Must Read

Ash Protection

The EPA is planning to regulate coal "combustion waste" to "prevent accidents like the release in December of more than a billion gallons of coal ash that smothered 300 acres in eastern Tennessee and choked nearby waterways."  While the administration figures out whether to classify coal ash--which contains toxins like arsenic, lead, and mercury--as hazardous or nonhazardous waste, they'll start monitoring the roughly 300 storage "ponds" around the country with hopes of preventing another spill.  [New York Times] 

Should Read

Good News for People Who Love Bad News

As scientists gather in Copenhagen for an international climate conference this week, the conversation looks to be awfully sobering.  New reports indicate that "Low-lying areas including Bangladesh, Florida, the Maldives and the Netherlands face catastrophic flooding, while, in Britain, large areas of the Norfolk Broads and the Thames estuary are likely to disappear by 2100." Meanwhile, researchers from the Met Office Hadley Center are expected to present the warning " that temperature rises above 2C would lead to wars over key resources, including water supplies, falls in crop yields in southern Europe and the spread of diseases such as malaria and dengue fever."  [Guardian; Times Online]

Coal Costs Rising

Coal plants are getting harder and harder to build, as the costs of polluting increase, as do the costs of fighting the legal battles brought by environmental groups against proposed new coal facilities.  [Washington Post]

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

United Mountain Defense volunteer, coal activist, and Greenlight contributor Matt Landon was arrested by Tennessee Valley Authority police for giving a 65 year old, partially-blind woman a ride home.   [Huffington Post]

In Memoriam

Steven Kimball, better known in the online climate conversation as JohnnyRook, wrote the indispensable Climaticide Chronicles blog.  Mr. Kimball died last week, after a two-and-a-half-year fight against acute myeloid leukemia.  Many have paid their respects, and Steven’s family has asked that anyone who wishes to make a remembrance in his name can contribute to 350.org.  [ClimateProgress, Celcias, DailyKos]