TOP STORIES

Utilities Press House for Free Emissions Credits

Surprising noone on the second day of climate bill hearings in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, "power company executives amplified their call today for free emission credits...ensuring the public won't face skyrocketing electric bills."  They asked for "40 percent of the proposed cap-and-trade program's allowances for free distribution to regulated local distribution companies (LDCs) within the electricity sector."  [Greenwire-New York Times]

Fossil Fuel Industry Ignored Its Scientists on Climate

"For more than a decade the Global Climate Coalition, a group representing industries with profits tied to fossil fuels, led an aggressive lobbying and public relations campaign against the idea that emissions of heat-trapping gases could lead to global warming."  But in 1995, the coalitions own scientists were already "advising that the science backing the role of greenhouse gases in global warming could not be refuted."  A 14 year old internal report that has just surfaced said: "The scientific basis for the Greenhouse Effect and the potential impact of human emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2 on climate is well established and cannot be denied.” [New York Times]

MUST WATCH

John Fetterman, the "young, burly, tattooed" mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, speaks for blue-collar workers across the country, like the steelworkers he represents, asking that Congress be bold in capping pollution and investing in a clean energy economy:

"So I respectfully ask this Congress to be bold. To overhaul our economy and free us from our addition to imported oil. I ask you to ignore the scare tactics of the well funded interests – and answer the call of Braddock to build a new energy future, and a New American Century, with the ready hands of America’s workers."

RECOMMENDED READING

Climate Change Threatens World's Mightiest Rivers

"Some of the mightiest rivers on the planet, including the Ganges, the Niger, and the Yellow river in China, are drying up because of climate change," said a study from Colorado's National Center for Atmospheric Research.  It found that "global warming has had a far more damaging impact on rivers than had been realised and that, overwhelmingly, those rivers in highly populated areas were the most severely affected."  Food and water supplies to the world's poorest are at risk. [The Guardian]

Clean Energy Service Corps to Train Youth for Green Jobs

"President Barack Obama created a new Clean Energy Service Corps on Tuesday as part of a landmark national service bill he signed into law."  It will be part of the existing AmeriCorps program, and "will train people and put them to work installing solar panels, weatherizing low-income homes, conducting home energy audits, and consulting small businesses on their energy use."  [Grist]

GALLERY

A wildfire rages in South Carolina [The Guardian]