that will affect business decisions.  Although far from clear, there is a way out of the maze – although businesses with significant greenhouse gas emissions should be prepared to tackle the important issues that the Endangerment Finding raises.
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