Posted on June 27, 2008 by Dennis Pfaff
- A federal appeals court panel in Washington has rejected a move by numerous states (including California and Massachusetts) and private groups to pressure the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency into regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Here are stories from The New York Times and the Boston Globe's The Green Blog, as well as Climate Law Update's previous coverage of this case.
- The big anti-greenhouse gas plan unveiled by California air pollution regulators this week prods the state toward a future less dependent on cars, according to this analysis by the San Francisco Chronicle. It also constitutes "the first comprehensive effort to combat global warming by any American state," but it has a long way to go before it takes effect, reports the Los Angeles Times, as the news media weigh in heavily on the document.
- Republicans in the Senate have introduced legislation to open up public lands in Utah and elsewhere to oil shale exploration and production, according to the Deseret News. But such an attempt faces intense opposition from environmental groups, including the Wilderness Society and the Center for Biological Diversity, warning of the time it would take to produce the oil and high levels of greenhouse gases it would generate.
- Forest plant species may be migrating to higher elevations to survive climate change, scientists report in a study cited in this Reuters dispatch.
- Along similar lines, an analysis of data from nearly 50 years of weekly fish-trawl surveys in Narragansett Bay and adjacent Rhode Island Sound reveals a long-term shift in species composition, likely related to global warming, reports Science Daily.
- Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair concedes he could have done more to combat climate change but he nevertheless defends his record, in this article in the Guardian.
