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Budget resolution includes funds to clean up nuclear sites

Apparently the Senate actually accomplished something this week in the environmental realm: the 2009 federal budget resolution that passed 48-45 on Wednesday included $500 million for a Department of Energy environmental management program to clean up Hanford and other nuclear sites across the country. Hanford is the decommissioned nuclear-weapons complex along the Columbia River in […]

Republicans try to stoke Dem discord on climate legislation in the House

Amidst the chaos in the Senate over climate legislation, Rep. Ed Markey introduced his climate legislation in the House on Thursday. House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio), hoping to take advantage of apparent disarray within the Democratic Party, has dared Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to push Markey’s bill to the floor. He wrote a letter […]

Climate Security Act dies, failing to muster enough votes to move forward

The Senate held a cloture vote this morning to bring to a close debate on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, a vote that would have allowed the amendment process to begin. After four days of conversation and delays, the bill died, failing to reach the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture by a vote of […]

Climber scales New York Times building with climate message

For World Environment Day on Thursday, a French climber scaled the New York Times building in Manhattan to protest climate change. Wearing a T-shirt bearing the words “The Solution Is Simple.Org” — the web address of a one-page site calling for meaningful climate action — Alain Robert climbed to the top of the 52-story building […]

A list of strengthening amendments to the climate bill that will probably never be introduced

In all likelihood, these will never be formally introduced on the Senate floor, but here’s a list of the strengthening amendments to the Climate Security Act that various senators have floated: Renewable Electricity Standard, Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.): This amendment would require that states generate at least 20 percent of their electricity […]

Inhofe: ‘Hey, it’s not our fault’

“All Republicans want just one thing, and that is to debate this bill … When they pull the bill, I don’t want them to say that Republicans had anything to do with it.” — James Inhofe (R-Okla.) on the Senate floor Thursday, after Republican leadership spent nearly four days delaying debate of the Climate Security […]

FDA warns of salmonella-infected tomatoes in the Southwest

What’s next, tainted buns? In yet another blow to the burger, tomatoes have joined beef and lettuce as star players in that booming industrial-food genre, the disease-outbreak drama. This one involves tomatoes that carry what the FDA calls “an uncommon strain” of salmonella called Saintpaul. Some 57 people have come down with salmonellosis in New […]

Snippets from the news

• Bush says will veto plan to fund rural schools and libraries with paid-back oil royalties. • Common pesticides linked to diabetes. • Could liquefied-natural-gas project help salmon? • Stop trashing the climate already. • Few are fans of Bush plan for $100 billion cleantech fund. • Norwegian NGO says we can slash emissions 85 […]

Inhofe: Gore wrong 100 percent of the time

“Almost everything in his movie, in fact, everything has been refuted.” — Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), on Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth

House passes bill to green up schools

The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would put more than $20 billion over the next five years toward improving energy efficiency in schools. Democrats say the modestly named 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act would save school districts billions in energy costs. In addition, said Education and Labor Committee Chairman […]