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
Volcanic ash from Chile eruption disrupts air travel
Ash from a volcanic eruption in Chile continued to frustrate travelers Tuesday as flights were grounded in South America, Australia and New Zealand. Anyone with plans to travel to South America is being urged to sign up for flight status alerts with their airline and check for updates online before heading to the airport. | 06/15/11 06:52:12 By - Hannah Sampson
Wind power farm on Alaska's Fire Island moves closer to reality
A deal that would allow Cook Inlet Region Inc. to build an electricity-generating wind turbine farm on Alaska's Fire Island is in the final stages. The board of Chugach Electric Association, the biggest power utility in Alaska, is scheduled to consider today a proposed contract to buy wind power from CIRI. | 06/15/11 06:33:12 By - Rosemary Shinohara
House panel ponders death for salmon-munching sea lions
House subcommittee began deliberating Tuesday whether to speed up the killing of an exploding population of California sea lions that's preying on thousands of endangered salmon in the Columbia River. | 06/14/11 18:15:00 By - Rob Hotakainen
Administration raises questions about lake expansion
The Obama administration on Tuesday raised caution signals over a Merced Irrigation District proposal to expand Lake McClure. | 06/14/11 17:46:00 By - Michael Doyle
Lawmakers challenge finding on Yucca Mountain action
Congressional Republicans on Tuesday challenged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's inspector general over his finding last week that the NRC's chairman did nothing illegal in his role in ending plans for a dump for highly radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. | 06/14/11 16:32:00 By - Renee Schoof
Want to reduce your heating, cooling bills by 90 percent?
A house built for a new museum exhibit in Cleveland shows how walls more than a foot thick, big triple-pane windows, doors like bank vaults and clever engineering can cut heating and cooling costs - and pollution - by 90 percent. The house keeps a comfortable temperature year-round. No need for heavy sweaters, no drafts, no noise. | 06/14/11 15:27:00 By - Renee Schoof
Can wireless technology stand up in a Florida hurricane?
Next time a hurricane hits, families will turn to their smartphones to stay in touch, track the storm and find the shortest gasoline lines. To handle the load, wireless carriers are turning to time-tested disaster plans – but on an exponential scale. | 06/14/11 12:44:17 By - Bridget Carey
Melting snowpack may lead to floods in Yosemite
The rising Merced River today may force some Yosemite Valley campers to higher ground, the National Park Service says. As June temperatures climb, the near-record snowpack is melting faster, which may cause flooding in Yosemite National Park for several days, according to the federal River Forecast Center. | 06/14/11 12:19:30 By - Mark Grossi
Gulf drought leads to potential 'burn ban' on fireworks
Fireworks stands will begin opening Wednesday. But with burn bans in force across the Gulf Coast, some people are calling for a ban on fireworks. | 06/14/11 11:58:42 By - Mary Perez and Melissa Scallan
Administration, Delta farmers oppose bill to halt river restoration
A controversial bill blocking restoration of the San Joaquin River would "ignore universally accepted" science and "hasten the decline of numerous species," a top Obama administration official declared Monday. | 06/13/11 17:20:00 By - Michael Doyle
California zoo aims to improve nutrition for its animals
Every day at Fresno Chaffee Zoo, food is chopped, sliced and diced for hundreds of hungry mouths. Chaffee is the first zoo in the U.S. to join with the San Diego Zoo in a program to improve animal nutrition, said Michael Schlegel, director of nutritional services for the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park | 06/13/11 12:27:41 By - Marc Benjamin
Drought impact in Florida is broad and deep
Drought is overwhelming the Everglades. | 06/10/11 16:16:56 By - Curtis Morgan
Judges OK delay of Calif. nuclear plant's license
The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant's liclense renewal has been delayed until December 2015 to give time for seismic studies. | 06/09/11 11:31:55 By - David Sned
Babbitt urges Obama to protect Western wilderness
Former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt is calling on President Barack Obama to stand up to Republicans against new legilsative moves to prevent the protection of wilderness. Babbitt says the House majority is taking "the most radical course in history" on the environment. | 06/09/11 11:05:36 By - Rocky Barker
Pollution worsens kids' asthma, but efforts to cut it split Congress
Summer air pollution could trigger more asthma attacks for children who live in industrial cities, and the Environmental Protection Agency would like stricter rules to cut smog. | 06/08/11 18:30:00 By - Jarondakie Patrick
Bill to help Camp Lejeune water victims faces uphill fight
Legislation that could offer health care to hundreds of thousands of victims of water contamination at Camp Lejeune, N.C., continues to have trouble gaining traction on a debt-wary Capitol Hill. | 06/08/11 17:28:00 By - Barbara Barrett
Senate panel opens door for BP rig workers' families to sue
The Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday approved a bill to help the families of the 11 victims of last year's Deepwater Horizon blowout by changing outdated federal maritime laws, one going back to the 1850s, to make it possible to recover damages from BP, rig operator Transocean and rig subcontractors. | 06/08/11 15:27:00 By - Maria Recio
KC tests new 'green' solution for sidewalks, sewer overflows
Concrete doesn’t usually act like a sponge, but that’s exactly what the pervious concrete sidewalk did when the Kansas City water department tested it Tuesday. | 06/08/11 11:48:59 By - Lynn Horsley
Drought spurs early wheat cutting in Kansas
The worst droughts in decades are wilting wheat fields worldwide. In Kansas, the custom cutters arrived around noon Monday at Karen and Harold Sturm's farm near Caldwell. | 06/07/11 16:01:39 By - Beccy Tanner
As decision on Grand Canyon mining nears, sides line up
A moratorium on new uranium mining around the Grand Canyon expires in six weeks, and the Interior Department is under pressure from conservation groups and mining companies over what to do about it. | 06/06/11 19:03:00 By - Renee Schoof
Environmentalists urge ship speed limits to protect whales
Environmental groups want stricter ship speed limits off portions of the California coast to protect marine mammals from getting slammed. | 06/06/11 18:22:00 By - Michael Doyle
One year after Gulf oil spill, Florida tourism is up but questions remain
All-terrain vehicles still rumble across the eight-mile stretch of Pensacola Beach each morning, driven by workers looking for tar balls. One year after crude from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion reached Florida’s shores, cleanup crews are still unearthing the sticky hardened bits of oil. | 06/06/11 07:06:35 By - Laura Figueroa
Alaska policy forces two scientists off beluga recovery team
A Parnell administration rule that requires Alaska state scientists to adhere to official policy and not the principles of independent science when they work outside their agencies continues to fuel debate more than a month after two biologists were removed from a federal beluga whale recovery team. | 06/06/11 06:41:30 By - Richard Mauer
Scientific voyage to study Japanese nuclear impact on ocean
A team of scientists will set out Saturday from Hawaii on a research expedition to study how radioactive contamination from the nuclear power plant crisis in Japan has spread in the Pacific Ocean and what effects it will have on marine life, the food chain and human health. | 06/03/11 17:16:00 By - Renee Schoof
Texas school, business to convert natural gas to jet fuel, diesel
The University of Texas and a Fort Worth company plan to commercialize a new process for converting natural gas to a synthetic fuel. | 06/03/11 11:08:40 By - Jack Z. Smith
Bio-defense lab in Kansas to get tornado upgrade
Government officials said they’re confident a new bio-defense lab planned for Manhattan, Kan., can safely withstand a direct hit from the most powerful tornado. A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, which is building the $650 million National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, said designers agreed earlier this year to “harden” the facility to make it more resistant to tornado damage. | 06/03/11 11:00:14 By - Dave Helling and Mike McGraw
Study of nation's wetlands begins
The nation's wetlands are being studied to assess water and soil conditions in some ofthe nation's most vulnerable ecosystems. | 06/03/11 10:50:16 By - Anne Gonzales
Oil spill was economic, not ecological disaster, Barbour says
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour came to the U.S. Capitol on Thursday with a message: last summer's Gulf of Mexico oil spill was an economic — not an environmental - disaster, and he wants lawmakers to help shore up the region's hard-hit fishing, tourism and energy sectors. | 06/02/11 18:57:00 By - Maria Recio
Administration opposes bill to scuttle San Joaquin River restoration
California officials and the Obama administration on Thursday strongly objected to a politically divisive bill that blocks San Joaquin River restoration efforts, casting the bill's long-term prospects into doubt. | 06/02/11 15:27:00 By - Michael Doyle
Federal government switches to cleaner cars at Hanford
Frank Armijo, the president of Hanford's Mission Support Alliance, drives around the nuclear reservation in a hybrid Chevy Tahoe. | 06/01/11 14:12:56 By - Annette Cary
WHO finds possible link between cell phones and cancer
The World Health Organization for the first time has rated cellphone use as possibly a cause of cancer. | 06/01/11 14:07:21 By - Diane Stafford
Lawsuit targets Calif. solar project
A lawsuit filed in California says a commercial solar project would cause irreparable harm to endangered and rare plants and animals. | 06/01/11 13:52:50 By - David Sneed
Is Three Gorges Dam making China's worst drought in decades worse?
Southern China is going through its worst drought in at least half a century. Barges reportedly are having trouble navigating some spots of the Yangtze River, and farmers are reporting bone-dry rice fields in a nation already concerned about food prices. Over it all is a nagging question: Has the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project, made things worse? | 05/30/11 13:16:00 By - Tom Lasseter
Extreme weather's frequency to increase
The deadliest tornadoes in decades. Severe flooding on the Mississippi River. Drought in Texas, and heavy rains in Tennessee. What's up with the weather? Scientists say there are connections between many of the severe weather events of the past month and global warming. | 05/25/11 17:51:00 By - Renee Schoof
As ice melts and technology improves, interest in Arctic grows
Nations with interests in the Arctic region — including the United States — are beginning to stake their claims on the resource-rich region. Although numerous logistical challenges to oil and gas exploration in the region remain, the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that as much of a third of the world's undiscovered gas and 13 percent of its undiscovered oil may be in the offshore Arctic, in relatively shallow water. | 05/24/11 16:03:00 By - Jarondakie Patrick and Erika Bolstad
Florida Keys volunteers fight to keep stranded pilot whales alive
Since the first plea for help came over a Florida Keys radio station, hundreds of volunteers have worked around the clock to save pilot whales that mysteriously stranded themselves in shallow waters. | 05/24/11 06:54:55 By - Cammy Clark
Congress probes land deal in Alaska's Tongass forest
For decades, conservationists, the U.S. Forest Service, tribes, Native corporations and the people who live in the Tongass National Forest have warred over how to manage the vast temperate rain forest that covers most of southeast Alaska. The fight resurfaces in Washington this week. | 05/23/11 18:37:07 By - Erika Bolstad
Mississippi River flooding may wipe out oysters
As record amounts of freshwater head down the Mississippi River toward the Mississippi Sound, the oyster industry can expect to face extreme losses, an official with the Department of Marine Resources said Tuesday. | 05/18/11 07:06:41 By - Tammy Smith
Interior secretary defends offshore-drilling permit changes
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday defended his agency's changes in the year after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, dismissing criticism of a lengthier and more extensive permitting process as mere "Washington noise." | 05/17/11 18:01:00 By - Erika Bolstad
Japan's nuclear crisis sparks reviews of U.S. power plants
Duke Energy's nuclear power plants aren't equipped with firefighting equipment that is designed to withstand earthquakes, according to plant inspections launched after the Japanese nuclear crisis. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission initiated the inspections to see how the 104 U.S. reactors would respond to Fukushima Dai-ichi-style events that they weren't designed to survive. | 05/17/11 07:09:29 By - Bruce Henderson
Cost to route around Kansas prairie chickens? Millions
Protecting a covey of 140 lesser prairie chickens southeast of Dodge City, Kan., could add hundreds of millions of dollars to the price of a critical wind energy power line. | 05/16/11 13:20:19 By - Steve Everly
Adopt a shark program helps fund Miami researcher's work
Here in Florida, you can adopt a highway, a park, a manatee, a tree — donating money and time to make sure the object or creature of your interest receives care and upkeep. And now, you can also adopt a shark. | 05/16/11 06:59:01 By - Susan Cocking
California plans closing some state parks
State parks officials today announced the closure of 70 parks because of the state budget deficit, including the governor's mansion and the Stanford mansion in Sacramento. | 05/13/11 19:19:09 By - Tory Van Oot
Crowds at Yosemite miss other wonderful waterfalls
This is the time of year when everyone and their uncle flocks to Yosemite Valley to view waterfalls at their gushing best. And for good reason. But the valley doesn't own a monopoly. | 05/12/11 12:15:37 By - Marek Warszawski
Fracking chemical disclosure bill passes Texas House
The Texas House gave tentative approval Wednesday to a bill requiring natural gas drillers to publicly disclose the chemicals they use in the controversial practice known as hydraulic fracturing. | 05/12/11 07:32:06 By - Aman Batheja
Homemade levee built to shield 100-year-old family business from flood
Lee Jones is fighting night and day to build up a levee to protect his family's lumber yard from the rising Mississippi River. The business will was to celebrate its centennial this month. | 05/12/11 13:03:38 By - Karen Nelson
Groups sue Ky. coal company for water violations
Four environmental groups sued a coal company in Kentucky in federal court, saying it submitted false and incorrect water reports to state regulators. The lawsuit says 48 times the company's data for discharged pollutants was exactly the same as from a prior month. | 05/12/11 12:37:05 By - Dori Hjalmarson
GOP lawmakers resume bid to sink San Joaquin River restoration plan
Republican lawmakers on Wednesday resumed their controversial efforts to repeal a San Joaquin River restoration plan and curtail fish and wildlife protections. | 05/11/11 17:54:00 By - Michael Doyle
Bugs used to fight exotic plants in Everglades
A new research facility in Florida will raise bugs to attack invasive plants in the Everglades. | 05/11/11 16:23:25 By - Curtis Morgan
Study: Higher clean car standards could save lives
California could save $7.2 billion or more in health and other societal costs by adopting tough clean car standards, a new report said. The state and federal government are in the process of drafting new fuel-efficiency and greenhouse gas-emission rules that could raise the average mileage rates for new cars to as much as 62 miles per gallon by the year 2025. | 05/11/11 06:46:31 By - Rick Daysog
Republicans push drilling off California coast; Democrats say no
High gas prices have reignited a familiar debate about drilling off California's coast, with everyone playing their usual part and the outcome pretty much predictable. | 05/10/11 18:42:00 By - Michael Doyle
EPA looks into industrial dumping problems in SC
Officials find that a South Carolina city failed to keep track of an industry's discharges for lead. | 05/09/11 16:18:50 By -
California officials consider opening Delta for recreation
California plans to consider making the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta more open for recreation. The area is nearly as large as Rhode Island, but has few parks. | 05/09/11 11:16:35 By - Matt Weiser
Democrat gets GOP support for Camp Lejeune water bill
A congressional Democrat has again introduced legislation to help Marine veterans and family members affected by historic water contamination at Camp Lejeune, N.C. | 05/06/11 16:57:00 By - Barbara Barrett
Some fear that EPA is going too far in regulating pesticides
Many farmers across the nation want to make sure that federal regulators don't make it more difficult to spread chemicals on their land. On Capitol Hill, those farmers have found allies in Republicans and some Democrats who are working to ease the regulations and strip some power from the Environmental Protection Agency. The back and forth speaks to broader tension between some Republicans and the Obama administration over environmental policy. | 05/06/11 16:34:00 By - Halimah Abdullah and Rob Hotakainen
Critics of coal, nuclear attend Duke Energy shareholders meeting
Protesters attended a Duke Energy shareholders meeting. Some condemned coal and nuclear plans, and others were against the company's renewable energy. | 05/06/11 12:50:32 By - Bruce Henderson
Farm runoff _ slippery issue in California
California regulators have proposed new rules that would require farmers to reduce runoff from fertilizer and pesticide use and create buffer zones between farms and creeks. But the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board lacks a quorum and is unable to act. | 05/06/11 12:41:14 By - David Sneed
Mississippi river floodwaters swallow up homes in Delta
Elaine Fuller, 74, walked through her empty home in a rural community near Yazoo City. With the help of church friends, neighbors and family, she put on white waders, packed her belongings -- everything but a clock on the kitchen wall -- filled an 18-wheeler van and had it hauled away. | 05/06/11 12:27:42 By - Karen Nelson
Scientists measure Arctic soot and its role in warming
American scientists working on an island far above the Arctic Circle have been launching unmanned aircraft and digging snow samples to measure how soot helps melt Arctic snow and ice. | 05/05/11 14:02:00 By - Renee Schoof
Draft plan to protect California's Delta inadequate, scientists say
An ambitious draft plan to protect California's crucial Bay-Delta region is fragmented, incomplete and hard to understand, a National Academy of Sciences panel warned Thursday. | 05/05/11 13:43:00 By - Michael Doyle
Remembering the South's Great Flood of 1927
The Great Flood of 1927 on the Mississippi River set high marks that might be broken this month. The historic flood is well known in Mississippi and Louisiana. | 05/05/11 13:49:10 By - Karen Nelson
Wolves back in the crosshairs in Idaho
The estimated 1,000 wolves that roam Idaho's canyons, mountains and rangeland lost federal protection under the Endangered Species Act on Thursday. State officials plan to allow hunters to kill wolves. | 05/05/11 13:17:43 By - Rocky Barker
As lovebugs get busy, so do car washes
They are the stuff of conspiracy theories, myth and legend. And the subject of scholarly papers as well as the bane of drivers who encounter them in vast swarms this time of year. They are, of course, lovebugs. | 05/04/11 15:01:43 By - James A. Jones Jr.
Wildfire endangers Florida panthers in Big Cypress National Preserve
A wildfire has burned more than 16,400 acres of the Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida. | 05/04/11 13:55:20 By - Sun Sentinel
BP will be penalized in North Slope oil spill settlement
BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. has agreed to pay a $25 million civil fine to settle a federal lawsuit over the largest-ever oil spill on Alaska's North Slope, according to a proposal filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage on Tuesday. | 05/04/11 06:37:22 By - Lisa Demer
Texas natural gas producer fights EPA claim on contaminated water wells
A Texas natural gas producer is fighting the EPA's claim that it contaminated two water wells. | 05/03/11 14:27:32 By - Jack Z. Smith
Japan crisis stalls NC nuclear funding bill
North Carolina's legislature has decided not to vote this year on a bill that would make it easier for utilities to raise rates to pay for new nuclear reactors. | 05/03/11 14:17:09 By - John Murawski
First commercial wind project in Southeast gets NC approval
North Carolina officials have approved a huge wind farm, the state's largest clean energy project by far. If built next year, it will be the first commercial-scale wind energy project in the Southeast and one of the biggest in the nation. | 05/03/11 14:02:52 By - John Murawski
Where birds fly offers clues to humans about climate
Scientists find that the behaviors of birds frogs, ants and fish provide hints of a change in climate. This story is the last in a three-part series about local signs of climate change in North Carolina. | 05/02/11 10:25:43 By - Bruce Henderson
Dutch bicycle experts push pedal power in Miami
Beware. The Dutch are coming, and they’re armed with a radical idea about the future of transportation that could cure obesity and global warming, stall traffic congestion, and maybe shake the very steering wheel from your hands: Bicycles. | 05/02/11 07:01:30 By - Andres Viglucci
Permit process clouds solar projects
Solar companies in California say their installations have been bogged down by problems in getting permits. | 05/02/11 10:33:59 By - Rick Daysog
In nuclear accident, risks extend beyond evacuation zone
The nuclear power accidents at Fukushima this spring and at Chernobyl 25 years ago Tuesday show that radiation releases can endanger people and contaminate land many miles beyond evacuation zones. | 05/02/11 18:11:00 By - Renee Schoof
Recovery under way for white sturgeon in Columbia River
Over a thousand juevnile white sturgeon were released in eastern Washington state as part of a year-long recovery project. Sturgeon can live for 100 years. | 04/29/11 14:04:38 By - John Trumbo
Four coal companies settle Kentucky flood suit
Four coal companies settled a lawsuit with 91 Kentucky residents over flooding in 2009. | 04/29/11 13:51:30 By - Dori Hjalmarson
Group says rare fox should be protected
A conservation group wants the government to protect the Sierra Nevada red fox under the Endangered Species Act. It's one of the rarest mammals in North America. | 04/28/11 11:39:35 By - Matt Weiser
Last plutonium reactor going into long-term storage at Hanford
Workers are ahead of schedule to put the last plutonium production reactor at the Hanford reservation into long-term storage. Six plutonium reactors, produced materials for nuclear weapons, and N Reactor is the last one being placed in storage. | 04/27/11 15:23:51 By - Annette Cary
Judge wants EPA to enforce Everglades pollution rules
Aiming a legal shot directly across the bow of Gov. Rick Scott’s anti-regulation agenda, a Miami federal judge cleared the way for the federal government to do something he contends the state has failed to do for decades: Enforce water pollution standards tough enough to protect the Everglades. | 04/27/11 07:11:48 By - Curtis Morgan
Poll: Most Americans think a nuclear accident likely here
Most Americans fear that the United States someday could face the kind of nuclear emergency that's plagued Japan in recent weeks, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll. | 04/26/11 17:29:00 By - David Lightman
More flooding, less salmon habitat predicted for West
Global warming could increase flooding, shrink salmon habitat and invite in more invasive species in the West, scientists conclude in a sobering new report. | 04/25/11 17:55:00 By - Michael Doyle
Hunters' polar-bear trophies stuck in legal limbo
Until they were classified as a threatened species in the United States three years ago, a Canadian polar bear was the ultimate trophy for many elite American sport hunters. Today, the rare trophies from those hunts are in a legal limbo that stretches from the Arctic Circle to the Canadian capital in Ottawa to the halls of the U.S. Congress. | 04/25/11 17:11:00 By - Erika Bolstad
Using nukes to mine natural gas? A tale from the '70s
Bomb, baby, bomb. The U.S. sits on a trove of natural gas, but it’s trapped in shale and other rock formations. Using chemicals and pressurized water to force it out takes an environmental toll. So here’s Plan B: Let’s plug some nuclear bombs into the shale, light the fuse and let the natural gas flow. Don’t snicker. That was tried in the 1960s and ’70s. | 04/25/11 07:20:17 By - Steve Everly
Fla. governor to EPA: Water guidelines aren’t necessary here
TALLAHASSEE -- The day after the Florida House passed a bill to ban implementation of water quality standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Administration, Gov. Rick Scott on Friday asked the agency to rescind a January 2009 determination that the federal rules are necessary for Florida. | 04/23/11 14:59:09 By - Janet Zink
Preserving Kansas' prairie
Imagine Kansas without a prairie. Without pure running creeks or streams. Without wildlife — prairie chickens, swift foxes, ferruginous hawks, black-footed ferrets and prairie dogs. It could happen, biologists say, and already is in many parts of the state. | 04/22/11 14:04:46 By - Beccy Tanner
BP makes $1 billion downpayment on Gulf restoration
BP has made a $1 billion downpayment toward restoration in the Gulf of Mexico. It's a step toward fulfilling the company's obligation to fund the restoration work from last year's oil disaster. | 04/21/11 14:06:13 By - Karen Nelson
Idaho OK's first natural gas drilling
Idaho is considering how to handle hydraulic fracking, a natural gas drilling method that some critics say could pollute water. A state commission gave the go-ahead for the first natural gas driller in the state. | 04/21/11 13:41:56 By - Rocky Barker
Salmon return to Sacramento
California is reopening salmon fishing in the Sacramento Valley for the first time since 2007, when the population crashed. | 04/21/11 13:26:43 By - Matt Weiser
Study: Gulf spill's social costs may linger for years
A team that's spent two decades studying psychological distress among residents who lived near the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska has found striking similarities among those affected by the Deepwater Horizon spill. | 04/20/11 18:51:00 By - Erika Bolstad
Biloxi local government defending shopping with BP oil spill grants
Local government leaders in Biloxi are defending what has been called a shopping spree with millions of dollars of emergency grants from BP, saying they were uncertain what they needed for the unprecedented disaster and didn’t want to be caught ill-equipped. | 04/20/11 12:25:34 By - Geoff Pender
California county approves first utility solar project
In California, county lawmakers in San Luis Obispo approved their county's first large solar project. | 04/20/11 11:37:45 By - David Sneed
Plan to cut all trees and shrubs on levees headed to court
Environmentalists say they'll file a lawsuit against rules that would require all shrubs and trees to be cut from levees in California's central valley. The region has only 5 percent of its historic riparian habitat. | 04/20/11 11:27:50 By - Matt Weiser
Florida utility revives plan to raise rates to pay for solar
Florida Power & Light has proposed a compromise plan that would allow state regulators to determine whether rates could be raised to pay for renewable energy plants. | 04/20/11 11:20:25 By - Mary Ellen Klas
Trial begins in alleged $33 million Kentucky oil and gas drilling scam
Three people alleged to have been involved in an oil and gas well drilling scam in which about 500 investors lost more than $33 million went on trial in federal court in Lexington on Tuesday. | 04/20/11 11:53:04 By - Jennifer Hewlett
A year after BP blowout, Gulf lawmakers say drill
A year after the BP oil spill put the brakes on full-bore domestic production, it's back to "drill, baby, drill" as federal lawmakers, anxious about rising gasoline prices, push legislation to open offshore leases and make it easier to drill domestically. | 04/19/11 17:00:00 By - Maria Recio
Florida won't join oil spill lawsuit
Florida's governor says the state will not join a lawsuit against Transocean, the operator of the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded a year ago, setting off the nation's worst oil accident. | 04/19/11 16:22:42 By - By Mary Ellen Klas and Katie Sanders
Chevron defends itself in Ecuador environmental settlement
For almost a decade, celebrities, journalists and shareholders have tromped through Ecuador’s jungles on competing excursions that have become a routine part of what could be the world’s most expensive environmental case. Villagers claim Chevron’s predecessor pumped millions of gallons of oil-tainted wastewater into creeks and streams, among other practices. | 04/19/11 07:13:31 By - Jim Wyss
Tribe's tsunami plan: Move to national park
The Quileute Tribal School is perched just a stone's throw from a rugged ocean beach framed by sea stacks and islands and splashed by powerful waves at this remote northwest corner of the U.S. After a killer tsunami hit Japan last month following a 9.0 earthquake, people up and down the Pacific coast worry that the next tsunami might forever change their lives. | 04/18/11 15:53:00 By - Rob Hotakainen and John Dodge
Ticket scalping happening in Yosemite
Ticket scalping is a crass reality for the Giants, the Lakers and Lady Gaga, but here's a wave of price-gouging you may have missed: Yosemite National Park. | 04/18/11 13:12:30 By - Marjie Lundstrom
Environmental groups get caught in their own wolf trap
President Barack Obama signed the budget resolution Friday that for the first time removed a species from the endangered species list by congressional action. The delisting of Rocky Mountain gray wolves means that hunters in Idaho and Montana will be able to shoot wolves again. | 04/18/11 12:27:35 By - Rocky Barker
Wracked with budget cuts, Fresno considers outsourcing county parks
Fresno County leaders have begun recruiting outside groups to help run a public park system wracked by budget cuts. | 04/18/11 12:19:41 By - Kurtis Alexander
Gulf residents leery of what's next after BP oil spill
The rebuilding process one year after the BP oil spill is leaving those who live along the northern Gulf distrusting of government, optimistic about the beaches and this year’s crop of seafood, but leery that what lies below the surface of the Gulf in the water and on the sea floor will haunt them for decades and generations. | 04/18/11 07:42:31 By - Karen Nelson
A year after the BP spill, drilling discussion on the rise
One year later, the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history looks more and more like just a big bump in the road in the drive to drill deeper in the Gulf of Mexico and potentially closer to Florida’s coastline. In the months since the anxious, ugly summer of the monster slick, political tide and public opinion seem to have shifted. | 04/18/11 07:30:13 By - Curtis Morgan
California wildlife suffering through use of new rat poisons
Outside Palm Desert, a young bobcat dies mysteriously at a nature preserve. South of Nevada City, a farmer finds an owl dead near his decoy shed. In San Rafael, a red-shouldered hawk bleeds heavily from its mouth and nose before succumbing at an animal care center. Each of those incidents shares a link to a widely used toxin that is turning up at dangerous levels in wildlife across California: rat poison | 04/18/11 00:07:24 By - Tom Knudson
Oil companies' new Gulf drilling plans called inadequate
Oil companies recently turned in their first plans for exploratory drilling in deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including new information the government has required since last year's BP blowout about how they'd try to prevent and cope with another oil disaster. | 04/15/11 15:55:00 By - Renee Schoof and Kevin G. Hall
Lawmakers blast Navy over Lejeune water contamination
Five members of Congress on Friday called the Department of the Navy to task — again — for what they say is an apparent resistance to keeping veterans informed about past water contamination at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. | 04/15/11 14:19:00 By - Barbara Barrett
BP oil spill cleanup chief says less residue is washing ashore
BP's chief of operations for the Gulf cleanup, Mike Utsler, has been on the job since the first days of the spill. He's shifted it from a major effort in the summer and fall to pulling back as oil residue washing ashore has diminished each month since the winter. | 04/15/11 07:18:39 By - Karen Nelson
EPA settles with TVA over pollution from coal plants
The Environmental Protection Agency announced a sweeping settlement Thursday with the Tennessee Valley Authority over pollution from 11 coal-fired power plants in at least three states. The agreement requires the TVA to shut down many of its coal-fired boilers and invest an estimated $3 billion to $5 billion on new and upgraded pollution controls. | 04/14/11 20:45:00 By - Halimah Abdullah and Mary Cornatzer
Pacific salmon may be dying from leukemia-type virus
In Canada's Fraser River, a mysterious illness has killed millions of Pacific salmon, and scientists have a new hypothesis about why: The wild salmon are suffering from viral infections similar to those linked to some forms of leukemia and lymphoma. | 04/14/11 18:26:00 By - Rob Hotakainen
EPA appeals panel is accused of thwarting Arctic drilling
Saying the Environmental Protection Agency's air-permitting process has "run amok," House Republicans on Wednesday debated legislation that would make it easier for companies such as Shell to get permission to drill offshore in the Arctic region. | 04/13/11 15:52:00 By - Erika Bolstad
Kentucky becomes 16th state to report fatal bat disease
A fatal bat disease has been confirmed in Kentucky for the first time, state and federal officials said Wednesday. White-nose syndrome was first detected in New York state in 2006 and has killed more than 1 million cave-dwelling bats in eastern North America. With confirmation of the disease in Kentucky, 16 states and three Canadian provinces have now been affected. | 04/13/11 14:21:41 By - Greg Kocher
Florida Gov. Scott urged to sue over BP Gulf oil spill
The rosy scene bothered Tampa attorney Steve Yerrid. There was Gov. Rick Scott on Monday, happily announcing a $30 million marketing and tourism grant from BP for seven Panhandle counties, thanking a BP senior executive at his side for "stepping up." | 04/13/11 07:05:04 By - Katie Sanders
Brown signs law to make California utilities more green
Gov. Jerry Brown Tuesday signed a far-reaching renewable energy law requiring California utilities to obtain a third of their electricity from wind, solar and other green sources. | 04/12/11 20:18:13 By - Rick Daysog and David Siders
Japan's nuclear crisis comes home as fuel risks get fresh look
As Japan struggles with radioactive contamination from one of the world's worst nuclear accidents, American nuclear experts are watching for clues on how to make U.S. nuclear power plants more resistant to the forces of nature or hostile attacks. | 04/12/11 15:28:00 By - Renee Schoof
PG&E asks for delay in licensing nuclear plant in Calif.
Pacific Gas and Electric has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to delay license renewal for the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California until it completes 3-D seismic studies. | 04/12/11 15:30:15 By - David Sneed
Ethanol producers look into the weeds for corn substitute
This country's battle to curb oil imports is being plotted in high-tech laboratories and elite universities hunting for breakthroughs in alternative fuels. The goal: Instead of using corn to make ethanol, see if it's feasible to use cellulosic fiber, particularly six-foot tall stalks of switchgrass. | 04/11/11 20:58:01 By - Steve Everly and Scott Canon
Kentucky miner finds 300 million-year-old shark fossil
On Feb. 24, Jay Wright, 25, a miner for Webster County Coal, noticed something jutting from the roof of the Dotiki Mine, where he was bolting a roof 700 feet underground. Wright had found the 300-million-year-old black jawbone and still-sharp teeth of an Edestus, a prehistoric shark. | 04/11/11 16:52:27 By - Cheryl Truman
Federal budget includes provision to remove wolves from endangered species list
The late-night budget deal includes a provision that will remove wolves from the endangered species list. | 04/11/11 14:00:22 By - Rocky Barker
Longhorn beetle no longer endangered, lawsuit argues
A group of Sacramento-area property owners filed suit on Friday to remove the valley elderberry longhorn beetle from the endangered species list. The dime-size beetle, unique to California's Central Valley, has been the bane of developers and flood-control officials since it was first listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1980. | 04/09/11 12:06:05 By - Matt Wesier
Officials may seek Calif. nuclear relicensing delay
Officials in San Luis Obispo plan to ask a power company to suspend its relicensing of a nuclear plant until seismic studies have been completed. | 04/08/11 16:29:53 By - David Sneed
'Unusual event' declared at Washington nuclear plant
A small amount of hydrogen gas was released from a pipe and ignted at a nuclear power plant in Washington state. | 04/08/11 16:15:41 By -
Kentucky governor visits surface mine areas
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear kept a promise to coal-mining protesters and visited counties with surface mines. | 04/08/11 15:57:27 By - Dori Hjalmarson
House passes EPA limits a day after Senate defeated them
In a largely symbolic gesture driven by growing Republican frustration with the Obama administration's environmental policies, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives on Thursday passed a measure that would bar the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases. | 04/07/11 17:11:00 By - Halimah Abdullah
Senate votes down effort to weaken EPA authority
The Senate voted Wednesday against a measure that would have blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from issuing new regulations on greenhouse gasses — a move that further cripples efforts by lawmakers to weaken the agency's regulatory authority. | 04/06/11 20:11:00 By - Halimah Abdullah and Renee Schoof
Thousands of starfish wash ashore in South Carolina
It wasn't pollution or radiation from Japan that caused thousands of starfish to wash up on the shores in South Carolina. The answer is much simplier. | 04/06/11 13:51:44 By - Gina Vasselli
Rains slowly replenish Wichita aquifers
Farmers and city residents spent decades depleting portions of the Equus Beds aquifer, drying out part of the aquifer roughly the size of Cheney Reservoir. But now 65 percent of that water is back, thanks mostly to several rainy years. | 04/05/11 13:35:45 By - Brent D. Wistrom
Tea party group wants Duke Energy chief fired over DNC offer
FreedomWorks, a conservative group aligned with the tea party movement, has launched a petition drive to fire Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers for guaranteeing a $10 million line of credit to the 2012 Democratic National Convention. | 04/04/11 18:10:49 By - Jim Morrill
Is the moment for electric cars finally driving up?
When oil hit a record price of $147 a barrel in July 2008, it was a game-changing moment that sparked a serious push to create electric cars and hybrid electric engines that could help wean Americans off oil. Today, crude is back over $100 a barrel and the payoff is the first generation of mass-produced electric cars rolling off production lines. | 04/04/11 13:27:00 By - Kevin G. Hall and Renee Schoof
Electric cars likely to spark new 'smart grid'
Entire industries grew up around gasoline-powered cars, ranging from the ubiquitous filling stations to fast-food restaurants along highway exits. Similarly, the rise of electric cars probably will transform more than just the automobile. | 04/04/11 13:22:00 By - Kevin G. Hall
Nuclear disaster fuels debate about Fla. evacuation plans
The uncertain science of protecting the public from nuclear accidents is a concern in heavily populated, hurricane-prone South Florida. | 04/04/11 10:03:40 By - Curtis Morgan
Dam plans in Calif. raise questions of costs and environmental damage
California has a lot of water now from the winter runoff. Dams to store water for later use have been considered, but have high costs and environmental problems. | 04/04/11 09:55:55 By - Matt Weiser
Sea lions' appetite for salmon has lawmakers out for blood
The California sea lions were unwelcome visitors from the very beginning, greeted with yells, rubber bullets and firecrackers when they swam up the Columbia River to gobble up thousands of endangered salmon at the Bonneville Dam. This spring, the sea lions have found safe harbor at the dam, about 50 miles east of Portland, Ore., after an appellate court in San Francisco ruled that states and the National Marine Fisheries Service had to stop the killings. But the reprieve could be short-lived | 04/03/11 13:56:00 By - Rob Hotakainen
A weary, ailing Florida town welcomes spotlight
It’s been nearly seven years since Tallevast, Fla., residents learned that the wells they had been using for their homes were contaminated with highly toxic substances. | 04/03/11 13:36:42 By - Toni Whitt
Don Young says no thanks to Humane Society award
Calling them "hypocrites, plain and simple," Alaska Rep. Don Young thumbed his nose last week at one of the nation's foremost animal advocacy organizations, the Humane Society. | 04/03/11 13:27:10 By - Erika Bolstad
New House probe of Obama: Decision to dump Yucca site
Lawmakers from states stuck with tons of radioactive materials left over from the Cold War Friday cheered a House of Representatives panel's decision to investigate the Obama administration's scrapping of a central nuclear waste dump in Nevada. | 04/01/11 19:20:00 By - James Rosen
On public lands plan, GOP tells Obama to 'get off my lawn'
President Barack Obama wants to make it easier for Americans to use parks and public lands, saying that too many "can go days without stepping on a single blade of grass." But with the nation deep in debt and facing a long backlog of projects on its public lands, many Republicans are lining up against Obama's plan, leaving its fate uncertain. | 04/01/11 17:19:00 By - Rob Hotakainen
EPA opposes plan for S.C. gold mine
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency opposes plans for a huge gold mine north of Camden, South Carolina, saying in a recent letter that the project could threaten drinking water, wildlife and creeks that drain off the site. Romarco Minerals wants to create what would be the largest gold mine east of the Mississippi River. But the mine would excavate or fill an unusually large number of wetlands and streams — and the EPA said it can’t support the plan. | 04/01/11 07:29:25 By - Sammy Fretwell
Kansas nuclear plant among three in U.S. needing more oversight, NRC reports
Kansas' Wolf Creek nuclear power plant is among three in the United States that need more intensive oversight, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission told Congress on Thursday. The other two are the H.B. Robinson plant in Hartsville, S.C., and the Fort Calhoun plant near Omaha. | 04/01/11 07:13:44 By - Mike McGraw
Alaska utility's wind power plan criticized for low payouts
Anchorage's city power utility made a long-awaited offer this week to buy wind power from Cook Inlet Region Inc., backers of a proposed wind turbine project on Fire Island. But CIRI senior vice president Ethan Schutt said the offer is so low it's ridiculous and contains unworkable terms. | 04/01/11 06:34:25 By - Rosemary Shinohara
McConnell leads fight against Obama's environmental policy
In Kentucky, where coal mining has been the lifeblood of many rural communities, miners and the lawmakers who represent them say the Obama administration's push for regulations that cap greenhouse gases and toughen mine permitting requirements feels like an assault. | 03/31/11 07:08:17 By - Halimah Abdullah and Renee Schoof
Alaska Sens. Murkowski Begich want Obama energy plan specifics
In an energy security speech that focused heavily on increasing domestic oil and gas production, President Barack Obama mentioned Alaska just once. The mention came just after Obama criticized oil companies for sitting on leases, and right before he suggested that there's also a need to focus on cleaner, renewable sources of energy that won't have as significant a contribution to climate change. | 03/31/11 06:39:26 By - Erika Bolstad
Obama renews pitch for clean energy to reduce oil appetite
President Barack Obama on Wednesday announced a goal to cut U.S. reliance on foreign oil by one-third by 2025, saying that demand from growing economies such as China and India probably will force prices up in the long term. | 03/30/11 19:09:00 By - Margaret Talev and Kevin G. Hall
N.C. bill would double solar power requirements
Solar energy is proving so successful in North Carolina that industry advocates want to double the amount of sun-powered electricity that is required by state law. | 03/30/11 07:25:11 By - John Murawski
Green energy law will increase rates for Californians, utilities say
California consumers could see sharp electricity rate increases under sweeping new legislation that would require them to ramp up their energy supplies from wind, solar and other green sources, local utilities said. The state Assembly approved a measure requiring power companies to obtain up to 33 percent of their energy supplies from green sources, up sharply from the current 20 percent. The state Senate already has passed the bill. But utilities say they face steep cost increases to comply with the measure. | 03/30/11 06:47:29 By - Rick Daysog
Alaska's Dutch Harbor shows highest radiation in U.S. from Japan crisis
During the worst week of the Japanese nuclear crisis, the EPA's radiation monitor in Dutch Harbor recorded the highest levels of radioactive iodine fallout in the United States among reporting stations, the agency said. Despite the relatively high levels in the Aleutian Island community on March 19 and 20, state and federal health officials say the amounts of radioactive byproducts were way too small to pose a health risk. | 03/30/11 06:40:02 By - Richard Mauer
80 percent of BP spill fines sought for Gulf Coast states
More than 140 women who'd championed Gulf Coast recovery after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were at it again Tuesday, convening on Capitol Hill to announce that they were supporting legislation that would guarantee the five Gulf Coast states at least 80 percent of BP's fines from last spring's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, an amount that could top $21 billion. | 03/29/11 18:04:00 By - Maria Recio
Congress urged to track cancer clusters better
Activists urged the government Tuesday to let people post and track cancer cases across communities, a public health effort that they say could lead to discoveries of new chemical-related cancer clusters throughout the United States as well as insights into disease management. | 03/29/11 16:27:00 By - Erika Bolstad, Barbara Barrett and Lesley Clark
California's offshore ship emissions rules upheld by 9th Circuit
The merchant shipping industry has failed a second time to short-circuit California's effort to combat the toll on the health of its population from air pollution caused by oceangoing vessels. The industry is contesting California's authority to regulate fuel used by seagoing vessels up to 24 miles off its coast. | 03/29/11 06:53:31 By - Denny Walsh
Chernobyl scientist says nuclear disaster produced 'invisible enemy'
The horrors of the world’s worst nuclear accident greeted Natalia Manzurova when she arrived in the Ukraine after the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl. Speaking at the University of South Carolina at a time of increasing debate about nuclear power, the Russian scientist likened an atomic energy disaster to that of a war, with one major distinction. | 03/29/11 07:33:31 By - Sammy Fretwell
Dominican Republic turns to natural gas in energy crunch
A cab driver who plans ahead, Rafael Macario had his Toyota Camry rigged to run on three different kinds of fuel. Gasoline is the most expensive, propane the most dangerous, and natural gas is his favorite. He is among a growing number of Dominicans banking on natural gas as not just a cleaner form of energy, but one that costs about a third of a gasoline fill-up. | 03/29/11 07:03:06 By - Frances Robles
Texas Rep. Barton praises state's air quality efforts
Texas' environmental regulators are "the best in the country," and "Texas air quality is excellent," U.S. Rep. Joe Barton said last week during an event that highlighted the state's ongoing scrap with federal authorities over air quality. Last year, the EPA rejected the state's unique flexible permitting program as too lenient. | 03/29/11 07:43:00 By - Aman Batheja
Plans for new Calif. nuclear plant face obstacles
Investors in California's Fresno County have plans to build a new nuclear reactor and ship the spent fuel to France. They face a number of hurdles, including public concerns about the nuclear crisis in Japan. | 03/28/11 15:37:24 By - John Ellis and Mark Grossi
Group to tell Senate panel about 42 disease clusters in 13 states
An environmental group will tell a Senate panel Tuesday that it has identified 42 suspected clusters of cancer, birth defects and other illnesses in 13 states. | 03/28/11 15:10:00 By - Lesley Clark
Trace levels of radiation from Japan found on East Coast
The first radioactive fallout from Japan's multi-reactor nuclear accident arrived on the East Coast late last week, Progress Energy and other nuclear plant operators reported. The amounts detected so far are minuscule and pose no public health risks, nuclear experts and health officials said Sunday. | 03/28/11 07:34:36 By - John Murawski
Earthquake science advances - does nuclear safety keep up?
The 104 nuclear reactors providing 20 percent of America's electric power were designed and built in the 1960s and '70s, an era when seismologists knew much less about earthquakes than they do today. | 03/23/11 18:57:00 By - Renee Schoof and Greg Gordon
Decline in native fish in California's Lake Tahoe since 1950s
A new study says that there has been a considerable decline in native fish in Lake Tahoe since 1951. According to a university press release, the study found that 58 percent of the 26 locations historically studied on the lake showed a decline of species or no native species at all. | 03/23/11 13:24:01 By - Bill Lindelof
Georgia farm works to re-establish the American Chestnut tree
Moments after planting a group of young trees behind his Charlane Plantation home, Chuck Leavell was already thinking of future generations of another kind of tree -- his family tree. | 03/23/11 12:57:15 By - Caryn Grant
Alaskan musk oxen found dead at Bering Preserve
At least 32 musk oxen in the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve perished during a nasty storm surge last month, and officials are worried many more may be buried deeper in the ice and out of sight. | 03/23/11 06:36:01 By - Mike Campbell
Obama lacks authority to shutter Yucca site, court told
Lawyers for Washington state and South Carolina on Tuesday accused President Barack Obama of having exceeded his constitutional power in shuttering the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. | 03/22/11 19:15:00 By - James Rosen
North Carolina approves of free electric car chargers for Duke Energy customers
State regulators this morning gave Duke Energy the go-ahead to offer customers free home charging stations for plug-in electric cars. | 03/22/11 13:33:48 By - John Murawski
Calif. lawmaker criticizes utility over quake safety at nuke plant
Calif. state Sen. Sam Blakeslee, a Republican, rebuked PG&E for not suspending license renewal activities until better earthquake mapping is completed. | 03/22/11 13:09:53 By - David Sneed
Spring - and pollen season - has sprung
Yes, pollen is here and causing problems, thanks to nature's way of saying it is making love and lots of it. | 03/22/11 13:08:01 By - Johanna D. Wilson
Historic Macon house gets energy efficiency makover
Josh Rogers admits that the combination that led to the restoration of the historic house in Macon, Georgia, is a little counter-intuitive -- that “green” techniques can be used to restore an historic home. | 03/22/11 12:21:19 By - Phillip Ramanti
Critics question safety of leading plant model for nuclear expansion
Regulators are close to finalizing approval of a design that FPL hopes to install at Turkey Point, but some are skeptical of promises of a simple, safer reactor. | 03/21/11 15:49:10 By - Curtis Morgan
Workers stabilize spent fuel stored at Japanese reactor
Japanese workers, who are risking their lives attempting to cool a half dozen crippled nuclear reactors, managed Saturday to stabilize a storage pool that holds some of the deadliest spent fuel, halting its release of radiation, the Japanese government said. | 03/19/11 18:07:00 By - Greg Gordon
Safety of Japanese reactors questioned long ago in U.S.
Safety questions about the Mark I model nuclear reactors that are burning out of control in Japan were first raised years ago in the U.S., by the nation's top nuclear safety official and by the General Electric engineers who helped design them. | 03/17/11 19:42:00 By - Rob Hotakainen and Greg Gordon
U.S. nuclear plants store more spent fuel than Japan's
U.S. nuclear plants use the same sort of pools to cool spent nuclear-fuel rods as the ones now in danger of spewing radiation at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant, only the U.S. pools hold much more nuclear material. That's raising the question of whether more spent fuel should be taken out of the pools at U.S. power plants to reduce risks. | 03/17/11 19:24:00 By - Renee Schoof
Graham: U.S. nuclear regulations are 'gold standard'
Sen. Lindsey Graham said Thursday that the Japanese crisis hasn't shaken his confidence in nuclear power and praised President Barack Obama for moving ahead with federal loan guarantees to build new plants. | 03/17/11 17:33:00 By - James Rosen
Three radiation monitoring units are headed to Alaska
As federal and state officials continued Wednesday to issue assurances that there was little risk to public health in North America from the nuclear crisis in Japan, the EPA announced it was stepping up its monitoring capability in Alaska, Hawaii and Guam. | 03/17/11 06:42:54 By - Richard Mauer
U.S. officials: Japanese should widen nuclear evacuation zone
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Wednesday that U.S. officials believe at least one Japanese nuclear power reactor is in "partial meltdown," and the top federal nuclear power regulator said that radiation is so high it warrants a much wider evacuation zone. | 03/16/11 20:10:00 By - Greg Gordon
Japan's crisis intensifies debate: Is nuclear worth it?
As the six-day nuclear crisis worsened in Japan on Wednesday, China announced it was suspending construction to rethink its designs for nuclear plants, following the lead of Switzerland and Germany. | 03/16/11 19:21:00 By - Rob Hotakainen and David Lightman
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