BP seeks settlement with oil spill plaintiffs group
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - BP Plc is seeking to settle a lawsuit over the massive 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill by tapping a $14 billion fund it set aside to compensate fishermen and businesses harmed by the disaster, lawyers familiar with the talks said. In exchange, the claimants, represented by a group called the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee, would drop their lawsuit in a court case scheduled to start in New Orleans on March 5.
At least four killed as tornadoes strike Midwest
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - At least four people were killed and dozens injured when suspected tornadoes ripped across parts of the Midwest late Tuesday, damaging homes, churches and buildings across the area, authorities said. Three deaths occurred in Harrisburg, Illinois, when a tornado whipped through the area, part of a storm that struck Indiana, Missouri and Kansas, according to meteorologist Beverly Poole of the National Weather Service.
Arguments preview fight on EPA greenhouse gas rules
(Reuters) - Heavy industry groups and states argued in a federal court on Tuesday that U.S. environmental regulators had used faulty science in determining that greenhouse gas emissions endangered human health in the latest attempt to dismantle the Obama administration's rules on the emissions. During the first of two days of arguments on a case that seeks to overturn Environmental Protection Agency regulations, Harry MacDougald, a lawyer for the petitioners, said uncertain evidence was used to reach "90 percent" certainty that human emissions are responsible for harmful climate change.
Arbitrators say they can hear Chevron-Ecuador case
(Reuters) - An international tribunal has found that it has jurisdiction to decide if Ecuador violated a treaty with the United States requiring it to guarantee a fair trial to Chevron Corp in an environmental lawsuit that ended in an $18 billion judgment against the oil company. A Tuesday posting on Chevron's website attributed to the tribunal read: "The tribunal declares that it has jurisdiction to proceed to the merits phase of these arbitration proceedings." http://www.chevron.com/documents/pdf/ecuador/PCA-Jurisdiction-Decision.pdf
EU carbon lacks direction amid low volumes
By Thomson Reuters Point Carbon LONDON, Feb 29 - EUAs were stable on Wednesday morning amid thin volumes as the market waited for fresh direction following a day of big price swings on Tuesday, when prices hit a 10-week high.
World's oldest nuclear plant shuts in Britain
OLDBURY-ON-SEVERN, Britain (Reuters) - The world's oldest running nuclear reactor is due to shut at 1100 GMT on Wednesday after 44 years of operation, starting the countdown to 2025, by when a new British nuclear station is expected to open on a site just a few hundred meters away. Some local residents who have lived in this quaint village for decades say they had no choice when the plant was first built in the 1960s and have little prospect of preventing a new station now, given that the Oldbury site has already been shortlisted for new nuclear plants by the government.
Four South Africa game park staff arrested over rhino poaching
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Four staff members at South Africa's flagship Kruger National Park have been arrested on suspicion of killing rhinos and selling their horns to criminal syndicates, the park service said on Wednesday. Home to more than 90 percent of the continent's rhinos, South Africa is on the front line of a worsening war with poachers who send the horns to China and Southeast Asia for use in traditional medicine.
U.K. firm to raise $500 million for Asia clean-tech
HONG KONG (Reuters) - U.K. investment firm Sustainable Development Capital LLP plans to raise more than $500 million to invest over the next two to three years in specialist funds and companies involved in environmental projects in Asia, its chief executive said. The London-based investment and advisory company will tap pension funds, private equity firms and wealthy individuals for investments. The firm will fund projects dealing with water treatment, sustainable land management and low-carbon transport systems, chief executive Jonathan Maxwell told Reuters.
Monsanto prevails in suit brought by organic growers
(Reuters) - A federal judge has ruled in favor of global seed giant Monsanto Co, dismissing a lawsuit brought by a consortium of U.S. organic farmers and seed dealers who said their industry is at risk from Monsanto's growing market strength. U.S. District Court Judge Naomi Buchwald, for the Southern District of New York, threw out the case brought by the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA) and dozens of other plaintiff growers and organizations, criticizing the groups for a "transparent effort to create a controversy where none exists."
EU politicians back plan to withhold EU CO2 permits
BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - European Union politicians backed a proposal on Tuesday to withhold carbon permits from the bloc's emissions trading scheme (ETS) from 2013, paving the way for the EU Commission to intervene in the market to prop up low prices. EU Parliament's industry committee passed a proposal which would let the EU Commission take measures that "may include withholding of the necessary amount of allowances" from the 2013-2020 phase of the EU market as part of a wider debate on energy efficiency.
