Must Read

Obama: End Mountaintop Removal Now

A powerful editorial from the New York Times this morning calls upon the president to put an end to mountaintop removal coal mining once and for all.  The MTR process "is just what the name suggests. Enormous machines — bulldozers and draglines — scrape away mountain ridges to expose the coal seams below. The coal is then trucked away, and the leftover rock and dirt are dumped into adjacent valleys and streams."  But the Clean Water Act could prevent this, so long as the Obama White House makes sure that the original intent of the law is followed.  [New York Times]

Should Read

Bad Advice

How to green your home?  Unplug chargers?  Put a brick in your toilet tank?  Low-flow showerheads?  No, no, no, says Joe Romm as he dismantles a New York Times "5 Steps to a Greener Home" column.  [Climate Progress]

Department of Short Term Memory

Hybrid car sales are way down.  Prius and Civic hybrids are piling up on dealer lots, as gas prices have come down, and auto sales in general are lagging.  Automakers are claiming to be in a tough position: "Though car buyers are losing interest, politicians are pushing them as key to reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil and limiting the global-warming gases that cars emit into the atmosphere." [Los Angeles Times]

Share the Blame

China doesn't want to be held accountable for the greenhouse gas emissions created while manufacturing goods for export.  Li Gao, the country's chief climate negotiator, argues that importing countries should share the burden, as 15-25% of China's carbon emissions are tied up the export industry.  [AP]

Quotatious

"We are cooling. We are not warming. The warming you see out there, the supposed warming, and I am using my finger quotation marks here, is part of the cooling process. Greenland, which is now covered in ice, it was once called Greenland for a reason, right? Iceland, which is now green. Oh I love this. Like we know what this planet is all about. How long have we been here? How long? No very long."   -Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Committee 

Heartwarming Read

Audubon employees pledge $800,000 to non-profit employer to help out through hard economic times.  [Reuters]