Enviro News Wrap: Climate Change Denial in Texas; Solar Doesn’t End with Solyndra; Occupy the Environment, and more…

GlobalWarmingisReal contributor Anders Hellum-Alexander wraps-up the climate and environmental news headlines for the past week:

• While companies like BP, Shell, Chevron and ExxonMobile are the the biggest names in the American oil industry they hold very little of the worlds oil. The power that these companies have is their ability to use their huge amounts of spare cash to drill for hard-to-get oil. If the price of oil fell and stayed low the oil industry would crumble. Oil prices have stayed high, propping up the profits of oil companies as production dips. Also, domestic oil production is increasing as importation falls. GOP Presidential candidates talk about increasing domestic production, but that is already happening under Obama.
• Fox News tries to publish a reasonable article on the US oil extraction industry post-Gulf Oil spill.
• The drought in Texas is challenging the beliefs of climate change deniers right in their home state.
• List of top ten most endangered species.
• Do you support geo-engineering? What is the difference between altering the environment with the sole purpose of altering the environment, and altering the environment via the production, sale and use of goods and services?
• The GOP says Obama is too liberal on energy policy while environmentalists have few victories to celebrate under Obama as they are rally against him due to his stance on the Tar Sands Keystone Pipeline. Obama is finding that there are no friends to be found in the middle of the road. One environmental victory under Obama is the Bureau of Land Management releasing a map of land that is perfect for large solar plants.
• Solyndra was a failure but the Washington Post argues that it is not a sign of the failure of the entire solar industry. The New York Times though takes the position that the solar industry creates jobs, sure, but not enough. What a bunch of Negative Nancys.
• The solar industry is reliant on government subsidies, as are all sources of energy.
• Apple is using Solar power to help power a new data center. And Facebook builds a data center in Sweden using green energy as well.
• The Occupy movement can be a driving force for the ailing environmental movement.
• A healthy society is an environmental one and obesity is such an important issue because it sits at the intersection of agriculture, government, healthcare, transportation, production, lifestyle and health.