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California leaders to protest scrapping of Clean Power Plan
California’s top energy and environment officials were expected Wednesday to vociferously oppose a Trump administration effort to scrap an Obama-era policy aimed at fighting climate change by slashing emissions from coal-fired power plants. The heads or top deputies of seven agencies, including the state’s electrical grid operator, planned to testify at a federal Environmental Protection Agency hearing that repealing the policy ignores science and will endanger public health. [ read more … ]
Case over stalled transmission line for wind energy advances to Missouri Supreme Court
With the proposed multi-state transmission line, Grain Belt Express, held up over controversial interpretations of Missouri law, prospective developers of the project have pushed for the case to go before the state Supreme Court. That wish has now been granted after an opinion filed Tuesday in the Eastern District of the Missouri Court of Appeals ordered that the matter be transferred to the Missouri Supreme Court. [ read more … ]
Policy and Politics
Pruitt makes his mark on environmental justice
Environmental justice is getting a twist at U.S. EPA, looking to incorporate some of the themes emphasized by Administrator Scott Pruitt. Samantha Dravis, Pruitt’s top policy aide, penned a memo dated this past Friday outlining EPA’s priorities for the environmental justice program. The document lists a dozen goals guided by Pruitt’s refrains of “core mission,” “cooperative federalism” and “rule of law.”
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Great Plains signs power purchase deals with Kansas wind farms
Great Plains Energy Inc. has signed two power purchase agreements with Kansas wind farms scheduled to come online this year and next. The deals to buy 444 megawatts of power will boost wind capacity to about 25 percent of the company’s generating portfolio, Kansas City-based Great Plains announced in a Tuesday release. [ read more … ]
Buffett highlights hurricane risk, but makes no mention of climate
Warren Buffett warned investors on Saturday the growing threat that natural disasters pose to coastal real estate but left out any discussion of climate change. In his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. stockholders, Chairman Buffett said hurricanes last year cost the company about $3 billion and the insurance industry $100 billion, adding that natural disasters almost always cost more to clean up than expected. [ read more … ]
Young GOP voters want action against warming — poll
The majority of young Republicans want action on global warming, according to a new survey from the conservative group the Alliance for Market Solutions. “This underscores the need for policymakers to consider forward-looking solutions to address carbon pollution in [a] way that makes a positive economic impact,” AMS Executive Director Alex Flint said in a statement. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.