Emissions

An Italian judge has ordered the shutdown of a coal-fired power plant that has been blamed for at least 442 deaths. Public prosecutors had argued that pollution from the plant in Italy’s Liguria region had caused the premature deaths and between 1,700 - 2,000 cases of heart and lung disease.

According to testimony in front of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee, 36 percent of the gas by-product from oil obtained via fracking in North Dakota's Bakken Shale basin was flared off as waste during a brutally cold midwest winter with no end in sight. The reason for this unnecessary waste? Profits.

The Supreme Court has agreed to make a decision on President Obama's executive actions regarding emissions regulations. The high court will review a lower court's upholding of the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gases in power plants and factories. The EPA's authority, granted under the Clean Air Act, is an effort to stave off climate catastrophe and its upheaval would put Congress in charge of figuring out how to curb dangerous emissions. Because they're real good at getting things done.

Whatever you think of climate change or the Keystone XL pipeline, you may not simultaneously claim that the problem with oil markets is high demand while also claiming that increasing oil prices would make the problem worse.