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Malaysian company may build an additional 12 plants

According to recent press reports, a Malaysian company, Pioneer Bio Industries Corp. Sdn. Bhd., is about to begin building what it claims will be the world's first plant to commercially produce fuel ethanol from nipah palms (Nypa fruiticans), also known as the mangrove palm, attap palm (in Singapore), and Golpata (in Bangladesh).

Nipah palms grow in soft mud along coasts and slow-moving tidal rivers flowing into the Indian and Pacific Oceans. They are abundant in Malaysia.

Justices agree to hear Defenders of Wildlife case

Environmental law appears to be a hot commodity in the Roberts Court. While the justices continue to deliberate about global warming, they agreed (PDF) on Friday to add another hot-button environmental issue to their agenda: the Endangered Species Act.

Setting the Stage

The case, Defenders of Wildlife v. EPA, also implicates the Clean Water Act (CWA). Under the CWA, a would-be polluter needs to get a permit before it discharges into our nation's waters. The CWA requires that the federal government delegate permitting authority to the states, if they meet a number of requirements.

Today, almost every state issues its own permits. (EPA provides this map [PDF] illustrating which states have permitting authority.)

Go! Now! Vote!

So I’m surfin’ the internets and whaddyaknow, I happen upon the nominations page for the Seventh Annual Weblog Awards. The Bloggies honor the very best blogs out there — and all the winners are chosen by the public. That would be you! Hmm … who could you vote for? Well, off the top of my […]

Enemy at the Gates

Gates Foundation invests in polluting companies that undermine its health goals The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation spends more than a billion dollars a year on promoting global health — but it invests billions more in polluting companies that cause health problems around the globe. About 5 percent of the foundation’s assets are dispersed in […]

Stop worrying about it

There may be good reasons not to frame global warming as a certain, imminent catastrophe that requires immediate mobilization — what Matthew Nisbet calls the "Pandora’s Box" frame. I’ve argued myself that fear is not the green’s friend in the long term. If nothing else, that kind of framing just doesn’t seem to be working. […]

Never gets old

The Financial Times says: "Beware the dirty hippies!" Dirty hippie Jerome a Paris responds.

Barack jumps on board with coal-to-liquid

Although not getting much mainstream press between his new ethics bill and being a beach babe, Sen. Obama is co-chairing a new Senate caucus to promote coal to liquids and, one would assume, his recently reintroduced legislation, according to E&E Daily (sub. req.).

When is West Virginia's presidential primary?

More wonky interview

DR: What happened with Prop. 87 [the Calif. ballot initiative to tax oil company profits]? TT: Well, it failed. It’s amazing what $97 million of misleading advertising from oil companies will do, even against $50 million from proponents. And to be honest and fair, not all of it was misleading. Some of it was true. […]

Wherein I finally get it all out

I realize we have long since passed the point of blog parody, with the number of words written about Revkin’s article now exceeding the number of words in the article itself by many orders of magnitude. But I gots more to say — a big ol’ rant I’ve wanted to get out for a long […]

Cars

Joel Makower returns from the recently wrapped-up upcoming North American International Auto Show in Detroit and asks: Where was the green? On a related note, man oh man do I want one of these Airstream thingies.