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Courts Issue 2 More Important Greenhouse Gas Rulings. By Jennifer Koons, Greenwire, October 19, 2009. “Less than a month after a federal appeals court in New York issued a historic ruling regarding citizen and government enforcement of greenhouse gas emissions, decisions in two similar cases have come down. Their divergent results could have immediate implications for future climate change lawsuits… Together, the rulings ‘represent mounting legal authority that the Constitution is not a barrier to climate tort litigation,’ said Bruce Myers of the Environmental Law Institute.”
Obama to Give Senate Climate Bill a Push With MIT Speech, NYTimes. President Obama will try to push the Senate climate bill forward Friday (October 23) with an energy-themed speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, just days before the start of a marathon series of hearings featuring testimony from top administration officials.. . . Also on Friday — U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson plans to release the agency’s economic and environmental analysis of the climate bill (S. 1733 (pdf)) from Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).
With the EPA analysis in hand, Boxer is set to begin a three-day series of hearings in her Environment and Public Works Committee on Tuesday, Oct. 27, with testimony from Kerry, Jackson, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff.
Germany Considers Reversing Law to Phase Out Nuclear Plants. By Judy Dempsey, NYTimes.”Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives want to prolong the life of Germany’s nuclear reactors by overturning a law aimed at phasing out atomic energy by the 2020s, according to a party working document. In a country in which the public is deeply opposed to nuclear power but obsessed with climate protection, [like the U.S., minus the "obsessed with climate protection" part] Mrs. Merkel will have to persuade even her supporters that prolonging the life of the 17 power plants is necessary until there are sufficient alternative sources of clean energy to replace the plants once they are closed.”
Continue Reading → Obama to Give Climate Speech, Climate Bill Hearings, and Environmental News
