Maryland Senate gives final approval to fracking ban

A Maryland bill that bans hydraulic fracturing cleared its final hurdle Monday night when the Senate approved the measure with a 35-to-10 vote.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/maryland-senate-gives-final-approval-to-fracking-ban/2017/03/27/362649d8-1349-11e7-833c-503e1f6394c9_story.html?utm_term=.b8f7c26ccd50
Article courtesy of the Washington Post by Ovetta Wiggins and josh Hicks

Senior ministers at odds over readiness of new coal-fired power stations

Senior Turnbull government ministers are publicly at odds over the timing of new investment in coal-fired power – with the resources minister suggesting Asian and domestic investors “are very interested” and could build a plant within three years, and the energy minister arguing any investment would be “a long way off.”  https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/mar/27/senior-ministers-at-odds-over-readiness-of-new-coal-fired-power-stations
Article courtesy of The Guardian by Katharine Murphy

A Dream of Clean Energy at a Very High Price

SAINT-PAUL-LEZ-DURANCE, France — At a dusty construction site here amid the limestone ridges of Provence, workers scurry around immense slabs of concrete arranged in a ring like a modern-day Stonehenge.

It looks like the beginnings of a large commercial power plant, but it is not. The project, called ITER, is an enormous, and enormously complex and costly, physics experiment. But if it succeeds, it could determine the power plants of the future and make an invaluable contribution to reducing planet-warming emissions. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/science/fusion-power-plant-iter-france.html?_r=0

Article courtesy of The New York Times by Henry Fountain

US Scientists Launch World's Biggest Solar Geoengineering Study

US scientists are set to send aerosol injections 20km up into the earth’s stratosphere in the world’s biggest solar geoengineering programme to date, to study the potential of a future tech-fix for global warming.  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/24/us-scientists-launch-worlds-biggest-solar-geoengineering-study
Article courtesy of The Guardian by Arthur Neslen

California Upholds Auto Emissions Standards, Setting Up Face-Off With Trump

California’s clean-air agency voted on Friday to push ahead with stricter emissions standards for cars and trucks, setting up a potential legal battle with the Trump administration over the state’s plan to reduce planet-warming gases.  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/24/business/energy-environment/california-upholds-emissions-standards-setting-up-face-off-with-trump.html?_r=0
Article courtesy of The New York Times by Hiroko Tabuchi

Crop Scientists Are Racing to ID the Wild Relatives of Common Food Crops to Create a Climate Change-Resilient Agriculture

Across the globe, botanists are working to identify what scientists call "crop wild relatives"—the weedy cousins of our staple foods.


The threat from climate change to food production is at the center of this new urgency. As droughts, extreme rainstorms, and other erratic weather patterns intensify, farmers will need crops that can cope with such stresses. And plants that are wild or weedy—proven survivors—have the traits to meet those challenges.  http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2017-2-march-april/feature/crop-scientists-are-racing-id-wild-relatives-common-food-crops
Article courtesy of sierraclub.org by Jason Mark

Hey Mr. Green! Should receipts be recycled?

Q: Can paper cash-register receipts be safely recycled? What about added to compost? I've read that receipts have high levels of bisphenol A (BPA), which is an endocrine disruptor.  


A: The short answer is no to both. Most receipts are "thermal" paper, printed via a heat process instead of with old-fashioned ink. The paper requires a fairly large infusion of BPA for the numbers to appear. When it gets recycled with other kinds of paper, it potentially ends up in products like shopping bags—or even toilet paper—which give you a more intimate contact with the chemical than you want. Organizations such as the National Institutes of Health, the Mayo Clinic, and even the American Chemical Society warn that BPA may be harmful, especially to children and developing fetuses.  http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2017-2-march-april/enjoy/hey-mr-green-should-receipts-be-recycled?mostpopular=true
Article courtesy of sierraclub.org by Bob Schildgen