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Memorandum for journalists covering extreme weather in summer 2010 and links to climate change

This summer has seen extreme weather and climate events with devastating impacts across the globe. Prolonged heat in Russia and flooding in Pakistan have harmed millions of people. A chunk of ice four times the size of Manhattan has broken off from Greenland and is now adrift in the North Atlantic. In the United States, we have endured a spring of record temperatures, flooding in Tennessee and Iowa, and a drought in the West that has caused water levels at Lake Mead in Nevada to be at their lowest levels since 1956. Read More

Pipeline Protestors Greet Obama in Chicago

CHICAGO—Activists who oppose a controversial pipeline that would bring the world’s dirtiest oil to the U.S. demonstrated outside of a fundraising event attended by President Obama here today and called on the president to reject a permit to allow the project to move forward. Read More

World Bank Inspection Panel Given Green Light to Proceed with Full Investigation into South African Coal Loan

Washington, D.C.—Last week, the World Bank’s independent grievance mechanism, the Inspection Panel, was authorized to conduct a full investigation into alleged policy violations in the Bank’s $3.75 billion loan to South African power utility Eskom for construction of the world’s fourth largest coal-fired power plant. Civil society organizations commended the decision to investigate, claiming that financing Eskom’s construction of a coal-fired power plant will have significant negative public health and environmental impacts, hindering community members’ economic opportunities and standards of living. Read More

Canadian Pipeline Firm Calls Off Effort to Skirt Safety Standards

Washington, D.C. – As reported by Senator Jon Tester, TransCanada, the Canadian firm seeking approval from the Obama administration to build a massive new tar sands oil pipeline into the United States, will withdraw its application for a safety waiver from the Department of Transportation. Read More

Kalamazoo Spill Underscores Dangers of Proposed Tar Sands Oil Pipeline from Canada to Gulf Coast

Washington, D.C. -- This week, a pipeline carrying oil from Canada into the U.S. ruptured, spilling more than a million gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. Crews are attempting to prevent the spilled oil from reaching Lake Michigan, where it could cause catastrophic environmental damage. Read More

Senate Spill Bill Fails to Address Root Causes of Gulf Oil Tragedy

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) this afternoon unveiled a draft outline of a pared-down oil spill bill after officially abandoning a broader attempt to address our climate and energy crises last week. Read More

Congress Shortchanges Clean Transportation Alternatives, Perpetuates U.S. Addiction to Oil

Today, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved transportation funding legislation that provides insufficient funding for Amtrak and high speed rail (HSR) projects. The bill provides $1.963 billion for Amtrak, $666 million short of the funds requested for passenger rail, and only $1 billion for HSR projects, less than half of the already inadequate $2.5 billion the program received last year. Read More

Taxpayer, Environment, Consumer Coalition Takes “Green Scissors” to Federal Budget

Washington, DC -- The Green Scissors Campaign, a diverse coalition of taxpayer, environmental and consumer groups, today released Green Scissors 2010, a report highlighting government programs and subsidies that are wasteful to taxpayers, harmful to the environment and bad for consumers. Green Scissors 2010 targets four major areas for budget cuts: energy, agriculture and biofuels, infrastructure, and public lands. It notes several recent, substantial victories ending subsidies in the face of special interests’ undue influence in Washington. Read More

Toxic Chemicals in Cosmetics: New Legislation to Prevent Exposure

WASHINGTON, DC –For the first time in 70 years, Congress is poised to close the gaping holes in the outdated federal law that allows chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities and other illnesses in the products we use on our bodies every day. Read More

Capitol Hill Demonstration Marks Three-Month Anniversary of BP Oil Disaster

Washington, D.C.-A broad coalition of public interest, faith, and environmental groups-joined by Gulf Coast residents directly impacted by the Gulf oil spill-marked today's three-month anniversary of the BP oil catastrophe at a rally on Capitol Hill. They called on Congress to pass legislation to end America's addiction to oil and urged lawmakers to donate campaign money raised from the oil industry to the clean-up efforts in the Gulf. Read More