 Pass/Fail Senate OKs fuel-economy increase, but drops more ambitious parts of energy bill The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed an energy bill that would raise auto fuel-economy standards to 35 miles per gallon by 2020 -- but only after a more ambitious version of the bill ran into a roadblock. The more ambitious version, which the House passed last week, got a thumbs-up from 59 senators -- a handful of Republicans as well as all of the Democrats except Mary Landrieu from oil-friendly Louisiana -- but that was still one vote shy of the 60 needed to get it past a threatened filibuster. To push the bill through, Democratic leaders in the Senate dropped provisions that would have required utilities to get 15 percent of their energy from renewables by 2020 and would have cut tax breaks and subsidies for oil companies. The revised bill now goes back to the House for approval; the White House says President Bush will sign it. [ email | discuss | + digg | + del.icio.us ] source: Detroit Free Press see also, in Gristmill: Sen. John Kerry defends Dem decision not to force a filibuster on the energy bill |
Season's Greenings!
Help show your loved ones the (compact fluorescent) light this holiday season with Grist's handy green guide, Wake Up and Smell the Planet. Get your copy now!
Help show your loved ones the (compact fluorescent) light this holiday season with Grist's handy green guide, Wake Up and Smell the Planet. Get your copy now!
TODAY'S NEWS
| The Forbidden Specificity Bali climate meeting goes overtime, drops specific emissions targets The two-week United Nations climate conference in Bali, Indonesia, has gone into overtime, lasting past its scheduled end as the U.S., Canada, and Japan duked it out with European countries and developing nations in a battle over emissions targets. As expected, the U.S. team, led by Chief Negotiator "Snarlin'" Harlan Watson, has successfully negotiated against specificity; the European nations agreed to drop their insistence that developed nations aim for a target of cutting greenhouse gases between 25 percent and 40 percent by 2020 in favor of continuing to simply talk about cuts instead. However, Germany's environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, insisted the overtime haggling was good-natured, saying, "The climate in the climate conference is good." That's great, but the climate outside the climate conference isn't doing so well. Or haven't you heard? [ email | discuss | + digg | + del.icio.us ] sources: Bloomberg, Associated Press, BBC News, Reuters |
| Coral Feckless Wild salmon and coral both in trouble, say studies Infestations of sea lice (ew!) in salmon farms off the west coast of Canada are threatening local wild salmon populations -- to the extent that the wild fish could be extinct within four years, says a new study published in Science. While the researchers focused on fish populations off the coast of British Columbia, they believe their findings could be applicable anywhere there's a high density of fish farms where wild salmon also run. But the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans remains unconvinced: "They are asking us to believe 80 percent mortality is from one source," says Brian Riddell of the department. "That's simply unrealistic." Also published in the latest issue of Science was a study stating that climate change is moving global coral colonies "toward the tipping point of functional collapse." By 2050, too-acidic ocean waters could keep 98 percent of corals from growing; by 2100, if CO2 levels keep rising, every reef could be dying. Really, is there anything we're not effing up? [ email | discuss | + digg | + del.icio.us ] |
| You Win Some, You Newsom San Francisco mayor proposes strict green-building standards San Francisco would have the most stringent green-building standards in the U.S. if the city Board of Supervisors adopts a new measure proposed this week by Mayor Gavin Newsom (D). By 2012, Newsom wants all new residential buildings over 75 feet tall, commercial buildings of more than 5,000 square feet, and renovations on buildings of more than 25,000 square feet to be certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. City government buildings are already required to meet the council's internationally recognized LEED standards. Newsom proposed a carbon tax last week, and he's not done yet; he promises, "We're going to be making a lot more announcements about reorganization around this priority [of greening] in the new term as well." [ email | discuss | + digg | + del.icio.us ] sources: San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, The Examiner, San Francisco Sentinel, NPR see also, in Grist: 15 Green Cities |
| Sears of Joy Sears and Kmart will phase out PVC, Wal-Mart accused of eco-naughtiness Big-box behemoths Sears and Kmart have agreed to phase out nasty plastic PVC from all products in their 3,800 stores. While admirable, the announcement merely makes those stores the lemmings of PVC abandonment; IKEA, Wal-Mart, and Target have all previously agreed to go PVC-free. In other big-box news, the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency has accused Wal-Mart of sourcing wood for its products from Chinese manufacturers who use Russian timber that was likely logged illegally. Wal-Mart, the largest U.S. importer of wood products, has publicly announced a goal to use only sustainably harvested wood by 2010. Meanwhile, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) accused Wal-Mart of selling ornaments produced in a Chinese sweatshop with low labor and environmental standards. So, uh, maybe you shouldn't go big-box holiday shopping after all. [ email | discuss | + digg | + del.icio.us ] |
| Buy Low, Sell Hybrids Honda plans small "affordable" hybrid car for U.S. market by 2009 Honda Motor Co. has announced it plans to improve the fuel-efficiency of its U.S. fleet by using "affordable" hybrid-engine technology in at least one model of subcompact car by 2009, as well as offering diesel versions of its larger vehicles. A company official characterized the plan this way: "At this moment, we say hybrid for small cars and diesel for large cars ... but we have several other alternatives we are looking into." The other alternatives include natural-gas powered cars as well as flex-fuel vehicles that can run on a blend of up to 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, but pretty much always run on pure gasoline due to the scarcity of ethanol fueling stations in the U.S. Honda has said its tiny hybrid model will likely cost only about $2,000 more than a non-hybrid version of the same car, down from the approximately $4,000 premium on a current-model Civic hybrid. [ email | discuss | + digg | + del.icio.us ] sources: The Wall Street Journal, The Detroit News |
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GRIST COLUMNS AND FEATURES
 Lumen Essence A review of compact fluorescent bulbs By now you've gotten the message: compact fluorescent bulbs save energy and money, and it's worth making the switch. But which kind should you buy? To help you navigate the shelves full of options, we decided to road test a few varieties in our new product-tester column, The Bottom Line. See which CFL turns us on! [ email | discuss | + digg | + del.icio.us ] new in Grist: A review of compact fluorescent bulbs |
Coming Monday: Umbra on paint disposal
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