Climate Change

"Environmentalists began 2009 optimistic about prospects for swift passage of legislation mandating U.S. reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. ... But after the House passed a sweeping climate bill last June, the effort stalled in the Senate. And now environmentalists are being asked to agree to painful compromises that senators say are needed to get something -- anything, really -- across the finish line."

"Global warming has neither stopped nor slowed in the past decade, according to a draft analysis of temperature data by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies."

"Coastal states that agree to oil and gas drilling off their shores would be offered one-quarter of the revenue, under the latest draft of the new climate and energy bill, sources on and off the Hill say."

"With the cap-and-trade legislation aimed at curbing global warming stalled in Congress, there's an almost-complete collapse of the market for carbon credits. That means profits are drying up for people who are paid to create those carbon credits -- like farmers who manage their land in ways that capture carbon dioxide in the soil."

"A federal judge has approved a first-of-its-kind settlement requiring the government to suspend 38,000 acres of oil and gas leases in Montana so it can gauge how oil field activities contribute to climate change."

"It's the only explanation that makes sense to Jia Son, a Tibetan farmer surveying the catastrophe unfolding above his village in China's mountainous Yunnan Province. 'We've upset the natural order,' the devout, 52-year-old Buddhist says. 'And now the gods are punishing us.'"

"The federal government has 'significant gaps' in its strategy to cope with the increasing effects of climate change on the country, according to a White House report ... released Tuesday."

"Detroit's Big Three automakers, Toyota Motor Corp., and six other automakers urged Congress Wednesday not to bar the Environmental Protection Agency from setting the first-ever limits on tailpipe emissions."

"The lead authors of the Senate climate bill are courting key members of an industry coalition that once cheered on Dick Cheney's energy policies."