BOONE, North Carolina, Oct. 22 -- Appalachian Voices issued the following news release: The Appalachian Solar Finance Fund (SFF), a new program to jump-start commercial and institutional solar projects in coal-impacted communities throughout Central Appalachia, will launch on Thursday, November 4 with a webinar at noon Eastern Time. The SFF will use a recent $1.5 million ARC POWER Initiative award to deploy select subgrant awards for solar projects on nonprofit and public buildings. The SFF al  more

BERKELEY, California, Oct. 22 (TNSPol) -- As You Sow Foundation issued the following news release on Oct. 21, 2021: As You Sow, a non-profit corporate accountability organization, increased the coverage of its Corporate Retirement Plan Sustainability Scorecard to include five additional major U.S. publicly traded companies. In these retirement plans, employee savings are invested in mutual funds which directly contradict each company's stated sustainability goals on climate change, deforestatio  more

CANBERRA, Australia, Oct. 22 -- The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association issued the following commentary to the Australian: * * * By Andrew McConville APPEA Chief Executive Apathy is an obstacle to progress. With the noise and array of opinions leading into COP26, no one, it seems, is apathetic and so we should take solace that progress can be made. A failure to make progress in Glasgow would be a lost opportunity. We should not however, delude ourselves that it will  more

LONDON, England, Oct. 22 -- The British Cabinet Office issued the following news release on Oct. 20, 2021: The UK government has unveiled its programme of Presidency events for the two-week COP26 Summit, which is taking place in Glasgow from 31 October - 12 November. The programme kicks off with a World Leaders' Summit (1-2 November), hosted by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, for which more than 120 leaders have already confirmed their attendance. They are encouraged to set out ambitious acti  more

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (TNSRep) -- The Congressional Research Service issued the following report (No. R42853) on Oct. 20, 2021, entitled "Nuclear Energy: Overview of Congressional Issues" by Energy Policy specialist Mark Holt: * * * SUMMARY The policy debate over the role of nuclear power in the nation's energy mix is rooted in the technology's fundamental characteristics. Nuclear reactors can produce potentially vast amounts of useful energy with relatively low consumption of natural resources  more

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (TNSRep) -- The Congressional Research Service issued the following report (No. R42853) on Oct. 20, 2021, entitled "Nuclear Energy: Overview of Congressional Issues": * * * (Continued from Part 1 of 3) 116th Congress Energy Act of 2020, P.L. 116-260, Division Z Includes authorization of $55 million per year for FY2021 through FY2025 for the Sustainability Program for Light Water Reactors to conduct research, development, demonstration, and commercial application of techn  more

BRUSSELS, Belgium, Oct. 22 -- The European Parliament issued the following news release: Parliament pushes for accelerated climate action worldwide and for the EU to remain a world leader in fighting climate change. Parliament has adopted its position on the UN COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, taking place from 31 October to 12 November, with 527 votes for, 134 votes against and 35 abstentions. In the resolution, MEPs express concern that the national targets announced in Paris in   more

LONDON, England, Oct. 22 (TNSRes) -- Greenpeace International issued the following news release: Some of the world's biggest coal, oil, beef and animal feed producing nations are attempting to strip a landmark UN climate report of findings that threaten the interests of their polluting industries, documents leaked to Unearthed reporters have revealed. Read the full story here: https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2021/10/21/leaked-climate-lobbying-ipcc-glasgow/?_ga=2.197210607.1753442944.163490244  more

MUNICH, Germany, Oct. 22 -- The Max Planck Society issued the following news on Oct. 21, 2021: A breakthrough in the fight against hunger, three Nobel Prizes, 150 million tons of annual production - and still a tricky topic for research: with the Haber-Bosch process, the chemical industry has been converting atmospheric nitrogen and hydrogen into ammonia, one component, for a good 100 years of mineral fertilizers and many other chemical products. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Coal   more

MERRILLVILLE, Indiana, Oct. 22 -- Northern Indiana Public Service Co., a subsidiary of NiSource, issued the following news release on Oct. 21, 2021: Northern Indiana Public Service Company LLC (NIPSCO), a subsidiary of NiSource Inc. (NYSE: NI), today announced its refined plans for the future of its electric generation portfolio as part of the 2021 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) public advisory process. The company identified a Preferred Energy Resource Plan that refines the timeline to retir  more

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 (TNSRep) -- The Plastics Industry Association issued the following news release on Oct. 21, 2021: The Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) today responded to a new report from Beyond Plastics, The New Coal: Plastics and Climate Change. Common misconceptions perpetuated by biased studies such as this are addressed at ThisIsPlastics.com. "It's no surprise that an organization named Beyond Plastics would cherry-pick data to fit their narrative in order to raise more money   more

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 -- Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, issued the following news release on Oct. 21, 2021: U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced $2 million from the American Rescue Plan to the Morgantown Utility Board to support water infrastructure improvements needed for a new beverage processing and packaging facility at the Morgantown Industrial Park. This funding is distributed through the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA)  more

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 -- Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, issued the following news release on Oct. 21, 2021: U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, welcomed a fellow West Virginian, Mr. Paul R. Johansen, Wildlife Resources Section Chief for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, to the committee. Mr. Johansen testified before the committee at a hearing on several fo  more

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 -- Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release: U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) on Thursday sent a letter to President Joe Biden to urge his administration to prioritize more stringent nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission standards for heavy-duty diesel engines and vehicles. "Air quality research from the Long Island Sound Tropospheric Ozone Study, of which our state air agencies are parti  more

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 (TNSRes)(TNSCapv) -- The Sierra Club issued the following statement on Oct. 21, 2021: * * * The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), led by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, released a highly anticipated report laying out recommendations for mitigating climate risks to the economy, as directed by President Biden's May Executive Order. The report (https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0426) affirms the serious risk the climate crisis poses to our financial  more

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 -- The U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration issued the following news release on Oct. 21, 2021: U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo announced the Department's Economic Development Administration (EDA) is awarding its first local investment as part of the Coal Communities Commitment to the Morgantown Utility Board in Morgantown, W.Va. The $2 million American Rescue Plan grant will help create 300 jobs and generate $250 million in private i  more

BALTIMORE, Maryland, Oct. 22 -- The White House issued the following transcript of an interview on Oct. 21, 2021, with President Biden at CNN Town Hall with Anderson Cooper: * * * MR. COOPER: With that, I want to welcome the 46th President of the United States, President Joe Biden. (Applause.) So, there's a lot to get to tonight, and we got a lot of great questions from our audience. We want to get into the details of what you're calling the Build Back Better plan. Before we get into that th  more

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 (TNSRep) -- The World Bank issued the following news release: Energy prices soared in the third quarter of 2021 and are expected to remain elevated in 2022, adding to global inflationary pressures and potentially shifting economic growth to energy-exporting countries from energy-importing ones. The World Bank's latest Commodity Markets Outlook forecasts that energy prices--expected to average more than 80 percent higher in 2021 compared to last year--will remain at high lev  more