CONTACT US & HELP CONSISTENTLY SCOOP CORPORATE MEDIA Beat The Press Send us your tips, links, and comments. Click here.
jTweet
more info...!
Are utilities’ plans for shoring up hazardous coal ash dams good enough?
Domestic
Wednesday, 10 February 2010 19:48
Environmental advocates doubt whether new safety plans submitted by 22 coal-fired power plants to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for impoundments that store toxic coal ash can protect the public from disaster. That’s because in the absence of federal regulations treating coal ash as hazardous waste, the EPA lacks authority to enforce such plans. The utilities submitted the plans to the EPA in response to the agency’s assessments of the impoundments, ordered after the catastrophic 2008 collapse of a coal ash impoundment at the Kingston power plant in Tennessee. The EPA has identified 49 coal ash impoundments at 30 different plants as high-hazard, meaning that a failure would probably cause loss of life.Attorney Lisa Evans, of the environmental law firm Earthjustice, pointed out that unless coal ash is declared hazardous, there cannot be strict federal enforcement. To date, the EPA has declined to designate coal ash as hazardous waste.
India refuses genetically modified crops, citing ‘inadequate’ science
International
Wednesday, 10 February 2010 19:34
India refused to grant permission Wednesday for the commercial cultivation of its first genetically modified food crop, citing lack of public trust and "inadequate" science. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said he was imposing a moratorium on an aubergine plant modified with a gene toxic to pests that devastate crops across India. Ramesh said he imposing a moratorium until scientific “tests can guarantee the safety of the product.” Indian regulators had approved the new aubergine in October and its introduction would have made it the first GM food to be grown in India. But the decision triggered major opposition from farmers, environmentalists and politicians. Backers of the GMO aubergine said it would boost yields by up to 50 percent and reduce dependence on pesticides. But critics pointed to long-term health problems and warned it would open the doors to a flood of other GM foods.
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband has lost an Appeal Court bid to stop the disclosure of secret information relating to the alleged torture of a UK resident. Ethiopian-born Binyam Mohamed says UK authorities knew he was tortured at the behest of US authorities during seven years of captivity. Judges ruled seven redacted paragraphs, which say his treatment was "cruel, inhuman and degrading," should be released. The key details are contained in a summary of what the CIA told British intelligence about Mohamed's treatment in 2002. The BBC says the seven paragraphs provided details of what the UK government learnt about Mohamed's treatment in 2002. At the time he was being held by Pakistani interrogators at the behest of the US, who suspected him of having received firearms and explosives training from al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. The courts held that the secret seven paragraphs related to potentially criminal ill-treatment, rather than matters of national security.
more info...!
