nytimes.com - January 15th, 2014 - Coral Davenport

The Obama administration is retreating from previous demands of strong international environmental protections in order to reach agreement on a sweeping Pacific trade deal that is a pillar of President Obama’s strategic shift to Asia, according to documents obtained by WikiLeaks, environmentalists and people close to the contentious trade talks.

The negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would be one of the world’s biggest trade agreements, have exposed deep rifts over environmental policy between the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations. As it stands now, the documents, viewed by The New York Times, show that the disputes could undo key global environmental protections.

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Image: The new pressure from both sides could have an impact on critical permitting decisions on issues ranging from the Keystone XL pipeline to natural gas exports and federal coal leases. Nati Harnik/AP

washingtonpost.com - January 16th, 2014 - Juliet Eilperin and Lenny Bernstein

A group of the nation’s leading environmental organizations is breaking with the administration over its energy policy, arguing that the White House needs to apply a strict climate test to all of its energy decisions or risk undermining one of the president’s top ­second-term priorities.

The rift — reflected in a letter sent to President Obama by 18 groups, including the Sierra Club, the Environmental Defense Fund and Earthjustice — signals that the administration is under pressure to confront the fossil-fuel industry or risk losing support from a critical part of its political base during an already difficult election year.

Tom Meyer's new system generates hydrogen fuel by using the sun's energy to split water into its component parts. After the split, hydrogen is sequestered and stored, while the byproduct, oxygen, is released into the air. Credit: Tom Meyer

phys.org - January 14, 2014

Solar energy has long been used as a clean alternative to fossil fuels such as coal and oil, but it could only be harnessed during the day when the sun's rays were strongest. Now researchers led by Tom Meyer at the Energy Frontier Research Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have built a system that converts the sun's energy not into electricity but hydrogen fuel and stores it for later use, allowing us to power our devices long after the sun goes down.

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ecowatch.com - by Brandon Baker - December 31, 2013

It wasn’t what Professor Mark Jacobson was saying—if you’re an advocate of renewable energy, you hear this kind of talk on a daily basis—as much as it was the platform. Solar and wind energy simply don’t get the late-night limelight.

Target Hackers Wrote Partly in Russian, Displayed High Skill, Report Finds

wsj.com - by Danny Yadron - January 16, 2014

The holiday data breach at Target Corp. TGT -0.94% appeared to be part of a broad and highly sophisticated international hacking campaign against multiple retailers, according to a report prepared by federal and private investigators that was sent to financial-services companies and retailers.

The report offers some of the first details to emerge about the source of the attack that compromised 40 million credit- and debit-card accounts and personal data for 70 million people. It also provided further evidence the attack on Target during peak holiday shopping was part of a concerted effort by skilled hackers.

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whitehouse.gov - August 2013

The following is an accounting of Federal funding for climate change programs and activities, both domestic and international, included in the fiscal year (FY) 2014 President’s Budget.

Federal Climate Change Expenditures - Report to Congress (48 page .PDF report)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/legislative_reports/fcce-report-to-congress.pdf

submitted by Chloe Pearson

Visit:  HealthCare.gov

Archived July 1, 2010 - HealthReform.gov

Affordable Care Act: Obamacare & Health Reform Facts: http://healthreform.kaiserpermanente.org/

Understanding the Impact of Obamacare on Medicare: http://blog.ehealthmedicare.com/media-center/infographics/?pid=11

What does Marketplace health insurance cover?
https://www.healthcare.gov/what-does-marketplace-health-insurance-cover/

Affordable Care Act: State-by-State Impact: http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts/bystate/statebystate.html

The Lifestyle Revolutionaries Guide to Addiction Intervention (18 page .PDF file): http://www.lakeviewhealth.com/InterventionGuide.pdf

huffingtonpost.com - by Lewis Milford - January 7, 2014

For those who already think natural gas will win out over renewable power, a judge has said, not so fast.

In what may be the first time a U.S. solar power project has been declared cost-competitive against natural gas in a competitive bidding process, a judge has said solar is cheaper than natural gas. The ruling could be a road map for avoiding a new fossil fuel age dominated by big natural gas.

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Image: The relatively new idea of using batteries to store electricity during the day and discharge it in the evening is aimed at coping with rapid changes in supply and demand. Mike Blake/Reuters

nytimes.com - December 23rd 2013 - Matthew L. Wald

Solar power is growing so fast in California — with installations by customers increasing tenfold since 2006 — that it is turning the state’s power system upside down.

Image: Fracking opponents protest before the Tom Corbett inauguration to become the 46th governor of Pennsylvania at the state capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2011. CREDIT: AP Photo/Matt Rourke

thinkprogress.org - January 3rd 2014 - Emily Atkin

Exxon Mobil Corp. subsidiary XTO Energy will have to face criminal charges for allegedly dumping tens of thousands of gallons of hydraulic fracturing waste at a Marcellus Shale drilling site in 2010, according to a Pennsylvania judge’s ruling on Thursday.

Following a preliminary hearing, Magisterial District Judge James G. Carn decided that all eight charges against Exxon — including violations of both the state Clean Streams Law and the Solid Waste Management Act — will be “held for court,” meaning there is enough evidence to take the fossil fuel giant to trial over felony offenses.

insurancejournal.com - by Andrew G. Simpson - January 7, 2014

The U.S. Senate is expected to take a key vote soon on a bill that would delay some of the flood insurance rate hikes triggered by the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012. . .

. . . The procedural vote on S.1846 was originally planned for Wednesday, but the Senate is still dealing with an extension of federal unemployment benefits, delaying consideration of the flood bill. U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), a major advocate for the bill, told USA Today that  “next week is more realistic” for any vote on the flood bill.

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eurekalert.org

A study by researchers at the George Washington University, the University of Southern California, and the Cabarrus Health Alliance lists seven recommendations to enhance preparedness for public health emergencies in the US

WASHINGTON (Jan. 9, 2013) –The Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York City prompted large increases in government funding to help communities respond and recover after man-made and natural disasters. But, this funding has fallen considerably since the economic crisis in 2008. Furthermore, disaster funding distribution is deeply inefficient: huge cash infusions are disbursed right after a disaster, only to fall abruptly after interest wanes. These issues have exposed significant problems with our nation's preparedness for public health emergencies.

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CLICK HERE - STUDY - Funding problems threaten US disaster preparedness (28 page .PDF report)

nytimes.com - by Matthew L. Wald - December 27, 2013

WASHINGTON — To stave off climate change, sources of electricity that do not emit carbon will have to replace the ones that do. But at the moment, two of those largest sources, nuclear and wind power, are trying to kill each other off.

In the electricity market, both are squeezed by pressure from natural gas, which provides some carbon reductions compared with coal but will not bring the country anywhere near its goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Natural gas has a carbon footprint that is at least three times as large as that goal.

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Greg Mauch uses a shovel to clear several inches of snow from her sidewalk in Detroit, Jan. 2, 2014.
Joshua Lott/Reuters

abcnews.com - Associated Press - by Carson Walker - January 4, 2014

It has been decades since parts of the Midwest experienced a deep freeze like the one expected to arrive Sunday, with potential record-low temperatures heightening fears of frostbite and hypothermia even in a region where residents are accustomed to bundling up.

This "polar vortex," as one meteorologist calls it, is caused by a counterclockwise-rotating pool of cold, dense air. The frigid air, piled up at the North Pole, will be pushed down to the U.S., funneling it as far south as the Gulf Coast.

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CREDIT: shutterstock

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Multimodel assessment of water scarcity under climate change

CLICK HERE - SUPPORTING INFORMATION - Multimodel assessment of water scarcity under climate change

thinkprogress.org - by Ari Phillips - January 3, 2014

A new study by a diverse group of researchers from twelve countries found that of the human impacts stemming from climate change, the threat it poses to global water supplies may be the most severe.