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Obama Administration Announces New Hazard Resiliency Grant Competition

Tue, 2014-07-01 13:51 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by John Patten  

      

blogs.planning.org - June 25, 2014

At a commencement speech at the University of California at Irvine, President Obama announced a new $1 billion investment into disaster resiliency for state, local, and tribal communities. The investment, known as The National Disaster Resilience Competition, is part of Obama’s action plan to combat climate change and extreme weather events.

Built largely on the Rebuild by Design program from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the National Disaster Resilience Competition will exclusively assist areas previously hit by a natural disaster by providing grants for recovery and resilience projects.

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NSA Releases First Statistics on Surveillance Sweep

Tue, 2014-07-01 12:17 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The logo of the National Security Agency hangs at the Threat Operations Center in Fort Meade, Maryland on January 25, 2006 (AFP Photo/Paul J. Richards)

news.yahoo.com - AFP - June 27, 2014

Washington (AFP) - The US National Security Agency released its first "transparency report" Friday, as part of an effort to quell the firestorm over reports of its massive data collection efforts.

The NSA report said that in 2013, it obtained fewer than 2,000 orders from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

That included 1,767 orders based on "probable cause" for an investigation, and 131 orders allowing the agency to collect data using a so-called "pen register" or "trap and trace."

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IC on the Record - Statistical Transparency Report Regarding Use of National Security Authorities
Annual Statistics for Calendar Year 2013

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Texas Clean-Energy Projects Created 6,400 Jobs Last Year

Sun, 2014-06-29 21:25 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Margery Schab  

      

Texas is among the leaders nationally in the creation of clean-energy jobs.  OCI Solar

bizjournals.com - by Sanford Nowlin - March 14, 2014

Clean-energy production and energy-efficient transportation projects created nearly 6,400 jobs in Texas last year, according to a new report by nonpartisan business group Environmental Entrepreneurs, or E2. 

The Lone Star State ranked No. 2 behind California, which generated around 15,400 clean-energy jobs in 2013.

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REPORT - E2 - Clean Energy Jobs: 2013 Year in Review and Q4 Report (12 page .PDF report)

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PEDV Update: New, Unrelated Strains Invade US Swine

Fri, 2014-06-27 22:35 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Albert Gomez

genesus.com - by Pat Hoffman - April 4, 2014

Two weeks ago, Genesus attended the American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV) Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas.  As one might imagine, there was a lot of discussion about Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDV)… What can be done to minimize losses?… Can we contain it?… How do we prevent it?… How do we sanitize contaminated facilities and trucks?… etc. One of the hotter topics of discussion, though, was evidence that confirms the presence of multiple, unrelated strains of PEDV have been detected US swine in addition to a distant cousin, the Swine Delta Coronavirus (SDCV).

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NOAA - Climate.gov

Fri, 2014-06-27 21:48 — Kathy Gilbeaux
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Climate
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NOAA Climate.gov provides science and information for a climate-smart nation.  Americans’ health, security, and economic well-being are closely linked to climate and weather.  People want and need information to help them make decisions on how to manage climate-related risks and opportunities they face.

U.S. to Face Multibillion-Dollar Bill from Climate Change: Report

Tue, 2014-06-24 15:55 — Kathy Gilbeaux

riskybusiness.org

reuters.com - by Sharon Begley - June 24, 2014

(Reuters) - Annual property losses from hurricanes and other coastal storms of $35 billion; a decline in crop yields of 14 percent, costing corn and wheat farmers tens of billions of dollars; heat wave-driven demand for electricity costing utility customers up to $12 billion per year.

These are among the economic costs that climate change is expected to exact in the United States over the next 25 years, according to a bipartisan report released on Tuesday. And that's just for starters: The price tag could soar to hundreds of billions by 2100.

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American Climate Prospectus
http://rhg.com/reports/climate-prospectus

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Former Pennsylvania Health Employees Say Bosses Enforced Silence on Shale Drilling

Mon, 2014-06-23 23:01 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

Two retirees from the Pennsylvania Department of Health say its employees were silenced on the issue of Marcellus Shale drilling.  Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY

stateimpact.npr.org - by Katie Colaneri - June 19, 2014

Two retirees from the Pennsylvania Department of Health say its employees were silenced on the issue of Marcellus Shale drilling.

One veteran employee says she was instructed not to return phone calls from residents who expressed health concerns about natural gas development.

“We were absolutely not allowed to talk to them,” said Tammi Stuck, who worked as a community health nurse in Fayette County for nearly 36 years.

Another retired employee, Marshall P. Deasy III, confirmed that.

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(ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLE HERE)

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Americans' Confidence in News Media Remains Low

Mon, 2014-06-23 21:20 — Kathy Gilbeaux

                 

Across newspapers, TV, and Internet, confidence no higher than 22%

gallup.com - by Andrew Dugan - June 19, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' faith in each of three major news media platforms -- television news, newspapers, and news on the Internet -- is at or tied with record lows in Gallup's long-standing confidence in institutions trend. This continues a decades-long decline in the share of Americans saying they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in newspapers or TV news, while trust in Internet news remains low since the one prior measure in 1999.

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California’s Cap-and-Trade a Versatile Tool for Environmental Policies

Mon, 2014-06-23 20:11 — Kathy Gilbeaux

environmentalleader.com - by Erica Morehouse - June 23, 2014

Governor Brown signed a budget last week that lays out for the first time how to invest the millions from California’s landmark cap-and-trade program ($734 million so far). California has shown another way that cap-and-trade is like the Swiss army knife of environmental policies: a versatile tool known for its usefulness and adaptability.

A Multi-faceted Investment Portfolio

California will invest $850 million over the next year to reduce dangerous climate pollution, a portfolio of investments that will benefit almost every part of California’s economy, going to low-carbon and public transportation, weatherization and energy efficient buildings, water efficiency, waste diversion, and natural resources like urban forests.

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US - West
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Old Reactors v. New Renewables: The First Nuclear War of the 21st Century

Sun, 2014-06-22 22:26 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

Lead image: Nuclear plant via Shutterstock

renewableenergyworld.com - by Mark Cooper - June 6, 2014

Within the past year, a bevy of independent, financial analysts (Lazard, Citi, Credit Suisse, McKinsey and Company, Sanford Bernstein, Morningstar) have heralded an economic revolution in the electricity sector. A quarter of a century of technological progress has led to the conclusion that over the course of the next decade a combination of efficiency, renewables and gas will meet the need for new resources and more importantly, render the antiquated baseload model largely obsolete.

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