China to Introduce Carbon Fees

The jury is still out on whether the U.S. will join other major emitters by putting fees on carbon pollution. But claims that U.S. action would be dangerously bold are no longer valid.

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Looking Back at the Coal Tragedy At Buffalo Creek

Forty-one years ago, today, a dam holding 132 million gallons of toxic liquid coal waste ruptured high up in the mountains of West Virginia, loosing a tsunami-like death wave of coal waste and chemical sludge that destroyed 4,000 homes in 16 towns, injured more than 1,000 people, and killed 125. Seven bodies were never found. A remarkable Charleston Gazette series shares the stories of the people who were affected by this horrific tragedy.

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Storage Needed When There Is No Sun, Wind

Most people know that solar and wind energy is only generated when the sun shines or the wind blows. This leaves potential power gaps at times of no sun or wind. One of the Holy Grails of renewable energy has been storage systems (think battery here) that can store surplus energy when it’s produced for…

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Obama Has Spoken, Now He Must Lead

Last week, President Obama demanded that Congress take action on climate change, or else he would. But, after years of political gridlock on the climate issue, coupled with rising seas and worsening droughts, one thing is clear: the nation simply cannot afford to wait any longer to take action. Though Congress may eventually pull together…

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Anti-Slime Brigade Packs Florida EPA Meeting

In a fantastic show of grassroots support for clean water, Floridians packed a Environmental Protection Agency meeting in Tampa on Jan. 16, saying they are fed up with repeated slimy algae outbreaks on the state’s beaches, rivers, spring and streams More than 150 protested, and they wore fluorescent green T-shirts saying, “Ask me about slime.”…

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What War On Coal?

In his State of the Union address, President Obama said some stirring things about climate change. Most dramatically, he urged Congress to take action and then said: But if Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will. Well, if you want to act on climate change to protect future generations, Mr. President, I…

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Oil Derricks Won't Be Spoiling The Parks' View

Thanks to a recent federal court decision, visitors to Utah’s public wild lands can continue to raft the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument without seeing oil derricks around the river’s bends. They can continue to enjoy the outlook from Canyonlands National Park’s Grand View Point without drill rigs littering the landscape. And they won’t…

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Tr-Ash Talk: Toolkit to Fight Against Coal

Note from Lisa Evans: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) last week released the "Coal Blooded Action Toolkit," which is a companion to its report, Coal Blooded: Putting Profits Before People, published jointly by the NAACP and Little Village Environmental Justice Organization and the Indigenous Environmental Network last November. The 2012…

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Sub Warfare Training Facility Threatens Whales, Sea Turtles

The Navy is pushing ahead with plans to build a massive submarine warfare training facility, consisting of 500 square miles of cables, nodes, buoys and other instruments, next to the only known nursery for the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale and on top of habitat for sea turtles and other endangered species.

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Attorney Persevered Like A Wolverine To Protect Them

Last Friday, the federal government proposed to protect wolverines as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Wolverines are the biggest member of the weasel, mink, marten and otter family, but they don’t act like good family members—they are loners who cover huge ranges usually high in mountain ranges above tree line up in…

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