Climate change skepticism a litmus test for GOP (Chicago Tribune) But scandals, doubts have had little impact on the Senate — It wasn't long ago that Marco Rubio and Tim Pawlenty, two of the brightest fresh faces in the Republican Party, supported legislation to limit the greenhouse gas emissions that are blamed for global warming. But in recent weeks both have suddenly begun to express doubts about whether burning coal, powering cars with gasoline and other ... [News Source]

Looming climate regulations put EPA in conservatives’ crosshairs. U.S. EPA moves toward regulating greenhouse gases are drawing fire from conservatives who are hoping to slow the agency's efforts using many of the same political strategies that they used to stall climate legislation on Capitol Hill. [News Source]

E-mails show scientists planning push-back against ‘McCarthyite’ attacks on climate science. U.S. scientists are planning to counter criticisms directed at them during the "Climategate" scandal and congressional debates, saying conservatives and industry groups have waged a "McCarthyite" campaign. [News Source]

Climate confusion. "Climategate" has damaged the credentials of the IPCC and decades of science on global warming. But as scientists push back against efforts to dismiss the threat of global warming, some media watchers say journalists aren't balancing their coverage of climate change with the other side of the story. [News Source]

Rolling out the changes. Manufacturers are using a variety of chemical additives and new materials to reduce the environmental impact of tyres. These tyres will also increase fuel efficiency by 8% compared to standard tyres - thus reducing a vehicle’s carbon-dioxide emissions by almost a tonne over the tyre’s lifetime. [News Source]

State farmers losing money from climate change uncertainty. While Congress is fighting attempts by the U.S. EPA to regulate greenhouse emissions and lawmakers' inability to pass comprehensive energy legislation to address climate change, farmers are losing money because of that uncertainty. [News Source]

Regional rainfall in a warming world. Apart from the obvious warming at the high polar latitudes, which already is affecting Arctic sea ice and the rate of Greenland ice cap melting, new details are beginning to emerge about the impact of global warming in the Tropics - the boiler-room of Earth's climate and weather. [News Source]

Ritter renewable hike sails through Senate; clean air bill next on agenda. Gov. Bill Ritter may be a lame-duck chief executive laid up by a recent bike crash, but his clean-energy agenda keeps rolling along like Lance Armstrong in the Alps. [News Source]

Ritter plans to close or convert power plants. Just hours after the state Senate passed his major renewable-energy bill, Gov. Bill Ritter announced a new plan to either close coal-fired power plants on the Front Range or retrofit them with natural gas. [News Source]

Monitoring greenhouse gases: Highs and lows. You might think that measuring the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere would be a priority. If you did think that, though, you would be wrong. [News Source]

Note on emerging science. Researchers have found naturally occurring laughing gas in clam bellies - but apparently the impact on the climate is not so funny. [News Source]