Murray Energy Fires 163 Workers, Citing a ‘War on Coal’ - Bloomberg

Murray Energy Corp., the largest closely held coal company in the U.S., is firing 163 workers at three subsidiaries, citing a “War on Coal” by the Obama administration.

“The actions of Mr. Obama and his appointees in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Interior, Office of Surface Mining, and Department of Labor, have already led to the closure by 2014 of 204 American coal-fired power plants,” the company said in three statements e-mailed today.

Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver – review | Books | The Observer

However, it is the issue of climate change that hangs, unspoken, over proceedings and it is left to Ovid Byron to give it resonance. Pestered by a hardened TV journalist to explain the monarchs' strange appearance in the Appalachians, he is outraged when she doubts that global warming is real and suggests that climate change deniers might be right. "What you are doing is unconscionable," he screams at her. "You are allowing the public to be duped by a bunch of liars." The diatribe becomes a viral hit on the internet. Thus Kingsolver makes her message clear. If only a few more scientists started screaming on TV and radio then we might have a chance to avoid the worst of the calamities that lie ahead.

Winter set to claim 100 lives / Reading Chronicle / News / Reading

MORE than 100 elderly and vulnerable people could die needlessly in Reading this winter - prompting an attack on the Government for not acting swiftly enough to help protect them from harsh conditions.

Reading Borough Council says on average there have been 112 'excess' winter deaths in the borough a year since 2009 - more than double those for neighbouring Wokingham and West Berkshire and, with the excess winter death index at 35, one of the highest in the country.

Chris Huhne Cashes In His Green Deal | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF)

The move is likely to raise eyebrows because three months before leaving the Cabinet, Mr Huhne unveiled the Coalition’s ‘green deal’, which promises a cash incentive to households if they pay to insulate their homes.

Now Mr Huhne has been signed up by Nationwide Energy Services, which ‘provides advice to people wanting loft and cavity wall insulation and solar panels’.

The Lib Dem has received a £10,000 signing-on fee, plus a retainer of £3,500 a month for eight hours’ work – or £437 an hour.