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Friday, May 09, 2014

Wyoming, top coal producer, rejects science standards mainly due to climate-change elements

UPDATE: May 16: An Oklahoma House of Representatives committee voted to reject the new set of state science standards, Katie Valentine reports for Climate Progress. The standards were approved unanimously by the state board of education in March. Tiffany Neill, director of science education at the Oklahoma State Department Of Education, who was testified on behalf of the science standards, said the state's previous set of academic science standards received an “F” in 2012 from the Fordham Institute. (Read more)

"Wyoming, the nation's top coal-producing state, is the first to reject new K-12 science standards proposed by national education groups mainly because of global warming components," Bob Moen reports for The Associated Press. "The Wyoming Board of Education decided recently that the Next Generation Science Standards need more review after questions were raised about the treatment of man-made global warming."

Board President Ron Micheli told AP "the review will look into whether 'we can't get some standards that are Wyoming standards and standards we all can be proud of.'" Twelve states have already adopted the standards, which consist of information students should be expected to know at the completion of each grade.

"Wyoming produces almost 40 percent of the nation's coal, with much of it used by power plants to provide electricity around the nation," Moen writes. "Minerals taxes on coal provided $1 billion to the state and local governments in 2012 and coal mining supports some 6,900 jobs in the state." Republican Gov. Matt Mead has publicly said he's skeptical about man-made climate change and called federal efforts to curtail greenhouse emissions a "war on coal." (Read more)

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