"Todd Woody" - Cities with the most energy efficient buildings: L.A., Houston, Detroit, Dallas

http://www.grist.org/article/2011-03-18-cities-with-the-most-energy-efficient-buildings-l.a.-houston

by Todd Woody

It's that time of year, when the United States Environmental Protection Agency releases its list of the top 10 American cities [PDF] with the most energy efficient buildings.

In this case, that means commercial buildings that have earned an Energy Star rating that signifies they consume 35 percent less energy and release 35 percent less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than average buildings.

For the third year running, Los Angeles, generally not considered a paragon of restraint, snagged the No. 1 spot in 2010 with 510 Energy Star buildings, up from 293 buildings in the previous year. That 75 percent rise was mirrored nationwide as more than 6,200 commercial buildings earned Energy Star ratings last year, a 60 percent spike from 2009.

"Through their partnership with Energy Star, metropolitan areas across the U.S. are saving a combined $1.9 billion in energy costs every year while developing new ways to shrink energy bills and keep our air clean," EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson said in a statement.

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"Christopher Mims" - Little does this Libyan rebel know he’s fighting for our right to cheap gas

http://www.grist.org/article/2011-03-18-little-does-this-libyan-rebel-know-hes-fighting-for-our-right-to

by Christopher Mims

At the request of Libya's resistance forces, the U.S. and its NATO allies have just promised to shoot down anything Ghaddafi puts into the sky. Which means that rebels like the one in the video above may think they're fighting a war of liberation, but now that we're on the scene, it's about oil, as usual:

This is not a war to save people. If we cared about that we would be intervening in Cote D'Ivoire, where there has been horrible violence on the same level as that in Libya. There is human misery all over the planet that we can't even be bothered to look at, much less intervene. So let's not kid ourselves about what this is about:

Oil reserves in Libya are the largest in Africa and the ninth largest in the world with 41.5 billion barrels (6.60×10^9 m3) as of 2007.

Surprisingly, I couldn't find any talking heads who disagree with this viewpoint -- I guess that makes it received wisdom? The tumble in the price of crude after Libya announced a cease-fire suggests the markets feel that way.

Ghaddafi has backed down for now, but there's no guarantee we're not not about to get sucked into yet another shooting war over oil. Who says our individual decisions about energy don't cost lives?



"David Roberts" - Renewables or nuclear: maybe we do have to choose

http://www.grist.org/article/2011-03-18-renewables-or-nuclear-maybe-we-do-have-to-choose

by David Roberts

Debates over nuclear power in the U.S. tend to follow a certain course. The left says, No Nukes, Just Renewables! The right says, Screw Renewables, A Gajillion Nukes! Then the sensible centrist nods sagely and says, We'll Need Both. Everyone who doesn't want to be branded a (gasp) partisan ends up adopting some form of that both-and conventional wisdom: We need low-carbon power, renewables can't get us all the way there, so we'll need a bunch of nuclear power too.

I'm not criticizing the CW -- I suppose I fall somewhere in that camp too. However, a recent report [PDF] from Heinrich Böll Stiftung, a clean energy think tank, complicates that soothing conclusion. The report claims that the nuclear path and the renewables+efficiency path are not complementary. In fact, they are in substantial tension. In short, the authors claim, we really do have to choose.

Here, in helpfully condensed form, are the four principle arguments:

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"Katrina Vanden Heuvel"- The Human Cost of Slashonomics

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/21-1

Published on Monday, March 21, 2011 by The Nation

by Katrina vanden Heuvel

An important new initiative from Half in Ten, a national campaign to reduce poverty by 50 percent over the next ten years, and the Coalition on Human Needs, is putting a face on irresponsible “slash and burn” deficit reduction by showing how it would damage real lives. The organizations are collecting people’s stories so that the cruel consequences of draconian cuts to key federal programs are plain to see.

Consider the story of Carolyn, who was in her 40s when her husband of 25 years left her with two daughters. She had never received any kind of assistance and describes turning to her local community action agency as “the hardest thing I had ever done.” Her fears were quickly allayed as she “was treated with respect and was never made to feel like a drain on society.” She enrolled in a workforce development program that helped her with tuition and books while she attended community college. 

“I went to college five days a week and spent the weekend working, so I never had a day off,” writes Carolyn. “When I graduated I became a Registered Nurse, able to support myself and my family. I couldn’t have done it without the Federal Workforce Development Program and the supportive services the local Community Action Agency provided.”

But the Boehner-led “so be it” Republicans would nearly eliminate funding for Community Service Block Grants (CSBG) for the remainder of 2011, and President Obama proposes cutting it in half in 2012. The cuts would disrupt the antipoverty services provided by 1,065 community action agencies nationwide to over 20 million low-income people, including 5 million children, 2.3 million seniors and 1.7 million people with disabilities. What makes the cuts even more insane is that the agencies generate $6.54 from state, local, and private sources for every federal dollar received, according to the Coalition on Human Needs.

People like Carolyn would be hit doubly hard—not only would the community action agencies reach fewer people, but the kind of workforce development programs that allowed her to change her life would also be slashed by Republicans. In fact, at a time when 14 million Americans are out of work, more than 8 million adults and youth would lose access to job training and other employment services. Job training under the Workforce Investment Act programs for adults, youths, and dislocated workers would essentially be shut down until July 2012.

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"Michael Moore & Donna Smith" - Still Sicko

http://www.commondreams.org/video/2011/03/21-0

Published on Monday, March 21, 2011 by GRITtv

"Sooner or later people are going to realize that decisions about whether one lives or dies should not be predicated on 'How much money can I make off this?'" says Michael Moore, looking back at his film Sicko with Donna Smith of National Nurses United. They both note that it's the health care workers who are leading the fight for a better system for all, even as those workers are under attack themselves.

To kick off our new series, The Nurses' Station, Michael and Donna joined Laura in studio for a look back at Sicko and a conversation about what has changed since the film was made, and why it's not enough.

To Watch Video:

http://www.commondreams.org/video/2011/03/21-0



"Inter Press Service" - Revolutionary Youth Gives Clinton the Cold Shoulder

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/03/21-2

Published on Monday, March 21, 2011 by Inter Press Service

by Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani

CAIRO - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week paid a highly-publicised visit to Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicentre of Egypt's recent popular uprising. But young leaders of the revolution declined an invitation to meet with her, citing Washington's tepid support for anti-government protesters over the course of the 18-day rebellion.

"We refused to meet Clinton due to the U.S. administration's vacillating position and contradictory statements as the revolution unfolded," Islam Lutfi, spokesman for Egypt's Coalition of Revolutionary Youth, told IPS. "The decision also expressed our rejection of 50 years of faulty U.S. policies in the region."

Shortly after her arrival to Egypt on March 15, Clinton met with newly-appointed Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil el-Arabi. The two reportedly exchanged views on the precarious political situation in the Middle East, particularly in Libya -- currently the target of U.S.-Europe-led air-strikes -- and the occupied Palestinian territories.

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"Rueters" - UN Investigator: Israel Engaged in Ethnic Cleansing

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/03/21-3

Published on Monday, March 21, 2011 by Reuters

Israel's expansion of settlements in East Jerusalem and eviction of Palestinians from their homes there is a form of ethnic cleansing, a United Nations investigator said on Monday.

United States academic Richard Falk was speaking to the UN Human Rights Council as it prepared to pass resolutions condemning settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The "continued pattern of settlement expansion in East Jerusalem combined with the forcible eviction of long-residing Palestinians are creating an intolerable situation" in the part of the city previously controlled by Jordan, he said.

This situation "can only be described in its cumulative impact as a form of ethnic cleansing," Falk declared.

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"Al Jazeera" - US Soldiers Posed with Dead Afghan

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/03/21

Published on Monday, March 21, 2011 by Al Jazeera

Two US soldiers charged with murdering civilians shown posing with body in photos leaked by Der Spiegel newspaper.

Two US army soldiers allegedly involved in a 12-man "kill team" accused of murdering Afghan civilians for sport have been shown in leaked photographs posing with one of their victims.

Two Specialist Jeremy Morlock and Private Andrew Holmes are shown holding up the head of a man identified by Germany's Der Spiegel newspaper as Gul Mudin, an unarmed Afghan they are accused of killing on January 15, 2010.

The newspaper first released the images behind a pay-wall online on Sunday night and then published them on Monday.

Their release coincides with an anticipated speech on Monday by Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, that will announce the beginning of a transfer of security from international to Afghan control.

The photos are said to be among a number seized by Army investigators looking into the deaths of three unarmed Afghans last year.

Der Spiegel uncovered around 4,000 photos and videos taken by the so-called kill squad. The images released on Sunday were covered by a judicial order from a military court prohibiting their dissemination, and it was unclear how the newspaper obtained them.

"Today Der Spiegel published photographs depicting actions repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States Army," the army said in a statement released by Colonel Thomas Collins.

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"Justin McCurry" - Japan Quake Death Toll Passes 18,000

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/03/21-4

Published on Monday, March 21, 2011 by The Guardian/UK

World Bank says economy will take years to recover • Officials update casualty estimates • Fukushima plant electricity restored

by Justin McCurry in Osaka

The human and financial cost of the tsunami continues to rise, after police estimates showed more than 18,000 people have died in the disaster and the World Bank said it may cost Japan as much as £145bn to repair the damage.

The figures came as emergency workers were evacuated from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after smoke or steam was seen rising from one of its reactor units.

The smoke raised concerns that water in the spent fuel pools at the No 3 unit was running low, but officials said there was no immediate spike in radiation levels.

"We are checking the cause of the smoke," Hidehiko Nishiyama, a nuclear safety agency official, told reporters.

Earlier, engineers finally succeeded in connecting power cables to three of the plant's reactors and said they planned to test the pumps soon.

Engineers hope to connect those power supplies to the No 3 and No 4 units on Tuesday, the public broadcaster NHK said.

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“Patrick Wintour & Ewen MacAskill” - Is Muammar Gaddafi a Target? PM and Military Split Over War Aims

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/03/21-6

Published on Monday, March 21, 2011 by The Guardian/UK

by Patrick Wintour and Ewen MacAskill in Washington

A breach within Britain's political and military leadership has opened up as David Cameron argued the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, may be a legitimate target while the Chief of the Defence Staff, Sir David Richards, said he was "absolutely not".

A Libyan rebel prays next to his gun on the outskirts of Ajdabiya. (Anja Niedringhaus/AP) The clash fed a growing concern on the third day of the air assault against Gaddafi that the hastily assembled international alliance is struggling to paper over disagreements about its ultimate war aims in Libya, the future role of Nato and the legitimacy of the rebel groups.

There was also cabinet anxiety that the scale of the initial heavy bombardment may strengthen popular support for Gaddafi in Tripoli and be seen in the Middle East as exceeding the UN security council goal of protecting civilians.

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