U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says she wants to be most remembered as an advocate of “environmental justice,” putting policies in place that equally protect all communities and groups from environmental hazards.

Jackson wants people look back on her tenure to think, “you know, she really opened that agency up, she really made ways that have lived past her for that agency to speak to people of color, to speak to the poor, and to make sure their issues are taken into account,” she told the Associated Press.

An ocean management plan released yesterday by the administration of Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick (D) outlines rules and guidelines for the development of wind farms in the state, allowing up to 266 wind turbines in state waters.

Those turbines include 166 turbines in a pair of designated commercial areas and 100 more built by individual communities. Under the terms of the plan, communities would be allowed to build between seven and 24 turbines in the coastal waters extending three miles from shore.

Countries are more likely than not to miss a deadline set by the Copenhagen Accord for specifying their 2020 emissions targets, according to an analyst at carbon market consulting firm Orbeo.

By Jan. 31, developed nations must set their greenhouse gas emissions targets for 2020, and developing nations must outline their actions to prevent emissions.

The Montana Board of Environmental Review voted last Friday to start developing the state’s first greenhouse gas rule in response to pending U.S. EPA mandates.

“This is all driven by the federal government,” said Richard Opper, director of the state Department of Environmental Quality. “I think that’s a very important point. EPA is going to be approving one or two of its greenhouse gas rules in March sometime.”

Separated by barricades that divided the parking lot of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, dueling demonstrators rallied yesterday afternoon over mountaintop-removal mining practices.

Headlining the rally for the group of protesters opposing mountaintop removal was environmental activist and attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

Australia’s Senate has again voted down a climate change bill proposed by the government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Rudd had sought to pass the bill, which would establish a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions, prior to the U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen next week. Instead, the bill is unlikely to come up for consideration until February, before which Rudd has threatened to call snap elections to try to gain a majority for his Labor Party in the Senate.

Thanks to a recession-based fall in fuel demand, U.S. government mandates requiring the use of 15 billion gallons of biofuels by 2012 could face the reality that there is nowhere to use all that fuel.

Two years ago, while crafting its biofuels legislation, Congress did not account for fuel demands remaining or falling — a progression begun by the recession that could continue thanks to improved fuel efficiency. This trend, and the fact that ethanol can constitute only 10 percent of normal gasoline blends, suggests the country is unlikely to use all the biofuels Congress ordered.

By the end of the month, U.S. EPA is likely to declare that Texas’ air permitting program lacks adequate public participation and transparency, another sign of the widening rift between the federal agency and Texas regulators on environmental policy.

In coming weeks, EPA is expected to use the Clean Air Act to formally disapprove of the public participation and transparency aspects of Texas’ air pollution controls. The move raises the notion that other aspects of the state’s regulations, which have been criticized as too weak and industry-friendly by EPA since the 1990s, could be struck down.

India yesterday agreed to pass legislation that would set targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, adding weight to international demands that the United States pass a climate bill of its own ahead of December’s international climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Jairam Ramesh, India’s Environment Minister, said legislation was being drafted to limit the country’s carbon footprint through domestic initiatives that include a massive plan to expand solar energy.

The changing global climate will place new threats on national security and may force the military to intervene abroad to deal with the effects of violent storms, drought, mass migration and pandemics, military and intelligence analysts say.

Climate-induced crises have the potential to destabilize states, fuel the growth of non-military violence groups and unbalance regions, say Pentagon and intelligence agencies who for the first time are analyzing the potential impacts of climate change on national security.