US-ENVIRONMENT Summary

Reuters - 2 hours 6 mins ago

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU vote backs increase in domestic climate action

European Union lawmakers backed more domestic action to fight climate change, cutting import limits on carbon offsets from developing countries through 2020, in a vote on Tuesday which will carry into EU negotiations. The European Parliament's influential environment committee also voted to allow member states to trade their EU emissions quotas among themselves, and introduced tough penalties for nations that exceed their greenhouse gas limits. Trading emissions quotas would allow member states which under-cut their greenhouse gas caps to sell the difference to others which were struggling to meet theirs. Sellers would have to use the revenue for "green" projects.

U.S. to limit oil development in polar bear habitat

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - The U.S. Interior Department will designate within two years protected areas of the Arctic that are considered critical habitat for polar bears and cannot be harmed by oil development as part of a legal settlement with environmental groups on Monday. The Interior Department formally listed polar bears as threatened in May, but did not create protected areas for them.

World needs to rethink biofuels: U.N. food agency

ROME/MILAN (Reuters) - The Western world needs to rethink its rush to biofuels, which has done more harm pushing up food prices than it has good by reducing greenhouse gases, a United Nations report said on Tuesday. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said policies encouraging biofuel production and use in Europe and the United States was likely to maintain pressure on food prices but have little impact on weaning car users away from oil.

California seeks energy savings as economy sours

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Economic turmoil won't stop investments that help the environment, but the focus will be on saving energy and money rather than massive change, a top California environment official said on Monday. The trend-setting state plans aggressive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, but it may be trickier in the middle of melting down markets. California is arguably the leading state in the mortgage crisis.

Nuclear power back on German political agenda

BIBLIS, Germany (Reuters) - The vat of still blue water containing enriched uranium rods at Germany's oldest nuclear plant looks as harmless as a public swimming pool. But the stifling heat in the domed reactor building and the sight of workers in orange jumpsuits with Geiger counters, white gloves and layers of plastic covering their feet betray the risks of nuclear power generation.

UK urged to cut carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain should increase its climate targets to an 80 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, compared to its present 60 percent goal, its chief adviser on climate change said on Tuesday. The higher target should apply across all sectors of the UK economy and would cost between 1 and 2 percent of gross domestic product in 2050, said the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), which advises the government on how it can meet its climate change goals.

Indonesia raises alert level of Sulawesi volcano

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia has raised the alert level for a volcano on Sulawesi island after it began spewing hot clouds and lava, a vulcanology official said on Tuesday. Lava from Soputan volcano flowed up to 1 km (over half a mile) from the crater while white clouds and fiery sparks shot up about 150 meters from the peak, said Surono, the head of the vulcanology center.

Tropical Storm Marco prompts evacuation on oil platform

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Marco formed on Monday in the southern Gulf of Mexico, prompting Mexico's state-owned oil company Pemex to evacuate four offshore plants and shut down wells. The 60 mile diameter storm, which brewed up quickly on Monday, was 80 miles northeast of Veracruz at 0000 GMT, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Argentine beekeepers no longer in clover

CHIVILCOY, Argentina (Reuters) - Beekeepers had it easy when cattle roamed freely across the flower-filled meadows of Argentina's Pampas plains. But a boom in soy farming has changed all that. The legendry prairies have fast become one of the most efficient swathes of cropland on Earth, leaving little room for wild flowers and leading beekeepers in the world's No. 1 honey exporter to move their hives and even sow their own flowers.

Candidate advisers debate carbon capture funds

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Top energy advisors to the two U.S. presidential candidates agreed on Monday on the need to convert coal-burning electricity plants to capture carbon emissions, but differed on how to pay for it. An cost-effective way to retrofit power stations to trap and store carbon dioxide rather than releasing it into the atmosphere, would be "the most important single breakthrough the world has ever made" to address global warming, said Jason Grumet, an adviser to Democrat Barack Obama at a debate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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