GAO Report Blasts FDA's Inadequate Pesticide Monitoring of Fruits, Vegetables

<> GAO-15-38, Food Safety: FDA and USDA Should Strengthen Pesticide Residue Monitoring Programs and Further Disclose Monitoring Limitations, October 07, 2014 - Data from 2008 through 2012 show that pesticide residue violation rates in 10 selected fruits and vegetables were low, but FDA's approach to monitoring for violations, which targets commodities it has identified as high risk, has limitations. GAO Report Blasts FDA's Inadequate Pesticide Monitoring of Fruits, Vegetables

McConnell: Top Priority is "to try to do whatever I can to get the EPA reined in."

<> McConnell: Top Priority is "to try to do whatever I can to get the EPA reined in." - "It will be hard because the only good tool to do that ... is through the spending process, and if (President Barack Obama) feels strongly enough about it, he can veto the bill. But I view it as a complete outrage that he could not get cap and trade through the Congress when he owned the place — owned the place — and decided to do it anyway."

President Obama Responds to "Massive Repudiation"

<> President Obama Responds to "Massive Repudiation" – [Editor's Note: If you do a Google search of the term "massive repudiation" (use quotations) over the last 24 hours you might be surprised to see how many times various Republicans, pundits and media referred to the November 4, election as a massive repudiation of everything that Barack Obama and Democrats represent.] The President responded to the election saying in part: "What stands out to me, is that the American people sent a message, one that they've sent for several elections now. They expect the people they elect to work as hard as they do. They expect us to focus on their ambitions and not ours. They want us to get the job done. As President, I have a unique responsibility to try and make this town work" Email from President Obama: "Here's what's next" - President Obama sent this message to the White House email list about what's next for his Administration.

Republicans take U.S. Senate majority

 

<> Republicans take U.S. Senate majority - Republicans captured majority control of the Senate Tuesday, gaining at least seven seats as Democrats faced strong political headwinds in midterm elections where discontent with President Obama was a decisive theme. Riding Wave of Discontent, G.O.P. Takes Senate - Resurgent Republicans took control of the Senate on Tuesday night,expanded their hold on the House, and defended some of the most closely contested governors' races, in a repudiation of President Obama that will reorder the political map in his final years in office

<> Here are the top candidates for Senate chairmanships under the GOP majority - Republicans gained control of the Senate on Tuesday, which means the GOP will chair the committees in that chamber of Congress next year – e.g. Environment and Public Works Committee, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.); Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) the ranking member of the Senate Energy Committee, and she could potentially succeed Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) once the GOP takes control next year.

MapLight's Voter's Edge Launched Nationwide

MapLight's Voter's Edge Launched Nationwide - Nonpartisan Online Voter Guide Separates Fact from Fiction; Users simply type in their home address and can immediately view their personalized ballot, supplemented by helpful information such as endorsements, funding sources, candidate biographies, and more. Voters can mark selections and share their choices via social media, or create election widgets to display on their website or blog.

• Voter's Edge website

Final installment of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report

Final installment of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report: Climate change threatens irreversible and dangerous impacts, but options exist to limit its effects - COPENHAGEN, Nov 2 – Human influence on the climate system is clear and growing, with impacts observed on all continents. If left unchecked, climate change will increase the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems. However, options are available to adapt to climate change and implementing stringent mitigations activities can ensure that the impacts of climate change remain within a manageable range, creating a brighter and more sustainable future.

• Links to: Summary for Policymakers, Synthesis Report - Longer Report, Factsheet, Documents & Quick links
• U.N. Panel Issues Its Starkest Warning Yet on Global Warming - NYT reports that "By contrast, the report found, less than $400 billion a year is being spent around the world to reduce emissions or otherwise cope with climate change. That is a small fraction of the revenue spent on fossil fuels — it is less, for example, than the revenue of a single American oil company, ExxonMobil."

EPA Releases Climate & Sustainability Plans

EPA Releases Climate Plans on Fifth Anniversary of President Obama's Sustainability Initiative/Plan Builds Capacity to Protect Human Health and the Environment in a Changing Climate - These Sustainability Plans and Climate Change Adaptation Plans coincide with the fifth anniversary of President Obama's 2009 Executive Order on Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance, which set aggressive energy, climate and environmental targets for agencies, and detail how EPA's actions have already contributed to reducing the Federal Government's greenhouse gas emissions by more than 17 percent since 2008 – the equivalent of permanently taking 1.8 million cars off the road.

• EPA Climate Adaptation Implementation Plans
• 2014 Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan

EPA revamps High Priority Violator policy, ends 'watch list'

EPA revamps High Priority Violator policy, ends 'watch list' - EPA has eliminated the complicated matrix by which it evaluates facilities that commit high priority violations (HPVs) of polluted air, water and soil.

• EPA Office of Civil Enforcement's Air Enforcement Division, Aug. 25 memo

EPA Provides Additional Clean Power Plan Information & Comment

EPA Provides Additional Information on Clean Power Plan & requests public comment on additional information and proposes carbon goals for areas in Indian Country and U.S. Territories - EPA is making additional information and ideas on its proposed Clean Power Plan rule available for public comment in a notice of data availability (NODA) and is following through on its commitment made in June to propose goals to reduce carbon pollution in areas of Indian Country and U.S. Territories where fossil-fuel power plants are located -- nearly 1.5 million public comments the agency has received so far; comments due  on Dec. 1 & Dec. 19, 2014.

• Clean Power Plan Supplemental Proposal
• Notice of Data Availability for the proposed Clean Power Plan

Environmental Assessment Certificate issued for TransCanada's Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project

Environmental Assessment Certificate issued for TransCanada's Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project - TransCanada Corporation (TSX:TRP) (NYSE:TRP) (TransCanada) announced Oct. 24, that the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) has issued an Environmental Assessment Certificate for the Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project (Coastal GasLink) -- The proposed project involves the construction and operation of an approximately 670-kilometre (415-mile), 1,219-mm (48-inch) diameter natural gas pipeline from the Groundbirch area near Dawson Creek, B.C. to the proposed LNG Canada liquefied natural gas export facility near Kitimat, B.C.

• Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project Information & Documents
• TransCanada's $4b pipeline gets B.C. environmental assessment certificate - The next steps for the proposed project include detailed engineering and construction planning, as well as ongoing consultation with Aboriginal groups and the public; pending the receipt of all required regulatory approvals and a positive final investment decision from LNG Canada, the start of pipeline construction is anticipated in 2016, with an in-service date by the end of the decade.

Encouraging Ending to Bonn Talks as World Readies for Lima UN Climate Conference

Encouraging Ending to Bonn Talks as World Readies for Lima UN Climate Conference -  The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) says: A positive stage has been set for the UN climate convention conference in Lima [COP20/CMP10] following a week of governmental negotiations in Bonn that have evolved a range of issues needed to deliver a draft climate agreement in the Peruvian capital in December -- the draft is meant to form the basis for a new universal climate agreement scheduled to be inked in Paris, France next year and due to come into effect in 2020.

European Commission Approves ambitious proposals to cut GHG at least 40%

European Commission Approves ambitious proposals to cut GHG at least 40% - No player in the world is as ambitious as the European Union when it comes to cutting greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions. Indeed, the proof that it is ambitious is that we are now going from a goal of 20% cut by 2020 compared to 1990 to 40% by 2030, so, doubling the effort.

• EU 2030 framework for climate and energy policies - Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40%; Increasing the share of renewable energy to at least 27%; Increasing energy efficiency by at least 27%; & Reform of the EU emissions trading system

Coalition of Farmers and Environmental Groups to Challenge EPA Over Herbicide Approval

Coalition of Farmers and Environmental Groups to Challenge EPA Over Herbicide Approval - A coalition of farmers and environmental groups filed a lawsuit to sue the U.S. EPA on behalf of six Midwest states where a toxic herbicide cocktail called Dow's Enlist Duo, a blend of glyphosate and 2,4-D, was approved on October 15 for use on genetically engineered (GE) crops.

Geochemical Tracers Can ID Fracking Flowback Fluids

Geochemical Tracers Can ID Fracking Flowback Fluids - The National Science Foundation reports scientists have developed tracers that can identify hydraulic fracturing flowback fluids that have been spilled or released into the environment, and they have been field-tested at a spill site in West Virginia and downstream from an oil and gas brine wastewater treatment plant in Pennsylvania.

• New tracers can identify frack fluids in the environment

US, EU want UN to stress low cost of climate change fight; draft document

US, EU want UN to stress low cost of climate change fight; draft document - (Reuters) - The United States and European Union want the U.N. to stress the low cost of fighting climate change in a draft handbook on the issue that it is compiling, a leaked document showed on Tuesday.

EPA's Rules on Ozone-Depleting Chemicals Miss the Mark on Health and Climate Protection

EPA's Rules on Ozone-Depleting Chemicals Miss the Mark on Health and Climate Protection - (October 17, 2014) – David Doniger, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Climate and Clean Air Program, made this comment on a final rule issued by EPA limiting the use of HCFC-22, used in air conditioners and refrigeration. It is the most powerful ozone-depleting chemical still in widespread use and traps nearly 2,000 times more heat than carbon dioxide.

• Final Rule: Protection of Stratospheric Ozone: Adjustments to the Allowance System for Controlling HCFC Production, Import and Export, 2015-2019 - EPA Administrator, Gina McCarthy, signed the final rule on 10/16/14, and EPA is submitting it for publication in the Federal Register.

IPCC releases full Working Group II report

IPCC releases full Working Group II report - Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released the full version (1820-pages) of its contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability on October 15 – 32-page summary also available

• IPCC corrects claim suggesting climate change would be good for the economy

EPA Approves Dow's Enlist Duo, Herbicide Containing 2, 4-D and Glyphosate

EPA Announces Final Decision to Register Enlist Duo, Herbicide Containing 2, 4-D and Glyphosate/Risk assessment ensures protection of human health, including infants, children - EPA announced it is registering in six states the highly controversial herbicide, Enlist Duo with first-time ever restrictions to manage the problem of resistant weeds.

• NRDC Sues EPA to Block New Pesticide That Threatens Monarch Butterflies, Human Health - The Natural Resources Defense Council filed suit in the D.C. Circuit court immediately after EPA approved the use of "Enlist Duo" -- a combination of two herbicides: glyphosate (initially marketed as Roundup) and 2,4-D, an older, toxic herbicide.
• Earthjustice Statement On Dow's Enlist Duo Approval - "This heedless action merely perpetuates the endless cycle of more genetically engineered crops leading to more pesticide use, leading to more of the same.  We are examining all legal options."
• EPA Ignores Public Outcry, Approves Dangerous Weed Killer - The Environmental Working Group is "deeply disappointed" that [EPA] has decided to approve a toxic weed killer. . . despite overwhelming opposition from the scientific and public health community

Revealed: the companies doing the most to combat climate change

Revealed: the companies doing the most to combat climate change - 187 businesses from around the world, including BMW AG, Centrica, Samsung Electronics and Unilever, demonstrate a superior approach to climate change mitigation. [from the Carbon Disclosure Project]

• The A List: The CDP Climate Performance Leadership Index 2014 - The research is published and has been created at the request of 767 investors who represent more than a third of the world's invested capital.

The Pentagon's "2014 Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap"

The Pentagon's "2014 Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap" - The Department of Defense (DoD) released its 2014 Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap, which focuses on various actions and planning the DoD is taking to increase its resilience to the impacts of climate change [the report is dated June 2014, but released 10/13/14.

• Pentagon unveils plan for military's response to climate change