The top White House climate change adviser today stopped just short of saying that carbon dioxide regulations for existing power plants would be included when President Obama rolls out his second-term climate change strategy next month.
The House this week will vote on a bipartisan provision that would require farmers to comply with basic conservation requirements in order to receive subsidies for crop insurance. If passed, the measure would represent a major win for rural conservation groups, which have identified it as their top priority in the reauthorization of the five-year farm bill.
By 2016 or 2017, surplus natural gas from U.S. shale plays should be headed away from new export terminals, retirements of older coal-fired generators should accelerate and new billion-dollar cracker installations will begin turning more gas liquids into petrochemical feedstocks, speakers at an energy forum predicted yesterday.
Residents have begun to trickle back into the Black Forest neighborhood of Colorado Springs, Colo., where last week a wind-whipped wildfire forced the evacuation of about 40,000 people. Having claimed more than 500 structures and two lives, it is considered the most destructive fire in the state's history. Given the extent of the damage, it may take time for another, equally important truth to sink in: The destruction could have been far worse.
U.S. businesses that commit to cutting carbon emissions by 3 percent annually through 2020 could reap as much as $190 billion from reduced energy bills, increased productivity and innovation, and the tapping of new clean energy sources such as solar, a new report from the World Wildlife Fund and CDP has found.
Pesticides:
Trade group says amended suit against EPA counterproductive to protecting endangered species