Climate Change

"The White House made clear on Tuesday what had been assumed for months – that it does not like a resolution sponsored by Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, that would thwart the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases."

"A vote in the U.S. Senate to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from going it alone in battling carbon dioxide emissions will fail this week without new last-minute support, according to congressional and private-sector sources."

Initial enthusiasm from electric utilities for the Kerry-Lieberman Senate climate bill has given way to lobbying silence -- which worries environmentalists hoping a last-ditch effort to pass it this year might succeed.

Some 30 energy companies are off the hook for now. "So many members of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals have recused themselves from a rehearing of a lawsuit that charges energy companies with contributing to the effects of Hurricane Katrina by emitting greenhouse gases that the court cannot conduct the rehearing."

"As greenhouse gas levels and temperatures rise, seasonal events that species rely on are slipping out of balance. Consequently, many plants’ and animals’ neighborhoods – their ecosystems – are changing rapidly. These changes are challenging the ways in which we've protected wildlife and the ecosystems on which they depend."

"Senators are unlikely to pass legislation to tackle global warming this year as the time remaining to do so runs out, a panel of experts said on Friday at a carbon conference."

"Virginia's flagship university went to court Thursday to fight an effort by Virginia Attorney Gen. Ken Cuccinelli II (R) to get documents from a former climate scientist at the school, an unusual confrontation that will test the bounds of academic freedom and result in the college facing down its own lawyer in court."

"LONDON — Last month hundreds of environmental activists crammed into an auditorium here to ponder an anguished question: If the scientific consensus on climate change has not changed, why have so many people turned away from the idea that human activity is warming the planet?"