"Industry groups, conservative think tanks, lawmakers and three states filed 16 court challenges to U.S. EPA's "endangerment" finding for greenhouse gases before yesterday's deadline, setting the stage for a legal battle over federal climate policies."
The Trust for Public Land's updated online database includes mapping and a finer level of detail, such as information at the county and parcel levels, for some but not all states as yet.
USDA's first major national survey of U.S. organic farms includes 14,540 farms and ranches that cover 4.1 million acres in 50 states.
University of Virginia researchers find algae-based biofuel uses more energy and water and emits more greenhouse gases than other biofuel sources. However, algae has a high energy yield, and growing it wouldn't significantly affect food crops.
NOAA's proposal to apply quotas to individual fishing operations, rather than across an entire fishery, lands support from environmental groups, draws opposition from many US fishing operations.
"Researchers have found low levels of the toxic chemical C8 in a wide variety of foods, ranging from hamburgers and bacon to tilapia, olive oil and peanut butter, according to a new scientific paper."
"The cement industry is launching a late push to water down new regulations that would limit the amount of mercury and other hazardous pollutants emitted by their plants."
"The US pointman on climate change on Tuesday accused vested interests of exploiting scientific scandals and pledged to act even if China and India balk at the controversial Copenhagen accord."
"Across the country, stormwater runoff hammers thousands of rivers, streams and lakes. Communities are left to struggle with the consequences of too much pavement and too little oversight. Now the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is gearing up to tighten federal stormwater rules that have been criticized by environmental groups and deemed ineffective by a national panel of researchers."
"A trio of influential multinational corporations have decamped from the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a 3-year-old lobby group, citing mounting concerns over the direction of climate change legislation, particularly concessions to the politically-influential coal sector."
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