Energy

TVA to idle nine coal-fired units.

TVA plans to idle nine coal-fired electric power generating units at its Shawnee, John Sevier and Widows Creek fossil plants to reduce its use of coal-generated power by 1,000 megawatts over the next five years. Knoxville News Sentinel 25 Aug

FPL demolishes Cape Canaveral plant.

Florida Power & Light Co. demolished its landmark 45-year-old Cape Canaveral plant in less than 15 seconds at 8:35 a.m. today, as two red-and-white stacks and boilers were imploded using dynamite. The $1 billion Cape Canaveral Next Generation Clean Energy Center is scheduled to open in 2013. Palm Beach Post 23 Aug

Oil, gas industry: It's not our fault.

Movers and shakers in the Kansas oil and gas industry don't put stock in the idea that humans burning fossil fuels are responsible for escalating global temperatures and promoting climate change. Topeka Capital-Journal 25 Aug

How RBS funds 'dirty oil.'

This weekend, Royal Bank of Scotland is facing its biggest protests in a long history of protests. Environmental groups and hundreds of climate protesters are camped on the lawn at RBS’s Gogarburn headquarters, on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Glasgow Herald 22 Aug

Economics

Activists set up Climate Camp at Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters.

Hundreds of climate activists have occupied land at the Royal Bank of Scotland's headquarters in protest at its multi-billion pound loans to the oil and mining industries, including firms involved in exploiting Canadian tar sands. London Guardian 20 Aug

Climate protest camp targets RBS headquarters.

Climate change protesters have set up camp close to the Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters in Edinburgh. The Camp for Climate Action is angry about the banking group's role in financing oil industry developments which they believe could be dangerous for the environment. BBC 20 Aug

Norway to pay 30 million dollars to save Indonesian forests.

Norway agreed Thursday to advance 30 million dollars to Indonesia in the first installment of a planned billion-dollar scheme to cut the country's greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation. Agence France-Presse 20 Aug

Comfortably wasting the AC.

In a handsome prewar building in Greenwich Village, a young couple admitted to having let the window unit run for four days while they went out of town for a funeral, thinking it would be nice, amid the July heat wave, to return to a cool apartment. They're not alone. New York Times 16 Aug

Other News

Editorials

Climate of uncertainty.

Our understanding of how our climate works is still evolving. Is it too much to ask the climate establishment to acknowledge as much? Wall Street Journal 02 Sep

The road to rebuilding trust in climate science.

Couched though it is in the most measured language, Monday's report by the Inter-Academy Council into errors contained in the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is extremely damaging. Vancouver Sun 02 Sep

Cleaner cars, A to D.

Proposed stickers for vehicles would make it easier to see whether you're buying a fuel-efficient one or a guzzler. The stickers are a symbol of how far this country has come in providing a wider range of environmentally responsible choices to help ensure cleaner air and a healthier planet. New York Times 01 Sep

Liability for climate change.

When extreme weather strikes, such as the floods in Pakistan, the null hypothesis is to assume that humans have not played a role, then figure out if they did. But that's the opposite of what should be done. New Scientist 26 Aug

Miners aren't alone in depending on coal.

Coal should be mined responsibly, with as little damage as possible to the environment. But simply making coal expensive so as to force people to use renewable sources would be ruinous economic policy, and not just for West Virginia. Charleston Daily Mail 17 Aug

Weather you can't count on.

You don't have to believe global warming is caused by people to support a healthier lifestyle for all. And even those who think the theory of global warming is bunk must still know pollution is caused by man and the planet can only handle so much dirt and contamination. Winnipeg Free Press 16 Aug

Amid warming, a warning.

This summer’s desolating scenes of death and devastation from heat waves, fires, and floods may be taken as a forewarning of what awaits the planet if nothing is done soon to reduce man’s contribution to climate change. Boston Globe 12 Aug

No denying climate change.

Just as some Americans, for political or religious reasons, continue to argue that evolution is no more than a theory rather than a scientific (or biblical) fact, there are among us those who doubt or even deny the existence of climate change, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Barre-Montpelier Times Argus 03 Aug

Opinion

The impacts of climate change on water resources and agriculture in China.

Future work on the effects of climate change in China must improve regional climate simulations- especially of precipitation - and develop a better understanding of the managed and unmanaged responses of crops to changes in climate, diseases, pests and atmospheric constituents. Nature 02 Sep

Nuclear safety remains issue.

A decision by the Tennessee Valley Authority to increase nuclear power generation while idling some of its coal-fired units is a sign of the times. Huntsville Times 31 Aug

Bjørn Lomborg's missing questions.

Since we are already at 390ppm and since a 2C plus rise is a near certainty, how does Lomborg's appeal to forgo sharp reductions in CO2 emissions reflect climate science? He argues that there are "smarter solutions to climate change" than a focus on reducing CO2. This is hardly smart: it's insanity. London Guardian 31 Aug

Climate change caused by humans?

In the year 2050, people will shake their heads in amazement when they read in history books that, back in 2010, some people thought mankind could “save the planet” by carbon-restricting legislation. Portland Press-Herald 28 Aug

Apple declines to take part in eco-rating for green cellphones - Do you blame them?

Can O2 and Forum for the Future honestly say that they have collated all the data from source - for example, the sustainability of the Far Eastern factories that either make components for the cellphones, or put the blasted things together? Fast Company 27 Aug

China's mega-jams show the true cost of coal.

The fact that almost every vehicle in the giant Chinese traffic jam on the G110 motorway was a coal truck and almost every driver said they were used to mega-jams suggests the congestion was as much caused by the strains on China's energy supply as its transport system. London Guardian 26 Aug

A Republican's take on Republican climate skeptic rhetoric.

Here's how to debunk the three most common claims questioning the science of global warming. Daily Green 26 Aug

Global warmists abandoned fact for fancy.

The models are seeking to make predictions about climate, which is a complex, chaotic nonlinear system. Yet a key feature of such systems is that they are hugely sensitive to initial conditions and therefore simply cannot be predicted in the long term. Washington Times 25 Aug

Facebook faces campaign to switch to renewable energy.

In one of the web's fastest-growing environmental campaigns, Greenpeace international says at least 500,000 people have now protested Facebook's intention to run its giant new data centre mainly on electricity produced by burning coal power. London Guardian 02 Sep

Climate change gets wet.

One of the most important gases affecting the global climate is both incredibly familiar and persistently mysterious—water vapor. Discover 02 Sep

Burger King drops palm oil supplier linked to Borneo rainforest destruction.

Burger King announced it would no longer source palm oil from Sinar Mas, an Indonesian conglomerate, after an independent audit showed one of the company's subsidiaries had destroyed rainforests and carbon-dense peatlands. Mongabay 02 Sep

Greenpeace wants Facebook center off coal fuel.

Greenpeace said about 500,000 Facebook users have urged the world's largest online social network to abandon plans to buy electricity from a coal-based energy company for its new data center in the U.S. Associated Press 02 Sep

Clean-coal group backs new carbon capture and storage project.

The FutureGen Alliance of coal and power companies said Tuesday that it has decided to stick with a government-backed project to cut greenhouse-gas emissions from a coal-fired power plant despite a significant change in plan. Dow Jones Newswires 01 Sep

Drilling for shale gas unearths environmental risks, Ottawa warned.

The Conservative government has been warned that drilling for shale gas could boost carbon-dioxide emissions, encroach on wildlife habitat and sap freshwater resources. Canadian Press 01 Sep

Banks grow wary of environmental risks.

After years of legal entanglements arising from environmental messes and increased scrutiny of banks that finance the dirtiest industries, several large commercial lenders are taking a stand on industry practices that they regard as risky to their reputations and bottom lines. New York Times 31 Aug

Coal crackdown will not reduce emissions.

Labor's promised emissions standards for new coal electricity generators would not cut greenhouse gas emissions from any of the 12 coal power plants proposed in Australia, an analysis of the carbon profiles of each project shows. Sydney Morning Herald 31 Aug

W. Coloradans air concerns on Xcel energy plan.

Many western Coloradans are urging state regulators to reject moves to switch from coal to natural gas as the fuel to generate electricity. Associated Press 31 Aug

Miners give clean-energy bill the coal shoulder.

Legislation aimed at cleaning up Denver's air and turning Colorado into a model state for clean energy and jobs is feared as a job killer for the Western Slope's coal country. Denver Post 31 Aug

U.S. proposes grading cars on emissions, efficiency.

Gasoline misers like the Toyota Prius would get an 'A-' while muscle cars – including the Ferrari 612 – would get a 'D' under a labeling program proposed by Obama administration, which wants to convince consumers to buy vehicles that use less energy. Reuters 31 Aug

Stickers would help auto buyers compare fuel economy.

In its first major overhaul of fuel-economy ratings in 30 years, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation on Monday released two proposed window stickers designed to make it easier for consumers to compare vehicles. USA Today 31 Aug

New stickers will go beyond M.P.G. in rating cars.

The Obama administration proposed on Monday two alternatives to the window stickers in new vehicles, including one that would assign letter grades for fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions. New York Times 31 Aug

Automakers may get U.S. grades in fuel-economy revamp.

Automakers may get letter grades from the U.S. government for fuel efficiency in the first overhaul of new-car rating stickers in 30 years. Electric vehicles that get 117 miles per gallon or more would rate the highest “A+” under the proposal. Bloomberg News 31 Aug

Updated car stickers to include environmental info.

A government proposal may add letter grades to showroom window stickers on new cars and trucks to reflect a vehicle's overall fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions. Associated Press 31 Aug

Low prices stoke coal sales, despite pollution concerns.

Coal trading is poised to rise to a record high this year as prices at less than half their 2008 peak stoke demand, defying governments’ efforts to phase out the most-polluting fossil fuel. Bloomberg News 30 Aug

The effect of clouds on climate: A key mystery.

No variable has more confounded climate scientists than how clouds will react to — and influence — a warming world. Yale Environment 360 30 Aug

Summer travel for committees has left big carbon footprint.

The planes, trains and automobiles MPs used to travel to the nation’s capital this summer for 10 special committee meetings pumped more than 23 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere – more than four times the amount an average Canadian produces in a year. Postmedia News 30 Aug

Pacific Northwest forests could shed light on missing carbon.

A new study using laser pulses shot from satellites has found that the world's tallest forests are those along the Pacific Northwest coast, offering an indication of how important the trees could become as scientists try to unravel the mystery of missing carbon. McClatchy Newspapers 29 Aug

Shoppers 'panic buying' old 75W bulbs before EU ban comes into force.

Shoppers across Europe are panic buying the last remaining stocks of old fashioned 75W light bulbs before the traditional household items are banned in the EU next week. London Daily Telegraph 29 Aug

NZ seabed samples clue to global warming.

The fossil record from oceans around New Zealand shows a sudden discharge of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at the end of the last Ice Age, raising the possibility that a similar process may occur as a result of global warming, researchers say. New Zealand Press Association 28 Aug

Greenhouse gas regulation and power plants.

The members of the Board of Natural Resources say they’re not eager to oversee a new type of emissions linked with climate change. Augusta Chronicle 28 Aug

Green group slams Cargill over SMART palm oil.

Environmentalists on Friday criticized a decision by agribusiness giant Cargill Inc to continue buying palm oil from Indonesian firm PT Smart Tbk after SMART received a mixed score in a green audit. Reuters 28 Aug

Appalachian Dems seek distance from Obama on coal, climate.

Democrats in Appalachia are running away from the Obama administration's coal record like their political lives depend on it. They may be right. Greenwire 27 Aug

Albertans weigh in on new oilsands vision.

The provincial government is asking for Albertans’ comments on a new vision for the oilsands region that could set aside anywhere from 20 to 32 per cent of the land for conservation. Edmonton Journal 27 Aug

China clean energy plan hinges on coal price.

China's $736-billion push to harness nuclear, wind, solar and biomass energy hinges on making the cleaner fuels competitive with cheap and CO2-intensive coal without derailing surging industrial growth. Reuters 27 Aug

U.S. government may finance massive coal projects in India, South Africa.

The United States Export-Import Bank voted on Wednesday to seek a final review of a $900m loan for a controversial 3,960 MW coal-fired power plant in India, reports Pacific Environment, a San Francisco-based environmental group. Mongabay 26 Aug

Nine Plane Stupid activists fined for Aberdeen airport stunt.

Nine climate activists who occupied the tarmac at Aberdeen airport in the name of tackling climate change have each been fined between £300 and £700 after being convicted of breach of the peace. London Guardian 26 Aug