Clean start 2/29
Welcome to Clean Start, ThinkProgress Green’s morning round-up of the latest in climate and clean energy. Here is what we’re reading. What are you?
At least four people were killed early Wednesday as a line of tornadoes marched across the Midwest. [NBC News]
Judges on a U.S. appeals court appeared skeptical Tuesday of industry challenges to the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, a key determination for Obama administration rules regulating carbon-dioxide emissions. [WSJ]
Evacuations are underway in one town and emergency crews are standing by in three others as large parts of New South Wales, Australia continue to be deluged with the heaviest rains in more than 80 years. [AAP]
Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee criticized the idea of using theStrategic Petroleum Reserve to moderate gas price increases. [The Hill]
Britain’s policies encouraging renewable-energy use will prevent the country from suffering an electricity crisis leading to blackouts toward the end of the decade, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said. [Bloomberg]
The winter storm that brought 1 to 2 feet of snow to the central and southern mountains will bring hurricane force winds to the Front Range foothills again overnight, according to the Colorado weather forecast. [KUSA]
Facing a tough global market for solar power, Tempe-based First Solar Inc. said Tuesday that it lost $413 million in the fourth quarter and that it would further delay opening its factory in Mesa. [AZ Central]
A possible deal between BP and business owners and individuals harmed by the Deepwater Horizon disaster would call for BP to close the fund it’s been using to pay claims for the past two years and apply the balance to settle a mammoth legal case awaiting trial in New Orleans. [MySanAntonio.com]
Transocean, the world’s biggest offshore oil drilling company, has a surging stock, even though it is still mired in legal issues arising from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil well disaster in the Gulf of Mexico (it owned the rig that exploded and sank, causing the worst offshore oil spill on record in the United States and killing 11 people). [Fiscal Times]
Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress on Tuesday that a criminal investigation of the 2010 BP oil spill is progressing and that he expects to discuss the probe publicly “within months.” [New Orleans Times-Picayune]
Congressional Democrats are ramping up pressure on President Obama to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to prevent rising gas prices from threatening the economy and their election-year prospects. [The Hill]
The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday defended the Obama administration’s plan to eliminate federal funding for health testing at beaches nationwide, telling lawmakers that it is the role of state or local government to monitor whether water is too contaminated to swim in. [LA Times]
Environmental groups and local governments on the Gulf Coast have stepped up their lobbying push for legislation that would redirect federal funds toward the cleanup of 2010’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill. [The Hill]
February has been one heck of a month for American motorists, who have been hit with an 8 percent spike in the price of gas. [CNN]
Short URL: http://aworldofprogress.com/readingroom/?p=1943
Posted by ThinkProgress
on Feb 29 2012. Filed under the reading room, ThinkProgress.
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