Pythons likely wiping out Glades mammals, study finds
While Burmese pythons boomed in the Everglades, populations of key native animals headed in the opposite direction - their numbers crashing to near-zero in the case of bite-sized creatures such as raccoons, opossums and marsh rabbits. | 01/31/12 06:23:34 By - Curtis Morgan
Cactus may give Calif. farmers a cure for poisoned crop land
The prickly pear cactus is helping eliminate soil contamination left from irrigation drainage in the farmland of the San Joaquin Valley, California. | 01/30/12 10:20:20 By - Mark Grossi
Winter bug may offer climate clues
A flying insect that thrives in midwinter might seem like a creature from a frightening fictional Minnesota. | 01/30/12 06:21:36 By - Bill McAuliffe
Charlotte company prepares to build nation's first nuclear plants in 3 decades
Shaw Power Group based in Charlotte, N.C., is building the first U.S. power plants in a generation. The plants are loaded with risks for their owners and builders. | 01/29/12 20:36:00 By - Bruce Henderson
Bering Sea ice threatens crab fishery
Sea ice is encroaching unusually early on the central Bering Sea, threatening to grind Alaska's economically important snow crab fishery to a halt at the peak of the season, leaving crabbers facing major losses. | 01/26/12 06:48:01 By - Michelle Theriault Boots
New estimates of Atlantic, Gulf fishing will help determine limits
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Wednesday announced that it's using a new way to estimate the amount of fish caught by recreational saltwater anglers on the Atlantic Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, the result of years of work on how to make the numbers more accurate. | 01/25/12 16:30:00 By - Renee Schoof
Environmental groups ask Kentucky lawmakers to consider coal's health impact
Kentucky's leaders should consider the health hazards of mining, moving and burning coal as they craft the state's energy policy, an environmental group said Tuesday. | 01/25/12 07:16:32 By - John Cheves
Metals found in wells at NC coal plants
Elevated levels of metals have been found in groundwater near ash ponds at 14 North Carolina coal-fired power plants. | 01/24/12 18:42:49 By - Bruce Henderson
Seaweed in the tank? Company turns to aquaculture for ethanol
Imagine driving up to a gas station for ethanol made not from corn farms in the heartland, but from seaweed farms on the coasts. Futuristic, yes. But as the world looks for ways to reduce the use of fossil fuels, farming for seaweed as a fuel feedstock could emerge as an option. It's already starting in the earliest stages of testing in Chile. | 01/19/12 15:00:00 By - Renee Schoof
Texas gets $13 million for wildfire relief
Less than a year after wildfires scorched millions of acres in Texas, claiming lives and destroying property, federal officials announced Wednesday that the state will receive nearly $13 million to help rebuild. | 01/19/12 07:39:08 By - Anna M. Tinsley
Obama rejects oil pipeline from Canada, triggering loud controversy
The Obama administration on Wednesday denied a permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada, touching off a torrent of criticism from Republicans — whom the White House blamed for forcing a decision. | 01/18/12 18:57:00 By - Renee Schoof and Lesley Clark
Are the snows of Kilimanjaro returning? Guide says yes
One of Mount Kilimanjaro's most dramatic features is its breathtaking glaciers, which slither across its dormant volcanic plateau and down its crater slope in frigid shades of bluish-green. | 01/18/12 15:12:04 By - Alan Boswell
In South Carolina, eroding beaches may mean tougher building rules
South Carolina’s popular beaches need better protection from development, even if it means some oceanfront landowners pay higher insurance rates, a coastal commission says. | 01/18/12 13:37:37 By - Sammy Fretwell
U.S. to announce ban on python imports
The United States is poised to formally and finally ban that slithering scourge of the Everglades, the Burmese python. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who has championed the ban, is expected to make the announcement Tuesday. | 01/17/12 07:09:50 By - Curtis Morgan
New rule would ban imports of Burmese pythons, eight other snakes
As one of Congress' top experts on spending issues, Washington state Rep. Norm Dicks keeps an eye on the public purse, and he says that Burmese pythons just cost taxpayers way too much money. | 01/13/12 16:41:00 By - Rob Hotakainen
Investors see climate opportunity to make money, create jobs
In the language of the 450 large institutional investors meeting at a conference here Thursday, climate change is a risk to avoid and also an opportunity to make a good return on investments. | 01/12/12 17:47:00 By - Renee Schoof
EPA agrees to end emissions testing program in Anchorage
The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday agreed to let Anchorage end its vehicle emissions testing program after 27 years, saying all the hassle isn't necessary for air quality. | 01/11/12 06:23:26 By - Sean Cockerham
Interior Dept. bans new uranium mining near Grand Canyon
In a controversial decision, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar on Monday made official a 20-year ban on uranium and other hard-rock mining claims on more than 1 million acres of federal land near the Grand Canyon. | 01/09/12 18:38:00 By - Emily Seagrave Kennedy
Eco label granted for swordfish caught off Florida on controversial longlines
Consumers who buy one company's swordfish caught off eastern Florida will be seeing a blue and white label at the store that assures them the fish was caught with utmost care for life in the Atlantic Ocean. | 01/08/12 14:16:00 By - Renee Schoof
Ecuador conservation effort gets dragged into legal fight
One of Ecuador’s most ambitious conservation efforts is getting dragged into one of the world’s largest environmental lawsuits. | 01/06/12 14:27:03 By - Jim Wyss
Manatees have another tough year
Frigid weather was largely to blame for making 2011 the second-deadliest year on record for Florida’s endangered manatees. Of the 453 dead manatees recovered in state waters, state wildlife biologists determined that just over a quarter of them were killed by “cold stress.’’ It was the third year in a row that bad weather helped drive up the annual death total. | 01/05/12 07:00:40 By - Curtis Morgan
Audubon watchers find snowy owls flying south for sustenance
As talk of the snowy owls' atypical prevalence in the United States continued to swirl among the birder community, Charley Burwick, a Springfield, Mo., resident, started his car and joined those around the nation going to lengths to spot this white nocturnal bird. | 01/04/12 17:48:00 By - Rachel Roubein
Tag data reveal habits of large ocean fish
Satellite information from tags on fish such as blue marlins show how deep the fish dived and where it went. The information helps researchers understand what the fish need to survive in a changing ocean. | 01/04/12 15:19:17 By -
Kansas City's 'boutique' gasoline no longer so special
A boutique blend of gasoline required in Kansas City didn't help clear smog from the air as much as promised. | 01/03/12 09:09:47 By - Steve Everly
Feral pigs going hog wild in Kentucky
Randy Kelley has engaged in a frustrating and discouraging battle the past four or five years on his Henry County, Kentucky, farm. His 200-pound foe: a wild pig. Actually, that should be plural because these pigs tend to run in herds. | 01/03/12 07:07:56 By - Karla Ward
Intense Kansas weather becomes part of nation's history
From the deadliest year for tornadoes in decades to a heat wave so intense and enduring that Wichita and several other Great Plains cities broke records for most 100-degree days, 2011’s weather seared itself into our nation’s collective memory. | 12/29/11 14:02:58 By - Stan Finger
Wolf on long trek could become first in California in 90 years
A 2-year-old male wolf migrated 730 miles across Oregon over two months beginning in September and is now near the California border. The trek of this wolf marks another success in the reintroduction of wolves to the West. | 12/29/11 13:43:26 By - Matt Weiser
New Illinois law prohibits trashing electronics
Starting Sunday, it'll no longer be legal for Illinois residents to throw away electronics with other trash. | 12/29/11 11:41:47 By - Laura Girresch
Hastings, GOP target Endangered Species Act
The gray wolf hit a major milestone on Dec. 21, when the Obama administration said the wolf's population in the Great Lakes region had grown to the point where the animals no longer required federal protection. | 12/28/11 13:59:00 By - Rob Hotakainen
California's Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant reacts to Japan's disaster
For many, 2011 will be remembered as the year of Fukushima. On March 11, a magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck Japan. The powerful quake coupled with a large tsunami that followed crippled the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. | 12/28/11 12:27:55 By - David Sneed
Clean energy group to challenge Fla. decision on nuclear funding
An advocacy grouup notified the Florida Public Service Commission that it is taking the unusual step of appealing an order that allows utilities to collect money for work on future or existing nuclear plants. | 12/28/11 11:54:34 By - Jim Saunders
Hundreds of Portuguese men-of-war wash ashore in S.C.
Chris Garmston was walking his dogs on the beach near his home in Hilton Head Island's Port Royal Plantation Christmas morning when he spotted something unusual. It was electric blue and shaped like a giant dumpling. It was only after he'd returned to his house and researched his discovery that Garmston learned he'd almost stepped on one of the ocean's most dangerous predators: a Portuguese man-of-war. | 12/28/11 11:23:44 By - Grant Martin
Judge rules BP's 2009 North Slope oil spill an accident
A federal judge in Anchorage on Tuesday rejected an effort by prosecutors to hold BP criminally negligent for a 2009 pipeline rupture, one of a series of mishaps and disasters that have dogged the company over the past decade. | 12/28/11 07:15:10 By - Rich Mauer
Geologists map ocean floor to study fault near nuclear plant
Mapping of the ocean floor is helping scientists get a better understanding of an earthquake fault near the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California. | 12/27/11 15:55:17 By - David Sneed
Where's the Sierra snow?
Snow in the Sierra Nevada is far below the average depth this time of year. | 12/27/11 15:42:53 By - Phillip Reese
Book examines America's turn from science, warns of danger for democracy
Americans have trouble dealing with science, and one place that's especially obvious is in presidential campaigns, says Shawn Lawrence Otto, who tried, with limited success, to get the candidates to debate scientific questions in the 2008 presidential election. | 12/26/11 14:06:02 By - Renee Schoof
Florida Sen. Nelson: Everglades restoration is bipartisan
There’s more bipartisan support for restoring the Everglades than might be expected, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said Wednesday — especially given the politically charged atmosphere in Washington and Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s previous concerns about spending state money on projects. | 12/22/11 07:10:03 By - Erika Bolstad
EPA announces historic rule to clean or shut coal-burning power plants
Unveiling a historic rule, the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced the first national requirement for the nation's coal-fired power plants to reduce emissions of mercury, arsenic, cyanide and other toxic pollutants. The landmark ruling took more than 20 years for EPA to finish. | 12/21/11 19:15:00 By - Renee Schoof and Halimah Abdullah
As shale fracking booms, environmental protection lags
America's race for cheap natural gas and energy independence has been outpacing the flow of state rules aimed at assuring people that gas production won't harm their health. The biggest environmental issue is what happens to the wastewater. | 12/21/11 17:13:00 By - Renee Schoof
Does shale oil boom mean U.S. energy independence near?
It may surprise Americans who've lived through many years of dependence on foreign fuels, but in less than a decade the United States could pass its 1970s peak as an oil and natural gas producer. If that happens — and many analysts think it's possible — the United States would edge past Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world's top energy producer. | 12/21/11 16:23:00 By - Kevin G. Hall
Drought has killed up to 10 percent of Texas woodland trees
The unforgiving Texas drought has killed 100 million to 500 million trees statewide, according to a preliminary survey by the Texas Forest Service. | 12/21/11 07:38:15 By - Steve Campbell
Debris from Japan's tsunami in March may hit Alaska shores soon
Debris from the March 11 Japan tsunami has reached Washington state and British Columbia. According to predictions from a leading oceanographer, Alaskans can expect to see flotsam -- perhaps tons of it -- washing up on coastal beaches soon. | 12/19/11 06:47:38 By - Mike Dunham
GOP gets provision to curb ban on energy-sucking light bulbs
The Department of Energy won't be able to enforce rules that ban energy-wasting light bulbs when new standards take effect in January, thanks to a requirement slipped into the federal spending bill. | 12/16/11 17:26:00 By - Renee Schoof
Nuclear commission chief 'abusive,' fellow members testify
The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission blows up in abusive anger, intimidates staff members and withholds information from the rest of the commission, all four of his fellow commissioners testified to Congress on Wednesday. | 12/14/11 18:33:00 By - Renee Schoof
Cuba shows U.S. its response plans in case of oil spill
As Cuba prepares to embark on a new round of exploratory offshore drilling, U.S. officials are slightly more enlightened about the island nation's plans in the event of a catastrophic oil spill on the scale of last year's Deepwater Horizon explosion. | 12/12/11 18:30:00 By - Erika Bolstad
Business groups see some benefits for U.S. in climate talk results
The U.S. government and some major business groups say the climate talks that just wrapped up in Durban, South Africa, were a success for the United States, though some environmentalists voiced disappointment. | 12/12/11 17:54:00 By - Renee Schoof
Senate panel supports $415 million more for Lake Tahoe
The beloved cobalt-blue beauty of Lake Tahoe, a popular tourist destination on the border between California and Nevada, doesn't come cheaply. | 12/08/11 18:21:00 By - Michael Doyle
New EPA rules will lead to blackouts, Kansas utilities claim
Here are two versions of what it will be like to live in Kansas in 2012: Either residents will suffer rolling blackouts and pay more for the privilege, or nothing will happen at all. Backing the energy disaster scenario are utilities and the state itself. The other side is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and environmental groups. | 12/05/11 07:20:56 By - Karen Dillon and Steve Everly
Environmentalists pressure U.S. to help more at climate talks
Is the U.S. leading or blocking progress toward stopping global warming? It's a key question this week as officials from more than 190 countries begin the latest round of negotiations seeking an eventual global climate-protection plan. | 11/30/11 17:41:00 By - Renee Schoof
BP's 2009 pipeline spill may lead to criminal charges
Two years ago, a BP pipeline carrying a mix of oil, water and natural gas blew open on Alaska's North Slope, spilling what the oil company estimated was 13,500 gallons of crude. Now that spill is being dissected in federal court to determine whether the circumstances leading up to it amount to criminal behavior by BP. | 11/30/11 06:53:41 By - Lisa Demer
Can coal plants afford EPA's new air-toxics rule?
America has never had a nationwide limit on mercury and other toxic emissions from coal-fired power plants. That's about to change, though, and it will cost companies such as American Electric Power, which runs the Tanners Creek power station here on the Ohio River, billions of dollars. | 11/29/11 14:43:00 By - Renee Schoof
Calif. company pulls plug on wind farm, citing risk to birds
A San Francisco company said it has abandoned plans for a large-scale wind farm near Winters because the turbines could have harmed golden eagles, bald eagles and other local bird species. | 11/23/11 06:49:16 By - Rick Daysog
Cook Inlet beluga whales should be on endangered list, federal judge rules
For the second time in less than six months, a federal judge on Monday threw out a lawsuit by the Parnell administration challenging an endangered species listing, this time involving Cook Inlet's beluga whales. | 11/22/11 06:45:17 By - Richard Mauer
How has climate change impacted California?
The songbirds at the feeder outside your window are not the same as they used to be. The goldfinch, the grosbeak and even the ever-present sparrow are all a little bit bigger. The reason is climate change, according to a new study, which found that 70 bird species, all common to Central California, have evolved a longer wingspan and greater body mass over the past 40 years. | 11/21/11 06:44:11 By - Matt Weiser
Republicans grill Energy Secretary Chu about Solyndra loan
In a politically charged hearing Thursday, Republicans in the House of Representatives accused Energy Secretary Steven Chu of breaking the law in how he handled the restructuring of a loan for the California solar-energy company Solyndra. | 11/17/11 19:54:00 By - Renee Schoof and William Douglas
Killing tiger and hammerhead sharks may become a crime in Florida
Florida wildlife managers, in a move that would be a first nationally, are poised to outlaw killing tiger sharks and three kinds of hammerheads that prowl state waters — but in increasingly fewer numbers. | 11/16/11 06:56:11 By - Curtis Morgan
Federal prosecutors seek to revoke BP's probation for 2006 spill
BP, the biggest oil field operator on Alaska's North Slope, has failed to fix pervasive management and environmental safety problems and is a repeat environmental offender, federal prosecutors said in a new court filing this week. The federal government is seeking to revoke BP's probation on a criminal misdemeanor conviction from 2007 that arose from a huge spill in 2006. | 11/16/11 06:47:42 By - Lisa Demer
Congress divided over continuing subsidization of wind power
Washington state sometimes has too much of a good thing: power. In a state that relies heavily on water and wind for its electricity, Mother Nature can be too generous, and it has been causing headaches for energy producers. | 11/14/11 17:38:00 By - Rob Hotakainen
Pennsylvania farmers warn North Carolina farmers of shale gas drilling
Two Pennsylvania farmers who leased land to shale gas drillers in their state and dreamed of a big payoff painted a bleak picture of the gas industry Thursday. | 11/11/11 15:03:51 By - John Murawski
Obama administration delays decision on Keystone XL oil pipeline
A decision on whether to build a pipeline from Canada's oil sands to Texas will be delayed, probably until 2013, to allow time to consider rerouting a section in Nebraska, the State Department announced Thursday. | 11/10/11 18:52:00 By - Renee Schoof
Can the oceans continue to feed us?
Far out on the Pacific Ocean, the world's industrial fishing fleets pursue one of the last huge wild hunts — for the tuna eaten by millions of people around the world. | 11/10/11 14:37:00 By - Renee Schoof
Alaska handles brunt of Bering Sea megastorm
A giant Bering Sea storm with hurricane-force winds roared up the western Alaska coastline Wednesday, sending waves over storm barriers, knocking out electricity, flooding parts of some villages and leading to evacuations. But as of Wednesday evening, officials had heard no reports of injuries nor massive damage. | 11/10/11 11:00:56 By - Kyle Hopkins, Casey Grove and Mike Dunham
Report: Roads, not clear-cutting, to blame for erosion in California
Dirt roads, not logging clear-cuts, are likely the largest source of erosion that may threaten salmon restoration in Battle Creek, an important Sacramento River tributary. That is the conclusion of a new report by a special state task force, presented Wednesday at a meeting of the California Board of Forestry. | 11/10/11 06:49:53 By - Matt Weiser
Alaska official skeptical of Escopeta Oil's gas discovery at Cook Inlet
Two Alaska state officials said Monday they are skeptical of Escopeta Oil's claim last week that it made a giant gas discovery in Cook Inlet, saying the company lacks the data to back its assertion. | 11/08/11 06:38:14 By - Richard Mauer
For GOP, Arizona mine a job-creating model on U.S. land
In 1955, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower signed an executive order that put a huge swath of rugged Arizona plateau off-limits to all future mining, a bow to recreationists and to American Indians who regard the site as sacred. Fifty-six years later, Republicans in the House of Representatives have another idea in mind. | 11/07/11 15:04:00 By - Rob Hotakainen
Gas shale brings promise of jobs, concerns about water
To appreciate the promise and betrayal of the nation's natural gas rush, look no further than this rural community in southwestern Pennsylvania where the 957 residents barely outnumber the dairy cows. Like dozens of farming communities in the state, the countryside here is dotted with drill pads, derricks, compressor stations, truck convoys, earth movers, open-air reservoirs and pipelines that snake along fence lines and carry natural gas to refineries. | 11/07/11 07:13:58 By - John Murawski
Thousands surround White House in protest of Keystone oil pipeline
On a sunny, cloudless day, thousands of protesters encircled the White House Sunday in a show of numbers intended to persuade President Barack Obama to stop a proposed oil pipeline from being built. Organizers estimated that the crowd exceeded 10,000 people. | 11/06/11 18:34:00 By - Daniel Lippman
White House protest planned against oil pipeline from Canada
Thousands of people are expected to mass at the White House on Sunday to send an environmental message to President Barack Obama: Say no to a proposed pipeline that would import highly polluting oil from Canada. | 11/04/11 18:19:00 By - Renee Schoof
Fewer monarch butterflies spotted in Texas this year
It is one of the most amazing migrations in all of the world, not least because the animal making the 3,000-mile journey weighs half a gram and North Texans often see the ancient journey from their back yards and gardens. But, with only isolated sightings, the last few weeks proved disappointing for monarch butterfly watchers in virtually all of Texas. Normally the butterflies' migration from the Red River to the Rio Grande Valley is hailed as one of autumn's great marvels. | 11/03/11 07:34:35 By - Chris Vaughn
EPA says Kansas officials misled court on coal plant
The court fight over whether Kansas will build a new coal-fired power plant has taken a new twist. State officials told the state's highest court that the EPA had no objections to the permit. Not true, EPA says. | 11/02/11 11:20:50 By - Karen Dillon
Quest for gold destroying marine life in North Carolina
Gold prospectors chasing $1,600-an-ounce flecks in river bottoms east of Charlotte also might be sucking life out of the streams, experts say. As the price of gold mounts, some weekend prospectors have turned to machines called suction dredges. | 11/01/11 13:44:39 By - Bruce Henderson
California releases plan on regulating toxic chemicals in goods
After nearly a year of delays, California is moving ahead with its ambitious plan to regulate toxic chemicals in consumer goods. The new rules create a list of 3,000 toxic chemicals found in consumer items as diverse as personal care products, children's toys, automobiles and even computers. | 11/01/11 06:41:29 By - Rick Daysog
Delta smelt keeps protection as Supreme Court declines to review case
Federal protections for California's delta smelt will remain intact, but Western water controversies will keep on boiling, with a Supreme Court decision Monday not to hear farmers' ambitious challenge | 10/31/11 16:19:00 By - Michael Doyle
Gold prospecting raises concerns about ecosystem damage to N.C. river
Gold prospectors chasing $1,600-an-ounce flecks in river bottoms east of Charlotte, North Carolina, also might be sucking life out of the streams, experts say. As the price of gold mounts, some weekend prospectors have turned to machines called suction dredges. | 10/31/11 07:24:46 By - Bruce Henderson
Alaska's beluga whales case hurt by loss of coast zone program
Back in February, the Parnell administration told a judge that Cook Inlet beluga whales didn't need the protection of the federal Endangered Species Act because the state was perfectly capable of protecting them itself, in part because of the Alaska Coastal Management Program. But in a notice belatedly filed in the case Friday, the Alaska attorney general's office acknowledged the state had lost that conservation and enforcement tool four months ago. | 10/31/11 06:47:29 By - Richard Mauer
EPA chief meets with college clean-energy activists
College environmental activists met Thursday with Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson to tell her what they're doing at their schools to try to shut down campus coal-fired heating plants. | 10/27/11 18:33:00 By - Renee Schoof
Army Corps wants $1 billion to repair flood damage
The Army Corps of Engineers says it desperately needs about $1 billion to repair the damage from this year's catastrophic flooding in the Missouri and Mississippi basins. Last spring brought as much as 10 times the normal amount of rainfall to the South and Midwest, which mixed with melting snow to produce record river levels along the lower Ohio and Mississippi rivers, according to the corps. | 10/27/11 15:56:00 By - Randy Leonard
Students ask University of Kentucky to stop using coal on campus
In Lexington, students and residents want the University of Kentucky to shut down two coal-fired plants that provide campus heating. | 10/27/11 14:43:17 By - Linda B. Blackford
In Kansas, it's peak mating season for deer-car collisions
At no time are the odds higher for deer-vehicle collisions than for about the next four to six weeks. "It's an annual thing that towards the end of October we start seeing the number of accidents rise," said Mike Miller, Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism information chief. "It usually peaks around the 18th to 20th of November, but we'll still have accidents into the end of the month." | 10/27/11 14:04:45 By - Michael Pearce
Feds announce plan to speed Everglades restoration
A new fast-track planning effort could shave years off the next phase of Everglades restoration, putting more fresh and clean water into the central and southern portions of Florida’s "River of Grass" more quickly. | 10/27/11 11:50:17 By - Erika Bolstad
Alternative energy: 9,000 pigs plus a high-tech waste digester equals methane
The old saw about using every part of a pig but the squeal now includes its droppings, which are producing electricity on a Yadkin County, N.C., farm. Duke University is a partner with Duke Energy and Google in testing a system that captures methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from manure. The gas fuels a small power plant that makes enough energy to run the waste-processing system and part of the farm itself. | 10/27/11 07:17:12 By - Bruce Henderson
Joplin tornado cleanup raises lead contamination concerns
As if Joplin weren’t already facing a massive rebuilding task, the city now must deal with significant and costly lead contamination stirred up by the May 22 tornado and its after-effects. City officials estimate that it could cost as much as $7.5 million to clean up lead contamination re-exposed by the tornado on some 1,500 properties in damaged areas, and they have asked the federal government for help. | 10/27/11 07:06:23 By - Mike McGraw
Obama to block new uranium-mine claims near Grand Canyon
New uranium mining claims on 1 million acres around the Grand Canyon will be blocked for 20 years under a decision the Bureau of Land Management announced Wednesday. | 10/26/11 17:46:00 By - Renee Schoof
Seeking a shale tax in Pennsylvania
As a statewide citizens’ group called for tighter environmental regulations to be imposed on drilling in the Marcellus Shale, a local protest demanded a gas severance tax to mitigate the imposition of higher income and real estate taxes. | 10/25/11 12:38:39 By - Cliff White
Congress spars over tightening boiler-pollution rules
Congress is feuding over how quickly the federal government should move in trying to reduce deadly air pollution that comes from industrial boilers and incinerators. | 10/24/11 18:36:00 By - Rob Hotakainen
Alaska state officials seek info about wind-blown dust at proposed coal mine
A company that wants to open a strip mine for coal in Alaska's Matanuska Valley says it needs to revamp its application for an air quality permit but hasn't lost interest in the project. The strip mine would sell coal overseas. | 10/23/11 19:05:37 By - Casey Grove
House GOP wants to waive environmental laws on U.S. borders
In a move aimed at improving national security, House Republicans want to give the U.S. Border Patrol unprecedented authority to ignore 36 environmental laws on federal land in a 100-mile zone stretching along the Canadian and Mexican borders. | 10/23/11 13:36:00 By - Rob Hotakainen
Following complaints from Gulf, Congress seeks audit of BP oil spill fund
Republican Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Marco Rubio of Florida, unhappy with the handling of the $20 billion fund set up by BP to compensate victims of the 2010 Gulf oil spill, won Senate approval Friday for an independent audit of the organization. | 10/21/11 19:02:00 By - Maria Recio
California board OKs cap and trade for carbon emissions
California approved one of the broadest and most controversial components of its landmark climate change law, pushing the state toward a low-carbon economy that relies less on imported foreign oil. | 10/21/11 06:50:01 By - Rick Daysog and Dale Kasler
GOP White House candidates' Yucca stance roils other Republican leaders
Republican lawmakers from South Carolina and Washington state, which hold tons of nuclear waste, are none too pleased that leading candidates for the GOP presidential nomination are backing President Barack Obama's decision to shutter a central dump designed to store their waste. | 10/20/11 17:36:00 By - James Rosen
Alaska borough voters reject controversial mine
Voters in two Alaska boroughs rejected a giant mine that is controversial because of its potential impact on salmon in Bristol Bay. Now the matter goes to the courts. | 10/19/11 09:15:44 By - Sean Cockerham
U.S. admits limits in monitoring Cuba's offshore oil drilling
As exploratory oil drilling is set to begin in December off the coast of Cuba, the U.S. government acknowledged Tuesday that because of chilly diplomatic relations it could have a limited ability to control the response to an oil spill there, let alone one the magnitude of last year's Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. | 10/18/11 15:40:00 By - Erika Bolstad
EPA settles dust-up over 'farm dust'
The federal government is backing away from tighter air-quality regulations that generated a controversy over “farm dust.” | 10/18/11 07:10:49 By - Mike McGraw
Treasury officials testify on controversial Solyndra loan
Congressional Republicans who question whether the Energy Department broke the law in the way it handled a loan for the California solar company Solyndra called in two senior Treasury Department officials Friday, but the officials didn't provide any evidence of illegal doings. | 10/14/11 19:02:00 By - Renee Schoof
House bill would block EPA oversight of coal ash, leave it to states
Next up for Republicans in the House of Representatives who are seeking to curb the role of the Environmental Protection Agency is a vote Friday on a bill that would give states the power to monitor the disposal of coal ash from power plants. | 10/13/11 18:37:00 By - Renee Schoof
Global warming spurs debate over whether U.S. should build new icebreakers
Climate change is melting parts of the ice-locked Northwest Passage. China is building its first modern icebreaker in hopes of staking claims to Arctic waters. Frigid polar regions are opening up to increased shipping traffic, scientific exploration and tourism. | 10/10/11 16:32:00 By - Kyung M. Song
Conservation nonprofits face economic squeeze
Nonprofit conservation groups have preserved wild places in California, but now say tough economic times could force them to cut back. | 10/10/11 14:03:49 By - Matt Weiser
California bans shark fin sales
Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that bans the possession and sale of shark fins. Some 73 million sharks a year are estimated to be killed for shark fin soup in Asia. | 10/10/11 10:45:28 By -
Whales who ventured into Alaska river now headed back to sea
Three killer whales that worried biologists this week by traveling far up the Nushagak River in Southwest Alaska appear to have left the river's fresh water and headed back to more-familiar salt water, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. | 10/08/11 16:54:34 By - Casey Grove
Controversial decision awaits as hearings on oil sands pipeline end
With the formal debate over on Friday, a decision on an oil pipeline that will cross America's heartland and open up a greater market for Canada's oil sands now rests with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. | 10/07/11 18:16:00 By - Renee Schoof
Killer whales' swim into Alaska freshwater river concerns biologists
Three killer whales discovered in freshwater far up Southwest Alaska's Nushagak River have state and federal biologists considering options to intervene and move them back to the ocean. It's unclear why the whales swam so far upriver. And they aren't showing any signs of leaving. | 10/07/11 06:43:36 By - Casey Grove
Gulf state lawmakers work to bring oil spill money home
Members of the House of Representatives from the five Gulf Coast states — Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Texas — announced Wednesday that they had agreed on a bill to direct at least 80 percent of the fines that BP is expected to pay for last year's oil spill to their states for economic and environmental restoration — a payday that may reach $20 million. | 10/05/11 19:30:00 By - Maria Recio
Kansas Gov. Brownback leads renewable energy summit
Gov. Sam Brownback urged leaders from the energy industry to work together to help spur job growth and ignite economic opportunities powered by wind and fuels which are rich in Kansas. | 10/05/11 07:03:38 By - Ron Sylvester
Congress spars over 'ocean zoning'
House members clashed Tuesday over a White House plan that essentially calls for zoning the oceans, with Republicans charging that it already has created more job-killing bureaucracy and Democrats saying it could give Americans more certainty on how they can use busy public waters. | 10/04/11 18:04:00 By - Rob Hotakainen
BP wind farm to span four Kansas counties
A day before Gov. Sam Brownback's renewable energy summit, BP Wind Energy officials unveiled plans to build Kansas' biggest wind farm. | 10/04/11 13:47:29 By - DAN VOORHIS AND JERRY SIEBENMARK
Lawsuit leaves large gas storage fields in Kansas unregulated
Knox says it's unsettling to know that because of a federal court decision last year, neither the state nor federal governments are inspecting the gas field near his home, or others holding thousands of times the amount of gas that caused havoc in Hutchinson. | 10/03/11 14:19:24 By - Dion Lefler
California solar company makes its way without subsidies
The solar industry has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks with the collapse of Solyndra, the Fremont manufacturer that received $535 million in federal loan guarantees. But for every Solyndra, there are scores of companies like Solar Power Inc. that have gotten by without federal funding. They provide a counterpoint to the growing criticism that the solar industry requires heavy subsidies. | 10/03/11 06:41:05 By - Rick Daysog
Dangers of nitrates well known, but stats are scarce
Medical science has long known about the effects of nitrate contamination -- dizziness, upset stomach, shortness of breath, lung infections, diabetes, possible links to cancer and potentially fatal blue-baby syndrome. | 10/02/11 18:32:25 By - Mark Grossi
Rural California residents: 'Who knows what's in the water?'
The plastic Santa Claus beckons motorists. So does the vintage seven-blade Trimmer lawn mower. They start conversations at Elida C. Lopez's yard sale along a quiet, country road. | 10/02/11 18:30:30 By - Mark Grossi
Tainted water flows from taps of rural California Valley homes
The tap water in rural areas of California's fertile Central Valley is often laced with nitrates, a chemical linked to a potentially lethal infant illness as well as cancer. Rural Valley residents in an area half the size of Maryland live day-to-day wondering if the next drink of water will make their children sick. I | 10/02/11 18:25:45 By - Mark Grossi
Students aid endangered Oregon spotted frog
The imperiled Oregon spotted frog received a helping hand Thursday from nearly 30 students enrolled in the New Market Skills Center’s Environmental Explorations program. | 09/30/11 13:31:03 By - John Dodge
Trident Seafoods agrees to $2.5M pollution fine from EPA
A leading Seattle-based seafood company has agreed to pay the largest water-pollution fine ever handed down by the EPA to an Alaska fish processor, the agency says. | 09/29/11 06:42:01 By - Kyle Hopkins
U.S. lawmakers urge Spanish oil company to leave Cuba
Thirty-four U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday asked the Spanish oil company Repsol to keep out of Cuban waters, saying the firm's pending offshore drilling plans would support the Castro regime and "bankroll the apparatus that violently crushes dissent." | 09/28/11 19:19:00 By - Erika Bolstad
Idaho natural gas fight centers on balance between drilling, environment
As Idaho and two of its counties work to catch up with a new natural gas industry, their struggle could turn this year’s legislative session into another fight between state and local control | 09/28/11 11:52:25 By - Rocky Barker
Researchers find signs of toxic oil effects in Louisiana marsh fish
Gulf seafood is safe to eat and the water is clear after the BP oil spill, but a new biology study released Monday shows that effects of the oil on a small Louisiana marsh fish could be an early warning sign of trouble ahead for fish populations. | 09/26/11 19:57:00 By - Renee Schoof
Drought taking toll on Texas trees
A drive through Trinity Park in Fort Worth illustrates the toll the drought is taking. Instead of vibrant trees along walking and biking trails, many are turning brown; others have lost all their leaves. While the final toll won't be known for months, the prognosis isn't good. | 09/26/11 14:19:46 By - Bill Hanna
Everglades restoration imperiled by monitoring program cuts, experts say
The agencies in charge of restoring the Everglades are set to gut a science program critical to determining whether work they’re doing is helping or hurting plants and animals that live there — from algae that anchors the bottom of the food chain to alligators that feast at its top. | 09/26/11 06:59:37 By - Curtis Morgan
ANWR coastal plain is topic of debate for Alaskans
A battle over whether the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should be set aside as wilderness — or eventually opened up for oil exploration — brought dozens of people with polar-opposite views to a public hearing in Anchorage on Wednesday. | 09/22/11 06:43:57 By - Lisa Demer
House GOP bill would roll back basic air-pollution rules
The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote Friday on a bill that's mushroomed recently into a plan to block the Obama administration's two main rules to clean up air pollution from power plants and change the way the Clean Air Act has worked for 40 years. | 09/21/11 18:54:00 By - Renee Schoof and Halimah Abdullah
Bill to steer BP oil spill fines to Gulf states passes committee
A bipartisan effort to secure at least 80 percent of fines from the BP Gulf oil spill for the five Gulf Coast states — Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas — advanced Wednesday as the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved the bill by voice vote. | 09/21/11 18:13:00 By - Maria Recio
Richard Branson's Carbon War Room picks Sacramento, Miami for project
A high-powered investment coalition assembled by Richard Branson, the eccentric British billionaire, is offering Sacramento a shot at hundreds of jobs through a $100 million energy-efficiency program. | 09/21/11 06:44:41 By - Dale Kasler and Rick Daysog
Investors to spend millions 'greening' commercial buildings in Sacramento, Miami
Sacramento is one of two cities to participate in a massive program to retrofit commercial buildings to improve energy efficiency, through a private nonprofit consortium led by British business tycoon Richard Branson. | 09/20/11 12:51:29 By - Dale Kasler
In Alaska, vote nears on giant copper and gold mine
Voters in a remote part of Alaska could soon decide on whether the gigantic Pebble mine will go forward. It's one fo the most controversial development projects ever in Alaska. | 09/20/11 11:01:58 By - Sean Cockerham
Remember Nemo's sea turtle friend? Now he's endangered
The Obama administration took steps Friday to protect the loggerhead sea turtle, downgrading the status of some populations from threatened to endangered. | 09/16/11 18:11:00 By - Curtis Tate
Lawmakers go west for hearing on public lands
The perennial conflict over public lands will surge again Monday in Sacramento, Calif., as congressional Republicans showcase their unhappiness over environmental restrictions they consider excessive. | 09/16/11 14:45:00 By - Michael Doyle
For Washington's seals, it's tasty-salmon-snack season
Chinook salmon have begun their annual return to the Deschutes River in Oregon through the Fifth Avenue dam, with about 900 already in the hatchery and thousands more expected, according to state Fish and Wildlife officials. | 09/16/11 13:01:28 By - Nate Hulings
Invasive species: Giant snails invade Miami subdivision
The silent, slithery invasion of an army of Giant African Snails in a southwest Miami subdivision has federal and state agricultural officials launching a time-consuming expensive counter-attack to remove the large slimy creatures. | 09/16/11 12:43:29 By - Lomi Kriel
Florida prosthetist helped to give dolphin a new tail
Winter the dolphin, and soon-to-be movie star, lives at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Her unique story of survival inspired the movie “Dolphin Tale,” which opens nationwide Sept. 23. | 09/14/11 12:28:44 By - Susan Hemmingway
GOP wants to give Congress veto on national monuments
Citing state sovereignty and economic hardship, Republican lawmakers said Tuesday that they wanted to give Congress the authority to veto presidents' national monument designations, a power used by nearly every executive since Theodore Roosevelt. | 09/13/11 18:11:00 By - Curtis Tate
Lawmakers dueling over proposed Alaska gold mine
In a high-stakes battle that pits gold and copper against fish, members of Congress are scrapping over a plan to build one of the world's largest open pit mines in southwest Alaska. | 09/11/11 00:01:00 By - Rob Hotakainen
U.S. and Europe to fight pirates who steal fish on the high seas
Illegal fishing undermines efforts to stop overfishing and shrinks the profits of legal commercial fishermen, the oceans chiefs of the United States and the European Union declared on Wednesday, as they pledged to cooperate to nab fish pirates. | 09/07/11 16:50:00 By - Renee Schoof
Fla. Gov. Scott clarifies Everglades drilling comments
Gov. Rick Scott found himself on both sides of the fence on Tuesday when he said in a speech that he supports oil drilling in the Everglades, then hours later issued a clarification that he didn’t mean “an expansion of drilling.” | 09/07/11 06:50:43 By - Mary Ellen Klas
Asian stink bug poised to devour North Carolina crops
The Asian stink bug has started its migration into North Carolina, and a team of researchers at N.C. State University have prepped their labs, set their traps and launched a monitoring website — all in an effort to stop the pest's spread. Their work is urgent. This insect, also known as the brown marmorated stink bug, has decimated crops in the mid-Atlantic states. | 09/05/11 19:38:17 By - Alicia W. Roberts
Saltwater imperils South Florida's drinking water supply
South Florida's lakes, marshes and rivers pump fresh, crystal clear water across the state like veins carry blood through the body. But cities along South Florida's coast are running out of water as drinking wells are taken over by the sea. | 09/04/11 17:18:04 By - Marina Giovannelli
Duke-Progress merger wins backing from key panel
Progress Energy and Duke Energy have won key backing for their planned $26 billion merger as the two power companies speedily advance in their bid to form the nation's biggest electric utility. But advocacy groups were quick to denounce the utilities' deal with the consumers' advocate within the N.C. Utilities Commission. | 09/03/11 20:06:50 By - John Murawski
In Alaska, earthquakes are a fact of life
When a 5.8 magnitude earthquake shook the East Coast last week, millions of people felt it. When a 6.8 magnitude quake struck in Alaska's remote Aleutian island chain early Friday, few noticed — though it was about 10 times more powerful. | 09/02/11 19:39:00 By - Curtis Tate
Oregon pine white butterflies find home in eastern Washington
Small, fragile transplants from Oregon seem to have made a permanent home in the Tri-Cities. For the second summer in a row, pine white butterflies appeared in Tri-City conifers during the last week of August. | 09/02/11 16:32:41 By - Jacques Von Lunen
EPA rules could cause 'emergency events,' Texas power officials say
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, operator of the state's major power grid, said in a report Thursday that a new Environmental Protection Agency regulation will reduce generating capacity and put the grid "at increasing risk of emergency events," including rotating power outages. | 09/02/11 07:25:55 By - Jack Z. Smith
Katia looming, lawmakers fight for 'hurricane hunter' funds
With the cleanup from Hurricane Irene ongoing and Katia looming in the Atlantic Ocean, some lawmakers and top federal scientists are making the case to maintain healthy research budgets that sharpen the accuracy of hurricane forecasts. | 09/01/11 19:04:00 By - Erika Bolstad and Curtis Morgan
Heat kills more than 124,000 fish in Texas lake
More than 124,000 fish died at Lake Grapevine this week as this summer's nonstop heat severely depleted oxygen levels, an official with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said. | 09/01/11 12:29:25 By - Steve Norder
U.S. losing clean-energy race? Solar maker Solyndra bankrupt
California solar manufacturer Solyndra announced Wednesday that it was shutting down a factory built with the help of a $535 million federal loan guarantee and would file for bankruptcy. | 08/31/11 17:43:00 By - Renee Schoof
Sea lions may be to blame in pelican wounding
Nature’s battle for survival played out in dramatic fashion off Avila Beach, California when sea lions attacked some pelicans who were trying to feed on schooling fish. | 08/31/11 15:43:00 By - David Sneed
Irene wasn't overhyped for rural areas on East Coast
WASHINGTON — While many in major East Coast cities wondered whether officials over-prepared the public for Hurricane Irene, the answer from the mostly rural areas hardest hit by the storm was unequivocally no. | 08/30/11 19:23:00 By - Curtis Tate and Kate Howard
Living with grizzlies brings conflict in the west
Bears in Yellowstone National Park are getting the headlines this year — officials there are trying to capture a grizzly bear that killed 59-year-old John Wallace of Chassell, Mich., while he hiked near the wildlife-rich Hayden Valley last week. His death was the second grizzly killing of the summer — and only the third since 1986. | 08/30/11 12:46:42 By - Rocky Barker
Osprey tangled in twine rescued at Washington state wildlife refuge
At a wildlife refuge in eastern Washington state, wildlife officials have rescued ospreys twice recently. The ospreys were tangled in scavanged baling twine. | 08/29/11 16:28:23 By - Annette Cary
As patience runs short, Puget Sound cleanup accelerates
Nearly every time heavy rain falls in north Puget Sound, high levels of fecal bacteria flow into Samish Bay, disrupting work at Taylor Shellfish Farms, the largest shellfish producer in the United States. | 08/28/11 00:01:00 By - Rob Hotakainen
Irene churns toward Northeast, millions of hurricane newbies
As Hurricane Irene threatened the Outer Banks and most of the Eastern Seaboard, President Barack Obama warned Friday of a historic storm with the potential to flood neighborhoods, down trees, erode beaches and knock out power to tens of millions of people unused to violent tropical weather. | 08/26/11 19:03:00 By - Erika Bolstad
State Dept. sees no environmental harm in controversial oil sands pipeline
A pipeline that would greatly expand imports of oil sands crude from Canada won't significantly threaten water in the Great Plains or have much impact on climate change, the State Department argued in a final environmental impact statement it made public Friday. | 08/26/11 18:09:00 By - Renee Schoof
Summer's almost over, and still no solar panels on White House roof
In October, Energy Secretary Steven Chu pledged that solar panels and a solar hot water heater would be installed on the White House roof before the start of summer. Now, summer is almost over, the 2012 election campaign is well under way, and there are still no solar panels on the White House roof. Why? That's a mystery. | 08/25/11 14:36:00 By - Lauren Biron
Texas Railroad Commission wants EPA's cross-state pollution rule challenged
The Texas Railroad Commission is asking Attorney General Greg Abbott to "bring a prompt legal action" to delay implementation of a new Environmental Protection Agency rule that state officials say would jeopardize electric reliability in the state. | 08/25/11 07:41:37 By - Jack Z. Smith
No matter Irene's path, North Carolina leads response
As Hurricane Irene gathers strength in the Caribbean with a U.S. landfall likely over the weekend, North Carolina finds itself once again in the path of a storm, and in the position of first responder. | 08/24/11 17:21:00 By - Curtis Tate
Left, right agree: For big debt cut, end subsidies that harm environment
Budget-slashers in Washington could get a jump-start toward their goal by eliminating environmentally harmful subsidies, an unusual coalition of conservative and liberal groups advised Wednesday. | 08/24/11 17:18:00 By - Renee Schoof
University of South Carolina praised for fuel cell project
Energy Secretary Steven Chu stepped briefly into USC’s innovative energy research district Tuesday, touring a portion of the multimillion-dollar development the university hopes will spearhead the way to world leadership in fuel cell technology. Chu voiced his support for fuel cells as an alternative energy, saying critics had misrepresented his position amid budget discussions. | 08/24/11 16:40:29 By - Roddie Burris
Cook Inlet oil, beluga whales are topic of NOAA and gas industry talks
Alaska U.S. Sen. Mark Begich and a top Obama administration official sat down Tuesday with Cook Inlet gas and oil interests to discuss whether exploration and production could get a boost by streamlining requirements for protection of endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales. | 08/24/11 06:47:32 By - Lisa Demer
Solar-powered trash compactors debute on Myrtle Beach's beach
They are about 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide, and basically, they appear to just sit there. | 08/23/11 13:50:34 By -
Miners and environmentalists: Conflict and cooperation in Idaho
The relationship between Idaho's environmental community and the mining industry has evolved in recent decades. | 08/23/11 13:20:13 By - Rocky Barker
National Science Foundation: No misconduct by climate scientist, case closed
Inspector general's office of the National Science Foundation looks into accusations against Michael Mann, a climate scientist, and finds no evidence of misconduct. The review says the case is closed. | 08/23/11 13:05:44 By -
Environmentalists put Obama to test on climate over pipeline plan
Ranchers from Nebraska, people in car caravans from California and hundreds of others plan to hold daily sit-ins at the White House starting Saturday, protesting against a planned pipeline that would greatly expand the flow of oil from the black sands of western Canada. | 08/19/11 16:52:00 By - Renee Schoof
Sacramento on track for coolest summer in nearly 30 years
If Sacramento fails to have another century mark reading this summer, 2011 will have the fewest 100-degree days in nearly 30 years. | 08/18/11 13:31:02 By - Bill Lindelof
Kentucky's coal ash regulations criticized by environmental groups
Kentucky and other states do a poor job of regulating coal ash in order to protect water supplies, two environmental groups said in a study released Wednesday. | 08/18/11 07:19:30 By - Bill Estep
Report: In 70 years western trout habitat could be cut in half
Warming temperatures could cut in half suitable trout habitat in the West over the next 70 years. | 08/15/11 18:50:19 By - Rocky Barker
Florida boaters asked to wave yellow manatee banners
If people boating Manatee and Sarasota county waterways during the upcoming Labor Day holiday can avoid striking the endangered manatees, it will not only keep the creatures’ numbers from falling, but will spare many from disfigurement, says Katie Tripp | 08/15/11 12:37:02 By - Richard Dymond
New study blames human beings for half of Arctic ice melt
About half the recent record loss of Arctic sea ice can be blamed on global warming caused by human activity, according to a new study by scientists from the nation's leading climate research center. The peer-reviewed study, funded by the National Science Foundation is the first to attribute a specific proportion of the ice melt to greenhouse gases and particulates from pollution. | 08/14/11 20:05:39 By - Richard Mauer
NOAA backs off turtle death data in the Gulf
NOAA Fisheries has data that shows Gulf shrimpers are now using their turtle-protection devices. Partly because of this, the agency has decided not to impose emergency measures on the shrimping industry in order to stop the unusually high number of sea-turtle deaths in the northern Gulf since the BP oil spill in 2010. | 08/12/11 16:18:41 By - Karen Nelson
Florida gets $100M from Wetlands Reserve Program
The Obama administration on Thursday will pump $100 million into a little-known program that is going a long way toward redefining Everglades restoration. The money won't go to build reservoirs. It will go to ranchers. | 08/11/11 06:57:21 By - Curtis Morgan
Idaho Power branches into solar energy plant
Idaho Power has no experience building or operating the renewable technology that is expanding worldwide. So it plans to build a pilot photovoltaic solar plant that will give it the expertise it needs for the technology that already has risen over the horizon. Idaho Power also has approved two contracts to buy power from solar developers. | 08/10/11 12:50:53 By - Rocky Barker
BP to return to Ocean Springs, Miss. for spill clean-up
Dark-amber mats of oil as big as a large man’s foot sit on the sand 10 feet from the water, and farther inland along the beaches of Horn Island’s west end. Recreational boater Nick Mason pointed out a swarm of quarter-sized tar globs floating around his boat anchored on the north side of the island Tuesday. BP knows. | 08/10/11 12:22:52 By - Karen Nelson and Mary Perez
Nuclear power seems inevitable to Florida’s energy future
Every time you pay your Florida energy bill, a portion of it goes to build a nuclear power plant that won’t produce power for at least another decade and, if opponents have any say, never will. | 08/09/11 12:59:44 By - Mary Ellen Klas
Obama backs more Alaska oil drilling, Salazar says
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar came to Anchorage on Monday and said the Obama administration supports more oil drilling in Alaska, potentially including offshore Arctic development. | 08/09/11 06:36:46 By - Sean Cockerham
Movement to ban plastic bags picking up steam
They call them urban tumbleweeds -- lightweight plastic bags that litter streets, clog drains, pose a danger to wildlife, and get stuck in tree branches and brush. | 08/08/11 14:05:00 By - Anna Tinsley
Will oceans' tides supply endless electricity?
Joshua Myers has been busy putting electrodes on the heads of juvenile salmon, trying to determine how the fish will react to the simulated sound of giant steel and fiberglass turbines, which soon could be submerged in Washington state's Puget Sound. | 08/07/11 00:01:00 By - Rob Hotakainen
Don't feed the Cascade red foxes
Mason Reid, a wildlife econolgist, watched the fox with a pained expression. Like a bored and lonely latchkey kid, the Cascade red fox kit stared blankly across the parking lot toward the snow-covered Tatoosh range at Mount Rainier National Park. | 08/05/11 13:36:03 By - Dean J. Koepfler
Shell Oil's Arctic drilling plan gets tentative approval
Shell cleared a major hurdle Thursday in its effort to begin a two-year drilling program in the Arctic Ocean next summer, receiving a conditional exploration permit from the federal agency that oversees offshore oil development. | 08/05/11 06:49:54 By - Richard Mauer
Washington's Mt. Rainier still has snow covered trails
Most summers, the 3.8-mile round-trip hike to Comet Falls in Mount Rainier National Park is a popular, family-friendly walk. This summer, park rangers are recommending hikers use ice axes and crampons to navigate the route that is still covered with snow. | 08/04/11 13:22:58 By - Craig Hill
Volcanologist at Alaska's Mount Cleveland raise alert status
Signs of lava at Mount Cleveland prompted volcanologists to raise their alert level Tuesday afternoon for the Aleutian Islands volcano. The Alaska Volcano Observatory reports "heightened or escalated unrest" and the possibility of an eruption at the 5,676-foot volcano, according to the observatory's website. | 08/04/11 06:39:27 By - Casey Grove
Supercomputers may help predict climate changes locally
Even a century ago, scientists working out equations on paper understood that gases in the atmosphere absorbed and emitted energy, keeping Earth from being a ball of ice. Today they use supercomputers to make increasingly refined predictions about how the Earth's climate will change. | 08/03/11 14:23:00 By - Renee Schoof
Battle over coal for China highlights global economic change
When a Seattle-based shipping company announced plans last year for a deepwater cargo port that it promised would create hundreds of jobs, it looked like good news for Bellingham, Wash. But not everyone was happy about what cargo the company had in mind: coal, and potentially 48 million tons of it a year. That coal would end up in China, where it would fuel the blistering growth of America's biggest competitor. | 08/02/11 17:52:00 By - Curtis Tate and John Stark
Surprise! Economy in Wichita greener than it seems
No one would confuse Wichita as a home for tree huggers, but even Wichita has taken its place in the green economy in recent years. Wichita actually has thousands of jobs tied to improving the environment — in businesses such as organic farming, insulated building materials and wind turbine parts. | 08/02/11 16:05:54 By - Dan Voorhis
Climate changes predict more frequent fires in Yellowstone
Imagine a Yellowstone National Park without thick, verdant forests. Some of the region’s top fire and forest scientists say the fires of 1988 are nothing compared to the size and frequency of those that will burn by the middle of this century | 08/01/11 12:53:43 By - Rocky Barker
New EPA regulations aim to cut oil, natural gas emissions
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed new regulations Thursday that it said would dramatically reduce polluting emissions from oil and natural gas operations, with "a net savings to the industry of tens of millions of dollars annually from the value of natural gas that no longer would escape in the air." | 07/29/11 07:39:03 By - Jack Z. Smith
Drought brings on water restrictions in north Texas
An unusually hot summer, even by North Texas standards, is draining the area's water supplies faster than normal, prompting the likely implementation of stringent water restrictions across much of the region within weeks. | 07/28/11 11:07:27 By - Aman Batheja and Elizabeth Campbell
Energy conservation rules rolled back by Florida regulators
State regulators set the clock back on energy conservation in Florida on Tuesday by reversing a rule that would have required Florida Power & Light and Progress Energy Florida to encourage customers to use less electricity. Their argument: saving money for some was going to require higher bills for everyone. | 07/27/11 07:02:18 By - Mary Ellen Klas
Wind projects' costs irk utilities in 9-state pool
Not everybody is happy about Kansas' move into a wind-powered future. Several utilities in the region that are being asked to help foot a bill for hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade high voltage lines in western Kansas remain upset about the process. | 07/26/11 13:11:07 By - Dan Voorhis
Heat brings frog spawning to California swimming pools, dog dishes
They're small, some slimy and some with warts. And they're hopping everywhere. A flood of frogs has filled California's Lake McClure's Horseshoe Bend swimming area, taking advantage of the warm water to lay their eggs. In the heat toads end up in strange places, such as dog water dishes and kids' swimming pools, trying to find a place to cool off. | 07/26/11 12:19:55 By - Carol Reiter
Navy can use Gulf of Alaska for ship target practice
The Navy has obtained authority to blast and sink as many as two real ships a year in the Gulf of Alaska over the next five years to give pilots and gunners authentic targets for their sights. But ocean campaigners say that even decommissioned, stripped-out ships, like the ones the Navy will use as targets, contain residual hazardous materials that can poison the Gulf's rich habitat for years. | 07/26/11 06:36:41 By - Sean Cockerham
Study: Solar industry job growth slowed by red tape
Reducing government red tape for the California solar industry would create nearly 4,000 additional jobs statewide over the next decade, according to a new study. | 07/25/11 06:52:43 By - Rick Daysog
Potatoes promote weight gain? Spud slander! Idaho says
The humble Idaho potato is marketed as an inexpensive, fat- and cholesterol-free source of potassium and fiber, in addition to being deeply rooted in the country's agricultural economy. | 07/24/11 05:00:56 By - Erika Bolstad
House kills bill to keep compact fluorescent bulbs off Capitol Hill
The House of Representatives on Friday defeated an amendment that would have prohibited the federal government from installing or buying compact fluorescent light bulbs for congressional offices. | 07/22/11 15:38:00 By - Daniel Lippman
EPA finalizes surface-mining guidelines
Federal regulators have finalized surface-mining guidelines that have caused controversy in Appalachian coal country. The guidelines include a new standard for judging the effect of mining on water quality. | 07/22/11 07:02:26 By - Bill Estep
Gulf Coast senators want BP fines to restore coastline
In an unusual show of bipartisanship, nine Gulf Coast senators joined forces Thursday to introduce a bill that would require at least 80 percent of penalties from last year's BP oil spill paid under the Clean Water Act to be directed to restoration projects in the five Gulf states: Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and Texas. | 07/21/11 18:08:00 By - Maria Recio
Wildlife hit hard in Kansas as rivers flow only a trickle
Don Distler, a biologist, has gotten only one mosquito bite this summer. Other years "I'd be covered with them," he said. "I couldn't sit out at night." But the reason for his mosquito-free summer isn't bug spray. It's drought. | 07/21/11 17:39:22 By - Sarah Rajewski
Business groups say new smog rule will hurt Obama in 2012
Within weeks, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to tighten the national standard for ozone, the main ingredient in smog. In last-minute lobbying, business groups are warning that the country can't afford cleaner air in an economic downturn and that President Barack Obama can't afford it politically, either. | 07/21/11 17:06:00 By - Renee Schoof
Green sea turtle nest found near Bradenton, Fla.
A green sea turtle nest filled with eggs -- a rarity in the region and only the second such nest found on Anna Maria Island in the past 28 years -- has been discovered on Coquina Beach and moved to safety. | 07/20/11 09:03:46 By - Richard Dymond
EPA's emissions plan could hurt Texas power supply, ERCOT claims
A decision by the Environmental Protection Agency to curtail emissions from coal-fired power plants starting Jan. 1 could jeopardize adequate supplies of electricity in Texas, Trip Doggett, president of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said Tuesday. | 07/20/11 07:42:19 By - Jim Fuquay
Inspections show violations of rules on turtle excluder devices
Shrimp boats that fish in the Gulf of Mexico without the required turtle-excluder devices are killing more sea turtles than is allowed under the Endangered Species Act, the advocacy group Oceana said in a report Tuesday. | 07/19/11 18:42:00 By - Renee Schoof
Huge catfish caught, released in Kansas' El Dorado Lake
Any angler using equipment short of a boat winch for a reel and pool stick for a rod could get his tail whupped by a beast swimming within El Dorado’s waters. Last Friday Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism biologists caught and released a huge flathead catfish at the lake. | 07/19/11 13:35:00 By - Michael Pearce
Heat wave grips Kansas City and much of the US
A “heat dome” is hovering over much of the central United States and isn’t moving much, making being outside uncomfortable for more than 40 million Americans. | 07/18/11 12:35:00 By - Matt Pearce
BP oil pipeline breaks, spills during pressure test in Alaska's North Slope
State environmental officials are investigating why a pipeline on Alaska's North Slope operated by BP ruptured early Saturday during a pressure test. BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. estimated the size of the spill at 2,100 to 4,200 gallons of fluid, mainly methanol and other fluids along with an undetermined amount of crude oil. | 07/18/11 06:38:40 By - Lisa Demer
Last U.S. Federal Helium Reserve is running out
Deep beneath the dry, dusty ground in the Texas Panhandle lies something lighter than air: helium. But the supply of the gas that inflates balloons, cools MRI machines and detects leaks in NASA space shuttle fuel tanks isn't infinite. There's only so much helium in the world, and some fear that a shortage is coming. | 07/17/11 15:08:38 By - Anna M. Tinsley
2 plead guilty to trafficking walrus tusks, polar bear hides
Two Alaska men charged with trading in hundreds of pounds of walrus tusks and two polar bear hides admitted in court Friday to breaking federal marine mammal laws. A third member of the alleged conspiracy is set to enter a guilty plea Tuesday. | 07/16/11 12:54:06 By - Casey Grove
Texas congressman secures more life for 100-watt bulb
The House of Representatives gave extended life to the 100-watt bulb Friday, voting to delay a ban on sales of the incandescent bulb for nine months, from Jan. 1 to the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30, 2012. | 07/15/11 18:58:00 By - Maria Recio
Miami Swim Week premieres first compostable bikini
Swim Week on South Beach is mostly about glitz, glamor and impossibly leggy models traipsing about celebrity-lined runways. But at one Friday night show at The Setai, it’s also about trying to save the planet — one itty-bitty bikini at a time. | 07/15/11 13:41:59 By - Curtis Morgan
Federal money helps cities smooth way for migratory birds
Migratory birds got a helping hand from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week as the federal agency gave a total of $650,000 to a number of cities across the country to help those urban areas conserve and protect their bird populations. | 07/14/11 18:06:00 By - Daniel Lippman
San Joaquin restoration meets resistance in Congress
Ambitious San Joaquin River restoration plans confront delays on the ground and renewed resistance on Capitol Hill. | 07/14/11 17:47:00 By - Michael Doyle and Mark Grossi
California story: Bear, bicyclist collide
Stories of bears getting hit by automobiles aren't that uncommon in the Sierra Nevada. In fact, it happened 28 times last year in Yosemite National Park alone. But stories of bears getting hit by someone on a bicycle? | 07/14/11 12:44:44 By - Marek Warszawski
NOAA's theory: Shrimpers at fault in sea turtles' death
NOAA’s theory that shrimpers are to blame for almost 1,000 sea-turtle deaths since the BP oil spill unleashed a fury of comments in two languages Wednesday. | 07/14/11 12:20:17 By -
Would looser environmental regulations help the economy?
Republicans in the House of Representatives are waging an all-out war to block federal regulations that protect the environment. They loaded up a pending 2012 spending bill with terms that would eliminate a broad array of environmental protections, everything from stopping new plants and animals from being placed on the endangered species list to ending federal limits on water pollution in Florida. | 07/13/11 15:59:00 By - Renee Schoof
North Carolina state parks still open despite cuts
North Carolina's state parks are limping into a new budget year with a 25 percent cut from the legislature, growing hordes of visitors and a sense that things could be worse. | 07/13/11 14:14:23 By -
Bill to repeal light-bulb standards falls short in House
It looks like lights out for old-fashioned incandescent bulbs. The Republican-controlled House voted 233-193 on Tuesday for the Better Use of Light Bulbs Act, which would have repealed higher energy-efficiency standards for bulbs. But the measure needed a two-thirds majority to pass. | 07/13/11 07:16:40 By - Annie Greenberg
Obama hopes to simplify drilling decisions in Alaska
President Barack Obama on Tuesday called on federal agencies to better coordinate oil and gas permitting and other regulatory oversight as the industry looks to expand operations in the Arctic and as environmentalists ramp up their opposition. | 07/12/11 16:55:00 By - Erika Bolstad
A year later, Gulf Coast still coming to terms with oil spill
The Gulf Coast is on the rebound a year after the BP oil spill wreaked havoc on the economy, environment and psyche. Yet the relief felt a year ago when crews finally maneuvered into place the cap that stopped the gushing well is tempered by anxiety over the future. | 07/11/11 14:33:00 By - Lesley Clark
Southwestern Idahoans wary of natural gas companies drilling
Travis and Tina Fisher found the rural life they longed for when they built their home on 3 acres just west of New Plymouth, Idaho. | 07/11/11 12:15:14 By - Rocky Barker
Great gray owls find a surprising home on timber firm's land
Lately, the elusive great gray owl has been spotted swooping through much different terrain: the sun-baked Sierra Nevada foothills where – surprisingly enough – it is thriving on land owned by the state's largest timber company, Sierra Pacific Industries. | 07/10/11 07:43:37 By - Tom Knudson
Idaho's Rep. Simpson cuts at environmental budgets
The GOP-drafted bill would limit protections of bighorn sheep, end new funding to list endangered species and cut the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by nearly one-third. | 07/08/11 12:32:34 By - Rocky Barker
Many Americans want to keep incandescent light bulbs
New federal standards will start phasing out traditional incandescent light bulbs next year in favor of more energy-efficient compact fluorescent and LED bulbs. Opponents of the legislation say it's a threat to the free market and personal liberty, and alternative bulbs are too expensive. They've taken their complaints to the blogosphere. | 07/08/11 07:40:14 By - Annie Greenberg
New EPA rule will clean the air for 240 million Americans
Pollution that blows hundreds of miles from coal-fired power plants into other states will be reduced under a final plan that the Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday. | 07/07/11 18:21:00 By - Renee Schoof
Feral hogs act like, well, pigs at wildlife refuges
Matthew Carman is one of several officials at wildlife refuges across the South who don't care for wild pigs. They're quick to point out that the animals aren't native to the continent, and they say the pigs damage ecosystems. That's why - in a move that may seem surprising, coming from biologists and conservationists - several wildlife officials are pushing to lift restrictions that keep hunters from killing the animals. | 07/07/11 18:12:00 By - Adam Sege
Urban raptors - hawks - hunt Raleigh's cityscape
They swoop down from eight-story rooftops, grabbing squirrels off the Capitol lawn, startling lawyers and baristas with a flurry of speckled feathers. Three species of raptor now thrive on the densest, tallest, most traffic-choked blocks of downtown Raleigh, stalking rodents, birds and bugs in an urban version of Wild Kingdom. | 07/07/11 13:51:52 By - Josh Shaffer
U.S. agency proposes more hunting in wildlife refuges
Officials will ease hunting restrictions at 10 wildlife refuges across the country if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approves changes it proposed this week. The public has until Aug. 4 to comment on the proposal. The changes, which would affect wildlife refuges in eight states, would take effect by the fall. | 07/06/11 18:36:00 By - Adam Sege
South Carolina gold mine plans delayed for least a year
Plans for a huge gold mine near Kershaw have been delayed for at least a year because of the mine’s potential effect on creeks and wetlands that run through the site in Lancaster County. | 07/06/11 13:25:43 By - Sammy Fretwell
Bahamas bans commercial shark fishing to protect tourism
The government of the Bahamas said it will prohibit all commercial shark fishing in its more than 240,000 square miles of waters. The decision came following a media blitz by environmental groups and a petition signed by 5,000 Bahamian residents. | 07/06/11 07:34:00 By - Susan Cocking
National parks saw springtime lull in visits
Go ahead, blame harsh weather or high gas prices for a marked reduction in visits to Yosemite and other national parks so far this year. The summer droves, though, are returning. In other words, the time to really beat the crowds may have passed. | 07/05/11 18:28:00 By - Michael Doyle
N.C. state parks are still open, still free, despite budget cuts
North Carolina's state parks limp this week into a new budget year with a 25 percent cut from the legislature, growing hordes of visitors and a sense that things could be worse. | 07/05/11 13:27:21 By - Bruce Henderson
Review makes future of Kansas coal-fired power plant unclear
Sunflower Electric has only a year left to begin construction of its controversial coal-fired plant in western Kansas, but a legal challenge to the plant's air-quality permit is blocking progress. The company wants a rare type of deadline extension to allow the plant to remain under the pollution laws in effect when its permit was issued. | 07/05/11 07:30:57 By - Karen Dillon
Support for alternative energy subsidies thin among Kansas lawmakers
With federal subsidies for ethanol, wind energy and other alternative energies targeted for possible cuts, many in Kansas' congressional delegation say they won't defend them. | 07/03/11 23:16:11 By - Dan Voorhis
In drought-hit Kansas, desperation is the only thing growing
Much of western Kansas is in an exceptional drought, the driest rating, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Already it is drier than the driest years of the Dust Bowl. | 07/03/11 13:47:00 By - Beccy Tanner
As Missouri floods, anger spills over at Army Corps
Eight years out of a decade, 1,440-foot-wide floodgates of Gavins Point Dam in South Dakota spill not so much as a bucket of the brown water into the Missouri River. Now, with the Missouri flooding at record levels over the past two months, enough is barreling out of Lewis and Clark Lake to cover a football field three-and-a-half feet deep every second. | 07/03/11 01:00:00 By - Dave Helling and Scott Canon
Record sea turtle nests likely in S.C.'s Hilton Head
With more than a month remaining in sea-turtle nesting season, reports of loggerhead nests are on pace to break records for some areas of Beaufort County. | 07/01/11 12:47:29 By - Alison Stice
Alaska governor vows to accelerate state oil-drilling leases
Vowing to have the trans-Alaska pipeline pumping as much as 1 million barrels of oil a day by the end of the next decade, Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell said Thursday that he'd be aggressively promoting new leases on state land. | 06/30/11 18:55:00 By - Erika Bolstad
Bike-sharing gears up in U.S. as gas prices soar
As gas prices continue to take a toll on Americans' pocketbooks, a growing number of people are embracing a more old-fashioned, cheaper and greener way of getting around: bicycling. | 06/30/11 14:32:00 By - Daniel Lippman
Nuclear waste at California's Diablo Canyon is mini Yucca
California's Diablo Canyon Power Plant, like many nuclear plants, is becoming its own storage site for highly radioactive spent nuclear waste. | 06/30/11 14:37:57 By - David Sneed
Health care for Camp Lejeune veterans clears Senate hurdle
Thousands of Marine veterans and family members across the country who once lived at Camp Lejeune, N.C., Marine base may be closer to getting health care for illnesses suffered because of decades of water contamination on the base. | 06/29/11 17:42:00 By - Barbara Barrett
Florida's beaches rank 6th in clean beach report
A study ranks how clean the nation's beaches are, and Florida ranks 6th. | 06/29/11 17:31:14 By - Garrett Franklyn
Puerto Rico will get boost from Monsanto expansion
Monsanto, the agricultural technology company, plans to announce on Wednesday a $4.3 million expansion of its research and development labs in Puerto Rico, a boost to the island's economy. | 06/29/11 06:00:01 By - Adam Sege
USGS: Alaska inlet's natural gas reserves greater than estimated
Alaska's Cook Inlet is home to far greater natural gas reserves than government scientists estimated the last time they studied the region's potential 16 years ago, the U.S. Geological Survey announced Tuesday. | 06/28/11 18:03:28 By - Erika Bolstad
Federal regulators OK fireworks on California coast
Watch out, marine mammals. Here come the California coastal fireworks. It might be time to split. | 06/28/11 16:03:00 By - Michael Doyle
Recreation accounts for more jobs on federal land in Idaho than mining, grazing and energy
A new study shows there are more hunting guides, river rafters and others who cater to recreational use of public land in Idaho. | 06/28/11 15:22:51 By - Rocky Barker
EPA edges closer to national coal plant cleanup
After years of delays and false starts under both Democratic and Republican administrations, the Environmental Protection Agency is close to finishing two measures to reduce pollution from coal-fired power plants. | 06/28/11 13:23:00 By - Renee Schoof
Models can determine hurricane wind, water damage, panel told
When Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma hit in 2005, all that was left of homes along the Gulf Coast for miles were slabs of concrete. For many homeowners, that was just the beginning of the problem. | 06/23/11 18:15:49 By - Lydia Mulvany
Study: spike in birth defects near mountaintop mining
Birth defects are more likely to occur in Appalachian counties with mountaintop removal coal mining — including Eastern Kentucky — than in other counties in the region, according to a new study. | 06/23/11 12:29:04 By - John Cheves
GOP plan would open more public land to off-road vehicles
Motorcyclists and ATV riders are revved up by a Republican plan that would remove restrictions on motorized access to 43 million acres of public land nationwide, while environmentalists say it would be a big mistake. | 06/22/11 16:19:00 By - Rob Hotakainen
Camp Lejeune veterans take fight to big screen
Thirty minutes into a new documentary film about one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history, a male breast cancer survivor describes the faith that exists among veterans of Camp Lejeune that justice will be done. | 06/22/11 14:52:00 By - Barbara Barrett
Scientists warn that oceans' marine life on 'brink of extinction'
The world's oceans are degenerating far faster than predicted and marine life is facing extinction due to a range of human impacts — from over-fishing to climate change — a report compiled by international scientists warned. | 06/22/11 07:36:09 By - Anna Tomforde
Heat, cold, flooding, drought greet U.S. on summer solstice
A year ago the headline was "It's hot, hot, hot on the summer solstice." This year the solstice weather is much more confused. You have drought in Mississippi, snow in the Rocky Mountains, the mid-Atlantic sits under blanket of heat and humidity, and in the Pacific Northwest, cold and wet. In Kentucky you had a flood that left one 4-year-old asking, "Daddy are we going to die today?" | 06/21/11 14:01:16 By - Tish Wells
Dolphin species never seen in Puget Sound spotted
One or two long-beaked common dolphins have been cruising the marine waters near Olympia since early June, the first sighting of this species in Puget Sound, a marine mammal scientist said Monday. | 06/21/11 13:23:14 By - John Dodge
NOAA: U.S. unprepared for changes in Arctic ice
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is being inundated with requests for weather and ice forecasts as well as navigation information about the Arctic, but isn't able to provide all of the information that the Coast Guard, industries and native Alaskans need, NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco said on Monday. | 06/20/11 18:32:00 By - Renee Schoof
Kansas agency, utility worked closely on permit for coal plant
Hundreds of emails show that officials of a Kansas coal-fired power plant had a cosy relationship with the regulators who issued a building permit. | 06/20/11 17:32:33 By - Karen Dillon
U.S. military's need for biofuels could build new market
Maj. Aaron Jelinek of the Air Force Thunderbirds flies his F-16 upside down, rolls it, thunders past his teammates in breathtaking close charges and joins five other fighter jets in precision formation. And for the first time in the 58 years of Thunderbird air shows, Jelinek's flight last month was fueled by a 50-50 blend of conventional jet fuel and biofuels. | 06/20/11 15:57:00 By - Renee Schoof
Biodegradable plastics maybe not so green
New plastics designed to break down naturally have been hailed as environmentally friendly alternatives to traditional plastics. Instead of taking decades or even centuries to decompose, they vanish in a few years. | 06/20/11 13:34:22 By - Helen Chappell
Movement to remove dams moves westward
More than 400 dams have been removed since the Swan Falls-sized Edwards Dam came down, restoring the health of 17 miles of river. The 210-foot-high Glines Dam in Washington state will be the largest to come down and that contributes to the symbolic power of the act. | 06/20/11 12:45:48 By - Rocky Barker
N.C. State researchers take lead in Smart Grid development
It takes up enough space to cover a billiards table, but next year it will fit inside a backpack. The electronic contraption, only in its first generation, was named this year by experts at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as one of the 10 most important technology innovations of 2010. The digital transformer will form the electronic guts of the vaunted Smart Grid, the automated power network that is expected to replace nation's aging mechanical power grid in the coming decade. | 06/20/11 07:40:56 By - John Murawski
Tiny lizard could block Texas oil, gas exploration
Deep in the West Texas sand dunes is something that some say could threaten the state's oil and gas production: The dunes sagebrush lizard, also known as the sand dune lizard. State officials hope that federal officials don't designate it an endangered species. "It's reptile dysfunction," said Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson. | 06/18/11 17:01:12 By - Anna M. Tinsley
As Missouri River rises, Brownback calls for flood control study
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback on Wednesday called for a 9/11-type federal commission to study flood-control policy along the Missouri River — as muddy, rising water swirled only a few feet away. | 06/16/11 07:16:55 By - Dave Helling
Building at Hanford nuclear reservation prepared for demolition
Workers are preparing a large building at the Hanford nuclear reservaton for demolition. It once recovered uranium from waste left from processing for nuclear weapons. | 06/15/11 16:12:50 By - Annette Cary
NOAA expects largest ever dead zone in Gulf of Mexico
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administratio predicts the largest ever dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico this summer. | 06/15/11 16:02:59 By - Karen Nelson
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