TOP STORIES

House Kicks Off Climate "Discussion"

House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders, Ed Markey (D-MA) and Henry Waxman (D-CA), introduced a much-anticipated "discussion draft" of combined energy and climate legislation on Tuesday.  Called "American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009," the proposal "would create the first federal requirements to boost energy efficiency and ensure that a quarter of the nation's electricity comes from renewable sources."  It also includes carbon emissions goals more ambitious than the Obama administration had proposed.  [Washington Post]

Related:

• Chairman Waxman, Markey Press Release [House.gov]
• Kate Sheppard has details of the proposal. [Grist] 
• The bill "sidesteps the auction debate." [Green Inc.- NY Times]

"Another Blow to Mountaintop Removal"

In a move that's being called "another blow to mountaintop removal," a federal judge in West Virginia yesterday issued a ruling that blocks the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from issuing so-called "nationwide" permits, which streamline the process of getting permission to mine.  In his written opinion, U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin wrote, "These valley fills permanently eliminate previously existing valley streams. In the past twenty years, thousands of miles of streams in Appalachia, constituting over 2 percent of the streams in the area, have been impacted by the discharges associated with mountaintop mining."[West Virginia Gazette]

Related:

• Local residents are balancing the threat to clean water and healthy communities with the prospect of jobs lost if mountaintop removal coal mining is outlawed.  [NPR]
• Photographer Daniel Shea's slideshow on the coal industry in Appalachia. [NPR]
• Take action to end mountaintop removal. [NRDC]

GOOD READS

First Beekeeper

Charlie Brandst has been the White House carpenter for 25 years.  Now he's doubling duty as the First Beekeeper, bringing a hive to the South Lawn's new organic garden.  [Washington Whispers-US News and World Report]

"Stop Doing Dumb Things"

In a characteristically blunt conversation with Jeffrey Sachs at Columbia University yesteday, Ted Turner "lamented the US auto industry's slow approach to green," then lambasted Detroit, saying "We need stop doing dumb things and start doing smart things."  [Huffington Post]