4 million 'green' jobs predicted
An aggressive push toward renewable energy -- coupled with greater conservation -- could prompt the creation of more than four million new ''green'' industry jobs over the next three decades, according to a study commissioned by the nation's mayors. | 10/03/08 07:22:37 By - Michael Vasquez
Harmed by climate disruption: wildflower meadows of Mount Rainier
Nothing lures visitors to Paradise in Mount Rainier National Park like the transitory displays of wildflowers on the high meadows. | 10/01/08 08:25:47 By - Susan Gordon
New California law adds climate change to urban planning
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a landmark bill Tuesday to discourage sprawl in future decades, completing a deal among environmentalists, homebuilders and local governments on the final day of bill signing. The bill pushes California communities to consider climate change in regional planning, with an emphasis on reducing car travel. | 10/01/08 07:45:38 By - Kevin Yamamura
Government report slams failure to save the Everglades
After eight years, the ambitious effort to restore the Everglades has produced stacks of science and engineering studies, created a sprawling bureaucracy and burned though $7 billion or so of taxpayer money. | 09/30/08 12:14:27 By - Curtis Morgan
Excavation at Hanford nuclear reservation aims to reduce radioactive risk to river
The building covering the Hanford Site's K East Basin has been leveled, clearing the way for excavation to reduce the risk of radioactive waste from the nation's former plutonium processing facility leaking into the Columbia River. | 09/30/08 08:23:26 By - Annette Cary
Lawsuits accuse Fresno of failing to protect environment
Interest groups and government agencies are successfully suing the city of Fresno, winning cases that raise questions about how the city protects the public from the effects of development. | 09/29/08 08:16:06 By - Brad Branan
Green, slimy algae could one day run your car
Forget wind. Give solar a pass, too. The next source of green energy may just be floating all around us. A Bluffton man is working to make algae — what many call good, old-fashioned pond scum — the next big trend in green power. | 09/29/08 07:19:35 By -
Idaho group says no need for plastic if you bring your own bag
That's not something you hear too often, but you will, if Corey Godfrey and his fellow anti-plastic shopping bag crusaders - newly christened "B.Y.O.B.B.," or "Bring Your Own Bags, Boise" - have their way. | 09/29/08 07:14:31 By - Anna Webb
Alcatraz: Plants had survived with no care for 40 years
In Alcatraz it's called Officer's Row — a name that harkens back to its early 20th century military days. The garden that now occupies the space where three Victorian houses once stood is almost hidden. In fact, you wouldn't know it existed unless you accidentally looked down as you walked up, up the long roadway leading to the cellblock. | 09/27/08 08:00:09 By - Pat Rubin
Utility rates customers on energy consumption
Is the home greener on the other side of the fence? The Sacramento Municipal Utility District wants its customers to know, figuring they'll likely conserve more electricity to keep up with the Joneses, or strive to do one better than them. | 09/26/08 07:37:45 By - Chris Bowman
Nuclear waste removed from Hanford reactor
HANFORD, Wash. _Hanford workers began retrieving radioactive and hazardous chemical waste from Tank C-110 this week. | 09/25/08 08:16:39 By - Annette Cary
Climate-change studies: Florida must act to avoid catastrophic damage
The rising sea may not swallow Florida quite as quickly as experts previously predicted, suggests a Florida State University study released Wednesday. By 2080 -- with a one-foot sea rise that is half an international climate panel's estimate -- the acreage awash in Miami-Dade could roughly triple, and losses would quintuple to $6.7 billion. | 09/25/08 07:13:35 By - Curtis Morgan
Congress ends ban on offshore drilling, but fight's not over
Succumbing to intense political pressure, Democratic leaders in Congress intend to end a 27-year ban on coastal drilling on Sept. 30, but some Californians say it will be only a temporary defeat. | 09/24/08 16:57:00 By - Rob Hotakainen
Chesapeake says its drilling expected to decline in Barnett Shale
Chesapeake Energy Chairman Aubrey McClendon said Tuesday that the company's level of drilling in the Barnett Shale has probably peaked and should slowly decline over the next decade as the company increases its activity in new fields such as Louisiana's Haynesville Shale. | 09/24/08 07:15:45 By - Jim Fuquay
Kentucky state's campuses get passing grades on green issues
Kentucky's greenest campuses are at Berea College and the University of Louisville, judging from the College Sustainability Report Card 2009. The report, released Wednesday, gave Berea a B overall and U of L a B-minus. | 09/24/08 07:07:36 By - Art Jester
Hurricane recovery slow in Cuba
Swamped by chest-high flooding caused by recent hurricanes, the humble residents of this desolate fishing village on Cuba's southern coast found one small cause for celebration recently: homemade ice cream. | 09/24/08 07:04:58 By -
Winter may worsen energy costs
After a summer of high energy costs, winter promises more of the same. Only higher. The price of all major energy sources used to heat homes in this state is going up: electricity, natural gas, propane and heating oil. | 09/23/08 07:24:47 By - John Murawski
Federal wind insurance prospects poor this year
WASHINGTON _ Rep. Gene Taylor's relentless two-year campaign to secure wind coverage as part of the federal flood insurance program is on the verge of failure, a victim of vicious opposition in the Senate, of suspicions about a new government program and ultimately, of bad timing. | 09/23/08 07:10:13 By - Maria Recio
Poll: Obama, McCain supporters agree on alternative energy
Most of John McCain's and Barack Obama's supporters favor government backing for alternative energy such as wind and solar power, even if those sources of energy are more expensive than coal and oil, a national poll released Tuesday finds. By contrast, 19 percent of Obama's supporters and 34 percent of McCain's supporters favored more emphasis on building new oil- and coal-fired power plants. | 09/23/08 01:00:00 By - Renee Schoof
Commentary: Where Palin stands on environmental issues
Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for vice president, is a staunch believer in Alaska resource development -- and generally skeptical of measures that she thinks could slow or block development. Here's where she stands on key environmental issues. | 09/22/08 18:08:43 By -
What's Rat Island without rats? Alaskans hope to find out
By coating Rat Island with tiny toxic pellets in an operation that begins this week, scientists hope to exterminate Norway rats, which jumped off a shipwrecked Japanese ship in the 18th century and colonized the 6,871-acre island 1,700 miles from Anchorage. | 09/22/08 08:27:32 By - Mike Campbell
Alaska community seeks road through national wildlife refuge
The Alaskan comunity of Kings Cove has returned to Congress pressing for a road through a national wildlife refuge wilderness to Cold Bay's all-weather jetport. | 09/22/08 08:18:37 By - Tom Kizzia
Mall gets no-emissions security vehicles
KENNEWICK, Wash. _ In the harried world of holiday shopping, security guards at the Columbia Center mall this season will be rising above. | 09/22/08 08:11:04 By - Ingrid Stegemoeller
Hilton Head wants to go green
Hilton Head Island always has been considered an environmentally friendly place, with laws that protect trees and marshland and restrict the size of buildings. Now the town is trying to take that ethos a step further and create its first official "green" building guidelines that could encourage energy-efficient buildings and the use of greener materials. | 09/22/08 07:15:03 By -
Can cutting centuries-old trees help the environment?
Moments after he saw the centuries-old junipers on the ground, Glenn Fair felt sick to his stomach.Not only were trees mowed down across nearly 300 acres, they were leveled under a banner of ecological restoration, energy independence and climate-friendly power. It was portrayed as a win-win by the federal government. | 09/21/08 14:54:03 By - Tom Knudson
In Alaska area, fear, not favor, greets offshore drilling talk
Worried that noise from oil exploration and, ultimately, drilling will drive off the bowhead whales hunted by the Inupiat Eskimos of the North Slope, the people of the vast North Slope Burrough — a county-like area bigger than all but nine U.S. states — will elect a new mayor Oct. 7. Offshore oil drilling and conflicts of interest permeate the race. | 09/21/08 06:00:00 By - Erika Bolstad
Missouri warming to clean energy
The legislatures in Missouri and Kansas for years have refused to do what 26 other states have done and impose renewable energy requirements on power companies. | 09/19/08 07:24:10 By - Mike Hendricks
Study finds California greenhouse gas emissions law will save money, boost economy
Costly as it may seem, California's mandate to cut climate-altering exhausts from vehicles and industry by nearly one-third in the next 12 years actually will boost the economy, a state analysis released Wednesday predicts. | 09/18/08 07:49:39 By - By Chris Bowman
McDonalds in Raleigh may go 'green'
The golden arches are turning green in Cary, NC. McDonald's franchisee Ric Richards is planning an environmentally friendly redo of his restaurant in Saltbox Village shopping center, off Kildaire Farm Road. | 09/18/08 07:09:06 By - Jack Hagel
Congressman vs. Forest Service: Smoke or fire?
In March 2004, U.S. Rep. Henry Brown, R-S.C., started a controlled burn on some property he owns. The fire got out of control and burned 20 acres of the adjacent Francis Marion national Forest. The Forest Service fined him $5,773 for carelessness. Brown eventually paid a reduced fine, but not until after the protracted battle cost the government an estimated $100,000 more. | 09/17/08 19:40:00 By - James Rosen
Bill would lift endangered fish protection during droughts
Republican George Radanovich, D-Calif., wants to suspend one of the nation's premier environmental laws in order to increase water pumping out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. | 09/17/08 16:41:00 By - Michael Doyle
Gas from garbage: Could work for Kansas, lawmakers say
Representatives from a Canadian company visited Topeka, Kan., this week at the invitation of officials who wanted to learn how landfill trash can be turned into electricity. Calgary-based AlterNRG's plasma gasification technology uses a process developed for NASA to superheat landfill garbage and convert it into a highly energized gas, which can then be used to produce electricity. | 09/17/08 07:49:04 By - David Klepper
Storm victims left hungry in Caribbean
Rice paddies in this northwest village lie submerged in pools of water, some of them the size of lakes. In the south, entire groves of plantain trees have toppled. And in the central plateau, wilted beanfields and cornfields limp in ruin -- remnants of Haiti's battering by four consecutive storms. | 09/17/08 07:37:32 By - Frances Robles and Jacqueline Charles
1.8 million acres proposed as critical habitat for red-legged frog
The California red-legged frog regained political territory Tuesday as the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed designating 1.8 million acres in California as critical habitat for the threatened species. | 09/16/08 17:56:34 By - Michael Doyle
Conservation group targets Dole as she faces close election
The League of Conservation Voters added Dole to the list Monday because of what political director Tony Massaro calls her poor voting record, and the fact that she's in a close race with Democrat Kay Hagan. | 09/16/08 15:40:43 By - Jim Morrill
Physicists: U.S. could cut oil use with better houses, cars
The U.S. can reduce its dependence on foreign oil and greenhouse-gas emissions by making cars and buildings much more energy efficient, according to a study released Tuesday by a large national association of physicists. Among the suggestions: roofs that reflect rather than absorb sunlight. | 09/16/08 14:57:00 By - Renee Schoof
Gas price increase from Ike may ease
Wholesale gasoline prices this morning were down in the Midwest as concerns eased about Hurricane Ike's impact on supplies for most of the country. Wholesale prices along the Gulf Coast are still up but elsewhere in the country they appeared to be dropping. | 09/16/08 07:19:37 By - Steve Everly
Two renewable energy propositions on California ballot
Two of the world's richest men bankroll alternative-energy initiatives on the November ballot. Each is opposed by some of the very champions of those alternatives. | 09/15/08 11:39:54 By - Chris Bowman
Tide in North Carolina has shifted in favor of drilling
In the latest campaign ad opposing him, Democratic congressional candidate Larry Kissell looks like he's standing on a dark and lonely stage as he declares his opposition to oil drilling off the coast of North Carolina. That would be an especially fitting backdrop these days for drilling opponents on the campaign trail and in the halls of Congress. | 09/15/08 07:29:50 By - Lisa Zagaroli
Washington State battle over gravel mine starting again
Mining company's bid to expand its mine in Washington State has reopened a decades-long land-use battle that was supposedly settled 15 years ago. | 09/14/08 12:02:37 By - John Dodge
No wonder Gibson was confused by Palin's answer on global warming
The ABC anchor has plenty of Alaska voters for company. Since entering the governor's race here two years ago, Palin has shimmied back and forth on the key question of whether warming trends are natural or a byproduct of human activity. | 09/12/08 21:43:39 By - Tom Kizza
McConnell to push showdown over energy
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is gearing up for an end-of-session, election-year showdown over energy policy that may put him at odds with several members of his party who are leading the charge on an increasingly popular bipartisan reform proposal. | 09/12/08 16:57:00 By - Halimah Abdullah
Study finds recent global warming unprecedented in 1,300 years
A new scientific study adds evidence that temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere fluctuated a bit over time, but that the sharp increase during the past few decades is bigger than anything in at least 1,300 years. | 09/12/08 15:33:00 By - Renee Schoof
Nitrogen emerges as the latest climate-change threat
WASHINGTON — Scientists are raising alarms about yet another threat to Earth's climate and human well-being. This time it's nitrogen, a common element essential to all life. | 09/12/08 13:05:00 By - Robert S. Boyd
In California's High Sierra, the harsh winter approaches
The Sierra crest in September is as far as you get from California's profile of surf, sun and sand. It is a place most tourists will never see. In fact, most Californians will never see it up close. | 09/12/08 08:30:03 By - Mark Grossi and Cyndee Fontana
Environmentalists mounting challenge to water contracts
At issue is the tiny delta smelt, which environmentalists say is facing extinction. They say the population decline is driven largely by reduced water coming into the delta, and also because increased pumping for users south of the delta has helped wreck critical spawning areas and is damaging the smelt's overall habitat. | 09/12/08 08:25:42 By - John Ellis
Texas region to help cabbies buy low-pollution cars
The North Central Texas Council of Governments, the region’s official planning agency, has enough money to replace 325 smog-belching cabs, or 12 percent of the Metroplex fleet, program manager Carrie Reese said. "They drive 60,000 to 80,000 miles a year, so the impact adds up," she said. | 09/12/08 07:37:52 By - Gordon Dickson
In Kentucky, a bid to stop strip mine near wild stream
On Thursday, about two dozen people gathered to try to protect the Poor Fork of the Cumberland River and the woods surrounding it. They contested a permit sought by Cumberland River Coal Co. to strip mine for coal just a few miles upstream. The company wants to remove the top of more than 1,000 acres of mountains. | 09/12/08 07:28:24 By - Cassondra Kirby-Mullins
Abundant rain helping mosquitoes flourish in N. Carolina
The Asian tiger mosquito thrives inside man-made clutter: tin cans, old tires, buckets and gutters. And there's nothing they like more than a good gully-washer. | 09/12/08 06:52:55 By - Josh Shaffer
Key Senate panel approves Krebs wilderness in California
WASHINGTON -- A proposed John Krebs Wilderness in the southern Sierra Nevada won approval Thursday by a key Senate committee, as part of a massive public lands package that will soon swell even larger. | 09/11/08 20:17:04 By - Michael Doyle
Florida slows sugar company buyout for Everglades
Florida has tapped the brakes on its fast-track $1.75 billion bid to buy out Big Sugar and revive its Everglades restoration efforts. | 09/11/08 08:13:19 By - Curtis Morgan
Survey finds 700 species of N American fish in danger
Nearly 40 percent of the fish in North American rivers, lakes and streamsare in serious decline and at risk of disappearing, according to the most detailed survey of freshwater species conducted in nearly two decades. | 09/11/08 07:31:39 By - Curtis Morgan
Scientists seek answers about plastics in oceans
Scientists researching marine debris say they've found chemicals such as DDT in tiny plastic fragments collected from coastlines around the world, but they're seeking answers to questions about how the plastics affect ocean creatures. | 09/11/08 07:55:53 By - Susan Gordon
Jellyfish spread is a sign that population is booming
Naturalists say hundreds of jellyfish that have washed up on central California beaches in recent weeks are the result of a natural population boom. | 09/11/08 07:30:35 By - David Sneed
U.S. drivers look to what's in Argentina's tank: natural gas
More vehicles run on natural gas in Argentina than anywhere else in the world, and that success is attracting a burst of interest from the U.S., where a big push is under way to convert buses, taxis and cars to natural gas. | 09/10/08 10:01:50 By - Tyler Bridges
Mercury, a pollutant from coal-fired power plants, found in popular Kentucky lake
High levels of mercury in some popular Lake Cumberland fish species have prompted a warning: You can catch 'em, state officials say, but eating them could be harmful to your health. Mercury can cause nerve and brain damage in children under 6. It also can be passed from expectant mothers to unborn children, and to infants through breast milk. | 09/10/08 08:11:16 By - Andy Mead and Bill Estep
Cars converted to the future - 100 miles per gallon
In a windowless workshop near the county landfill, a small Raleigh company has spent the past year trying to solve the nation's energy crisis one car at a time. The cluttered Advanced Vehicle Research Center garage, tucked in an office park, remakes cars so they get a once-unimaginable 100 miles per gallon. | 09/10/08 07:08:37 By - John Murawski
Asian insect destroying thousands of hemlock trees in the Appalachians
Millions of hemlocks across the Southern Appalachians are dying, victims of an Asian insect that has moved faster than efforts to stop it. The trees' collapse will change these forests, from warbler nesting habits to the temperature of trout streams, unlike anything since the 1930s. That's when a foreign fungus finished off another keystone tree, the chestnut. | 09/10/08 06:55:36 By - Bruce Henderson
Low levels of Arctic sea ice signal global warming's advance
This year will see the second-biggest loss on record of Arctic sea ice — a sign that the area of ice coverage is shrinking at a pace faster than once expected. The trend suggests that global warming is likely to increase, polar bear habitat will decline and previously icebound areas could be opened to oil and gas exploration. | 09/09/08 20:03:00 By - Renee Schoof
Look what the storm blew in: Flamingos
Mississippi is recording its first sightings ever of greater flamingos along its Gulf coast, far north of where the birds normally roam. Biologists believe the birds, which stand at least 4 feet tall with a wingspan beyond 6 feet, flew to Mississippi ahead of recent tropical storms. | 09/09/08 08:07:43 By - Kat Bergeron
Kentucky environmental advocate wins award
Tom FitzGerald, who wears scruffy shoes during state legislative sessions and vows not to shine them unless lawmakers do something good for the environment, is one of five national recipients of this year's $250,000 Heinz Awards | 09/09/08 07:51:45 By - Jack Brammer
Central California wildlife refuges could see growth
Central California residents will be asked how to shape the future of federal wildlife refuges that protect some of California's largest remaining freshwater wetlands. Starting this month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will initiate planning for three prominent wetlands areas in Merced County. The planning will cover the Merced and San Luis national wildlife refuges and the Grasslands Wildlife Management Area, which together currently span some 129,000 acres. | 09/09/08 07:16:33 By - Michael Doyle
Plenty of talk but little agreement on energy alternatives
A billionaire oilman, the country’s top agriculture official and an economist for Big Oil were in the Kansas City area to talk about a national energy policy and the need to get there as soon as possible. But they didn’t agree on how to get there. | 09/09/08 06:54:49 By - Steve Everly and Karen Dillon
Knotweed _ alien plant damages river banks
Knotweed’s bamboo-like stalks and spreading underground stems crowd out young willows, alders and cottonwoods, along with shrubs that otherwise might cling to the river shore. By doing so, knotweed destroys fish and wildlife habitat and contributes to erosion. Originally imported from Asia as an ornamental in the 19th century, knotweed is widely dispersed now. | 09/08/08 07:42:27 By - Susan Gordon
Pollution damaging major Texas lake
It happens almost every summer at Eagle Mountain Lake in Texas. The water smells funny, and part of it turns phosphorescent green. Dead fish, starved of oxygen, float to the surface belly up. Suddenly, the lake doesn’t look so inviting any more. Welcome to an Eagle Mountain Lake dead zone. | 09/08/08 07:36:12 By - Max B. Baker
Summer has been one of Alaska's coldest
Summer is officially over in Alaska, and if you got out in the sun to enjoy both days of it you were lucky. "With only two days above 70 degrees this year, that sets a new record for the fewest days to reach 70,'' the weather-watching agency reported Friday. | 09/07/08 09:21:16 By - Craig Medred
Calif. communities with arsenic in water have new worry: diabetes
Central California communities coping with arsenic in their water may have one more thing to worry about _ diabetes. Doctors at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore suggest a connection between low-level exposure to arsenic and Type 2 diabetes. | 09/05/08 08:47:21 By - Tim Sheehan
California plans 'water banks'
Hedging against the risk of a third dry year in 2009, California officials on Thursday unveiled a "drought water bank" to help thirsty cities and farms cope. The water bank, managed by the Department of Water Resources, will be prepared to move as much as 600,000 acre-feet of water from willing sellers in the north to buyers in the south. | 09/05/08 08:40:26 By - Matt Weiser
N. Carolina county buys wetland to save it from development
Mecklenburg County commissioners designated the site on the West Branch of the Rocky River a county nature preserve, which means it will be used only for passive recreation. A nature center, with hiking trails, picnic areas and possibly a boardwalk for visitors, may be built in a few years. | 09/05/08 08:06:03 By - Bruce Henderson
Hanna leaves suffering in Haiti
GONAIVES, Haiti _ Her third day without food or water, Fleurie Benita waded through the calf-high mud, balancing her life's possessions on her head, uncertain of what to do next, or what will come next. | 09/05/08 08:54:36 By - Jacqueline Charles
Cutting carbon won't cripple economy, expert tells Kansans
TOPEKA, Kan. _ Limiting the carbon emissions causing global warming won't be easy, but there's no reason it should cripple the economy. | 09/04/08 08:48:19 By - David Klepper
California citrus industry shaken by discovery of pest
Several populations of Asian citrus psyllid have been found in San Diego County -- 11 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border near Sweetwater Reservoir. It's the first time the pest has invaded California. | 09/04/08 07:10:03 By - Dennis Pollack
Hope, uncertainty both high for Sacramento high-tech garbage plant
As Sacramento officials consider a proposal to vaporize the city's garbage and turn it into energy, some people are finding it hard to contain their enthusiasm. | 09/04/08 07:02:32 By - Terri Hardy
GOP staking out offshore drilling as major campaign push
From President Bush's televised remarks at the GOP convention to the plastic ID tags the delegates hang around their necks, offshore energy exploration has become a top priority.With polls suggesting that voters may be increasingly receptive to lifting the ban on offshore drilling, the GOP believes it has a winning strategy. | 09/03/08 20:32:49 By - Lesley Clark
Asarco mines were fraudulently transferred, judge rules
A federal judge in Texas ruled that a firm with ties to one of Mexico's richest families fraudulently transferred control of Asarco LLC';s majority interest in two Peruvian copper mines to another subsidiary as part of a strategy that all but assured the century-old mining and smelting company's bankruptcy. | 09/02/08 19:12:00 By - Les Blumenthal
As Californians waver, Bush increases pressure for coastal drilling
Amid signs that Democratic opposition is weakening, President Bush on Tuesday stepped up pressure on Congress to lift its ban on offshore drilling, saying the damage caused by Hurricane Gustav makes it clear that the nation needs to increase its domestic oil supply. | 09/02/08 19:16:20 By - Rob Hotakainen
Fire reveals part of Oregon Trail
A fire in southeast Boise, Idaho, last week revealed a remnant of the Oregon Trail that had been overgrown with sagebrush and cheat grass. | 09/02/08 07:49:41 By - Bethann Stewart
Farmworkers leaving permanent homes in California's Central Valley
While traveling from one job to another is a fact of life for migrant farmworkers, those in the Valley typically have been able to find enough work nearby to establish permanent homes. But drought and economic desperation have many pulling up decades-old roots to look for work elsewhere. | 09/02/08 07:44:06 By - Vanessa Colon
Tough financial times threaten Key West's Secret Garden
Nancy Forrester created a miniature rain forest of rare ferns, orchids and 150-year-old trees, tucked a block off the rowdy main tourist drag in Key West. It has endured hurricanes, droughts and pot-smoking kids. But it may not survive its latest threat: tough economic times. | 09/02/08 06:59:31 By - Cammy Clark
Electronic scarecrows haze ravens from utility equipment
Screech! An Alaskan utility is using an amplified recording of a raptor (probably a peregrine falcon) to scare away the local ravens from their high-energy transformers. | 09/02/08 06:51:48 By - George Bryson
Brought by Katrina, migrants see cleanup jobs from Gustav
Hurricane Katrina brought them here. Gustav didn't drive them away. And storms will likely keep them here. Arturo Torrecillo, 43, and Juan Cruz, 24, migrant laborers drawn to the city for the post-Katrina reconstruction rode out their first New Orleans hurricane in a friend's sweltering Lower Garden District efficiency apartment. | 09/01/08 19:57:00 By - David Ovalle
The levees held, thanks to reconstruction and a gentler Gustav
Through the morning of Hurricane Gustav and into afternoon rainstorms, city and state officials watched nervously — but optimistically — as waters lapped against the area's hurricane protection system. Even when all appeared well, nobody was quite willing to declare the all-clear. But by late afternoon, all evidence indicated that the area's levee system had held. | 09/01/08 19:06:00 By - Chris Adams
Crude prices fall after Gustav spares oil rigs
Hurricane Gustav shut down at least at least 25 percent of the nation's oil production and closed down the nation's main petroleum import facilities, but initial reports Monday suggested the storm spared the Gulf Coast significant damage. | 09/01/08 18:24:00 By - Kevin G. Hall
Hanna becomes a hurricane, Ike a tropical storm
While everyone watched to see what Hurricane Gustav would do to New Orleans, Hurricane Hanna and Tropical Storm Ike quietly and quickly developed Monday in the Atlantic. Both could affect the southeastern United States in the not-too-distant future. | 09/01/08 17:59:00 By - Evan S. Benn
Hurricane Gustav tops levees but no breaches yet
NEW ORLEANS — A deteriorating Hurricane Gustav knocked out electricity and sent water spilling over floodwalls around New Orleans Monday, but emergency managers said they remained cautiously optimistic that the area's levees would hold up. | 09/01/08 14:59:00 By - David Ovalle
Oceano Dunes: Playground or Deathtrap?
An obscure controversy has arisen in recent months over the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area — one that has little to do with the familiar topics of public safety or endangered shorebirds. | 09/01/08 07:24:46 By - David Sneed
New Orleans faces flooding as first winds of Hurricane Gustav arrive
NEW ORLEANS — Boarded up, abandoned but still vulnerable, New Orleans anxiously braced itself for deadly Hurricane Gustav, praying it wouldn't topple all that has been rebuilt in the three years since Hurricane Katrina crippled the city. | 08/31/08 20:18:00 By - Marc Caputo, Chris Adams and Evan S. Benn
New Orleans is abandoned as Hurricane Gustav takes aim
New Orleans was all but empty as hundreds of thousands of people fled the U.S. Gulf coast in anticipation of Hurricane Gustav's arrival early Monday afternoon. Bush canceled plans to attend the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., and Republican officials revamped their plans for the event. Forcasters said weather conditions would keep the storm's intensity below Category 4, but dangerous nonetheless. | 08/31/08 18:06:00 By - Marc Caputo, Chris Adams and Evan S. Benn
Scientists fear impact of Asian pollutants on U.S.
From 500 miles in space, satellites track brown clouds of dust, soot and other toxic pollutants from China and elsewhere in Asia as they stream across the Pacific and take dead aim at the western U.S. | 08/31/08 06:00:00 By - Les Blumenthal
Palin questioned whether global warming is melting Arctic ice
Sen. John McCain's choice of a running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, favors drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, questioned the science behind predictions of sea ice loss linked to global warming and opposed a state initiative that would have banned metal mines from discharging pollution into salmon streams. | 08/29/08 18:42:00 By - Renee Schoof
School gets grant for ‘green’ picnic table
New picnic tables made out of recycled rubber tires and recycled plastic will be installed at and Olathe, Kansas, elementary school this fall. | 08/29/08 07:34:42 By - Kristin Babcock
High oil prices spark engineering competition in Alaska
Competition is heating up among major engineering and construction companies chasing a piece of oil, mining and government projects in Alaska. | 08/29/08 07:29:29 By - Wesley Loy
Malayan tiger cubs debut at Texas zoo
There are fewer than 550 Malayan tigers in the world, and three new ones have just made an appearance at the Fort Worth Zoo. The zoo introduced a new litter of female Malayan tiger cubs Thursday. The three cubs were born at the zoo on April 28 and have been living off-exhibit in a private den with their mother, who also gave birth to cubs in 2000 and 2003. | 08/29/08 07:20:52 By - Kevin Lyons
Army Corps to drain Florida's rain-swollen Lake Okeechobee
Runoff from Tropical Storm Fay produced a record rise in the lake's water levels of more than 2.5 feet in a week. And the lake is expected to continue to rise, even if a new tropical storm forming in the Atlantic doesn't strike. | 08/28/08 12:59:50 By - Curtis Morgan
Baby turtles beat odds
The four turtles helped by the volunteers to reach the water were in addition to 107 from the nest that had already hatched on their own, a very successful hatching. This nest, along with all others in Myrtle Beach, had been moved to protect them from renourishment efforts. | 08/28/08 07:27:05 By - Charles Slate
Bayer points to lack of data in bee deaths
Bayer CropScience officials are rejecting claims that some of the company's pesticides played a role in the disappearance of millions of U.S. honeybees. Environmental and consumer advocates in Germany and the U.S. blame pesticides, particularly Bayer CropScience's clothianidin."We're supremely confident that when used according to directions, they will not harm bees," spokesman Greg Coffey said. | 08/28/08 07:06:48 By - Sabine Vollmer
Costa Rica's pineapple boom raises environmental questions
The raucous honking of a cistern truck carrying potable water rouses residents from their homes here each morning, clanging plastic bottles and tin pots in hand. ''When will it stop,'' says 64-year-old Rufina Najera, lugging a yellow 5-gallon pail stained with dirt to the roadside. Last year, authorities detected small amounts of Bromacil, a pesticide used to thwart insects from pineapple plants, in the local aquifer. Since then, the government has delivered water by truck to nearly 6,000 people. "The pineapple companies tell us the water is clean, but the government won't let us drink it,.'' Najera said. | 08/28/08 07:04:18 By - Dave Sherwood
What's T. Boone Pickens doing in Denver?
At 80, Dallas energy billionaire T. Boone Pickens wandered into foreign territory Wednesday, pitching wind power to 400 young bloggers, shaking hands with former political target John Kerry and generally enjoying his day as a guest Democrat. | 08/28/08 06:55:18 By - Bud Kennedy
Olympia woman shrinks her carbon footprint — to 84 square feet
Everyone would like to have more time and money; Dee Williams of Olympia achieves that by living in a home the size of a child’s treehouse. | 08/27/08 16:15:12 By - Breanne Coats
Alaskans rejecting controversial clean-water measure
With more than half of the votes counted, Measure 4 was losing by a large margin. | 08/27/08 12:33:21 By - Elizabeth Bluemink
Elevated PCB levels found in Texas river
The water and sediment of the Trinity River near Fort Worth and Dallas continue to show elevated levels of the pollutant that prompted a 2002 ban on consumption of fish from the stream. Although modest improvements have been made downriver, PCBs continue to be found in fish tissue, in-stream water, sediment and wastewater discharges, samples show. | 08/27/08 10:04:22 By - Byron Okada
Species retreat to Yosemite's highlands
For years, climate change was a story told largely via melting snow and ice. Now, species and ecosystems are feeling the heat, too. Butterflies are expanding their ranges northward. | 08/26/08 07:02:33 By - Tom Knudson
Germans suspect Bayer pesticide in beehive collapse
Bayer CropScience is facing scrutiny because of the effect one of its best-selling pesticides has had on honeybees. A German prosecutor is investigating an Aug. 13 complaint filed by German beekeepers and consumer protection advocates charging that Bayer CropScience's clothianidin pesticide is responsible for the phenomenon known as hive collapse that has killed millions of honeybees. | 08/26/08 06:44:44 By - Sabine Vollmer
Alaskans get rebates for high energy prices
Gov. Sarah Palin signed legislation into law Monday to pay each qualified Alaska resident a $1,200 "resource rebate," or personal share of the state's multibillion-dollar oil revenue surplus. | 08/26/08 09:56:17 By - Wesley Loy
Dayton going after a greener identity
For more than five decades Dayton, Washington, was home to the Jolly Green Giant and Seneca. Now officials are trying to create a greener identity for the rural farming community at the base of the Blue Mountains. | 08/25/08 07:40:52 By - Mary Hopkin
Free plastic grocery bags targeted for extinction in California
From the city of San Francisco to Los Angeles County, more than a dozen local governments around the state have proposed or passed plastic-bag restrictions, ranging from recycling mandates to outright bans. | 08/25/08 07:14:40 By - Jim Downing
Penny-pinching bulbs a light idea for Anchorage
Earlier this month, the Anchorage Assembly appropriated $2.2 million to phase out about a fourth of the city's street lamps, replacing the old energy-hog sodium bulbs with "smarter" fixtures that emit whitish, power-saving LED light. | 08/25/08 06:53:02 By - George Bryson
Washington state would get $200 million if Asarco settlement approved
As part of its effort to emerge from bankruptcy, Asarco has now agreed to pay $200 million to clean up toxic contamination from its operations in Washington state, including its former smelter in Ruston. | 08/24/08 06:00:00 By - Les Blumenthal
Calif. logging venture is next Supreme Court environment showdown
A stalled Sierra Nevada salvage-logging venture is sparking the Supreme Court's next major environmental showdown. | 08/22/08 19:43:12 By - Michael Doyle
Liquefied-coal industry gains energy
High oil prices are energizing a nascent liquefied-coal industry that hopes to power trains, planes and automobiles from the nation's coal reserves, using modern-day offshoots of technology that powered Adolf Hitler's war machine. | 08/22/08 18:06:00 By - Dave Montgomery
Alaska votes Tuesday on measure to limit mining discharge
Both sides have raised millions over Measure 4, which would ban large metal mines from discharging harmful amounts of toxic chemicals into salmon streams or drinking water supplies. State officials say the measures not necessary, but proponents say the state doesn't do enough to limit such discharges. | 08/22/08 17:43:36 By - Elizabeth Bluemink
Do prairie dogs help the water supply or is the idea all wet?
In Kansas, the state poisons prairie dog colonies if a landowner won't. But now an environmentalist is arguing that destroying the colonies overlooks the possible role prairie dog tunnels play in helping rain water reach the underground aquifier. Some say he's right, others say he's nutty. | 08/22/08 16:32:00 By - Laura Bauer
Pressing canola: vegetable oil may soon fuel farms
Two of the tractors on display at Ag Progress Days can plant and spread manure like any others. The only difference is what they run on: straight vegetable oil. | 08/22/08 07:08:51 By - Anna Danahy
It's prime time to see salmon run in Olympia
Drive or walk across the Fifth Avenue Bridge in downtown Olympia these days and you likely will see a bunch of people leaning on the rail and staring into the water. They are gazing at schools of big chinook salmon, which swim in circles below the fish ladder that leads to Capitol Lake and the Deschutes River. | 08/21/08 07:26:25 By - Chester Allen
Electric car good for wallet, environment
It practically always takes Chris and Elizabeth Maynard longer to get home from grocery shopping than it takes them to get there. That's because of their car. It's electric. | 08/21/08 07:19:54 By - Larry Gierer
Loggerhead turtle-nest numbers highest in years
Loggerhead turtles are setting records statewide and along the Georgia coast as well. Across South Carolina, more than 3,000 nests have been found. Georgia can boast of 1,500 nests this year. The reptiles have also been laying eggs in high numbers in Florida and North Carolina. | 08/21/08 07:13:26 By - Liz Mitchell
U.S. men's volleyball team rallies into the semifinals
Real-life, tug-at-the-heartstrings drama has been part of the entire Olympics for the U.S. men's volleyball team. Friday's quarterfinal match against Serbia added an on-court element to the dramatics, as the American men came back from a two-sets-to-one deficit to win 20-25, 25-23, 21-25, 25-18, 15-12 to advance to the semifinals against Russia. | 08/20/08 18:50:48 By - Israel Gutierrez
Investigators find no wrongdoing in Giant Sequoia tree cutting
Federal investigators have concluded the Forest Service acted properly in felling hazardous trees in the Giant Sequoia National Monument, bringing to a quiet end a probe loudly sought by congressional Democrats. | 08/20/08 17:17:00 By - Michael Doyle
Political convention planners going green
Democrats claim that their convention in Denver next week will be the greenest ever. Anyone watching on TV probably won't notice much. While the total of all the green-conscious steps admittedly won't stop global warming in itself, it will set a symbolic example of steps Democrats support toward that goal. | 08/20/08 14:38:00 By - Renee Schoof
'Lily' is Lexington's new recycling tool
"Lily“ might not look like much, a brown, 55-gallon rain barrel that can be attached to a downspout at one's house, but she is Lexington's newest tool to improve water quality and the environment. | 08/20/08 14:38:20 By - Michelle Ku
Bear believed responsible for Anchorage park attack killed
The grizzly that mauled Anchorage resident Clivia Feliz in Far North Bicentennial Park on Aug. 8 is believed to be dead, according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials. The sow was shot over the carcass of a trophy bull moose in Anchorage's Stuckagain Heights neighborhood Tuesday morning around 9:30, said agency spokesman Bruce Bartley. | 08/20/08 07:45:19 By - Craig Medred
20 years after Yellowstone fires: forest lessons still debated
This season, federal agencies under intense political pressure have continued attacking almost every wildfire - many deep in the woods. That's especially true in California. Yet in a few places, a new policy has taken hold - one that encourages firefighters to restore fire to the landscape while still protecting communities and other valuable resources. | 08/20/08 07:04:32 By -
Environmentalists try again to force global warming action
Citing what they say is the risk to the American pika, a small rabbit-like mammal that weighs only 4 to 6 ounces, environmentalists filed suit in Sacramento in the latest effort to force the federal government to use the Endangered Species Act to combat global warming. The lawsuit claims the animal is threatened by rising temperatures and says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has dragged its feet for months on whether to list it. | 08/19/08 17:01:00 By - Les Blumenthal
Idaho conservation group accepts cobalt mine deal
Formation Capital Corp.'s commitment to paying for perpetual water treatment after its cobalt mine closes convinced the Idaho Conservation League to work with the mine instead of fight it. | 08/19/08 11:25:47 By - Rocky Barber
In Texas, many turn out to trade in gas lawn mowers
A lawn mower exchange program Saturday brought the kind of interest one would expect for a new iPhone, and just like when the popular gadget went on sale, many customers were turned away empty-handed. | 08/19/08 11:16:07 By - AMAN BATHEJA
Alaska homesteader's wish: a rest stop for migrating cranes
Famed for their powerful calls, majestic flight and wacky mating dance, sandhill cranes migrate to Alaska each spring and depart in late August or early September. Along the way, some would stop at an 80-acre Susitna Valley parcel owned by farmer Dale Saunders, attracted by his barley fields and wetlands. | 08/19/08 07:42:43 By - Mike Campbell
Far-offshore windmills are seen as energy solution
Picture 400 super-size windmills spinning in a steady, stiff ocean breeze miles off the coasts of California, New England, the mid-Atlantic, Washington state, the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. Even as Congress is embroiled in a sharp debate over whether to allow increased offshore oil and gas drilling, others are seriously working to develop a green source of energy along the outer continental shelf. | 08/18/08 19:12:22 By - Les Blumenthal
Research pinpoints why polluted air causes lung disease
New findings from Louisiana State University helps explain why air pollution can lause lung damage similar to that suffered by smokers. LSU researchers have discovered that free radicals, similar to those in cigarettes, exist in polluted air. Furthermore, they found that free radicals often persist for days or even indefinitely, giving them time to interact with lung tissue. | 08/18/08 13:20:40 By - Jane Liaw
U.S. natural gas production surges
If the United States continues to produce as much natural gas as it has in the year's first five months, the country will see a 35-year high in annual production in 2008. Is that too much of a good thing, at least from a producer's point of view? | 08/18/08 07:48:03 By - Jim Fuquay
Researchers hunt for energy in strange places
Scouring the Earth for new sources of clean, renewable energy, scientists and engineers are exploring some unusual nooks and crannies. Kites, waves, tides, ocean currents, geysers, garbage, cow manure, old utility poles, algae and bacteria are being enlisted in the effort to lower the world's reliance on climate-warming coal and oil. | 08/17/08 22:43:25 By - Robert S. Boyd
Bill would protect huge chunk of California land
While few pieces of major legislation are moving in the current Congress, wilderness bills have been a notable exception, and it has been one of the most striking changes caused by the Democratic takeover of Congress last year. By the time the current session ends, environmentalists say, there's a good chance that an additional 2 million acres of wilderness could be declared off-limits to development. That would double the amount set aside in the last two-year congressional session, when Republicans were in the majority. | 08/17/08 22:41:58 By - Rob Hotakainen
More Chinese, beset by pollution woes, are going green
While Olympic visitors from around the world get a firsthand glimpse this month at China's pollution problems, a homegrown movement is racing to ward off what many here predict could be epic environmental meltdown. Hundreds of millions of Chinese are taking the first steps to turn the tide, fueled by growing unhappiness with the plunging quality of life caused by out-of-control environmental degradation. | 08/17/08 10:54:24 By - Jack Chang
How'd these Germans get to Alaska? They took the fabled Northwest Passage
It's not that easy for hundreds of outsiders to suddenly sneak up on Barrow, considering how the northernmost town in the United States has neither a port nor a road to help them get here. Newcomers pretty much have to arrive on a big noisy plane. Which is why nearly everyone in this historic Inupiat community was surprised last fall when they woke up to find about 400 German tourists walking around town. How the heck did they get here? | 08/15/08 10:48:18 By - George Bryson
Calif. utility agrees to buy solar power from two proposed plants
Pacific Gas and Electric announced Thursday that it has entered into agreements to purchase 800 megawatts of power from two solar plants to be built on the Carrizo Plain. The agreements will make the northern Carrizo Plain around California Valley one of the state's major producers of solar electricity. | 08/14/08 16:06:30 By - David Sneed
U.S. price hikes likely result of Beijing's efforts to curb smog
In what turned out to be a futile effort to rid Beijing of air pollution, officials blocked heavy truck traffic from entering Beijing and closed nearby factories. Those steps will create shortages felt around the world long after the Olympics have ended. U.S. consumers will likely see higher prices if not outright shortages for products such as mobile telephones, auto parts, semiconductors, Vitamin C, and steel. The true impact won't be known till September. | 08/14/08 08:57:12 By - Jack Chang
Everglades reservoir puts sugar deal at risk, judge told
For decades, environmental groups have pushed to speed up Everglades restoration but on Tuesday they urged a federal judge in Miami not to step in and force the state to resume work on a key project halted in May. The reason for the change in tune: Paying for a $700 million reservoir the size of Boca Raton could threaten state financing of a deal they consider even bigger for the Everglades -- the proposed $1.75 billion buyout of U.S. Sugar. | 08/13/08 19:40:51 By - Curtis Morgan
Proposal to harness wind power off Calif. coast worries fishing industry
Oil companies, some politicians and commuters paying $4 for a gallon of gas might look at California's coast and think of crude oil pooled below the seafloor. The state's North Coast, however, holds promise of another energy bounty. | 08/11/08 07:40:35 By - Maddalena Jackson
A solar success
In the early morning, Jerry Hicks is riding the clattering old mowing machine, pulled by the big Belgian draft horses, Ted and Alice, slaughtering weeds — and being careful not to hit the solar panels collecting energy from the morning sun. | 08/11/08 07:31:36 By - Jim Warren
Scientists dig into Alaska tundra's effect on warming
Across the tundra and coast of the Arctic Ocean, land is caving in. Soils loosed by freshly thawed earth set off a new era of rot, and of bloom -- dumping a bonanza of nutrients into this top-of-the-world environment. | 08/10/08 08:10:11 By -
By the looks of it, China is losing its battle against smog
In the era of China's great dynasties, it was believed that emperors could command the heavens at will. They could summon rain when it was needed or clear the skies. China's ruling Communist Party would love to have similar powers. Clearly, it doesn't. A defiant gray pall hangs over Beijing as the Summer Olympic Games get underway. | 08/07/08 19:10:09 By - Tim Johnson and Jack Chang
Yosemite a climate laboratory
Scientists predict that climate change will mean more rainfall and less snow in Yosemite in the next 50 years. If that happens, they say, one of the nation's premier outdoor destinations could experience problems -- including severe floods in winter and spring, plus dry wells in the summer. | 08/07/08 17:07:15 By - Doug Hoagland
Shrinking African lake imperils wildlife
There's nothing remarkable about this lump of hot sand, tangled weeds and tree-branch huts except that, until a few years ago, it didn't exist. More precisely, the island was underwater, hidden beneath the vast surface of central Africa's Lake Chad. The emergence of the island, whose sweltering shores have been settled by dozens of families, is evidence of an unsettling ecological trend: The lake is drying up. | 08/07/08 10:30:00 By - Shashank Bengali
Obama makes Alaska gas pipeline part of energy plan
Presidential candidate Barack Obama is touting the Alaska natural gas pipeline. | 08/07/08 09:29:34 By - Sean Cockerham
Fed up when power line fell on pet reindeer pen, Alaska man installs solar
Four years ago, Harvey Bowers launched a crusade to get off the grid after a line-clearing crew dropped a tree on a pen housing his pet reindeer. So far, the Wasilla area bed and breakfast owner is finding it easier than he thought. | 08/06/08 11:06:11 By - S.J. Komarnitsky
Senator says Asarco should pay for hazardous waste cleanup
During a stop Tuesday in Tacoma, Sen. Maria Cantwell urged the U.S. attorney general to ensure that corporate polluters such as Asarco clean up their hazardous messes using their own money, not taxpayers'. | 08/06/08 10:56:30 By - Brian Everstine
Weyerhauser lays off 1,000 from headquarters
Weyerhaeuser Co. announced Tuesday that it will lay off 1,000 people from its Federal Way headquarters over the next 18 months, bringing the company's rapid downsizing home to the Puget Sound region in a hard and sudden way. | 08/06/08 10:51:09 By - Rob Carson and C.R. Roberts
Kentucky governor OKs use of low-speed electric vehicles
The move, part of an effort to gain a plant for manufacturing ZAP (Zero Air Pollution) vehicles in Kentucky. The electirc vehicles currently are manufactured in China. They can't go faster than about 40 mph, but a charge that lasts 45 miles only costs 60 cents. | 08/05/08 16:54:29 By - Jack Brammer
Commuters longing to live near work
Renters in far-flung bedroom communities are seeking apartments closer to work. Homeowners are inviting rent-paying strangers into their homes. Families have been split. "Nothing changes people's behaviors as quickly as high prices," said Bert Sperling, founder of Sperling's Best Places of Portland, Ore., which ranks qualities of cities based on market research. | 08/05/08 10:27:23 By - Jack Hagel
More sockeye Salmon returning to Idaho than seen in decades
STANLEY, Idaho - For the first time in years, Idahoans have a good opportunity to see the state's most endangered fish alive. | 08/05/08 10:21:30 By - Rocky Barker
Urban Agriculture - vertical veggies to sprout on L.A.'s Skid Row
Some Cal Poly students and staff have their minds set on growing 4,000 fruit and vegetable plants in the concrete jungle of Los Angeles — on the walls of four downtown buildings. | 08/05/08 07:29:37 By - Nick Wilson
Union slams EPA chief for ignoring staff on global warming
Environmental Protection Agency chief Stephen Johnson stunned his staff last month when he publicly opposed their proposals for regulating greenhouse gas emissions, four union officials said in a letter provided to McClatchy Monday. The letter is the latest salvo against Johnson's EPA leadership. Several Democratic senators have called for Johnson to resign. | 08/04/08 17:51:00 By - Renee Schoof
Scientists find 890 new species in Great Smoky Mountains
A decade ago, scientists decided it would be smart to know exactly what plants and animals populate America's most-visited national park, the Great Smokies. Today they're 16,570 species into the nation's largest biological roundup, and they've already found 890 species that are entirely new to science. | 08/03/08 15:29:06 By - Bruce Henderson
California's Yosemite, Sierra Nevada show warming's effect
Just as rising worldwide temperatures are melting the Arctic icepack, they're also bringing big changes to California's Sierra Nevada and other mountain regions. You can see them in the dead rust-red pines west of Yosemite National Park, the fading easel of wildflowers near Carson Pass south of Lake Tahoe and the whoosh of cars over Tioga Pass after Thanksgiving – when, before 1975, the road was always closed by snow. | 08/03/08 09:23:50 By - Tom Knudson
New poll: Opinion shifting in favor of offshore drilling
Floridians now favor offshore drilling by 60 to 36 percent, and drilling found support also in Ohio and Pennsylvania. "Those who said Senator McCain was throwing away Florida's electoral votes by advocating more offshore drilling might want to think again,'' said Peter Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac University's polling institute. | 08/01/08 09:55:20 By - Lesley Clark
Washington state prisons cut costs to taxpayers, environment
Washing the inmates' laundry in cold water, composting kitchen waste and collecting rain water are holding down costs to both the taxpayer and the environment, says the Department of Corrections in Washington state. | 08/01/08 09:52:37 By - Adam Wilson
Texas takes lead in energy-efficient houses
One good piece of news has come from higher utility prices in Texas — energy-efficient houses are becoming more the norm than an exception. | 08/01/08 07:18:53 By - Teresa McUsic
A backyard in Anchorage makes a refuge for birds
Bonnie Lembo and her husband have spent 21 years welcoming birds to the gardens around their blue house in downtown Anchorage, Alaska. | 07/31/08 11:09:33 By - Cheryl Chapman
T. Boone Pickens courts Kansas on wind plan
Billionaire oil magnate T. Boone Pickens brought his crusade for energy independence to Kansas on Wednesday. telling a packed town hall meeting in Topeka that the nation can develop enough wind power to meet 20 percent of its energy needs and divert natural gas from electricity production to fuel motor vehicles. | 07/31/08 10:45:51 By - Dion Lefler and Jeannine Koranda
Congress members question Florida Everglades buyout
Saying they felt like they'd been kept out of the loop, Florida's representatives in Washington questioned state officials for two hours Wednesday about the deal the state announced last moonth to buy U.S. Sugar and close it down so that its cane fields could be used to help restore the Everglades. | 07/30/08 19:01:39 By - Lesley Clark
States, environmentalists to sue EPA over greenhouse gases
California, New York City, three other states and a coalition of environmental groups will file notice Thursday that they plan to sue the Environmental Protection Agency to force it to regulate pollution from ocean ships and aircraft tied to global warming. The Clean Air Act a court can compel the EPA to act if it delays too long, but plaintiffs must give the government 180 days notice of intent to sue. | 07/30/08 23:00:00 By - Renee Schoof
Cape Hatteras vehicle limits worked. So why overturn them?
A court agreement to close the beaches of Cape Hatteras to offroad vehicles to protect the nests of several endangered and threatened species has worked: the number of nesting pairs of piping plovers is up, as are the number of sea turtle nests. So why are North Carolina's senators intent on overturning the limits? | 07/30/08 18:46:07 By - Barbara Barrett
Judge says EPA ignored law, failed to protect Everglades
A federal judge slapped the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to enforce the federal Clean Water Act when it approved a revised schedule for cleaning up contaminated water flowing into the Everglades from Lake Okeechobee — avoiding a December 2006 deadline to reduce pollutants in the Glades. | 07/30/08 09:00:01 By - Scott Hiaasen and Evan Benn
Florida shuts down utility's 'green' program as a fraud
By a unanimous vote, Florida's Public Service Commission ended Florida Power & Light's Sunshine Energy Program in which 39,000 customers voluntarily added $9.75 to their monthly electric bill so that FPL could purchase energy from renewable sources. Officials determined that only 24 percent of the money went toward that; the remainder went to marketing and administrative expenses. | 07/29/08 19:51:03 By - John Dorschner
Caribou slaughter shocks Alaskan wildlife officials
Investigators found the carcasses of 120 caribou, at least half of which were left to rot, scattered along a 40-mile trail, prompting them to call the killings "by far the worst case of blatant waste" they had ever seen. Troopers so far have identified five suspects and think there could be many more, but the investigation has been stymied by an apparent lack of cooperation from officials in nearby villages. | 07/29/08 07:46:31 By - James Halpin
Coca-Cola to begin using hybrid trucks in Florida
While other companies are shying away from the considerable costs involved, Coca-Cola announced Monday it is rolling out 10 heavy-duty hybrid trucks in South Florida, part of a national campaign to put 142 of these so-called green trucks on the road in North America in the next several weeks. Many companies — from utilities to architectural firms — are rushing to jump on the green bandwagon, and the soft-drink industry is no exception. | 07/28/08 19:12:11 By - John Dorschner
EPA tells its staff: Don't answer watchdogs' queries
An internal memo released by an environmental group told the staff of the EPA's enforcement division that if they're contacted by the EPA inspector general's office or the Government Accountability Office to forward the call or e-mail to a designated person. The memo sets down the same procedure, with different contact people, for queries from reporters. | 07/28/08 18:13:00 By - Renee Schoof
Air Force base proud of environment-friendly programs
The traditional Air Force blues have taken on a shade of green at Keesler Air Force Base. Ride around the 2.63-square mile base, the most densely populated in the Air Force, and it resembles a college campus with its Live oak trees, green lawns and manicured golf course. Look closer and you'll see recycling bins, police patrolling on bicycles — a program so successful it's being considered at other Air Force bases — and large construction projects that are using green technology. | 07/28/08 17:56:33 By - Mary Perez
Using West's oil shale would pump up greenhouse gases
Oil shale in the American West might contain three times the oil of Saudi Arabia, but getting it out of the ground would require much more energy than drilling for conventional oil does, and the result would be more greenhouse-gas emissions. Department of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced proposed regulations last week to start a commercial oil-shale program on public lands in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. | 07/28/08 15:25:00 By - Renee Schoof
Opinion shifting on drilling for oil in Arctic refuge
ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE -- This place is a Zen thing. The only way to tell you've wandered in is the absence of anything saying so. | 07/28/08 10:13:26 By - Scott Canon
Little-known foundation plays major role in Everglades restoration
Early in the hush-hush negotiations to buy U.S. Sugar, Gov. Charlie Crist dropped by a fundraiser for the small but powerful Everglades Foundation. | 07/28/08 10:03:48 By - Curtis Morgan
Scientists worry as once frozen tundra thaws in Alaska
Across the tundra and coast of the Arctic Ocean, land is caving in. Soils loosed by freshly thawed earth set off a new era of rot, and of bloom — dumping a bonanza of nutrients into a top-of-the-world environment that swirls from months of midnight sun to deep-freeze dark. Will nature channel the nourishment of this soil into a great flowering of plant life that soaks up greenhouse gas and tamps down the causes of climate change? Or will it make it worse? | 07/28/08 07:40:12 By - Scott Canon
As global warming intensifies wildfires, costs to fight them increase
The Forest Service has struggled for years to pay for fighting fires that last year alone scorched almost 10 million acres. As fire seasons grow longer and the blazes more intense in forests stressed by global warming, the agency's funding woes mount. | 07/28/08 09:41:56 By - Les Blumenthal
New wildfire in California shuts down power to Yosemite
A fast-moving wildfire near Yosemite National Park claimed a dozen homes and prompted hundreds more evacuations Sunday, as thousands of firefighters struggled to keep it from engulfing nearby communities. In Yosemite, hotels and restaurants got by on generators after power lines were shut down because of the potential risk to firefighters. | 07/28/08 09:35:26 By - Jeff. St. John and Doug Hoagland
Why might Alaskans favor Arctic drilling? A $2,000 check
People who lived in Alaska for all of last year — every man, woman and child — are likely to get a check from the state's investments of oil revenues that will total more than $2,000, the first time since the state began making the payments in 1982 that the dividend has topped two grand. That means a family of four in Alaska will receive more than $8,000 as their payout from the state fund. Alaska is the only state that has such a program. | 07/28/08 09:34:57 By - Wesley Loy
Environmental movement grows in Puerto Rico
The fight over the Paseo Caribe project is among several across Puerto Rico pitting developers against environmentalists, who say development projects threaten the island's natural resources. | 07/28/08 09:50:43 By - Frances Robles
Contemplating the impact on N. Carolina of offshore drilling
Although current legislation would keep any offshore drilling at least 50 miles from North Carolina's coast, there would be massive impact on what remains one of the East Coast's longest and most undeveloped coastlines. Pipelines would come bumping across the barrier islands, and oil or natural gas processing plants would be built on shore, possibly in the bustling industrial center of Norfolk, Va., but possibly near North Carolina port towns such as Wilmington or Morehead City. | 07/28/08 00:25:02 By - Barbara Barrett
Wind energy faces daunting challenges
Led by billionaire Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, pioneers in the emerging wind-power industry are touting their product as The Next Big Thing as they chart a course to produce at least 20 percent of the nation's electricity in just over two decades. | 07/25/08 17:21:00 By - Dave Montgomery
Congressmen get aerial view of Kentucky mountaintop mining
Two congressmen flew over dozens of mountaintop mining sites Friday and spoke with residents living deep in the central Appalachian coalfields, in what community activists said was a first for Eastern Kentucky | 07/25/08 16:41:46 By - Cassandra Kirby-Mullins
Wind's just waiting to be ridden in N.C.
A century ago, the Wright Brothers came to North Carolina and discovered the secrets of flight on the strength of abundant coastal winds. A steady wind still blows along the shore, and it's awaiting a new generation of entrepreneurs to harness its potential – this time to produce electricity. | 07/25/08 14:35:03 By - Wade Rawlins
Anchorage headed for coldest summer
Anchorage residents might call it the so-called summer of '08. So far, it's on pace to produce the fewest days ever recorded in which the temperature reached 65 degrees. That record was set in 1970, when Anchorage made it to the 65-degree mark on only 16 days. With only a month to go when temperatures might reach that mark, there've been only seven 65-degree days. | 07/24/08 17:18:56 By - George Bryson
EPA saw greenhouse gases as threat in squelched document
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency told the Bush administration in December that high levels of man-made heat-trapping gases are causing global warming and endanger the American people, Sen. Barbara Boxer said Thursday after she reviewed the EPA finding. Had the White House accepted the document, EPA would have been required to regulate the gases under the Clean Air Act. | 07/24/08 13:53:00 By - Renee Schoof
Senators want to name California peak after late Sierra Club leader
California's two Democratic senators want to rename a prominent Sierra Nevada peak after David Brower, reigniting debate over the legacy of the late Sierra Club leader. | 07/23/08 18:01:10 By - Michael Doyle
Courts shutting out little guy, Exxon Valdez plaintiff says
It's getting harder for ordinary people to sue big corporations in an effort to hold them accountable for gross misconduct, one of the plaintiffs in the Exxon Valdez lawsuit told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. | 07/23/08 17:48:00 By - Erika Bolstad
Alaska lawmakers approve natural gas pipeline
Members of the House of Representatives voted late Tuesday to approve an exclusive state license for a Canadian energy company proposing to build a natural gas pipeline down the Alaska Highway to Alberta. | 07/23/08 09:36:36 By - Wesley Loy
SC volunteers help nesting loggerhead turtles
Adults and children hit the beach at 6 a.m. on Fridays at Myrtle Beach State Park to search for signs of loggerhead turtles and their nests and find ways to help save the endangered species. | 07/23/08 09:32:42 By - Kelly Marshall Fuller
Bringing back the saltwater marshes to Nisqually Refuge
Bulldozers and other earth-moving machines began gouging into a beautiful green meadow near the entrance of the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge in Washington State on Tuesday. "It's such a big change," U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refuge manager Jean Takekawa said. "It's jarring to see heavy equipment out there, but it is how we are bringing back the saltwater marsh." | 07/23/08 07:16:20 By - Chester Allen
What's killing young penguins washing ashore thousands of miles from home?
The discovery of hundreds of young penguins washing up along the Brazilian shoreline over the past month has sparked a scientific mystery over what may have led the birds thousands of miles astray. | 07/22/08 15:28:51 By - Jack Chang
Oilman T. Boone Pickens promotes wind power
Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, echoing his message from a weeks-long advertising blitz, urged Congress on Tuesday to embrace a largely untapped potential of wind power to help free the United States from its dependence on foreign oil. | 07/22/08 10:59:17 By - Dave Montgomery
New volcano erupts in Alaska
Okmok has company. Mount Cleveland, a volcano in the Aleutian Islands about 90 miles west of still-simmering Okmok Caldera, erupted Monday, giving Alaska dueling volcanoes. | 07/22/08 07:14:28 By - Beth Bragg
Scientists study link of global warming at Mount Rainier
A slurry of rocks and mud sounded like a freight train when it ripped through a popular Mount Rainier hiking destination in 2001 and scared some television viewers who believed their homes were in the path. As it turned out, the debris flow at Comet Falls proved less dangerous than initially believed, but it gave scientists insights into a phenomenon that continues to mystify. | 07/21/08 10:46:22 By - Susan Gordon
NYC subway cars become S.C. underwater habitat
A load of trolley cars from New York are set to arrive in Murrells Inlet this week - to be dumped in the ocean. | 07/21/08 07:30:55 By - Kelly Marshall Fuller
Swiss man produces solar-powered car
36-year-old Louis Palmer is five months away from circling the globe in his solar powered car -- a trip that will take him across 40 countries and 36,000 miles. The United States is the 28th country he's visited in the Solar Taxi -- and he's driven more than 23,000 miles. | 07/21/08 07:23:07 By - Victor A. Patten
Are the ways fires are fought 'firewise?'
The Idaho town's ability to withstand a frontal assault by a major wildfire demonstrates what fire behavior experts have been saying for more than a decade | 07/21/08 07:09:20 By - Heath Druzin and Rocky Barker
Miami blue butterfly disappearing
Between 25 or 30 related butterflies in South Florida, including blues and hairstreaks, are in danger of disappearing, says one of Florida's leading butterfly experts. | 07/20/08 18:11:02 By - Georgia Tasker
A man of average size with a very small carbon footprint
Jayant Baliga invented a power-saving switch that prevents 1.4 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere each year, offseting the carbon footprint of 175 million people. That's worth tens of millions of trees. | 07/20/08 10:10:17 By - Kristin Buller
Drilling in ANWR remains off limits, despite growing support
For the first time, 50 percent of those polled by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press last month said they supported drilling in ANWR. But John McCain and Barack Obama remain opposed and Senate Republicans have dropped the idea. | 07/20/08 06:16:40 By - Erika Bolstad
Costa Rica cracking down on illegal development
Costa Rica's Environmental Tribunal, the country's highest environmental court, has completed a four-month crackdown on thousands of illegally developed hotel rooms, oceanfront homes and condominiums. | 07/19/08 16:29:26 By - Dave Sherwood
Suddenly, everyone is talking about wind energy
That breeze you're feeling may be the sudden gust of news about wind energy, until now almost a boutique producer of power in America. Oilman T. Boone Pickens began flooding the media this month with a $58 million campaign to sell a plan to build thousands of wind turbines. This week, global-warming guru Al Gore announced a plan to spend at least a trillion dollars in the next 10 years on renewable energy, including wind, to break the nation’s fossil-fuel addiction cold turkey. | 07/19/08 07:51:50 By - Karen Dillon
Roof gardens, porous pavement: Kansas City plans green sewer system
Kansas City and federal officials are collaborating to turn the sewer project looming in the city's future into a showcase for ways to make a sewer system environmentally friendly. | 07/18/08 09:49:58 By - Karen Dillon and Lynn Horsley
Family tries for a month to cut water, energy, fuel by half
Pete Skenandore has a new perspective on grocery shopping. | 07/18/08 09:41:10 By - Cynthia Sewell
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