Morning News Roundup (25 May)

• President Bush promoted nuclear power Wednesday as part of his answer to energy and environmental problems as more companies consider taking advantage of government incentives to build the nation's first new nuclear plant in decades.
  
  Opinion polls suggest public attitudes toward nuclear power are shifting. Support for expanding the use of nuclear energy has grown from 43 percent to 55 percent in the past three years, according to surveys by the Gallup Organization. The Pew Research Center found rising support in the past few months as gasoline prices have soared, from 39 percent last September to 44 percent in February. Still, 49 percent remain against expanding nuclear energy. [WaPo]
  
  
• The big powers reported some progress yesterday in the struggle to agree a package that would reward Iran for halting uranium enrichment by supplying Tehran with a "safe" nuclear reactor, and other incentives, while warning of sanctions if it does not. [Independent]
  
  
• Yesterday, Special Counsel Patrick Fizgerald released Scooter Libby’s 2004 grand jury testimony. In it, Libby said “Vice President Cheney was personally angered by” Joe Wilson’s “newspaper column attacking a key rationale for the war in Iraq and repeatedly directed” Libby “to ‘get all the facts out’ related to the critique.” Cheney also raised the issue that Valerie Plame “worked at the CIA and that she allegedly played a role in sending” Wilson to Niger. [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]
  
  
• President Bush has delegated to the government's intelligence chief, John Negroponte, the authority to exempt private companies from certain federal disclosure requirements on grounds of national security. Bush signed an official memorandum to Negroponte on May 5 giving him the authority to excuse companies with government contracts for secret projects from having to disclose them in required periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. [Boston Globe]
  
  
• The former U.S. Food and Drug Administration chief shut out two senior agency officials from a decision to indefinitely postpone action on Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s "morning-after" contraceptive. Transcripts of the sworn statements were released by the non-profit Center for Reproductive Rights, which sued the FDA, claiming that the agency allowed political opposition to the Plan B contraceptive to interfere with science. [Reuters]
  
  
• Chemical Consortium Holdings (ChemCon) has entered into an option agreement with the Port of Walla Walla, Washington to lease approximately 15 acres to construct a 200,000-ton (approximately 60 million gallons) per year biodiesel production facility.
  
  This would mark the second major biodiesel plant to be located in the state of Washington—Imperium Renewables, the parent company of Seattle Biodiesel, recently announced that it will build a 100-million gallon per year biodiesel plant in Grays Harbor County. [Green Car Congress]
  
  
• GM on Tuesday announced a promotion that caps gas at $1.99 a gallon for one year for buyers of certain full-size sport-utility vehicles and midsize cars in California and Florida. Consumers will receive a monthly credit to a pre-paid fuel card for the difference between $1.99 and the average price of premium gas in their state.
  
  Eligible vehicles in California include the 2006 and 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, and GMC Yukon and Yukon XL large SUVs. In Florida, Chevrolet Impala and Monte Carlo, Pontiac Grand Prix and Buick LaCrosse midsize cars are eligible. [Chicago Tribune]
  
  
• Sir David Attenborough, Britain’s esteemed presenter of nature documentaries, has spoken out on climate change. Voted the most trusted celebrity in the country, he has so far not publicly acknowledged the dangers of global warming in any of his popular documentaries. Even Planet Earth, done in 2006, (see Treehugger) on the extinction of the polar bears did not mention rising global temperatures as a cause. Now Sir David has spoken out: “I'm no longer sceptical. Now I do not have any doubt at all. I think climate change is the major challenge facing the world. [Treehugger]
  
  
• More than half of America’s hunters and fishermen “have seen first-hand the impact of global warming, according to a poll released Tuesday by the National Wildlife Federation.” Fully 71 percent “said they were concerned about diminishing fish and wildlife populations and many had seen direct impacts of climate change in the field,” and a majority “also rejected the Bush Administration’s fossil-fuel-based energy policy and want more conservation and clean fuels.” [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]
  
  
• Move over Starbucks... here comes the KISS coffeehouse! As Gene Simmons notes: “Every army needs food and drink and the KISS Army is no exception! Even the non-enlisted will find our treats and java rockin’ good!”
  
  
• The most anticipated MRI of recent memory was performed in England on young striker Wayne Rooney to see if his broken foot is healing enough to be included in his country's World Cup squad. Results to be known on Friday. [BBC]