EPA Launches Green Products Web Portal

US EPA http://www.epa.gov/greenerproducts/ [From Press Release] The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is observing Pollution Prevention (P2) Week (September 19-25, 2011) by launching a new tool designed to provide Americans easy access to information about everyday products like home appliances, electronics and cleaning products that can save money, prevent pollution and protect people’s health… Using [...]

Ohio’s Natural Gas and Crude Oil Exploration and Production Industry and the Emerging Utica Gas Formation: Economic Impact Study

Kleinhenz & Associates for the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program http://bit.ly/nSHdXY [From an article in the Vindicator, Youngstown Ohio]  Ohio’s oil and natural-gas industries and the emergence of horizontal hydraulic fracturing could create more than 200,000 jobs and pump billions into the state economy over the next five years, according to a new [...]

Prudent Development – Realizing the Potential of North America’s Abundant Natural Gas and Oil Resources

National Petroleum Council http://www.npc.org/Prudent_Development.html [

Alaska Outer Continental Shelf Permits

US EPA Region 10 http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/AIRPAGE.NSF/Permits/ocsap/ [Green Car Congress]  EPA Region 10 has issued final air quality permits to Shell for oil and gas exploration drilling in the Alaska Arctic. The permits will allow Shell to operate the Discoverer drillship and a support fleet of icebreakers, oil spill response vessels, and supply ships for up to [...]

Shale gas in British Columbia: Risks to B.C.’s Climate Action Objectives

Pembina Institute / by Matt Horne http://www.pembina.org/pub/2264 [From a Climate Wire article by Christa Marshall, sub. req'd] British Columbia’s natural gas boom threatens the province’s ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gases, according to a new study. Like the United States, Canada is experiencing a surge in natural gas production because of unconventional finds of the [...]

Code Red in Our National Parks: Ozone Pollution Exceedences at Three Year High

National Parks Conservation Association http://www.npca.org/cleanair/pdf/Ozone_violations_in_national_parks_report.pdf [From Press Release]   …Report findings indicate that so far this year there have been 234 exceedances of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) health-based ozone standard in 18 of the national parks with ozone monitors, resulting in a number of “Code Red” days when even healthy people are advised to protect [...]

World Development Report 2012

World Bank http://bit.ly/gtJFN8 [From Website] The 2012 World Development Report on Gender Equality and Development finds that women’s lives around the world have improved dramatically, but gaps remain in many areas. The authors use a conceptual framework to examine progress to date, and then recommend policy actions.

Policy Options to Support Climate-Induced Migration

Asian Development Bank for the Climate Change Fund http://www.adb.org/Documents/TARs/REG/43181-REG-TAR.pdf [Yale Environment 360]  More than 30 million people across Asia were displaced by environmental disasters and weather-related events in 2010, a new report warns, and the region will become increasingly vulnerable as the effects of climate change grow. And with the frequency of extreme weather events [...]

Comparison of Essential Air Service Program to Alternative Coach Bus Service: Keeping Rural Communities Connected

MJ Bradley, Inc. for the American Bus Assoc., The Reason Foundation, Taxpayers for Common Sense and the NRDC / by Dana Lowell, Tom Curry, Lily Hoffman-Andrews, and Lea Reynolds http://www.buses.org/files/Foundation/EAS%20Study%20Final%20Report%20FINALv2%20%2012sep11.pdf [Bloomberg News] Taxpayers would save up to $89 million a year if buses rather than planes served 38 cities where the U.S. subsidizes flights, the [...]

Findings and Implications from a Coarse-Scale Global Assessment of Recent Selected Mega-Fires

Jerry Williams, et al. for the 5th International Wildfire Conference in Sun City, South Africa http://espacinsular.org/IMG/pdf/5thIWFConference2011.pdf [Abstract] In many parts of the world, the number of large wildfires has been increasing at an alarming rate. Among them, so-called “mega-fires” have emerged. These extraordinary conflagrations are unprecedented in the modern era for their deep and long-lasting [...]