Slashing Air Pollution and Providing Health Benefits to ThousandsBy Glynn Wilson – The Obama administration issued the final emission standards for cars and gasoline Monday to improve fuel efficiency in cars and trucks, significantly reduce harmful pollution and prevent thousands of premature deaths and illnesses every year. Based on extensive input from the public and…
ENVIRONMENT
The Mis-Education of Mobile on an Oil Pipeline Through Africatown
School Superintendent Instructs Adults in Non-Critical Thinking, Which Contributes to Environmental Injustice – By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – Enabler. That’s the current jargon for a very old idea. The serpent was an enabler. He didn’t force anything upon Eve. He just helped her decide to do what she wanted with the apple but…
Climate Change Regulations Hit Supreme Court Docket
By Glynn Wilson – How the federal government fights climate change will be on the docket of the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday in a rare 90 minute oral argument session, an indication that the court thinks cases against the Environmental Protection Agency filed by chemical industry groups, conservative states and the U.S. Chamber of…
Obama Administration Responds to Pressure on Fracking, Revises Permitting Rules on Using Diesel Fuel in Gas Drilling
EPA to Decide Legality of Mines on a ‘Case-by-Case Basis’By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON. D.C. — To clear up a legal controversy about diesel fuel in methane gas mining, the Obama administration released revised rules on underground injection wells that use diesel fuels in hydraulic fracturing operations, commonly referred to as the controversial method of…
EPA’s Gina McCarthy Delivers Obama Administration Position on Rebuilding America’s Infrastructure With Green Jobs
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The EPA’s Gina McCarthy, a teacher from Boston, delivered one of the keynote addresses on repairing America’s infrastructure with green jobs Monday afternoon at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs annual conference, delivering the Obama administrations position before a new and powerful coalition of unions and environmentalists under the umbrella of the Blue…
Sierra Club’s Michael Brune Delivers Keynote Address at Green Jobs Conference
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Sierra Club’s Michael Brune delivered one of the keynote addresses on repairing America’s infrastructure with green jobs Monday afternoon at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs annual conference, put on by the Blue Green Alliance, a coalition of unions and environmental non-profit groups. With more than 15 million members through 14 affiliated…
How Unions and Environmentalists Might Build a Political Coalition to Save American Democracy
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – If only we could stop the bullshit, maybe unions and environmentalists could build a coalition to save American democracy. That was the view of labor union leaders and environmentalists this week at a national conference designed to build a sustainable future for good jobs in America, which it…
Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference Kicks off at the Washington Hilton
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – The opening session of the Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference for 2014 kicked off Sunday night with a dynamic panel of speakers who are at the forefront of the national discussion about how to address the country’s crumbling infrastructure, while at the same time beginning to deal with…
Blue Green Alliance Hosts ‘Good Jobs, Green Jobs’ Conference in Washington, D.C.
By Glynn Wilson – HUNGRY MOTHER STATE PARK, Virg. – Some of the most powerful and effective leaders of labor unions and environmental groups in the country, along with a horde of union members, environmental activists and college students, are headed to the nation’s capital this coming week for one of the most interesting and…
Let’s Stop Talking About Climate Change Like It’s Breaking News
Even though climate change is relatively new historically, journalists shouldn’t be treating it like Justin Bieber’s arrest. – By Tom Engelhardt – Here’s the scoop: When it comes to climate change, there is no “story,” not in the normal news sense anyway. The fact that 97 percent of scientists who have weighed in on the…
Environmental Groups File Lawsuit Challenging Oil Pipeline in Mobile Watershed
By Glynn Wilson – The fight over an oil pipeline through the drinking water supply for Mobile, Alabama has landed in court. Environmental groups are challenging a permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the Plains Southcap, LLC pipeline routed through the Big Creek Lake watershed. The lawsuit filed Friday in Federal…
NASA Confirms Sustained Long-Term Climate Warming Trend
By Glynn Wilson – Scientists now say 2013 tied with 2009 and 2006 for the seventh warmest year since 1880, continuing a long-term trend of rising global temperatures, according to a new report out from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). With the exception of 1998, the 10 warmest years in the 134-year record…
New Study Documents Consequences of Climate Change on North American Forests
By Glynn Wilson – Climate change due to human induced global warming from the burning of fossil fuels makes North American forests more vulnerable to insects and disease, according to a new study published by a team of researchers from Dartmouth University in the journal Ecological Monographs. After reviewing about 500 scientific studies dating back…
New Report Concludes Human Influence on Global Climate is ‘Clear’
By Glynn Wilson – As if there was still any doubt in the scientific community, we now know that “human influence on the climate system is clear,” according to a new report just out from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause…
Auburn Scientists Confirm Deadly Bacteria in BP Tar Balls
By Glynn Wilson – The Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, and the waves of tar balls deposited on the beaches shortly thereafter, prompted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to produce a tar ball fact sheet. Among the factoids was one stating that those sticky, coin-sized clumps of…
EPA Proposes Carbon Pollution Standards for New Power Plants
By Glynn Wilson – The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed new Clean Air Act standards to cut carbon pollution from new power plants “in order to combat climate change and improve public health,” according to the announcement sent out Friday morning. The new standards are set to go into effect by June 1, 2014. The…
A Groundbreaking Year for Environmental Journalism and Activism
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – It’s been one of the most interesting and groundbreaking years in a long time for environmental activism, environmental journalism and the Sierra Club nationally and in my home state of Alabama. Since I made the decision to cross the line and join the club to get personally…
Senate Gridlock Breaks: McCarthy Approved at EPA, Perez at Labor
By Glynn Wilson – Something has come over the Republicans in the U.S. Senate. Gridlock in Washington is cracking, and President Obama’s nominees are now working their way through confirmation like water through an open dam. A bipartisan deal was reached this week with the Republicans to allow votes on all seven of the pending…
Sierra Club Asks U.S. Forest Service to Withdraw Oil and Gas Lease Sale in Talladega National Forest
By Glynn Wilson – The Alabama Chapter of the Sierra Club is formally asking the U.S. Forest Service to withdraw a plan to lease 43,000 acres for oil and gas exploration in the Talladega National Forest. A letter is being mailed today to Forest Supervisor Steve Lohr, who admitted in a video interview with me…
Fracking Leases Proposed for National Forests White Washed at ‘Public Meeting’
Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management on the Hot Seat – By Glynn Wilson – MONTGOMERY, Ala. – A so-called “public meeting” on oil and gas leases proposed for the state’s national forests at a city park by a golf course was not exactly attended by many average citizens and working folks, so far from…
