Environmental Politics

"Senate Democrats hope to siphon votes from a GOP bid to hamstring EPA climate rules by voting first on a Democratic alternative."
 

"German chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives have suffered a historic defeat in a state ballot after almost six decades in power there, partial results showed Sunday, in an election that amounted to a referendum on the party's stance on nuclear power."

"What had been growing acceptance of nuclear power in the United States has eroded sharply in the wake of the nuclear crisis in Japan, with support for building nuclear power plants dropping slightly lower than it was immediately after the accident at the Three Mile Island plant in 1979, according to a CBS News poll released on Tuesday evening."

"In a setback that could stall the rollout of California's landmark climate change law, a court in San Francisco has ruled that the state must spend more time studying alternatives to the measure's key feature -- a cap-and-trade program on greenhouse gas emissions -- before it goes into effect Jan. 1."

"The Supreme Court declined today to take up the question of whether an environmental inspection of a private property can be viewed as an unconstitutional search and seizure."

"That it would take more than 20 years for federal regulators to finally propose toxic emissions standards for the power industry is testament to both the slow wheels of bureaucracy and the clout of the nation’s utility and coal interests, which bitterly — and for years, successfully — fought the controls, even as other industries bowed under."

"In the continuing political battle over the Obama administration's efforts to regulate greenhouse gases, Democrats and Republicans rarely take aim at the most deserving target: the Supreme Court."

"The White House sought Thursday to show it is on top of the Japanese nuclear crisis with a Rose Garden statement and a presidential-ordered review to ensure nothing like the Fukushima Daiichi disaster happens here at home."

"Facing its biggest crisis in 25 years, the U.S. nuclear power industry can count on plenty of Democratic and Republican friends in both high and low places."