tarsands protests.jpg This year, a deal between TransCanada and the U.S. government almost allowed one of the most disastrous plans in energy history to win aproval. The deal would have allowed TransCanada to build the Keystone XL pipeline across the U.S. border to carry an exceptionally dirty form of oil
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DeSmogBlog: Report: Arsenic From Coal Ash Disposal Sites Leaching Into Groundwater
toxic water 2.jpg The Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) has released a startling report showing that coal ash dumps near coal-burning power plants are leaching arsenic and other toxic chemicals into water supplies. The new report identifies 20 new sites in 10 different states where coal ash is contaminating water supplies.
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: House Republicans Working On Huge Polluter Giveaways
House-Republicans-Boehner-Pence-Cantor.jpg The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives is playing hardball with President Obama’s proposal to extend a payroll tax cut extension, and now they’ve found a way to use the extension as a means to grant their polluter friends everything on their holiday wish list. According to Reuters, Republicans in
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: EPA Connects Dots Between Groundwater Contamination and Fracking in Wyoming
niobrara-shale-map1.png The tables turned on the gas industry today with the release of a new report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) connecting the dots between fracking and groundwater contamination in the state of Wyoming, located in the hear tof the Niobrara Shale basin. The report is sure to leave many
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Climate Denier Marc Morano Praises "George W. Obama" at COP17
marc-morano.jpg If the jury was still out on President Barack Obama's climate policy accolades (a huge "if"), consider the verdict now in, and from a surprising character at that: Marc Morano. Morano jubilantly referred to the President as "George W. Obama" in an interview with Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman at COP17, stating: They [the Obama
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Bowing to Republican Pressure, EPA Eases Boiler Emission Standards, Threatening U.S. Economy and Health
boiler emissions.jpg The U.S. EPA has bowed to pressure from Republican members of Congress and relaxed the proposed rules for boiler emissions. By allowing utility industry companies to make “upgrades” to existing boilers, rather than replacing them with lower-emission boilers, corporations will save an estimated $1.5 billion in their attempts to
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Congress Says No To Free Climate Service
NOAA.jpg This week, the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives sent a strong message to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – they’re not concerned about climate change. The NOAA had asked Congress for permission to create a new National Climate Service within the NOAA’s own offices, but Congress decided
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Bogus Job Numbers Used To Sell Keystone XL Pipeline
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As thousands of protestors gather at The White House today to voice opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline plan, one of the major selling points from the pipeline proponents…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Oil Industry Co-Opts Occupy Movement to Sell the Keystone XL Pipeline
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The AFL-CIO's America's Building Trades Unions and Oil and Natural Gas Industry Labor-Management Committee are attempting to co-opt the Occupy movement with a new initiative…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: TransCanada Spent $540,000 Lobbying in Third Quarter For Keystone XL Pipeline
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TransCanada Corp, the company hoping to build the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, spent $540,000 on lobbying in the third quarter of 2011, according to lobb…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Harry Reid to Hillary Clinton: Drop Keystone XL Pipeline Plan
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Opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline have gained a new ally in the fight to prevent this disastrous oil boondoggle from moving forward: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D&ndas…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Why Communicating Science is So Money
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I’ve been meaning to thrown in my congratulations to Gavin Schmidt of NASA and RealClimate.org, who is the first recipient of the American Geophysical Union’s new…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: New Jersey Environmental Group Targets Anti-Environment Legislators With New Ad Campaign
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Environment New Jersey has announced an aggressive new online advertising campaign to hold so-called “environment-friendly” state representati…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: The Old War on Science Returns Under Rick Perry
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In an August post about the return of the “war on science”—prosecuted by the political right—I drew a key distinction between attacks on knowledge that h…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Once And For All: The Precautionary Principle is Not Unscientific
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Some conservatives are immensely more fun to debate than others.
In the past month, a debate over left-right science abuse with Kenneth Green of the American Enterprise Insti…
DeSmogBlog: New Federal Report Says Gulf of Mexico Cleanup Needed “Urgently”
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A preliminary report released Wednesday by the federal Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force says that cleanup is needed for the Gulf of Mexico “urgently,” in orde…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Oil Lobbyists Targeting “Super Committee”
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As the so-called “Super Committee” works to figure out how to trim $1.2 trillion from the U.S. government’s federal deficit, the dirty energy industry has thei…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Evolution and Climate Deniers: Natural Allies?
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On the face of things, there is no clear reason why the same person—like, say, Rick Perry—ought to deny accepted science about both evolution, and also global warmin…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Michele Bachmann Envisions a World Without Food Industry Safety Standards
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Republican Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann believes that the government needs to stay out of the business of protecting the foods we eat. At a campaign stop this…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: New Record or Not, the Arctic Sea Ice Alarm Bells Keep Ringing
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Last week, the National Snow and Ice Data Center came out with the estimate that we did not quite set a record for the minimum extent of Arctic sea this year. Rat…
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