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Why create a very few jobs with the dirtiest of energy from tar sands when you can create tens of thousands more clean jobs using wind and solar?
—New York Senator Charles E. Schumer on CBS's Face the Nation yesterday, saying Democrats would likely support a veto by President Obama that would block expected congressional approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.
OH, THE WEATHER outside is frightful,
The heat wave brutal and spiteful.
Our crops have no water to grow—
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
—The New Yorker's "Climate Change Christmas Carols" don't exactly bring joy to world (but we're singing along anyway).
BP wants a discount on the Gulf Oil spill -
The U.S. Department of Justice wants to fine the company about $4,300 per barrel for the oil it spilled into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. In what can only be described as a creative argument, BP recently told a federal court that it shouldn't have to pay that much, because oil is cheap right now, and the fine would have a "very significant negative impact" on the company. Tell that to the Gulf fishermen just now getting back to work. International Business Times
Environmental groups sue the EPA over shoddy stormwater rules. -
The rainwater that washes through our cities contaminates drinking supplies, triggers beach closings, and dirties rivers, streams, and lakes. And yet, the EPA still hasn't followed up on a 2003 court order to improve its urban runoff regulations (which were found to violate the Clean Water Act). So NRDC (which publishes Earthwire) and the Environmental Defense Center are taking the agency to court—again. Reuters
Songbirds know when storms are a-brewin'. -
Scientists have found that tiny golden-winged warblers skipped town en masse two days before a massive storm struck the southern United States last April, churning out 84 tornadoes and killing 35 people. Large storms send out rumbles that travel for thousands of miles at a frequency humans can’t hear but songbirds can—allowing them to make their winged escapes in advance. The Atlantic
There is very little impact, nominal impact, on U.S. gas prices…I want to make sure that if in fact this project goes forward, it’s not adding to the problem of climate change, which I think is very serious and does impose serious costs on the American people.
—President Obama fielding a question on the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline at his year-end press conference. Watch his full answer here.