New 30-year permits that will be issued next month by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will quadruple the number of bald eagles that wind farms will collectively be allowed to kill per year and avoid prosecution under the 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. Under the new $36,000 “incidental take permits” - which are to be reviewed every five years by an independent third party – the number of bald eagles that can be killed by permit holders will increase from 1,100 currently allowed under 2009 regulations to 4,200 when the Final Rule goes into effect on Jan. 17, 2017. [node:read-more:link]

Peter Navarro, an outspoken critic of China and U.S. [node:read-more:link]

A 14 percent decline in United States consumer meat consumption over the past decade has caused alarm with one Texas A&M AgriLife scientist who warns the effects could be dire for overall human health and child development. Dr. Guoyao Wu, distinguished professor in the department of animal science at Texas A&M University, said U.S. consumers have been overwhelmed with misinformation about protein and fats in meats, which in turn has led to many consuming less meat or no meat at all.“Obesity rates have gone up the last 20 years, while consumption of meat has declined,” Wu said. [node:read-more:link]

the Energy Department announced Wednesday that it was conditionally prepared to guarantee as much as $2 billion in loans to the Lake Charles Methanol project, which represents a different variant on carbon capture and storage. [node:read-more:link]

Iowa's new energy strategy envisions electric car-charging stations across the state, anaerobic digesters that turn animal waste to energy, and top state and federal researchers finding ways to store wind and solar energy.  Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds released the broad energy report Wednesday that looks at Iowa's energy needs over the next decade. It provided 45 recommendations ranging from modernizing the state's electric power grid to improving state tax credits for solar energy. [node:read-more:link]

To say CRISPR/Cas9 is every bit as revolutionary as the Internet or the smartphone is an understatement. Scientists are studying applications to fight cancers and it already has been demonstrated the technology can remove HIV from infected human cells. It comes with ethical questions as well for how this technology may benefit humans in the future. The idea of designer babies with reduced diseases linked to faulty genes, or the potential to slow or reverse the aging process may one day be possible using CRISPR/Cas9. [node:read-more:link]

More than 167,000 U.S. farms locally produced and sold food through direct marketing practices, resulting in $8.7 billion in revenue in 2015, according to the results from the first Local Food Marketing Practices Survey released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). The report results cover both fresh and value-added foods, such as meat and cheese. Farms selling food directly to institutions and intermediates, such as wholesalers who locally branded the product or food hubs, brought in the most revenue at $3.4 billion. [node:read-more:link]

“Biofuel supporters largely keep pointing to President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign statements on ethanol, but the stack of nominations coming from Trump with far closer ties to oil than ethanol is quickly starting to raise some red flags. “Trump has largely built his energy team over the past week with the nomination of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency, followed Monday with the Secretary of State nominee of Rex Tillerson, chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry was announced as nominee for Energy Secretary. [node:read-more:link]

A sharp build-up of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) levels in the atmosphere has coincided with a general change in the earth’s ecosystem that is characterized by an increase in global average temperatures. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), average temperatures have risen 1.5°F over the past century and are projected to rise to 0.5°F to 8.6°F over the next one-hundred years (EPA, 2016a). Increasing temperatures have been accompanied by rising sea levels, flooding, extreme heat waves, drought, and frequent and intense storms. [node:read-more:link]

Lack of a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol industry has led to a Renewable Fuel Standard conundrum: Where do companies complying with the law find gallons or the renewable identification numbers, or RIN?  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued waivers for cellulosic ethanol in the past decade because the industry has been slow to develop. Refiners and importers of gasoline and diesel have faced significant costs. [node:read-more:link]