Mr Williams has worked with Dennis Parsons at the Somerset Heritage Centre, Somerset Archaeological Natural History Society, which owns the collection, and leading insect fossil expert Andrew Ross, from the Museum of Scotland, to get the Taunton collection curated.

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As a leading exporter of fossil fuels, Russia may well play a stabilizing role in global energy markets, despite its purported truculence in recent years.

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Indeed, in 2007 China overtook America as the world's leading carbon emitter, with an estimated 1.8 billion tonnes of fossil-fuel emissions.

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Chu, who turns 65 this month, was a leading advocate in the Obama administration for alternative energy development, making him a target of the fossil fuel industry and its conservative supporters in Congress.

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The fossil record also shows an apparent lack of dinosaur fossils in the last few million years leading up to the impact.

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Recognizing the importance of energy for economic competitiveness, leading foreign powers, particularly China, are taking aggressive steps to secure access and control over vital fossil fuel resources.

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