1) EPA Proposal Says Carbon Capture Doesn’t Pose Large Risks
The Environmental Protection Agency says injecting carbon dioxide underground doesn’t pose substantial environmental or health risks. The agency is proposing a rule to classify carbon dioxide as a non-hazardous waste and encourage a controversial coal technology.
(Source: WFPL, 2011-08-04)
2) Democrats Prepared to Fight House Efforts to Restrict EPA Rules
When Congress returns in September from its monthlong recess, House Republicans say they will pick up where they left off in crafting and passing legislation to restrict U.S. EPA’s air quality rules. But Senate Democrats say they expect to have no trouble killing those proposals from the GOP-controlled House.
(Source: The New York Times, 2011-08-03)
3) Southern States Lag on Alternative Energy Demands for Utilities
States across the country are gradually forcing or cajoling their electric companies into buying renewable energy, but the trend has fallen flat in the Southeast. Of the 11 states that haven’t set even voluntary targets on how much alternative energy utilities must buy, eight of them are Southern states — Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee.
(Source: Miami Herald (free reg. req’d), 2011-08-08)
4) Georgia Power Says New Emissions Rules Will Cost Up to $3B
Georgia Power says complying with new regulations to cut toxic emissions will cost from $741 million to nearly $3 billion and lead it to close or refit six additional coal or oil-fired plants by 2015. That could mean cleaner air, but also higher bills for customers when the utility seeks approval to raise rates in 2013.
(Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 2011-08-04)
5) Advocacy Groups File Petition for More Fracturing Disclosure
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should demand that companies disclose the chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing and conduct safety and health tests on the effects of those chemicals, more than 100 advocacy groups say. Earthjustice, an environmental law firm, filed a petition with the federal agency on behalf of the groups formally requesting that the agency require companies test chemical substances and mixtures used in oil and gas drilling for their toxicity and identify everything that is tested.
(Source: Wyoming Tribune Eagle, 2011-08-05)
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