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Situation Report

Paying For Health Outcomes Is Focus Of New Reform System

Thu, 2014-03-13 17:01 — Kathy Gilbeaux

         

Gov. Peter Shumlin says a new payment reform system focused on accountability and collaboration is a critical piece of his overall health care vision for the state.  Credit Bob Kinzel / VPR

vpr.net - by Bob Kinzel - March 12, 2014

(Vermont) - State officials have announced a plan that they hope will control health care costs in the future by redesigning how providers are paid.

The goal of this new approach is to encourage providers to work together on a patient’s total health care needs and to improve medical outcomes by allowing the providers to be reimbursed for preventive care.

State officials are optimistic that if these changes are made, it will significantly slow down the growth rate of health care expenses.

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Wind Energy Protects Water Security, Says Report

Thu, 2014-03-13 15:54 — Kathy Gilbeaux

ewea.org
triplepundit.com - by Jan Lee - March 13, 2014

Just in time for World Water Day: The European Wind Energy Association has released a report examining the role that water plays in energy production. And the numbers are staggering.

According to the report, 44 percent of water usage in the European Union goes to energy production.

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CLICK HERE - EWEA Report - Saving Water with Wind Energy

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U.S. Risks National Blackout From Small-Scale Attack

Wed, 2014-03-12 23:30 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Margery Schab

           

Federal Analysis Says Sabotage of Nine Key Substations Is Sufficient for Broad Outage

wsj.com - by Rebecca Smith - March 12, 2014

The U.S. could suffer a coast-to-coast blackout if saboteurs knocked out just nine of the country's 55,000 electric-transmission substations on a scorching summer day, according to a previously unreported federal analysis.

The study by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission concluded that coordinated attacks in each of the nation's three separate electric systems could cause the entire power network to collapse, people familiar with the research said.

A small number of the country's substations play an outsize role in keeping power flowing across large regions.

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News Release - FERC Directs Development of Physical Security Standards

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Market Forces Sap the Power from Electric Utilities

Wed, 2014-03-12 21:25 — Kathy Gilbeaux

greenbiz.com - by John Finnigan - March 10, 2014

Two seemingly unrelated announcements drew much attention in the electric utility industry recently. First, the Edison Electric Institute, the trade group for the U.S. electric utility industry, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) jointly recommended (PDF) changing how utilities should be regulated. Second, Duke Energy announced it will sell 13 Midwest merchant power plants.

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Citing Urgent Need, U.S. Calls on Hospitals to Hone Disaster Plans

Tue, 2014-03-11 21:13 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

After high water from Hurricane Katrina inundated their nursing home, residents waited for assistance in New Orleans in 2005. Federal officials are trying to avoid these types of situations with new requirements for health care providers ahead of emergencies. Credit Mario Tama/Getty Images

nytimes.com - by Sheri Fink - March 11, 2014

Federal officials are proposing sweeping new requirements for American health care facilities — from large hospitals to small group homes for the mentally disabled — intended to ensure their readiness to care for patients during disasters.

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Public Health Preparedness Capabilities: National Standards for State and Local Planning

Tue, 2014-03-11 18:09 — Kathy Gilbeaux

cdc.gov

One of the nation's key preparedness challenges has been determining appropriate state and local public health preparedness priorities. To assist state and local public health departments in their strategic planning, CDC developed 15 capabilities to serve as national public health preparedness standards.

CDC applied a systematic approach to developing the public health preparedness capabilities. The content is based on evidence-informed documents, relevant preparedness literature, and subject matter expertise gathered from across the federal government and the state and local practice community.

CDC's Public Health Preparedness Capabilities: National Standards for State and Local Planning now provides a guide that state and local jurisdictions can use to better organize their work, plan their priorities, and decide which capabilities they have the resources to build or sustain. The capabilities also help ensure that federal preparedness funds are directed to priority areas within individual jurisdictions.

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Heat Waves Could Be Predicted Weeks in Advance, Study Finds

Sun, 2014-03-09 23:30 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

A pedestrian walks along Vanowen Street in Canoga Park during a heat wave. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

latimes.com - by Tony Barboza - October 28, 2013

Scientists have discovered a weather pattern that foreshadows heat waves and could be used to predict them more than two weeks in advance, well beyond the 10-day range of weather forecasts, a new study reports.

Researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research wondered if the prolonged and often deadly heat waves that hit the United States and other Northern Hemisphere countries during the summer could be triggered by large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns.

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CLICK HERE - STUDY - Probability of US heat waves affected by a subseasonal planetary wave pattern

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While America Waits On Keystone Decision, A Different Tar Sands Pipeline Just Got Approved

Sun, 2014-03-09 22:44 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

The route of Enbridge’s Line 9, which would connect to a tar sands pipeline in Alberta on one side, and to Montreal on the other. The Montreal connection eventually goes to the eastern coast of Canada.  CREDIT: National Energy Board

thinkprogress.org - by Emily Atkin - March 7, 2014

While all eyes in America were turned to President Obama’s looming decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, Canadian regulators on Thursday approved their own, smaller version — a pipeline that would for the first time directly connect Alberta’s tar sands to Montreal.

Canada’s National Energy Board have approved a proposal by Enbridge Inc. to allow the reversal and expansion of their Line 9 pipeline. . .

. . . With the reversal and expansion approved, environmentalists say the controversial tar sands oil can now be pumped almost to the New England border.

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Climate
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USGS - 2011 Oklahoma Human-Induced Earthquake May Have Triggered Larger Quake

Sun, 2014-03-09 21:50 — Kathy Gilbeaux

                                          

usgs.gov - March 6, 2014

PASADENA, Calif. — In a new study involving researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey, scientists observed that a human-induced magnitude 5.0 earthquake near Prague, Oklahoma in November 2011 may have triggered the larger M5.7 earthquake less than a day later. This research suggests that the M5.7 quake was the largest human-caused earthquake associated with wastewater injection.

"The observation that a human-induced earthquake can trigger a cascade of earthquakes, including a larger one, has important implications for reducing the seismic risk from wastewater injection," said USGS seismologist and coauthor of the study Elizabeth Cochran.

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CLICK HERE - STUDY - Observations of static Coulomb stress triggering of the November 2011 M5.7 Oklahoma earthquake sequence

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Earthquake
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State Consultant Slams Fracking

Sat, 2014-03-08 19:42 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Margery Schab

capitalnewyork.com - by Scott Waldman - March 7, 2014

ALBANY—A consultant hired by the state Health Department to assist in a review of the health effects of fracking recently published a study that concluded “substantial concerns and major uncertainties” should be resolved before it is expanded nationally.

Governor Andrew Cuomo has indicated that his final, long-awaited decision on whether to permit fracking will depend on the department's findings. 

John Adgate, of the Colorado School of Public Health, surveyed a number of recent health-related studies of fracking and published his findings last month in the Environmental Science & Technology journal.

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CLICK HERE - STUDY - Potential Public Health Hazards, Exposures and Health Effects from Unconventional Natural Gas Development

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