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To:

From:

Sent:

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Allen, Kara[Kara.Allen@mail.house.gov]

Allen, Kara

Tue

4/15/2014 1 53:56

PM

SEEC

Daily Clips

4.15.14

Sustainable Energy Environment

Coalition

Top news stories:

Environmental Protection Agency EPA) chief Gina McCarthy

is

traveling

to

Taiwan and Vietnam this

week

for

events related

to

environmental education and international cooperation on environmental

issues.

China said on Tuesday it had lodged a

protest

with the United States over a visit by Washington s

environmental protection chief to

self-ruled Taiwan

this

week.

Natural gas drilling

at

some sites in

southwestern

Pennsylvania released

100 to 1,000 times

the amount

of methane as

the Environmental Protection Agency EPA) has estimated for such operations, according

to

a new study.

The League of Conservation Voters and the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund announced

Monday

that they are joining forces on a

multimillion-dollar

electoral effort. The goal of the initiative,

which they re calling LeadingGreen, is

to

drive 5 million in direct campaign contributions

to

pro

environment

candidates in

2014.

A survey released Tuesday --

the

first comprehensive one

of

its kind - says

that

only

10

killers of

908

environmental

activists slain around

the

world over the past decade have been convicted. The report

by

the

London-based Global Witness, a

group that

seeks

to

shed light on

the

links between

environmental

exploitation and human rights abuses, says murders of those

protecting

land rights and

the

environment

have soared dramatically. It noted

that

its toll

of

victims in

5

countries

is

probably

far

higher since field

investigations in a number of African and Asian nations are difficult or impossible.

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Signs have been detected

that

a periodic

warming of

the tropical Pacific known

as El

Nino is

imminent,

presaging changes

to

global weather patterns in the

months

ahead,

the World

Meteorological

Organization said.

Energy news:

Wind

farms

are

more

popular in Britain

than

hydraulic

fracturing,

a

new

study shows. According to the

You Gov poll, 62

percent of

respondents said

they would rather

live

next

to

a

wind farm than

a fracking

site. Nineteen percent said they would

prefer

an oil or gas well near their home, according

to the

poll.

There is an old

joke

in the energy business

that

advanced biofuels are

the

fuel of the future, and always

will be. A Spanish company, Abengoa Bioenergy, has bet $500 million on robbing

that

joke of its punch

line. In the middle of a cornfield here

it

is building a 38-acre Erector set of electrical cable and pipe

that

will

soon begin producing cellulosic ethanol, which it calls a low-polluting alternative

to

petroleum

products.

A

Government Accountability

Office (GAO)

report

released Monday said

when the

Environmental

Protection Agency's EPA)

is

late in issuing its annual Renewable Fuel Standards

RFS) it

increases costs

for

refiners.

Some

prototypes

look like parachutes. Others, like one developed by

the

Google-owned startup Makani

Power, look more like gliders. Another, called a

buoyant

airborne

turbine,

or

the

BAT, resembles a

blimp,

but

it's hollow,

with

a spinning

turbine

suspended in its

center.While renewable

energy

developers dream of harnessing the stronger,

more

consistent breezes that blow thousands of feet

above our heads, it's hard

to

say when airborne wind energy technology will become commercially

viable.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) released a new

minute-long

ad

that

touts

her

work defending Louisiana's oil

industry

using

her

own words. The ad shows news clips playing in Louisiana homes

of

Landrieu talking

about her

record on oil and gas and hammering the Obama administration, and calls

her

chairmanship

of

the Energy

Committee the most

powerful position in the Senate for Louisiana.

Energy giant ConocoPhillips Co. has received approval from the

Department

of Energy

to

resume

exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its Kenai, Alaska, facility, and plans

to

start exporting this

spring.

It turns

out

this

would

also be much easier

for

utilities

to

manage.

If

grids

were

in chunks of 500-700

connections,

they

would be big enough

to

stabilize local

fluctuations

in power generation,

but

small

enough

to

avoid large-scale failures, according

to

research by

the

American

Institute of

Physics.

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Governments are funding research

to

find cost effective and efficient ways

to

recycle rare earth metals

from used products. For instance, the U.S. Department of Energy-funded Innovation Hub is looking for

ways

to

secure the supply of five rare earth metals identified by the government

as

critical, reported

Ensia.

Prime

Minister

Shinzo Abe is pushing Japan s coal industry

to

expand sales at home and abroad,

undermining hopes

among environmentalists

that

he'd

use the Fukushima nuclear accident to switch

the

nation

to renewables.

The story of German power giant RWE AG (RWE) exemplifies the crisis facing the nation's utility industry -

and those of many count ries across Europe -- as nuclear power plants get shuttered in the wake of the

Fukushima disaster, renewables steal away revenue, and consumers and companies complain about

rising power costs

that

are three times higher

than

in the U.S.

Climate news:

March

2014 was

the fourth-warmest March

on record globally, according to

recently

released NASA

data, making

it

the 349th month -

more than

29 years - in which global temperatures were above the

historic average.

The United States needs

to

enact a major climate change law, such

as

a tax on carbon pollution, by the

end

of

this

decade

to

stave

off

the

most

catastrophic impacts

of

global

warming,

according

to

the

authors of a

report

released this week by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change.

An evangelical Christian, married

to

a pastor, living in conservative West Texas, and widely regarded as a

top-notch

climate scientist, Dr. Katharine Hayhoe is a rare breed

on paper

- in person, she s even rarer.

Deftly moving between topics like science, religion, and gender with equal parts insight and levity,

Hayhoe is an unassuming force

of

nature.

Rep. Ted Yoho

R-FL)

readily

admits

he s

not

smart enough

to

determine

the

roots

of

climate

change.

He is, however, able

to

rule

out

one possible cause: humans.

Corn is the most common grain in the U.S., with its production historically concentrated in a Midwestern

region stretching

from

the Ohio River valley to Nebraska and trailing off in northern

Minnesota.

It had

been ungrowable in the

fertile

farmland

of

Canada s breadbasket.

That is

changing

as

a

warming

climate, along with

the

development of faster-maturing seed varieties, turns the table on food

cultivation.

The Corn Belt

is

being pushed north

of

what was imaginable a generation ago.

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Last night's episode of Fox's Cosmos series didn't seem political or

controversial, at

least on

the

surface.

Rather, it introduced us

to

the world on

the

molecular and atomic scale,

at

one point venturing inside of

a dewdrop (packed with ext remely cool tiny organisms like tardigrades) and, later, inside of a plant cell.

It

was

kind of reminiscent of what you learned in

your

ninth

grade bio class - albeit much less sleep

inducing.

Canada's

energy industry has

officially

surpassed transportation as

the

largest producer

of

climate

change

causing greenhouse

gases,

in

no

small

part because of

large

increases

in tar

sands extraction,

according

to a

government report

quietly released Friday.

Environment Health news:

A federal

appeals

court on M onday struck

down

a

top component

of

the

Dodd-Frank Act

requiring

companies

to

disclose

whether

their

products

contain minerals from the war-torn Democratic Republic

of Congo DRC).

Throughout

the last two centuries, cities

across

the globe -

as

you

might

view

them from space

- have

expanded

in a relatively uniform way: first incrementally, then

at

a breakneck

speed.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) weighed

in

Monday against a Nevada rancher who

is

battling the federal government.

Well, it's

not

over,

Reid

told

KRNV,

a Reno, Nev.-based television

station. We can't have an American people that

violate

the law

and

then just walk away from it. So it's

not

over.

The Central Valley was once

one

of North

America's

most productive wildlife habitats, a 450-mile-long

expanse marbled with meandering streams

and

lush wetlands that provided an ideal stop for migratory

shorebirds on their annual journeys from South America

and

Mexico

to

the Arctic

and

back.

To the

untrained

eye, Manatee Springs

is

an idyllic refuge in Central Florida: The cool water

is

so clear in

parts

that the

sand

glistens like polished

aluminum.

A

vast series

of underwater

caves

beckons

thousands of divers. Deer wander by

as

do

manatees,

turtles, owls. Eagles

soar overhead.

Palm oil production in

Southeast

Asia, the

largest

growing region,

is

at increasing risk

from

the

probable

onset

of an

El Nino later

this

year

after

estates

were

already

hurt

by dryness in the first

quarter.

Prices

advanced.

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The group

that

conducts Japan s whaling says it expects

to

resume scientific whaling n the ntarctic

after this year s hunt was cancelled following an order by an

international

court.