MEDIA ADVISORY: Listen in TODAY (Press Telebriefing) from 1-2 pm ET - Coalfield Citizens React To EPA's Spruce Mine Decision‏

Coalfield Citizens React To EPA's Spruce Mine Decision 

Citizens from communities threatened by mountaintop removal mining and Spruce mine comment on value of veto 

 WHAT: Coalfield citizens and community members affected by destructive mountaintop removal mining host on Wednesday, January 19, 1:00-2:00 pm ET, a press telebriefing to discuss the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's historic Clean Water Act veto of the water pollution permit for the proposed Spruce No. 1 mine and the significance of this important decision to enforce basic legal protections for their health, livelihood, and the future of their communities. They also will comment on the reactions of some elected political leaders and correct mischaracterizations about this decision by some politicians. 

 WHO: Cindy Rank, Chair of the Mining Committee, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy Bo Webb, Board Member, Coal River Mountain Watch Chuck Nelson, Board Member and Retired Deep Miner, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition Joe Lovett, Executive Director and Attorney, Appalachian Center for the Economy & the Environment Bill Price, Environmental Justice Program Organizer, Sierra Club TBD, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards TBD, Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment Also attending: Joan Mulhern, Senior Legislative Counsel, Earthjustice Jim Hecker, Environmental Enforcement Project Director and Attorney, Public Justice 

 WHEN: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. ET CALL INFORMATION Participants: (866) 548-2699 (no PIN required). Please wait for an available operator. Outside the U.S. & Canada: (904) 271-2009. Please wait for an available operator.

House Republicans waste no time in 2011, propose legislation to delay and block global warming protection

Republicans strike first in 2011 and look to block EPA from enacting global warming related regulations. 

Earthjustice did not take this lightly, firing that "these pieces of legislation are bad for the health of the American people, bad for American competitiveness in the global economy, bad for our national security, and bad for air quality across America."

Of course, republicans focused on the EPA's "job killing" regulations that "overreach." Apparently the EPA shouldn't be able to regulate carbon dioxide and methane under the Clean Air Act. Ohh, and they're going to kill the West Virginia economy.

But who should regulate CO2 and CH4 if not the EPA? I think we're beyond the point of no regulation, so why delay this?

EPA Releases the 2010 Fuel Economy Trends Report

Carbon dioxide decreases as fuel economy increases

WASHINGTON - For the sixth consecutive year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is reporting a decrease in average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and a slight increase in the average fuel efficiency for new cars and light duty trucks, according to EPA’s annual report “Light-Duty Automotive Technology, Carbon Dioxide Emissions, and Fuel Economy Trends: 1975 through 2010”.

EPA projects a small improvement in 2010, based on pre-model year sales estimates provided by automakers, to 395 grams of CO2 per mile and 22.5 miles per gallon (mpg), though there is uncertainty in these projections as they were made during the atypical automotive market in 2009. The 2010 final data will be available in next year’s report.

For 2009, the last year EPA has final data from automakers, the average CO2 emissions from new vehicles were 397 grams per mile and the average fuel economy value was 22.4 mpg.

See below for more on this report...




Read more » 





Halliburton Subpoenaed After Failing to Meet EPA’s Voluntary Requests for Information

The EPA announced yesterday that eight of nine U.S. companies that deal in hydraulic fracturing (aka "fracking") for natural gas extraction will work with the agency in studies on fracking. Who was the ninth? Of course, our old friends, Halliburton.

Halliburton has failed to provide EPA the information necessary to move forward with this important study. As a result, and as part of the Agency's effort to move forward as quickly as possible, today EPA issued a subpoena to the company requiring submission of the information that has yet to be provided.

What a shady bunch of characters, that Halliburton. Then again, the company is a perfect fit for someone like Mr. Dick Cheney. I guess shady companies invite shady individuals.

What Country Is the Best at Protecting the Environment?

"We're the only country that has a significant amount of people that don't believe in climate change," said Marc Levy, deputy director of Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). "The central challenge of our time is to help people understand what's happening around them." 

 We dropped to 61st place (from 39th last year).

Here are a few of the countries ahead of the U.S.:
9) Cuba
10) Colombia
36) Dominican Republic
43) Mexico
60) Paraguay

Worse than the U.S., you ask?
62) Brazil
77)Turkey
78) Iran
141) Ethiopia

I sure hope we can climb up this list during my lifetime.

Click here to see the full EPI for 2010.

Addition of the GOWANUS CANAL to the EPA's National Priorities List (NPL) as a Superfund site

On April 8, 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) nominated the Gowanus Canal (which borders the Brooklyn communities of Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens and Red Hook) as a potential Superfund site, for addition to the EPA's National Priorities List.

What does this mean? Perhaps a brief summary of the legislative development of Superfunds is in order. Here we go: The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) is a federal statute that was designed to clean up hazardous waste sites (a.k.a. Superfund sites) throughout the U.S. Following the law's passage in 1980, the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP -- which had been developed 12 years earlier in response to the Torrey Canyon oil spill) was amended and broadened in scope to cover known or threatened releases of hazardous substances/pollutants/contaminants from these Superfund sites. This revision to the NCP accomplished two goals with respect to Superfund site regulation and clean-up: first, the revised NCP provided the EPA with a blueprint which outlined the response procedures and [hazardous substance] removal procedures required to clean up these Superfund sites; second, the amendment mandated that the NCP keep an ongoing list of all such sites within the U.S. that are eligible for the long-term, remedial measures that CERCLA was designed to implement. This list is known as the National Priorities List (NPL), and it serves to guide EPA in identifying national Superfund sites, so that the EPA can assess the extent of environmental and public health risks associated with the site, and if necessary, use its authority to initiate appropriate remedial actions.

So, here's the timeline with respect to the Gowanus Canal:

April 8, 2009: the EPA nominates the Gowanus Canal as a possible addition to the Superfund section of the NPL.

March 2, 2010: the Gowanus Canal is added to the EPA's Superfund National Priorities List, effective April 5, 2010.





Read more » 





EPA Student Summer Jobs

United States Environmental Protection Agency

Region 2 - New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands

2010 SUMMER EMPLOYMENT
OPPORTUNITY FOR STUDENTS
MARCH 1- MARCH 15, 2010





Read more »