News Roundup
‘(Reuters) – U.S. power generating companies would get free pollution permits, at least initially, as part of a compromise climate change bill being written in the Senate that also would give the coal industry $10 billion to develop “clean” technology, sources said on Friday.’
via Senate climate bill to give free permits: sources | Reuters.
‘WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kerry, hoping to win over wavering senators, said he is pushing environmental reforms to create jobs and spark energy independence, with climate benefits along “for the ride.”‘
via AP Interview: Kerry: Energy bill more about jobs – Yahoo! News.
‘Two billion people worldwide do their cooking on open fires, producing sooty pollution that shortens millions of lives and exacerbates global warming. If widely adopted, a new generation of inexpensive, durable cook stoves could go a long way toward alleviating this problem.’
via World’s Pall of Black Carbon Can Be Eased With New Stoves by Jon R. Luoma: Yale Environment 360.
‘In light of the strong evidence that growing corn, soybeans, and other food crops to produce ethanol takes a heavy toll on the environment and is hurting the world’s poor through higher food prices, consider this astonishing fact: This year, more than a third of the U.S.’s record corn harvest of 335 million metric tons will be used to produce corn ethanol. What’s more, within five years fully 50 percent of the U.S. corn crop is expected to wind up as biofuels.’
via The Case Against Biofuels: Probing Ethanol’s Hidden Costs by C. Ford Runge: Yale Environment 360.
‘Governments from northern, western, central, southern and eastern Europe signed a declaration today pledging to reduce the adverse health impact of environmental threats in the next decade. The text was endorsed by 53 Member States attending the Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health in Parma, Italy on 10-12 March 2010.’
‘Big business is now free to blitz the airwaves to attack politicians who support action against climate change, which could smother messages from environmentalists.’
via Political ads: new weapon in U.S. climate change war? | Reuters.
‘ Reuters – Like a savvy Madison Avenue advertising team, senators pushing climate-control legislation have decided to scrap the name “cap and trade” and rebrand their product as “pollution reduction targets.”‘
via U.S. cap and trade rebranded pollution reduction | Reuters.
‘(Reuters) – President Barack Obama, weighing in on the Senate’s efforts to pass a climate change bill, gathered Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday to try to jumpstart an overhaul of U.S. energy policy.’
via Obama pushes climate change in White House meeting | Reuters.
‘WASHINGTON — China and India formally agreed Tuesday to join the international climate change agreement reached in December in Copenhagen, the last two major economies to sign up.’
via China and India to Join Copenhagen Climate Change Accord – NYTimes.com.
‘WASHINGTON — For months, climate scientists have taken a vicious beating in the media and on the Internet, accused of hiding data, covering up errors and suppressing alternate views. Their response until now has been largely to assert the legitimacy of the vast body of climate science and to mock their critics as cranks and know-nothings.’
via Scientists Taking Steps to Defend Work on Climate – NYTimes.com.