Critics Fault Climate-Change Legislation

WASHINGTON - At the Joseph Farms dairy in Atwater (Merced County), farmers aren't just transforming milk into cheese. They've also figured out how to turn manure into fuel - and a paycheck. 

By storing waste from the dairy's 5,000 cows in a covered 7-acre lagoon and removing methane from it using sophisticated equipment, the farm is generating power that keeps refrigerators, lights and pumps running at its cheese plant.

14 Arrested in Latest Massey Protest

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Fourteen people were arrested Thursday after an anti-mountaintop removal protest that shut down the dragline shovel at a Massey Energy operation in Boone County for several hours, police said.

Four activists scaled the boom of the huge, crane-like mining machine to unfurl a large banner that said, "Stop Mountaintop Removal." Other protesters spread a similar banner out on the ground.

EPA Declares Public Health Emergency in Asbestos-Ridden Libby, Montana

WASHINGTON, DC, June 17, 2009 (ENS) - The first public health emergency ever declared by the U.S. EPA exists at the Libby asbestos site in northwest Montana, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced today. Vermiculite contaminated with asbestos was mined in Libby until 1990. Hundreds of asbestos-related disease cases have been documented in this small community, which covers the towns of Libby and Troy.

US Climate Report Details Energy, Agriculture Harm

WASHINGTON  - Climate change has already caused "visible impacts" in the United States and poses particular risks to the U.S. agriculture and energy industries, a new government report said on Tuesday.

The report, which lays out the effects of global warming on specific U.S. regions and sectors, calls for quick policy action as the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to vote soon on a bill to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

Big Carbon Players Jockey for Advantage

NY-ÅLESUND, Svalbard, Norway - Political and business leaders may agree in principle that climate change is a serious threat, but there is a startling lack of consensus and a 'you-go-first' attitude on taking action, even amongst a small group of high-level decision makers disconnected from their cell phones here in the Arctic.

USA, Canada to Modernize Great Lakes Water Quality Pact

NIAGARA FALLS, New York, June 15, 2009 (ENS) - The United States and Canada have agreed to update the 37-year-old Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement that commits both countries "to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the waters of the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon met Saturday at the Rainbow Bridge that connects the two countries to announce their intention to modernize the agreement.

Climate Pledges Bound to Breach Key Warming Target: Scientists

BONN, Germany - Pledges currently on the table at the UN climate talks will doom Earth to a warming of more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), a figure that has been widely endorsed as a safe limit, scientists said on Thursday.

Warming "is virtually certain to exceed 2 C" (3.6 F) compared to pre-industrial times, said their assessment of national positions.

The study was published online by the British science journal Nature as a new 12-day round of negotiations was in its penultimate day.

San Francisco OKs Toughest Recycling Law in US

Throwing orange peels, coffee grounds and grease-stained pizza boxes in the trash will be against the law in San Francisco, and could even lead to a fine.

The Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 Tuesday to approve Mayor Gavin Newsom's proposal for the most comprehensive mandatory composting and recycling law in the country. It's an aggressive push to cut greenhouse gas emissions and have the city sending nothing to landfills or incinerators by 2020.