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In a close vote, the House recently passed a provision that undercuts one of the most successful environmental programs of the decade – one that requires all bulbs – including the incandescent – to achieve higher efficiency levels. The amendment, which was tacked on to the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act of 2012, delays…
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Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling is no stranger to Downtown Waynesboro. “I have waded this trout steam many times,” said Bolling, an avid fly fisherman, at a Thursday-morning ceremony on the banks of the South River to formally mark the award by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development of a $770,000 grant to Waynesboro…
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Dr. James McClintock, a renowned University of Alabama-Birmingham marine biologist who has conducted research in Antarctica for more than 25 years, told me the following story. “You work in a scientific lab in the quietest place on Earth — Antarctica. “There’s a Crack! Boom! “You rush to the window of your remote lab with a…
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Among the groups keeping “score” on the actions of the General Assembly is the Virginia League of Conservation Voters. From among the thousands of votes cast by members of the House of Delegates and the State Senate the League chooses those votes of most importance to the environmental and conservation groups that make up their…
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While recently shoveling aged horse manure around berry vines on my small organic farm to fertilize them, which gives me great pleasure, I thought about what I have learned about the community of the land by farming over the last two decades. I noticed how spreading brown gold–to which I add the green manure of…
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The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors approved a new bachelor of science in meteorology during its quarterly meeting on June 6. The new degree program, which will reside in the College of Natural Resources and Environment’s geography department, will prepare students for careers in meteorology and weather forecasting with a significant focus on geospatial information…
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Together these three items have served to ignite an explosion of civil unrest in Spain. Since May 15, thousands of frustrated Spaniards, many of them young, have taken to the streets in protest. Many of the protesters that have started to set up camps in major town squares across Spain are young, disenfranchised, and very…
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The leaders of the nation’s largest environmental groups today asked President Obama to create long-term relief for drivers at the pump by delivering the strongest fuel-efficiency and auto pollution standards for new vehicles currently under consideration. The administration will propose new fuel efficiency and auto pollution standards this September, with key decisions being made this…
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A request for a special-use permit that would allow a Texas-based energy company to drill for natural gas in Rockingham County is perhaps permanently on the table. Locals still need to arm themselves with knowledge of the process known as hydrofracture that companies use to extract natural gas from the ground and its long list…
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In my round of community meetings several months ago I found that the most-mentioned statewide official in Virginia was Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. As the third position on the ballot of statewide elected officials the position and the person occupying it have in the past received little attention. Few were the number of Virginians over…
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