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.'"
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David Doniger
Biography provided by participant
David Doniger is the policy director of NRDC's climate center, focusing on policies to cut global warming pollution from power plants, motor vehicles and other major industries. David also leads NRDC's work to complete the phase-out of chemicals that deplete the earth's protective ozone layer. David rejoined NRDC in 2001 after serving for eight years in the Clinton administration, where he was director of climate change policy at the Environmental Protection Agency and, before that, counsel to the head of the EPA's clean air program; he also worked for a year at the Council on Environmental Quality. David first began at NRDC in 1978 and worked on clean air issues for the next 14 years, helping to win adoption of the landmark Montreal Protocol (to stop depletion of the ozone layer) and the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990.
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