April 22nd is Earth Day and Bloggers Unite has an event I am participating in so I was looking for some good news on environmental issues over the week to blog about. I found some at both the global level and at the local level. This tells me that if we keep moving forward in support of environmental issues that we can make strides in achieving Millennium Goal No. 7. Environmental Sustainability. I also wrote another post on efforts by the Environmental Defense Fund in support of the day.
Both Henry Chu of the Los Angeles Times and the Economist provided articles stating, scientists in "climategate" did not fudge the data, a report finds.
Panel clears researchers in 'Climategate' controversyThe experts find 'no evidence of any deliberate scientific malpractice' by the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, which had been accused of misrepresenting global warming data. >>
A place in the sun Apr 14th 2010 | From The Economist print edition
The inquiry panel looked at 11 CRU publications from the past 20 years, spent days talking to the researchers and looking at other documentation, and concluded that if there was any malpractice at CRU they would have detected it. They found no such thing. Instead they found "dedicated if slightly disorganised researchers ill-prepared for public attention".
At my local level, my United States Senator Barbara Boxer recently wrote me because of writing to her before in support of safeguarding the Clean Air Act and legislative efforts to combat climate change. Defending the Clean Air Act on the Web and in Congress
I also learned that she does not support efforts from industrial state Democratic Senators to pre-empt state and local laws that regulate carbon emissions.
I am pleased to inform you that on April 1, 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation announced new national fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for cars. These new standards are an historic step forward, and I applaud the Obama Administration for making reductions of harmful GHG emissions a priority.
The new standards apply to new passenger cars, light-duty trucks, and medium-duty passenger vehicles, for model years 2012 through 2016. By 2016, new vehicles would have to meet an estimated combined average emissions level of 250 grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) per mile and 35.5 miles per gallon (mpg), a significant improvement over the current national fuel efficiency standard.
The new federal standards, which are based on the clean car standards pioneered by California, will save consumers money at the gas pump due to higher fuel efficiency while reducing our dangerous dependence on foreign oil. EPA projects that over the lifetime of 2012-2016 model year vehicles, the new rules would reduce U.S. GHG emissions by 960 million metric tons and save 1.8 billion barrels of oil.
As Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, I have worked hard on our fight against carbon pollution. Be assured, I will continue working with my colleagues in Congress and the Obama Administration to move meaningful legislation forward to create clean energy jobs, reduce carbon pollution, and reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil.
Thank you for your past correspondence on this matter. Please feel free to write to me in the future about this or any other issue of concern to you.
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