Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellites: Agencies Must Act Quickly to Address Risks That Jeopardize the Continuity of Weather and Climate Data

US Government Accountability Office http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10558.pdf In the 8 years since a contract was awarded, the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS)—a tri-agency program managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Department of Defense (DOD), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)—has experienced escalating costs, schedule delays, and ineffective interagency management. [...]

Benchmarking Air Emissions of the 100 Largest Electric Power Producers in the United States – 2008

NRDC http://www.nrdc.org/air/pollution/benchmarking/default.asp The following report compares air pollutant emissions of the 100 largest U.S. electric power producers for 2008, and discusses market trends affecting the electric generating sector, including trends in fuel prices, technology developments, and environmental regulations… Key findings of the Benchmarking project’s 2008 report include: Emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides have [...]

The G20 Toronto Summit Declaration

G20.org http://www.g20.org/Documents/g20_declaration_en.pdf [From Michael A. Levi's Blog] The G20, in its final communique (PDF), reaffirmed its agreement of last September (PDF) to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies in the “medium term”. Much is being written about how the Obama administration successfully blocked attempts to refer to each country’s efforts as “voluntary”, which, while not [...]

The Future of Natural Gas

MIT Energy Initiative http://web.mit.edu/mitei/research/studies/naturalgas.html [From introduction] The Future of Natural Gas is the third in a series of MIT multidisciplinary reports examining the role of various energy sources that may be important for meeting future demand under carbon dioxide emissions constraints. In each case, we explore the steps needed to enable competitiveness in a future [...]

NOAA’s State of the Coast Website: Economic and Ecological Values of America’s Coasts

NOAA http://stateofthecoast.noaa.gov/ [Press Release] NOAA today launched State of the Coast, an important new website that provides coastal managers, planners and officials at all levels of government a snapshot of statistics, facts and graphics about America’s 95,000-miles of coastline. The site provides the tools for better decision-making and for communicating the importance of healthy coastal [...]

First Scientific Report on Subsea Monitoring Data from Gulf Spill (aka “Joint Analysis Group (JAG) Review of R/V Brooks McCall Data to Examine Subsurface Oil”)

NOAA http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100623_brooks.html [Press Release]  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) today released the first peer reviewed, analytical summary report about the subsea monitoring in the vicinity of the Deepwater Horizon wellhead.

Statistical Review of World Energy June 2010

BP http://tinyurl.com/26h3ayt [From the Institute for Energy Research whose complete analysis is here]  According to the report: The United States increased its oil and natural gas production more than any country. In 2009, Russia surpassed Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer. Global proved oil reserves are at the highest levels of all time. [...]

Nanotechnology : Nanomaterials Are Widely Used in Commerce, but EPA Faces Challenges in Regulating Risk

Government Accountability Office http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10549.pdf The world market for products that contain nanomaterials is expected to reach $2.6 trillion by 2015. In this context, GAO (1) identified examples of current and potential uses of nanomaterials, (2) determined what is known about the potential human health and environmental risks from nanomaterials, (3) assessed actions EPA has taken [...]

Climate Change Economics (new journal with free sample issue)

World Scientific Publishers http://www.worldscinet.com/cce/mkt/aims_scope.shtml Climate Change Economics (CCE) publishes theoretical and empirical papers devoted to analyses of mitigation, adaptation, impacts, and other issues related to the policy and management of greenhouse gases. CCE is specifically devoted to papers in economics although it is understood that authors may need to rely on other fields for important [...]

The Real Options for U.S. Climate Policy

Belfer Center, Kennedy School, Harvard University / by Robert Stavins http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/analysis/stavins/?p=695 The time has not yet come to throw in the towel regarding the possible enactment in 2010 of meaningful economy-wide climate change policy (such as that found in the Waxman-Markey legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in June, 2009, or the more [...]