2nd Highest Antarctic Sea Ice Minimum Of All Time!

It is very likely 2013 will go down in the history books as having the 2nd highest Antarctic sea ice minimum of all time. In 2013 there was 1.4 million sq km more sea ice than there was in 1997 at minimum.

On Our Radar: Prison Term for Biodiesel Fraud - NYTimes.com

A Maryland man is sentenced to 12 years in prison for selling $9 million worth of bogus renewable fuel credits. The fraud scheme undermined the reputation of a program intended to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

AEP agrees to close 3 coal plants in emissions lawsuit - The Washington Post

One of the the nation’s largest utilities agreed Monday to close three of its coal-fired power plants as part of a settlement with government officials and environmental groups, the latest sign of how the nation’s electricity supply is shifting away from coal.

Updating an earlier 2007 settlement, American Electric Power will stop burning coal by 2015 at three power plants in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky and replace a portion of that supply with new wind and solar investments in Indiana and Michigan.
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Sierra Club attorney Bruce Nilles, who helped negotiate the agreement, said in an interview that the result showed how a combination of market forces and environmental activism had weakened the hand of the coal industry in the United States. But he added that in the face of rising carbon emissions worldwide, environmentalists could not declare total victory.

“The coal industry is cracking faster than the ice sheets, but it might not be fast enough,” he said.

Interstates closed, visibility near zero as Plains region gets 2nd blizzard in a week - The Washington Post

LUBBOCK, Texas — Blizzard conditions slammed parts of the Midwest on Monday, forcing the closure of highways in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles and sending public works crews scrambling for salt and sand anew just days after a massive storm blanketed the region with snow.
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A rancher in the Texas Panhandle, Jay O’Brien, warned that for cattle out grazing in pastures, including some calves born in recent days, the storm could prove deadly. The wind will push animals into in a fenced corner where they could suffocate from the moisture.

“This type of snow is a cattle killer,” he said.