CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Obama administration on Friday stepped up its efforts to curb environmental damage from surface coal mining, announcing plans to give 79 permit applications in four states additional scrutiny.
The Environmental Protection Agency said it wants to make certain the proposed mines won't cause water pollution and violate the Clean Water Act. An initial review concluded all 79 probably would affect water quality and require additional study, the EPA said.
Indigenous delegates at a UN conference on climate change in Alaska could not agree on a final summit document due to disagreements over oil and gas drilling on native lands.
Some delegations at the UN-sponsored Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change were demanding a complete moratorium. Others disputed that language, saying that the use of fossil fuels should be phased out but indigenous people should be allowed to develop their resources.
SACRAMENTO—California air regulators are taking another step to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, considering first-in-the nation standards to require the use of so-called low-carbon fuels.
The California Air Resources Board, which will debate the standards Thursday, considers the regulation a framework for a potential national policy advocated by President Barack Obama on the campaign trail last year. Democrats have included a goal for low-carbon fuels in the latest climate bill they have introduced in Congress.
A detailed analysis released today by two environmental organizations raises a red flag on the carbon offsetting provisions of the leading climate bill now moving through Congress.
The report from International Rivers and the Rainforest Action Network calls for removing giant carbon pollution loopholes from the Waxman-Markey bill, also known as the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES). Otherwise, the report warns, the carbon cap will fall far short of hitting its targets.
Thousands of demonstrators braved a late-winter snowstorm Monday to call attention to global warming and urge Congress to impose tougher limits on greenhouse gases.
The rally, sponsored by Capitol Climate Action, combined more than 90 climate activist groups from all 50 states and Puerto Rico, Canada and several other nations.
Protesters stand in front of an entrance to the US Capitol Power Plant during a march by the Capitol Climate Action Coalition to demand that the plant switch from coal to natural gas power on March 2, 2009 in Washington, DC.
Tim Sloan / AFP / Getty
The call rang out through Washington early on the morning of Mar. 2: the biggest act of civil disobedience against global warming in American history would not, in fact, be snowed out.
An estimated 2,500 people protested outside Washington, D.C.'s Capitol Power Plant on Monday -- the nation's largest act of civil disobedience against coal power.
A rare March snowstorm on Monday did not stop several thousand global-warming protesters from marching on the Capitol Power Plant (CPP), where they called for an end to coal-burning.
Draped in winter jackets, hats and scarves on an unseasonably cold day, protesters made their way from the park behind the Rayburn House Office Building to the power plant, with some carrying signs demanding “Green Jobs Now.”
Hundreds of U.S. Capitol Police officers lined the streets and guarded the plant from second-level outdoor catwalks.
Four days before a planned civil disobedience action at a coal-fired power plant near the U.S. Capitol, the leaders of the House of Representatives and the Senate asked Thursday for the plant to replace all its coal with natural gas.