Energy & Environment: Markey Wants Answers on Rare Earths
• Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., "is pressing the Obama administration for information about alleged Chinese restrictions on the export of rare earth minerals used in defense and energy technologies, warning of threats to U.S. interests," The Hill reports.
• "Three months after BP capped its runaway well in the Gulf of Mexico, the state of Louisiana is still building a chain of sand berms off its coast to block and capture oil even as federal officials and many scientists argue that the effort will prove pointless," the New York Times reports.
• An Idaho couple has "sued the state to stop the shipments by Imperial Oil and ConocoPhillips" to an oil sands site in Canada, "arguing that the" truck loads delivered there "would threaten the integrity of Idaho's historic portion of U.S. 12, as well as the safety of communities that depend on it as the main road in and out of the area," the Times also reports. "National environmental groups and climate change activists are supporting their efforts, seeing a broader opportunity to stall development of Canada's oil sands, which they denounce as a dirty source of energy. "
• "Combating climate change has long taken a back seat to coal production in West Virginia, but in the hard-fought House race in this state's 1st district, global warming hasn't even made it onto the bus," The Hill reports. "In interviews on Thursday, both the Democratic and Republican nominees for Congress voiced skepticism of the science behind global warming, and the Republican, David McKinley, flatly called concerns about climate change 'an attack on coal.'"
Contributor
Ann Weeks
Biography provided by participant
Ann Brewster Weeks has worked with CATF since its inception in 1996. She is widely recognized for her work as a litigator representing non-profit environmental and health organizations in administrative proceedings and in Federal court, as part of a campaign to reduce pollution from and mitigate the climate change impacts of electric generating stations.
Prior to joining CATF, Ms. Weeks worked as an attorney with the Energy Program at Conservation Law Foundation, and as an Associate with the Energy and Environmental practice at Dickstein, Shapiro, LLC, in their Washington, D.C. office. She also has a previous 10 year career in an environmental and land use planning, culminating in a position as Assistant Director of City-County Planning for Durham, North Carolina.
Ann holds a J. D. from the School of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she was an editor of the North Carolina Law Review. She also holds an S.M. with a thesis on technology and policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.S. from Boston University in Engineering, with a minor concentration in Chemistry.
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