A round-up of the top climate and energy news. Please post other links below.
The Canadian firm behind the controversial Keystone XL pipeline will reapply Friday for a federal permit to ship crude oil from the oil sands fields of Alberta to the United States, according to people familiar with the company’s plans. [Washington Post]
The Obama administration wants to clamp down on shale gas drilling on public lands and set standards that proponents of tougher regulation hope will provide a blueprint for drilling oversight nationwide. [Reuters]
As New York State environmental regulators fine-tune proposed rules governing horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a controversial natural-gas extraction process, wastewater has emerged as a challenging issue for the industry and regulators. [New York Times]
Environmentalists have filed a lawsuit seeking to derail efforts by the federal government to lease an estimated 2 billion tons of coal near two major Wyoming mines. [Washington Post]
In this era of pricey gasoline, fuel-efficient cars are getting attention. A subcompact Chevy Sonic that gets 40 miles per gallon? Intriguing! But many drivers have found that a car’s advertised mileage is often quite different from how it actually performs on the road. So how big a problem is this? [Wonk Blog]
Greenland’s glaciers are hemorrhaging ice at an increasingly faster rate but not at the breakneck pace that scientists once feared, a new study says. [Washington Post]
Pakistan’s laws on climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) are the “best in the world,” UN special envoy Margareta Wahlström said Thursday. [Global Inquirer]
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correction: “Philippines’ (not Pakistan’s) laws on climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction are the “best in the world,” UN special envoy Margareta Wahlstom said Thursday. [Global Inquirer]
It’s the Phillippines, not Pakistan that has the praise of the UN envoy.
I was wondering if this was possible:
Buy an Electric Car, Keep Your Food from Spoiling
Thanks to your electric vehicle’s battery, which is strong enough to push a ton of metal down the road at high speed, your lights will stay on even as climate change makes some types of extreme weather events more common and more severe — along, presumably, with blackouts. ( http://www.climatecentral.org/blogs/buy-an-electric-car-keep-your-food-from-spoiling/ )
I presume it could even operate higher energy devices like air conditioners. This kind of interchangeable back up, non combustion technology has potential.