tagged w/ Environmental Policy
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A few months ago, Current Green caught up with Gavin Newsom at the GreenNet 09 conference in SF. Above, you find an informal conversation with the press about solar energy.
Want to join the conversation? You're in luck! Take control of the conversation and help determine what Current asks Gavin during our live-streaming interview with him on June 11th. Find out more and submit your question here: http://current.com/topics/88918209_green-questions-for-gavin-newsom/?xid=ch30A few months ago, Current Green caught up with Gavin Newsom at the GreenNet 09... more
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leahl
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added this
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2 years ago
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"The most comprehensive modeling yet carried out on the likelihood of how much hotter the Earth's climate will get in this century shows that without rapid and massive action, the problem will be about twice as severe as previously estimated six years ago - and could be even worse than that.
The study uses the MIT Integrated Global Systems Model, a detailed computer simulation of global economic activity and climate processes that has been developed and refined by the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change since the early 1990s. The new research involved 400 runs of the model with each run using slight variations in input parameters, selected so that each run has about an equal probability of being correct based on present observations and knowledge. Other research groups have estimated the probabilities of various outcomes, based on variations in the physical response of the climate system itself. But the MIT model is the only one that interactively includes detailed treatment of possible changes in human activities as well - such as the degree of economic growth, with its associated energy use, in different countries.
While the outcomes in the "no policy" projections now look much worse than before, there is less change from previous work in the projected outcomes if strong policies are put in place now to drastically curb greenhouse gas emissions. Without action, "there is significantly more risk than we previously estimated," Prinn says. "This increases the urgency for significant policy action.""The most comprehensive modeling yet carried out on the likelihood of how much... more
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WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats are calling for stricter regulations on toxic ash from coal-fired power plants Thursday in the wake of a billion-gallon spill at a Tennessee facility last month.
Officials from the Tennessee Valley Authority, which operates the plant in Harriaman, Tenn., promised senators and local residents affected by the spill that they will clean up the sludge as quickly as they can and work to compensate those who have lost property.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said coal ash must be better managed and disposed of.
When a dike broke Dec. 22 at the Kingston Fossil Plant, some 1.1 billion gallons of sludge was released into the surrounding neighborhood.WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats are calling for stricter regulations on toxic ash from... more
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The coal ash spill in Tennessee last month is putting a spotlight on whether the ash from 450 other power plants around the country could be contaminating the nation's drinking water supplies.
Some coal ash is recycled into products such as cement or placed in secure landfills, but much of it ends up in gravel pits, abandoned mines and unlined landfills - or in ponds like the one that burst in Kingston, Tenn., on Dec. 22. In the Tennessee incident, 5.4 million cubic yards of sludge laced with arsenic and other toxic materials poured over 300 acres - making it one of the nation's worst environmental spills.
The EPA in 2000 decided that coal ash wasn't hazardous waste and left regulation up to the states. Now, however, environmental activists say the Tennessee spill shows the need for federal standards for how coal waste is handled at the coal-fired power plants around the nation.
"It's an insanely dangerous scenario that's been allowed to develop, but it's all under the radar screen," said Jeffrey Stant of the Environmental Integrity Project, a group formed by former EPA enforcement attorneys that's compiling data on coal ash disposal sites.The coal ash spill in Tennessee last month is putting a spotlight on whether the ash... more
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Cass Sunnstein: The climate change crisis, not terrorism, is the real "worst case scenario".
Cass R. Sunstein (born 1954) is an American preeminent legal scholar, particularly in the fields of constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, and law and behavioral economics. Sunstein taught at the University of Chicago Law School for 27 years, where he continues to teach as the Harry Kalven Visiting Professor. Sunstein is currently the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.Cass Sunnstein: The climate change crisis, not terrorism, is the real "worst case... more
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CHICAGO - Mayor Richard M. Daley has announced a plan to dramatically slash emissions of heat-trapping gases, part of an effort to fight global warming and become one of the greenest cities in the nation.
The plan calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to three-fourths of 1990 levels by 2020 through more energy-efficient buildings, using clean and renewable energy sources, improving transportation and reducing industrial pollution.
"We can't solve the world's climate change problem in Chicago, but we can do our part," said Daley on Thursday. "We have a shared responsibility to protect our planet."
CHICAGO - Mayor Richard M. Daley has announced a plan to dramatically slash emissions... more
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AVON, N.J. - With oil and gas drilling heating up as an issue in the presidential race, environmentalists and the governor reiterated their opposition to tapping reserves off the state's coast, saying it would endanger the environment and the tourism industry on which New Jersey is so dependent.
"It is a dark, dark day for the natural coast. Some might say it's as black as oil," said Cindy Zipf, executive director of Clean Ocean Action, who joined environmental and fishing groups at a news conference Wednesday on the Avon boardwalk. Gov. Jon Corzine reiterated his opposition Tuesday in a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.
AVON, N.J. - With oil and gas drilling heating up as an issue in the presidential... more
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"U.S. proposal follows lawsuit and administration pressure on scientists"
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