I get asked what I read all the time. I haven’t yet compiled a list of climate/environmental news or blog sites (too lazy, tbh!), though I have a FAQs, made a bookstore, and wrote some book recommendations,

I am subscribed to countless climate listservs, and I skim around 25 climate/environment news websites as part of my daily routine (this doesn’t include work or research, which easily bumps that up to hundreds).

One daily newsletter that I enjoy/viciously-hate is called “Clean Start.” It’s written by the folks at ThinkProgress. Here is a sample of today’s newsletter. Instructions for you to subscribe are at the bottom.

Clean Start From ThinkProgress: Busy Day on the Hill

Welcome to Clean Start from Climate Progress, the exclusive energy newsletter from a progressive perspective. Send feedback and suggestions to cleanstart@thinkprogress.org.

CLEAN START FROM CLIMATE PROGRESS By Ryan Koronowski

* Gina McCarthy Re-Do, Ernest Moniz Vote in the Senate, Keystone in the House *

Democrats of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will attempt yet again to advance the nomination of Gina McCarthy to run the EPA. Last week, not a single Republican bothered to show up for the vote despite the fact that she has answered more than 1,100 of the committee’s questions. Sen. Warren spoke on the Senate floor yesterday demanding a vote on McCarthy, reprimanding Republicans for blocking the business of government and the business of protecting people. Sen. Vitter confirmed late Wednesday that some Republicans will attend today’s vote. At 2 p.m. today, the Senate will likely vote to approve Ernest Moniz, who has been nominated to lead the Department of Energy. Also on the Hill, Republicans in the House will make the case during a subcommittee hearing that building Keystone would bring positive economic spillovers for small businesses and rural communities while the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will vote on H.R.3, a bill to approve Keystone. [The Hill]

* Survey Of Peer-Reviewed Papers Finds 97% Consensus On Human-Caused Global Warming *

A survey of thousands of peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals has found 97.1% agreed that climate change is caused by human activity. Authors of the survey said the finding of near unanimity provided a powerful rebuttal to climate deniers who insist the science of climate change remains unsettled. The survey considered the work of some 29,000 scientists published in almost 12,000 academic papers. [Guardian, Reuters, ThinkProgress]

* Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers Says He Supports NC’s Clean Energy Standard *

Jim Rogers, the CEO of Duke Energy, defended North Carolina’s renewable energy standard at the company’s annual shareholder meeting yesterday. A conservative activist (who has previously asked a question at Disney’s shareholder meeting about liberal bias) asked Rogers about higher energy costs. In response, Rogers said the law prevent utilities from spending too much, and RESs are widespread across the country. He said later he supports the law, which is facing continued threats from ALEC members in the state legislature to repeal it. Earlier this month, a state senate committee chair approved a bill to repeal the RES out of his committee without counting votes and despite loud opposition. [Charlotte Business Journal, ThinkProgress]

* QUICK LINKS *

— For more than 30 years, ocean fish and mammals have migrated away from warming equatorial waters and toward the poles, providing more evidence climate change has already had broad global consequences. [Washington Post]

— George Bush’s EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman said that GOP members of the EPW Committee “looked like sore losers” when they boycotted McCarthy’s vote hearing last week. [National Journal]

— The U.S. military’s programmatic efforts to rely less on fossil fuels are threatened by the sequester. [Medill]

— BP wants British Prime Minister David Cameron to intervene regarding the compensation of businesses affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill. [BBC]

— The GAO finds that the federal government should help local communities adapt to the impacts of climate change. [The Hill]

— The 5th Circuit ruled against a lawsuit filed by Mississippi coastal residents arguing that fossil fuel emissions contributed to the strength of Hurricane Katrina. [Clarion Ledger]

— Organizing for Action called on supporters to press the Republican EPW members for boycotting McCarthy’s nomination hearing. [The Hill]

— Weather prediction is slated to improve significantly following upgrades to the two supercomputers the National Weather Service uses to forecast local, national, and global weather patterns. [Washington Post]

— Spoiled food could be used to power grocery stores’ using clean electricity. [LA Times]

* CALENDAR *

9:00 am: The Woodrow Wilson Center’s (WWC) Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) holds a discussion on a new ECSP report, “Backdraft: The Conflict Potential of Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation.”

9:30 am: The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee votes on the Northern Route Approval Act (H.R. 3), a bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline project.

10:00 am: The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs holds an oversight hearing entitled, “The 2008 Lacey Act Amendments.” Witnesses and more information will be listed here when available.

10:00 am: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a meeting to consider pending calendar business.

10:00 am: The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation holds an oversight hearing titled, “Invasive Species Management on Federal Lands.”

10:00 am: The Subcommittees on Energy and Power and Environment and the Economy hold a hearing tited “The Fiscal Year 2014 Environmental Protection Agency Budget.” Members will review the president’s FY2014 EPA Budget Request and discuss the agency’s agenda. EPA Acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe will be the only witness.

10:00 am: The Small Business Subcommittee on Agriculture, Energy and Trade holds a hearing titled, “If You Build It: Keystone XL Pipeline and Small Business Job Growth.” A live webcast will be here: http://1.usa.gov/Nkrzjh.

10:30 am: The Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Health Care and Entitlements holds a hearing, “Opportunities Lost: Constraints on Oil and Gas Production on Federal Lands and Waters.” http://1.usa.gov/11qKMbp

12:00 pm: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee holds a vote on the nomination of Gina McCarthy to head the EPA.

12:30 pm: The U.S. Army, along with Lockheed Martin and the Department of Defense, will unveil the DOD’s first grid-tied intelligent microgrid integrating renewable resources and energy storage at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Fort Bliss.

1:00 pm: Former Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift, former Republican Congressman and Chair of the House Science Committee Sherwood Boehlert, and NRDC Clean Air Program Director John Walke will offer reactions to today’s Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works vote on the nomination of Gina McCarthy

2:00 pm: The Senate holds a vote on the nomination of Ernest Moniz to head the Energy Department.

5:00 pm: Sen. Lisa Murkowski holds on-the-record pen & pad session to discuss her trip to the Arctic Coucil in Sweden.

** Follow @ClimateProgress **

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This time, I worked with up and coming AccuWeather journalist Samantha-Rae Tuthill. She asked tough questions and dug deep for this piece. She was really great and I had a lot of fun. She also picked out some good zingers (I bet long-time readers will recognize my pessimism). Check it out if you can!

Whether they call it global warming, climate change or even global cooling, more and more Americans are taking a stand on one side or the other of this hotly debated issue.

According to a survey published last year by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, 66 percent of Americans believe that global warming is happening, with 42 percent concerned that it will harm people in the United States between now and the next 10 years. Forty-five percent of Americans believe the country will be harmed by global warming in the next 50 years, with only 16 percent saying that global warming will never harm the U.S.

The arguments on either side of the issue can be broken into three main categories. Those who do not believe in climate change, or at least in man-made climate change, are considered “climate skeptics.” Groups concerned about climate change are primarily split between two camps; those who want to prevent further change and those who want to adapt to changes that do occur.

ROCKVILLE, Maryland (Reuters) - U.S. regulators on Thursday approved plans to build the first new nuclear power plant in more than 30 years, despite objections of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman, despite objections of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) chairman, who cited safety concerns stemming from Japan’s 2011 Fukushima disaster. 

The NRC voted 4-1 to allow Atlanta-based Southern Co to build and operate two new nuclear power reactors at its existing Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia. The units will cost Southern and partners about $14 billion and enter service as soon as 2016 and 2017.

No nuclear power plants have been licensed in the United States since the partial meltdown of the reactor core of the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania in 1979. After the accident, the NRC adopted more stringent safety standards, which caused construction costs for nuclear plants to skyrocket and stopped dozens of planned plants in their tracks.

*This post is for anon, who earlier this evening asked me to update a previous post on new plants in the US. No update is needed. There have been no new nuclear power plants allowed to be built in the US since 1978. Anon may have been referring to applications for new plants or perhaps rehabs of old power plants.

A major new study has quashed fears that onshore windfarms are causing long-term damage to bird populations, but found new evidence that some species are harmed when windfarms are built.

The study by conservationists into the impacts on 10 of the key species of British upland bird, including several suffering serious population declines, concluded that a large majority of species can co-exist or thrive with windfarms once they are operating.

But the study, the largest carried out in the UK into the impact of onshore windfarms on bird life, also found strong evidence that some species suffered serious harm while windfarms are being built.

The Guardian