Miami judge halts key part of Everglades restoration work
U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro granted a preliminary injunction sought by the Miccosukee Tribe to stop the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from beginning construction of a one-mile bridge along the Tamiami Trail between Florida's east and west coasts. The bridge is intended to allow water to flow freely under the roadway. | 01/02/09 11:49:59 By - Curtis Morgan
Oysters gain champions
Members of the Withers Estuary Community Collaborative have spent quite a bit of time this fall thinking about oysters. They want to build a permanent home for the bivalve mollusks that will help clean the water that flows through Withers Swash and out into the sea. | 01/02/09 07:35:59 By - Lorena Anderson
Green projects hit snags in Idaho
Greener energy sources such as geothermal wells and sprawling wind farms are being touted as the nation's environmentally friendly answer to energy independence, but so far, alternative energy developers are finding that they face many of the same conflicts as traditional generation plants. | 01/02/09 07:23:40 By - Rocky Barker
Eco faceoff: Are river's sea lions speeding salmon's decline?
Scientific brain power has been applied in thick doses to many aspects of the alarming fish declines in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta – from weather patterns to water pollution. Now a professor of biology and natural resources has found that five California sea lions live most of the year in the Sacramento River, eating salmon at the rate of one every 45 minutes. | 01/02/09 07:15:34 By - Matt Weiser
Duke Energy's solar panel plan approved
The state Utilities Commission on Wednesday approved Duke Energy's plan to place solar panels on hundreds of N.C. rooftops. | 01/01/09 07:05:57 By - Bruce Henderson
Economic fallout: Anchorage suspends glass recycling
The global market for recycled materials is bad right now. There are gluts of everything from cans to paper, but in Anchorage, where recycled glass has been piling up for months, the issue isn't global, it's local. | 01/01/09 07:03:01 By - Julie O'Malley
NC tightens rules on hog farms
New and expanding hog farms in North Carolina will have to use innovative systems to manage animal waste instead of traditional waste pits under new rules that go into effect Thursday. | 12/31/08 10:49:47 By -
Commentary: US needs new balance in transportation
The team planning the incoming Obama administration's stimulus proposal has some very difficult choices to make when it comes to transportation: Should the money be spent largely on conventional projects, such as roads and highways, or should more of it be spent on "green" transportation such as transit and high-speed rail? | 12/31/08 10:38:01 By - The Fresno Bee
Commentary: Let's get trains on track
After a couple of terrifying flights on an air carrier I won't name with a big hub in Charlotte, my family and I decided this past summer to travel to New York City by train. | 12/30/08 12:32:35 By - Matthew Eisley
Trans-Alaska pipeline shut down
Bad weather interfering with tanker loading combined with full storage tanks at Valdez forced a shutdown of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline Monday night. | 12/30/08 11:45:58 By - Wesley Loy
Larry Craig's final act: $3 million for Idaho water studies
Republican Sen. Larry Craig is stepping down from the U.S. Senate, but he will leave one last water bill waiting in the next Congress. Hidden deep among a giant package of nearly 150 public lands bills that the Senate could consider as soon as January is a plan to spend $3 million to study the feasibility of new dam and reservoir projects on the Snake, Boise and Payette rivers in Idaho. | 12/30/08 07:50:52 By - Rocky Barker
Fireplace burn ban linked to lower death rate
There may be a little less holiday warmth this season as San Joaquin Valley air authorities step up wood-burning bans in fireplaces, but the smokeless nights are saving lives. | 12/29/08 11:32:48 By - Mark Grossi
In the Pacific Northwest: a new park for boats
Waterway Park doesn't really exist yet, but rowers, kayakers and other nonmotorized boaters will soon be using it. | 12/29/08 11:25:00 By - Jason Hagy
Missouri debates new nuclear plant
We'll soon see how much Missourians want a new nuclear power plant. | 12/29/08 11:06:15 By - Karen Dillon
Corals' death is murder mystery for Carolina oceanographer
Marine scientist John Bruno became interested in coral reefs as a boy snorkeling in the turquoise waters off the Florida Keys above reefs of golden corals. "It just went on for acres and acres," recalls Bruno, 43, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. "They were just full of fish. That is all gone." | 12/28/08 13:53:23 By - Wade Rawlins
Bears: Out of the woods and into the burbs in South Carolina
Once confined to the mountains and remote coastal swamps, black bears are being spotted in parts of South Carolina for the first time in generations. "They're everywhere," said Skip Still, a state biologist who keeps bear statistics. People have reported seeing bears in 36 of the state's 46 counties since 2004. Before that, bears were seen in only a handful of counties. | 12/28/08 15:09:38 By - Sammy Fretwell
Economic crunch hits market for recyclable materials
The recyclable materials market, which was booming only a few months ago, has dropped sharply, along with the worldwide economy, creating a backlog of materials at processing plants. Reduced demand for used paper, plastic bottles, glass, and metal cans has caused prices to plummet. | 12/26/08 17:18:49 By - Wade Rawlins
Late snow for Sierras sparks global warming concerns
The late arrival of this year's snow season — and increasingly early spring snow melt from the mountains — have scientists and state officials finding more than the signature of a natural drought. They believe they detect the fingerprint of climate change. | 12/26/08 06:47:22 By - Tom Knudson
Florida Keys hopes snowy weather boosts tourism
With winter conditions kicking in early across much of the United States, the Florida Keys tourism industry is banking that the weather will send more snowbirds to the Keys. | 12/26/08 07:03:27 By - Cammy Clark
Starchy packing peanuts fail to flush
Public utility crews in Raleigh, N.C., have tested biodegradable packing peanuts and discovered that if they're flushed down the drain, they're a menace to plumbing pipes. That means the eco-friendly peanuts can gum up the city's sewer lines when poured, flushed or dumped. | 12/26/08 09:46:46 By - Josh Shaffer
Farmers work to save NC Christmas trees
Christmas begins on the mountain slopes of North Carolina, where farmers grow Fraser firs from seedlings to decorate millions of East Coast homes, including the White House. | 12/23/08 08:52:51 By - Wade Rawlins
Loophole lets animal farms evade pollution rules
Livestock corporations in Missouri have found a way around state pollution rules _ instead of building megafarms, they operate smaller farms that don't fall under the state's pollution regulations. | 12/23/08 08:47:05 By - Karen Dillon
Energy-saving LED lights catching on during holidays
Sacramento stores are reporting a major shift in holiday lighting - from incandescent blubs to light emitting diodes or LED lighting. Most customers, they say, have opted for the brighter, more energy-efficient alternatives. | 12/23/08 06:56:17 By - Robert Faturechi
Suit challenges rule change on mountaintop mining
Environmental groups went to court Monday to challenge a Bush administration rule change they fear will lead to coal companies burying more Appalachian streams with excess rock and dirt from surface mining. Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency signed off on decision to effectively eliminate a 1983 rule that prohibited dumping mining debris within 100 feet of streams. | 12/22/08 12:24:14 By - Andy Mead
Washington state project smooths way for plug-in hybrid cars
Businesses and public agencies in Washington state are testing electric plug-in hybrid vehicles to help smooth a transition away from the gas-guzzling variety. The yearlong project, sponsored by the Washington Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development and the Port of Chelan County, will collect data on battery charging and mileage and emissions in different weather and road conditions. | 12/22/08 08:26:27 By - Pratik Joshi
Hanford's F Reactor nearly clean
Washington Closure Hanford and the Department of Energy have met a legal deadline to have most of the waste sites near Hanford's F Reactor cleaned up, including digging up carcasses of animals used for radiation exposure research. | 12/22/08 08:09:05 By -
Biomass touted as new energy source
Among energy experts, biomass has some strong supporters, and for good reason: Right now, virtually all the renewable-energy power in Florida comes from biomass, including three plants in Miami-Dade and Broward | 12/22/08 07:06:38 By - John Dorschner
Water vapor's effects on atmosphere are debated
Ron Ace's idea to cool the planet by evaporating water could provoke controversy because it collides head-on with a concern of environmental scientists: that water vapor is a potent greenhouse gas. | 12/21/08 06:00:00 By - Greg Gordon
Scientists doubt inventor's global cooling idea — but what if it works?
Backed by a computer model, a little-known inventor is making public a U.S. patent petition for what he calls the most "practical, nontoxic, affordable, rapidly achievable" and beneficial way to curb global warming and a resulting catastrophic ocean rise. Spray gigatons of seawater into the air, mainly in the Northern Hemisphere, and let Mother Nature do the rest. | 12/21/08 06:00:00 By - Greg Gordon
Obama pick for science signals new view on global warming
John P. Holdren's selection sends a strong signal that Obama sees global warming as an urgent problem and wants bold suggestions for action. The Harvard University environmental policy professor has argued that the world already is experiencing dangerous climate change as a result of fossil fuel combustion. | 12/19/08 18:19:00 By - Renee Schoof
Smithsonian features salmon and tribe's effort to save it
Below the 45-foot model of a right whale named Phoenix, behind the case that holds a rare giant squid and not far from the remains of a prehistoric coelacanth that was caught off Africa is an exhibit at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum highlighting Pacific Northwest salmon and the Nisqually Tribe's efforts to restore a wild run. | 12/19/08 17:14:00 By - Les Blumenthal
Utilities seek stimulus money to improve energy efficiency
A utility association that represents 70 percent of the U.S. power industry joined environmental and energy groups Friday in calling on Congress and the new administration to jump-start the economy by helping Americans save energy. The groups asked that any economic recovery package $33 billion for such programs. | 12/19/08 16:41:00 By - Renee Schoof
Schwarzenegger seeks new regulation of toxic chemicals
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants California to require full disclosure of chemicals used in consumer products to wean industry and consumers off toxic compounds. | 12/18/08 08:31:47 By - Chris Bowman
Hurdles ahead on Everglades deal
The lead negotiator for the state's Big Sugar deal acknowledged Wednesday that serious hurdles remain, including figuring out whether water managers can afford to pay $1.34 billion in the middle of the worst economic crisis in decades. | 12/18/08 08:38:39 By - Curtis Morgan and Mary Ellen Klas
Nuclear plant a refuge for crocodiles
As Florida Power & Light began digging cooling canals at Turkey Point nuclear power plant in Homestead, crocodiles began swimming into the deep waters of the newly created refuge, generating their own electricity through rituals of courtship and mating. | 12/18/08 08:43:46 By - Priscilla Greear
Utah leases could be early issue for new Interior chief
Environmental groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday to try to block the sale of oil and gas leases that the Bush administration plans for Friday on 110,000 acres of wide-open redrock country in Utah near Arches and Canyonlands national parks. | 12/17/08 18:42:00 By - Renee Schoof
Geothermal energy keeps plants toasty at Ward's Greenhouses
It didn't take a genius to grow flowers in a place called Garden Valley, but the late Jack Ward, a logger by trade, did have a vision. He realized that he could use nearby geothermal springs to heat greenhouses. | 12/17/08 07:18:01 By - Brad Talbutt
NASA reports 2008 is ninth warmest year since 1880
The year 2008 was the ninth warmest year since instrumental temperature measurements began in 1880, and all of the nine warmest years have occurred in the past 11 years, NASA reported on Tuesday. | 12/16/08 18:04:00 By - Renee Schoof
Budget could squeeze Everglades deal
If water managers decide Tuesday to spend $1.34 billion to buy U.S. Sugar's sprawling farm fields, it will require the fiscal equivalent of maxing out the credit card. | 12/16/08 09:49:58 By - Curtis Morgan
Probe finds politics drove endangered species decisions
Politics corroded Bush administration decisions on protecting endangered species nationwide, federal investigators have concluded in a sweeping new report. Frustrated scientists went so far as to consider artificially inflating the California vernal pool critical habitat by 20 percent to offset anticipated cuts, investigators noted. | 12/16/08 09:40:00 By - Michael Doyle
Volunteers take part in Bradenton's 109th Christmas Bird Count
Those taking part in the Audubon Society’s 109th annual Christmas Bird Count are among tens of thousands of volunteers from Alaska to Belize who will spend part of their holiday season in the wild, counting birds. The wildlife census this year continues from Dec. 14 to Jan. 5, officials said. | 12/16/08 07:15:50 By - Sara Kennedy
Midwest to test sugarcorn for ethanol
The American breadbasket's amber waves are getting a glimpse of a fledgling new neighbor that's bred for ethanol and comes with striking similarities to sugarcane. | 12/15/08 10:43:52 By - Steve Everly
Geologist suspects wastewater facilities in Yosemite rockfalls
YOSEMITE VALLEY, Calif. -- For thousands of years, slabs of the Glacier Point cliff have broken loose, roared down at more than 100 mph and blasted the forest in nature's version of bunker bombs. | 12/15/08 10:31:00 By - Mark Grossi
Poisoning of prairie dogs is delayed
The prairie dogs and black-footed ferrets in Logan County have won a reprieve, for now. Logan County commissioners notified landowners in this northwestern Kansas county last month that they would begin poisoning prairie dogs today. | 12/15/08 07:05:39 By - Beccy Tanner
Northwest lawmakers seek bigger, greener power grid
Seven thousand workers employed by the Works Progress Administration built Grand Coulee Dam along with Bonneville Dam and a transmission grid that electrified the Northwest. The electricity from the dams still powers the region. Now, as the current economic downturn deepens, there is talk of another major public works project for the Northwest. | 12/14/08 06:00:00 By - Les Blumenthal
California moves to curb emissions from trucks, buses
Starting in 2010, pollution filters must be installed on older trucks, with the last one installed by 2014. Between 2013 and 2023, owners must replace older trucks with 2010 or newer models. School buses made before April 1, 1977, to be off the road by 2012. | 12/13/08 13:37:52 By - E.J. Schultz
Calif. adopts sweeping air plan
With a promise to look more closely at the economic impacts of cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the California Air Resources Board on Thursday unanimously approved a sweeping climate-change strategy. | 12/12/08 11:17:53 By - Jim Downing and Chris Bowman
A look at California's plan to cut heat-trapping gas emissions
The California Air Resources Board on Thursday adopted a strategy for cutting 30 percent of global warming emissions by 2020, as required by state law. Here are some of the ways the state plans to meet that goal, and the projected annual reduction in heat-trapping gases (mainly carbon dioxide). | 12/12/08 11:13:34 By -
UC Davis vets save the tortoises
Thanksgiving wasn't supposed to be a religious holiday. But for Modesto resident Jack Benenati and his pet tortoises, the day brought miracles. | 12/12/08 07:28:54 By - Leslie Albrecht
More research on Everglades projects ahead
Bulldozers won't be breaking ground this year on a Tamiami Trail bridge the Bush administration called its top priority for reviving the struggling Everglades. | 12/12/08 07:04:57 By - Curtis Morgan
Environmentalists: New rule guts Endangered Species Act
In a move environmental groups says strikes at the heart of the Endangered Species Act, the Bush administration on Thursday announced a new rule that would let federal agencies decide on their own whether their projects harm endangered species, instead of requiring them in many cases to get a second opinion from federal wildlife experts. | 12/11/08 17:29:00 By - Renee Schoof
Obama's environmental adviser has California roots
President-elect Barack Obama's choice as a top environmental adviser knows the Central Valley's air and water problems better than most. | 12/11/08 17:15:00 By - Michael Doyle
California to take major global warming steps today, Friday
The state Air Resources Board is set to vote today on a sweeping 12-year strategy for slashing climate-altering emissions that would affect the type of cars Californians drive, the electricity they use to light their homes and even the location of future homes and jobs. | 12/11/08 08:08:29 By - Chris Bowman
White House backs down on easing air-pollution rules
The Bush administration today abandoned two rule changes that would have weakened controls on pollution from coal-fired power plants and industry, spokesman Jonathan Shradar confirmed it. He said there wasn't enough time to complete the action on relaxing the rules before the Bush administration ended. | 12/10/08 18:16:00 By - Renee Schoof
Effort to limit air-quality lawsuits dropped from auto bill
Democrats abandoned a plan that would've added to the auto bailout bill a provision barring car companies from pursuing lawsuits against California and other states that want to implement tougher tailpipe emission standards. The White House said it would veto any bill with that provision. California supporters decided they could wait for Obama to take office. | 12/10/08 16:20:00 By - Rob Hotakainen
Move over fire ants -- here come needle ants
The name alone is enough to induce a shudder: the Asian needle ant. The tiny insect with the oversized stinger packs a painful sting and has quietly invaded Southeastern forests, scientists say. | 12/10/08 07:05:09 By - Wade Rawlins
'Yellow Dragon' threat could decimate citrus groves
Florida's $9.3 billion citrus industry could be wiped out in just a decade if a virulent Chinese disease known as ''Yellow Dragon'' is left unchecked, the executive director of the state's citrus department told lawmakers Tuesday. | 12/10/08 07:02:40 By - Marc Caputo
Nichols could add to state's clout in U.S. debate on climate change
California's Mary Nichols has an idea for how Washington can respond to global warming: Start with the Environmental Protection Agency. | 12/09/08 17:04:00 By - Rob Hotakainen
Exxon Valdez payments reach claimants _ nearly 20 years later
The millions of dollars Exxon Mobil Corp. has surrendered as punishment for the Prince William Sound oil spill have started hitting the streets, nearly 20 years after the disaster. | 12/09/08 09:57:29 By - Wesley Loy
U.S. Sugar OK's Everglades sale
One party to the state's landmark sugar land buy signed off on the deal Monday as the U.S. Sugar Corp.'s board unanimously approved the $1.34 billion offer. | 12/09/08 09:52:35 By - Curtis Morgan
Florida public transit surged
Public transit in South Florida saw a significant increase in ridership when gasoline prices peaked at $4.16 a gallon this summer, although some of the gains have dissipated now that gas has dropped to less than half that price. | 12/09/08 09:50:08 By - Larry Lebowitz
The latest from shopping network: solar power
The home shopping network that sells just about everything is now selling solar energy generated by North Carolina sunshine. | 12/09/08 07:11:17 By - John Murawski
Tree's rapid decline sounds alarm on global warming
The whitebark pine, a tree found in the high elevations of the western U.S. and Canada, is being killed as a consequence of global warming and should be protected as an endangered species, an environmental group formally told the Interior Department Tuesday. | 12/09/08 00:01:00 By - Renee Schoof
EPA officials didn't violate lobbying laws, audit finds
Environmental Protection Agency officials didn't violate anti-lobbying laws amid a high-stakes campaign over California's request for permission to strictly regulate greenhouse gas emissions in vehicles, federal investigators have concluded. | 12/08/08 17:20:00 By - Michael Doyle
Officials, nature drop Everglades water levels, saving wildlife
An interagency emergency effort has helped relieve the drowning sawgrass prairies west of suburban Miami-Dade and Broward counties in south Flroida, where high waters had threatneed wildlife. The resulting engineering schemes diverted water from one area of the Everglades south to a place that desperately needs it -- Everglades National Park. Nature also lent a huge hand. | 12/07/08 23:22:54 By - Curtis Morgan
Natural gas extraction method may be subject to more rules
There’s a move in Congress to impose tighter regulations on a key process used to recover natural gas in the Texas' Barnett Shale. | 12/07/08 07:35:47 By - Mike Lee
Alaska environmentalists seek to help set Obama administration's agenda
After eight years in exile during near-total Republican control of Alaska policies, local environmentalists were in Washington, D.C., last week hoping to help set the new Democratic administration's agenda. Arctic oil and gas exploration, federal subsistence protection and funding for rural development are among the Alaska concerns that could see sudden policy shifts in the new Obama administration. | 12/07/08 07:30:16 By - Tom Kizzia
Go green: Algae could be next hot biofuel
A 75-gallon tank of goo that in the course of a week or so changed color from lime green to almost black was one of the stars of last summer's Farnborough International Air Show in England. | 12/07/08 06:00:00 By - Les Blumenthal
Meter's running: Kentucky energy cost low, use high
We've got to change our megawatt-wasting ways. Kentucky's energy-efficiency problem, experts say, is that low electrical rates have lulled us into lackadaisical light-switch-flipping. | 12/05/08 11:23:19 By - Andy Mead
Controverisal Alaska mine may not be worth developing
The copper and gold deposit known as Pebble in salmon-rich Southwest Alaska holds about 72 billion pounds of copper and 94 million ounces of gold. At today's metal prices, those resources are worth about $236 billion. Six months ago, when metal prices were soaring, they would have been worth $500 billion. | 12/05/08 10:59:27 By - Elizabeth Bluemink
California eco-terrorist is sentenced to 6 months time served
Zachary Jenson, one of three people convicted in an eco-terror plot targeting a genetics forest lab in Placerville and the Nimbus Dam and nearby fish hatchery in Rancho Cordova, was sentenced Thursday to the six months in jail he has already served and three years on supervised release. | 12/05/08 08:22:36 By - Denny Walsh
Could electric cars charge up struggling automakers?
Now that automakers are all busy gearing up to make electric vehicles, consumers should be getting a choice of roomy, speedy, gasoline-free models that charge up at a standard 110-volt socket. So when will those cars roll out of factories so plentifully that prices drop to what ordinary people can afford? That's the $64,000 question — or more. | 12/04/08 15:59:00 By - Renee Schoof
Commentary: Need for jobs doesn't mean environmental goals disappear
The following editorial appeared in the Sacramento Bee on Wed., Dec. 3 | 12/04/08 13:37:52 By -
Alaska's Kenai Peninsula grizzly deaths soaring
While Anchorage residents this summer worried over how to manage problems with local grizzlies, Kenai Peninsula residents solved their problems the old-fashioned way -- by killing lots of bears. | 12/04/08 06:57:47 By - Craig Medred
California board kills dam Congress approved 43 years ago
The California state water board killed the federal Auburn dam Tuesday, unanimously revoking the water rights it dedicated to the American River project nearly 40 years ago. The board acted after 37 years had passed with no movement toward construction of the dam, which was first conceived during the administration of President Harry Truman. | 12/03/08 20:21:20 By - Chris Bowman
Hungry Asian bug targets South Carolina's sago palms
Asian bugs seem to enjoy devouring South Carolina foliage. The bugs, small enough to fit on the head of a pin, have moved on and are causing significant problems to the same trees on Hunting and Fripp islands. | 12/03/08 07:20:53 By - Liz Mitchell
Lemur conservation attracts national attention
Yuengling, a ring-tailed lemur, sat with his arms out stretched to soak up the sun's rays on a cool day in Myakka City, Florida. Yuengling is one of about 40 lemurs that are protected at the 90-acre Lemur Conservation Foundation, where the mission is to preserve the primates through research, education and captive breeding. | 12/03/08 06:55:56 By - Jessica Klipa
EPA to gut mountaintop mining rule protecting streams
The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday approved a last minute rule change by the Bush administration that will allow coal companies to bury streams under the rocks left over from mining. The rule reverses a 1983 rule that prohibits dumping the fill from mountaintop removal mining within 100 feet of streams. | 12/02/08 19:52:00 By - Renee Schoof and Bill Estep
U.S. grant will help China's new buildings go green
WASHINGTON — A $518,000 grant that will be awarded to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory on Wednesday could have potentially important consequences in the effort to control global warming amid the continuing political fallout from the Kyoto climate change treaty. | 12/02/08 19:39:31 By - Les Blumenthal
Ultralight aircraft guides migrating whooping cranes
While you were digesting leftover turkey last weekend, 14 endangered whooping cranes were making their way across western Kentucky. | 12/02/08 10:44:58 By - Andy Mead
Thousands of trees dying at Georgia's Hunting Island State Park
A tiny beetle is responsible for the death of thousands of trees at Hunting Island State Park and elsewhere along the coast, experts say. | 12/02/08 07:20:41 By - Alexis Garrobo
Scientists say Florida corals could die out in 40 years
The last, largest stands of ancient elkhorn coral survive in shallow waters off North Key Largo, where rough seas sometimes expose thick golden branches reaching toward the sunlit surface. | 12/01/08 11:01:18 By - Curtis Morgan
Calif. capital looks for boost from green economy
SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ The largest solar-panel factory on the continent is taking shape in Sacramento's McClellan Park, part of a possible economic takeoff based on environmental technology. | 12/01/08 10:44:37 By - Jim Downing
Sierra Nevada climate changes feed monster — fire
Wildfire has marched across the West for centuries. But no longer are major conflagrations fueled simply by heavy brush and timber. Now climate change is stoking the flames higher and hotter, too. That view, common among firefighters, is reflected in new studies that tie changing patterns of heat and moisture in the western United States to an unprecedented rash of costly and destructive wildfires. | 11/30/08 08:48:32 By - Tom Knudson
Geothermal systems are next big step in energy conservation
You may not know anyone with a geothermal heating and cooling system in the house, but you will soon. With tax credits and financial incentives plus lowered utility bills and increased energy efficiency, the numbers of geothermal homes are growing - and homeowners are singing the praises of “going underground.” | 11/30/08 08:31:37 By - Misty McNally
Salmon-tracking network upends some sacred cows
A salmon's life in the ocean has always been one of nature's best kept mysteries. However, scientists using the Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking network have made some startling discoveries that challenge long-held beliefs about salmon survival and raise new cautions about how global warming may affect salmon and other marine species. | 11/30/08 06:00:00 By - Les Blumenthal
Wolf protections could end before Bush leaves office
Federal wildlife managers hope to remove wolves from the endangered species list in Idaho and Montana before President-elect Barack Obama takes office. But environmentalists say a decision before President Bush leaves office will simply delay final resolution by throwing the dispute back into the courts. They say the best course is to let the Obama administration take a fresh look at wolf management next year. | 11/29/08 09:38:14 By - Rocky Barker
No longer on the back bench, Boxer finds power to her liking
At 68, Barbara Boxer, California's junior senator, is at the pinnacle of her political power. She's the only Democrat leading two influential committees, the Senate's environmental and ethics panels, and she's planning to use her position to lead the battle against global warming. But with a reputation as one of the Senate's most liberal members, she's also a tempting target for Republicans, who'd like to defeat her when she's up for re-election in 2010. Boxer says she's ready for them. | 11/26/08 16:13:00 By - Rob Hotakainen
House is first in nation to meet water-saver standard
The 2,560-square-foot model home in the Briar Chapel community, just south of Chapel Hill, N.C., includes numerous water-efficiency features, including low-flow faucets, dual-flush toilets, insulated hot water lines and a recirculating hot water system so that people run less water waiting for it to get warm. Even the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency came from Washington to look at all the features. | 11/26/08 11:11:11 By - Wade Rawlins
Report: Solar costlier than nuclear for Florida
In a much anticipated report that could affect every Floridian's pocketbook, a consultant hired by the state says solar power could be a competitive source of electricity by 2020 in many scenarios, but it will cost considerably more than new nuclear power and natural gas, the main sources of power for present customers of Florida Power & Light. | 11/26/08 11:02:18 By - John Dorschner
Decision to not stock lakes irks some mountain counties
Alpine County depends heavily on fishing. So when the state Department of Fish and Game this week released a list of lakes and streams that won't be stocked with fish until at least 2010, it landed in Alpine County with a thud. | 11/26/08 07:11:07 By - Phillip Reese and Cathy Locke
Environmental groups tell Obama to move fast on climate
Don't wait until the financial crisis is over to attack global warming because cleaner ways to produce and use energy will lead to a stronger economy, leaders of environmental groups said Tuesday as they outlined their wish list for President-elect Barack Obama. | 11/25/08 16:11:00 By - Renee Schoof
Students learn tourism done right
Behind the glittering veil of tourism, there's a sometimes ugly reality. Some tourists pollute the environment they visit, and they often dilute the very culture they come to experience. This summer Western Washington University students Tony Carrigan and Nicole Schierberl went down to Peru to understand what happens when tourism goes wrong and study how to get tourism right. | 11/25/08 14:01:57 By - Zoe Fraley
Washington State officials to press Obama on Hanford cleanup
Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell are giving the president-elect plenty of advice on the $2 billion-a-year cleanup of one of the most toxic sites on Earth. Murray has had "several" conversations with Obama's transition team about Hanford. Cantwell is optimistic the new administration will be easier to work with when it comes to Hanford cleanup money. | 11/24/08 15:02:42 By - Les Blumenthal
California bulks up defenses against tide of global warming
California is building a second line of defense against global warming, one that will prepare the state for a harsher environment while the other continues to cut climate-changing emissions. | 11/24/08 07:19:55 By - Chris Bowman
Tiny sea oats help Hollywood, Fla., shoreline resist erosion
Beach erosion is the top concern for seaside residents, but as the shoreline dwindles, citizens cry for help and politicians fight for money, it's the winsome sea oat that is saving the day. | 11/23/08 08:34:01 By - Eileen Soler
Obama's stance on lands: He'll break with Bush
WASHINGTON — Here's the question: What does a community organizer from Chicago who spent four years in the Senate before being elected president know about spotted owls, endangered salmon, mountain bark beetles, Western water rights, old-growth forests and the maintenance backlog in the national parks? | 11/23/08 06:00:00 By - Les Blumenthal
How Arctic melting could benefit shippers, oil companies
With global warming melting the Arctic's eons-old ice at an alarming rate, shipping and oil companies are looking ahead at how to exploit the new open waters. | 11/21/08 18:04:00 By - Renee Schoof
Calif. moves to protect native fish
Anglers may no longer be able to catch rainbow trout in many of California's mountain lakes, the result of an agreement reached Thursday to protect native fish. | 11/21/08 13:25:26 By - Matt Weiser
House names Waxman to energy post, signaling change
California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman on Thursday dethroned a champion of the auto industry from a top job in the House of Representatives. The move to replace Michigan Rep. John Dingell as the head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee signals a new sympathy to environmantlists in Congress. | 11/20/08 18:38:00 By - Rob Hotakainen
Offshore drilling? NC considers mix of tourism, refineries
MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. _ When considering offshore oil exploration, North Carolina leaders should analyze the future appearance of the coastline if the industry strikes oil and locates here, and they should evaluate whether the state would get any money, said a lawyer involved in past negotiations with oil companies . Clark Wright Jr., a New Bern lawyer who advised then-Gov. Jim Martin during negotiations with Mobil when it held a lease for drilling off the Outer Banks about 20 years ago, said state leaders should decide whether heavy industry could fit into the mix along a coast that relies on tourism and recreation. | 11/20/08 10:57:17 By - Wade Rawlins
Kentucky wants mercury reduction
Kentucky officials are starting to work on regulations that would reduce the amount of mercury put into the air by coal-fired power plants. | 11/20/08 10:40:26 By - Andy Mead
Calif. trout, salmon at risk
California's native fish are at greater risk of extinction than experts previously thought. | 11/20/08 10:32:22 By - Matt Weiser
Utility, dairy to make electricity from manure
For the first time, dairy cows are signed up to generate power for the Modesto Irrigation District. The district board voted 5-0 Tuesday for a power-purchase agreement with Fiscalini Cheese Co. It has installed a system that extracts methane from cattle manure and burns the gas to make electricity. | 11/19/08 07:22:07 By - John Holland
Duke study says 'going green' will grow jobs in U.S.
For all their talk of building a green economy — one flush with jobs that help protect the environment — most politicians have not said exactly where the new jobs would come from. A new study from Duke University tries to fill in the gaps. | 11/19/08 06:53:37 By - Jonathan B. Cox
US to OK mining, drilling near Alaska salmon runs
Despite vigorous opposition, federal officials plan to open roughly 1 million acres near some of Alaska's richest salmon streams to mineral exploration and oil and gas leasing. | 11/18/08 06:52:55 By - Elizabeth Bluemink
Sugar plant to make ethanol from cane residue
Alternative energy production is a promising new business and one of the compelling reasons for keeping the Clewiston mill and refinery operating under U.S. Sugar's control as it will be under the revised deal announced last week between the company and the South Florida Water Management District. | 11/18/08 07:10:31 By - Jane Bussey
Eco-urinals' problem: they're complicated (and they stink)
Concerns over water shortages have turned flushless urinals into the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. urinal market. But an inconvenient truth hovers over the no-flush urinal industry: many buyers and one-time fans say that the urinals are icky, tricky and costly to maintain. For one thing, urinal drain cartridges need changing after 7,000 uses. But who counts urinal uses? | 11/17/08 15:13:00 By - Frank Greve and Queenie Wong
Report urges expanding size of 16 Georgia reservoirs
The fastest way to increase Georgia's stored water supply would be by increasing the size of 16 reservoirs, including three in Middle Georgia, according to a state report. | 11/17/08 07:26:25 By - S. Heather Duncan
S. Carolina health agency slammed for incompetence
When it comes to decisions that stand to affect millions of people, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control has become known as an uneven watchdog for health and the environment. It often sides with companies it regulates during disputes with residents. It often shares crucial information slowly or not at all. And it sometimes remains silent rather than alerting the public to dangers. | 11/17/08 07:40:13 By - John Monk and Sammy Fretwell
China's coal fires belch fumes, worsening global warming
China has the worst underground coal fires of any country on Earth. The fires destroy as much as 20 million tons of coal annually, nearly the equivalent of Germany's entire annual production. The costs go beyond the waste of a valuable fuel, however. Scientists blame uncontrolled coal fires as a significant source of greenhouse gases, which lead to global warming. | 11/17/08 10:00:00 By - Tim Johnson
Sacramento trash-to-energy plan raises red flags
Presented with a controversial and highly technical proposal to vaporize garbage into energy, Sacramento City Council members earlier this month wondered what other cities had found — and whether those lessons were being considered in Sacramento. | 11/17/08 07:19:11 By - Terri Hardy and Chris Bowman
Corps of Engineers projects a boon to Alaska
It's kind of like a big, invisible hand in Alaska's economy. Yet the Army Corps of Engineers' projects here are obscure to many Alaskans, economists say. | 11/17/08 06:58:54 By - Elizabeth Bluemink
On pace for another dry year, Idaho's eyes turn upward
This time of year, Idaho skiers keep an eye on the mountains - and so do water experts. This winter's snow will determine whether streams and reservoirs are replenished next spring and dictate whether farmers and river recreationists will have a good year. | 11/17/08 07:25:36 By - Cynthia Sewell
Some see opportunity in China's coalfield fires
The burning Shuixi Gou coalfield in far western China is terrible for the environment, belching smoke and noxious gases. Some experts look at the fire, however, and see hope for progress against global warming. | 11/16/08 06:00:00 By - Tim Johnson
Sugar field pollution adds cost to Everglades plan
More than half the land Florida is poised to acquire from sugar growers has levels of pollution that could harm wildlife and cost tens of millions of dollars to clean up. | 11/14/08 10:18:18 By - Curtis Morgan
Tumbling soybean prices worry Brazilian farmers
Settlers founded the town of Primavera do Leste and rode a soybean boom that's turned Brazil into a leading breadbasket to the world. However, soybean prices have cratered in the past three months. | 11/14/08 10:14:02 By - Tyler Bridges
U.S. begins pursuing drilling off Virginia coast
Months after President George W. Bush and Congress lifted bans on offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean, the federal government moved Thursday to pursue oil and natural gas exploration off the coast of Virginia. | 11/13/08 18:51:00 By - Barbara Barrett
Research shows bleak climate future for Kansas
Over the next century, eastern Kansas will get warmer and drier. | 11/13/08 10:25:18 By - Karen Dillon
New Everglades deal: a bargain?
Saluting the spirit of late Everglades icon Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Gov. Charlie Crist on Wednesday hailed the $1.34 billion deal for a chunk of Big Sugar as ``nothing short of miraculous.'' | 11/13/08 10:20:56 By - Curtis Morgan
Human cost of valley's pollution: $6.3 billion
There's a new annual price tag on the cost of breathing dirty air in the San Joaquin Valley: 823 premature deaths and $6.3 billion. | 11/13/08 10:14:21 By - Mark Grossi
Supreme Court sides with Navy over whales in sonar dispute
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the Navy could use sonar in submarine-hunting training exercises off Southern California without heeding restrictions imposed by a lower court to protect whales and dolphins. | 11/12/08 18:27:00 By - Renee Schoof
U.S. reports huge Alaska energy reserve — and it's not oil
The U.S. Geological Survey reported Wednesday that Alaska's North Slope contains enough frozen methane-and-water crystals known as hydrates to heat 100 million homes for as long as 10 years. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said the technology exists to exploit the reserves 2,000 feet underground. | 11/12/08 18:12:00 By - Erika Bolstad
Killing wolves from the air worked — for the caribou
As ugly and as politically incorrect as shooting wolves from helicopters might seem, the effort earlier this year saved caribou, especially young caribou, from being eaten alive, biologists say. Fall surveys of the Southern Alaska Peninsula caribou herd completed in October found an average of 39 calves per 100 cows. That's up from fall counts of only 1 calf per 100 cows in 2006 and 2007. | 11/12/08 07:41:21 By - Craig Medred
Everglades: New 'lite' sugar buyout
After five months of negotiations, the state has crafted a new ''lite'' version of the Big Sugar buyout: same great tracts, less taxpayer money. | 11/11/08 10:27:38 By - Curtis Morgan and Jane Bussey
Cellulosic ethanol moves from the lab toward commercial production
The idea of producing plentiful amounts of ethanol from materials such as switchgrass and wood scraps has successfully emerged from the laboratory, but challenges lie ahead. | 11/11/08 07:00:10 By - Steve Everly
Report: Greenhouse gases imperil oceans' web of life
Corals, lobsters, clams and many other ocean creatures — including some at the bottom of the food chain — may be unable to withstand the increasing acidity of the oceans brought on by growing global-warming pollution, according to a report Tuesday from the advocacy group Oceana. | 11/11/08 00:01:00 By - Renee Schoof
Probe sought of Bush handling of Alaska oil-spill case
The case is one in a pattern, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, in which the Bush administration imposed small penalties in major pollution and safety cases. The specific case involves a criminal probe of BP for a 2006 oil spill in Alaska. An EPA investigator wanted more time to develop toughter criminal charges, but the Justice Department turned him down and imposed a $20 million fine — far less than EPA employees recommended. | 11/10/08 18:08:00 By - Renee Schoof
Rivalry breaks out over Congress' top energy spot
The fight pits California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman, an ally of environmentalists, against Democratic Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, with ties to the auto industry, over who'll be chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Waxman supporters say they've got the votes, but Dingell, who calls Waxman an "anti-manufacturing left-wing Democrat," is fighting hard. | 11/10/08 17:34:16 By - Rob Hotakainen
As world demand falls, prices for recyclables go in dumper
A sudden collapse in worldwide demand for re- cyclables, particularly from China, has scrap dealers from Sacramento to San Diego stockpiling curbside collections as never before and charging walk-in customers for their throwaways. | 11/10/08 07:17:27 By - Chris Bowman
Spotlight shines on light pollution
Stargazers have complained for years because cities shine so much light into the night sky that stars disappear behind the gray glow. | 11/10/08 07:01:56 By - Karen Dillion
Changing climate may push more countries to war
A warmer planet could find itself more often at war. The Earth’s fast-changing climate has a range of serious thinkers — from military brass to geographers to diplomats — predicting a spate of armed conflicts driven by the weather. | 11/09/08 08:46:21 By - Scott Canon
In Haiti, rising lake levels plague both people and animals
During three weeks of deadly summer storms, Lake Azuei, Haiti's largest lake and a habitat for rare birds and marine life, busted its banks, flooding several towns. The storms are long gone, but not the problems: The lake's waters have been rising for at least two years, sparking calls by environmentalists and residents for urgent action. | 11/07/08 07:43:11 By - Trenton Daniel and Jacqueline Charles
Go green when it's time to clean
Anyone who has ever cleaned a glass shower door with a store-bought cleaner promising to remove dreaded soap scum will attest to trying to do the job as quickly as possible to avoid the smell. | 11/07/08 07:25:17 By - Mary Lou Aguirre
Bush officials moving fast to cut environmental protections
In the next few weeks, the Bush administration is expected to relax environmental-protection rules on power plants near national parks, uranium mining near the Grand Canyon and more mountaintop-removal coal mining in Appalachia. Many will be finalized before Thanksgiving, so the 60-day waiting period will have expired before the Obama administration takes over. | 11/06/08 16:11:00 By - Renee Schoof
Calif. bullet train bond passes
The resounding defeat of two state ballot initiatives pitched as clean-energy solutions to climate change doesn't mean Californians' support for renewable and alternative fuels has softened, environmental leaders said Wednesday. | 11/06/08 11:01:39 By - Chris Bowman
Farmers see money in cow manure
With energy costs high and crop prices sluggish, farmers are turning to solar power, converting animal waste to natural gas and planting exotic trees to help them survive a tough economy. | 11/06/08 07:24:40 By - Robert Rodriguez
Change ahead on environment under President Obama
Western Democrats and environmentalists will have more influence on federal land decisions in Idaho and the West under President Barack Obama. Decision-makers will defer more to scientists on resource issues and spending priorities will shift toward protecting land, fish and wildlife, Democrats said Tuesday night. | 11/05/08 07:12:41 By - Rocky Barker
Groups sue to block burn of WWII mustard agent
Attorneys for the Government Accountability Project have filed a lawsuit to stop a plan by Oregon agencies to incinerate the Umatilla Chemical Depot's cache of World War II mustard agent. | 11/04/08 10:55:13 By - Annette Cary
Postal Service tests electric delivery vehicles
KEY WEST, Fla. _ The U.S. Postal Service delivers mail by car, truck, plane, boat, ferry, helicopter, bicycle, foot, and in the Grand Canyon, even mule. | 11/04/08 10:43:42 By - Cammy Clark
California Valley farms could grow clean energy
Central San Joaquin Valley farmers are well known for growing a bounty of crops, but energy advocates say the region's farms and ranches also could be cultivating leadership in adopting clean energy. | 11/04/08 07:02:34 By - Robert Rodriguez
Alaska takes fresh look at volcano's geothermal power
Want to buy some hot water? A lot of hot water? Maybe even enough to supply Anchorage with cheap, clean, reliable geothermal energy for years to come? | 11/03/08 12:09:35 By - George Bryson
Missouri plant makes lead-free ammunition for U.S. military
On a recent day in Independence, a below-the-radar event occurred at the factory that's the largest producer of small-arms ammunition used by the U.S. military. | 11/03/08 12:04:19 By - John Sleezer
Can rural charm in Idaho power economic engine?
Right now, Canyon County's scenic byway consists of a state-approved route, some signs and a lot of big ideas. But within a year, proponents hope to forge a plan to develop those 53 miles into a tourist-tempting economic engine for Canyon communities. | 11/03/08 07:26:13 By - Kristin Rodin
Is more nuclear energy in California's future?
Who knew nuclear power was the new green alternative? Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is now pushing that notion, suggesting that nuclear plants could help the state meet its aggressive long-term goals of reducing carbon emissions. | 11/03/08 07:19:12 By - Kevin Yamamura
Oil man preaches energy independence
T. Boone Pickens may seem an odd one to preach the saving graces of alternative energy, given he made his billions running oil and gas companies and investing in companies such as ExxonMobil and Occidental Petroleum. | 11/03/08 07:16:32 By - Kerry Hall
Aluminum plant lays off workers; power costs hurt industry
Citing a plunge in world aluminum prices because of weakening demand, Alcoa Inc. has announced some layoffs at Alcoa Intalco Works near Ferndale, in western Washington state, as part of a company-wide cost-cutting effort. | 10/31/08 11:47:01 By - John Stark
Solar wizard is a pop star
Ten-year-old Jake and a couple hundred of his fellow students in fourth and fifth grade at Dolphin Bay Elementary were guests at Florida Power & Light Co.'s first-of-a-kind solar powered popcorn party Thursday. It is part of a new educational program from FPL called Professor Whys' Powerful Adventures. | 10/31/08 07:07:31 By - Hannah Sampson
DOE tests river for contaminants from nuclear weapons program
Workers are collecting samples along the Columbia River in Washington state to test for contaminants linked to past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. | 10/30/08 10:02:05 By - Annette Cary
At boat show: solar yacht
Visitors to the 49th Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show will find several exhibitors with a 'green' tint to their products and services. | 10/30/08 09:53:11 By - Susan Cocking
New rule in Florida limits catch of softshell turtles
LAKE PLACID, Fla. _ William Shockley and his teenage son are fishing for freshwater turtles the same way their family has done it for four generations in south-central Florida: deploying about a mile of nylon line on four sets of buoys holding 1,000 small hooks baited with bits of bacon in the clear, shallow waters of Lake Grassy. | 10/29/08 14:21:56 By - Susan Cocking
A stream in the woods, where chum salmon spawn
The Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail offers an up-close look at thousands of chum salmon splashing around in an end-of-life mating display, scratching beds in the stream gravel to deposit their eggs, then succumbing to become a source of food for 137 species of fish and wildlife. | 10/29/08 11:15:15 By - John Dodge
Historic Kansas oil town hopes for cleanup
NEODESHA, Kan. —The first commercial oil well west of the Mississippi River was drilled here 116 years ago. | 10/28/08 10:55:53 By - Karen Dillon
Florida utility posts profit, but stock declines
FPL Group reported on Monday a huge increase in profits for its third quarter, thanks to financial hedging of energy commodities, but the economic downturn caused a decline in the usage of electricity in Florida and the company is working on a multibillion-dollar scale-back on expenses. | 10/28/08 10:38:26 By - John Dorschner
With time short, Bush pushes EPA to relax power-plant rule
The Environmental Protection Agency is working at the Bush administration's direction on a new rule that would weaken regulations for power plants, allowing them to increase emissions without adding pollution controls. | 10/27/08 17:58:00 By - Renee Schoof
Pipeline bursts at Alaska's Prudhoe Bay
BP's old bugaboo, corrosion, might have struck again in the giant Prudhoe Bay oil field. The oil company suspects corrosion contributed to a pressurized natural gas pipeline blowing apart on Sept. 29, BP spokesman Steve Rinehart said. No one was hurt, though some workers were in the vicinity when the line ruptured violently, hurling a length of pipe across the tundra. | 10/27/08 12:28:43 By - Wesley Loy
Calif. proposes air rule for trucks
California officials have released a toughest-in-the-nation plan to cut emissions of air pollutants from the roughly 1 million heavy-duty diesel trucks that travel California's roads. | 10/27/08 11:11:23 By - Jim Downing
Poll: South Carolinians support offshore oil drilling
A new poll finds that South Carolinians overwhelmingly back more drilling off the U.S. coasts, despite a belief that any oil found won’t affect the price of gas for a half-dozen years. Their views -- 73.1 percent of whom back drilling in coastal areas now off-limits to oil exploration -- match those found in Virginia, where 70.2 percent favor more drilling, and in North Carolina, where 67.9 percent want to see the country drill more. | 10/26/08 21:19:45 By - Wayne Washington
Wolves may lose endangered species protection
The Bush administration could remove Rocky Mountain Gray wolves from the endangered species list _ again _ within the next two months. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is starting over after a federal judge returned the wolves to federal protection, saying the agency's justification for allowing Western states to take over wolf management was flawed. | 10/25/08 17:11:51 By - Rocky Barker
In Kentucky, coal is one industry that isn't slumping
Misty Richardson spends nine hours a day following the path from a solitary light on her hard hat. When she emerges stiff and sore from the mouth of a coal mine, black dust is intertwined with her braided hair, caked under her neatly painted fingernails and streaked across her face. Mining is hardly the job the single mother of two pictured for herself, but with demand for coal high, radio ads in Eastern Kentucky beckon workers to the mines, where they get good health insurance, above average wages and regular raises. | 10/25/08 16:37:06 By - Cassondra Kirby-Mullins
Florida considers land protection through tax break
Environmentalists are backing a big tax break for Florida's largest land owners. Amendment Four would reduce or eliminate property taxes for owners who protect their land from bulldozers. Environmental groups embrace the proposal as a way to expand preservation in a state with a dwindling budget to buy prime parcels. | 10/24/08 11:56:18 By - Curtis Morgan
Million swallows roost on California farm
In a Central Valley cornfield, a swarm of tree swallows is roosting nightly, fattening up by day for a migration as far south as Central America. The rare nightly gathering of between half a million and 1 million of the songbirds is luring a growing crowd to the flat fields of Tracy. | 10/24/08 11:35:44 By - M.S. Enkoji
1st solar-thermal in years is on
California's first new solar-thermal power plant in nearly 20 years went into operation Thursday morning near Bakersfield - a precursor to a much larger plant planned for San Luis Obispo County. | 10/24/08 07:20:06 By - Matt Nauman
EPA weakens new lead rule after White House objects
After the White House intervened, the Environmental Protection Agency last week weakened a rule on airborne lead standards at the last minute so that 60 percent fewer polluters would have their emissions of the potentially dangerous chemical monitored. | 10/23/08 19:34:00 By - Renee Schoof
Why are biologists zapping fish in a Florida lake?
The jolt is strong enough to stun a 1 ½-pound bass, a mudfish (bowfin), several shellcrackers (red-ear sunfish) and a bunch of shad. Florida conservation workers began "electrofishing," or shocking, the waters of Lake Okechobee earlier this month to get an estimate of the number and species of fish left after a two-year drought suddenly gave way to the quickest rise in lake levels in 77 years. | 10/23/08 10:11:54 By - Susan Cocking
At the state fair: green ideas
RALEIGH, N.C. _ Even at a place with as many sights and smells as the N.C. State Fair, water holds a kind of magnetic attraction. | 10/23/08 10:22:41 By - Wade Rawlins
Light rail linked to economic growth
Light rail - It's not just a way to get around. Supporters of the upcoming Kansas City vote say it's so much more than that. It's also a path to more jobs, higher property values and a juicier tax base. | 10/23/08 10:16:04 By - Brad Cooper and Kevin Collison
DNA confirms dead grizzly mauled Anchorage jogger
A DNA test has confirmed that Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials in August killed the bear that mauled a 51-year-old jogger over the summer in an Anchorage park. Eleven days after Clivia Feliz was attacked, biologists shot a sow grizzly with two cubs feeding on a moose kill in an Anchorage area yard. | 10/23/08 12:04:49 By - Craig Medred
Commentary: Low-carbon economy
As Wall Street and the American economy continue to crumble around us, it is time _ now more than ever _ to begin building the next American economy _ the low carbon, clean energy economy. | 10/22/08 10:13:43 By -
Biologists examine threats to Alaska's endangered beluga whales
Declaring Cook Inlet beluga whales an endangered species — as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration did Friday — was only the first step toward protecting them. Now federal biologists are trying to figure out exactly what’s endangering them. | 10/22/08 08:36:47 By - George Bryson
Rare ferrets released in Kansas
Black-footed ferrets — one of North America’s most endangered mammals — were released last week in a restoration effort at a prairie dog colony in western Kansas. | 10/21/08 10:11:37 By - Bill Graham
World agency urges storing carbon emissions underground
The United States and other G-8 nations should spend about $20 billion in the next decade to add the technology at 20 large-scale demonstration projects in order to work out problems and cut risks, the International Energy Agency said. Capturing emissions from factories and burying them deep min the Earth is one of the best ways to deep cut the pollution that's warming the planet. | 10/20/08 15:47:00 By - Renee Schoof
Energy: McCain and Obama share goals, if not strategies
WASHINGTON — John McCain and Barack Obama share remarkably similar energy policy goals, but they disagree on how best to achieve them. | 10/20/08 15:34:00 By - Robert S. Boyd and Renee Schoof
The debate on nuclear
The big positive: Nuclear produces huge amounts of power with zero greenhouse gas emissions without using a drop of foreign oil. The two new reactors planned for Turkey Point in South Miami-Dade are the equivalent of roughly 90 square miles of solar panels. | 10/20/08 10:14:19 By -
Squabble threatens Exxon Valdez payouts
It took better than 19 years for Alaska commercial fishermen and other plaintiffs to win sizeable punitive damages from Exxon Mobil Corp. for the disastrous 1989 oil spill in Prince William Sound. Now that some money is in hand — about $383 million — it still could be months away from distribution. | 10/20/08 10:02:20 By - Wesley Loy
Shrinking Yosemite glacier spells trouble for California
As signals of climate change begin to come into focus in the Sierra Nevada, its melting glaciers spell trouble in bold font. Not only are they in-your-face barometers of global warming, they also reflect what scientists are beginning to uncover: that the Sierra snowpack – the source of 65 percent of California's water – is dwindling, too. | 10/19/08 20:37:35 By - Tom Knudson
2 nuclear reactors proposed for Raleigh now will cost $9 billion
Building two nuclear reactors in Wake County could cost Progress Energy customers more than $9.3 billion. The cost estimate, disclosed this month to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is Progress Energy's latest projection for the Shearon Harris proposal. It doubles the previous estimate of $4.4 billion provided in February, when the Raleigh utility applied to the NRC for a license to build two reactors at the site in Wake County. | 10/17/08 07:05:20 By - John Murawski
Arctic temperatures hit record high
Temperatures in the Arctic last fall hit an all-time high — more than 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Centigrade) above normal — and remain almost as high this year, an international team of scientists reported Thursday. | 10/16/08 17:21:00 By - Robert S. Boyd
After 30 years, EPA toughens lead-emissions standard
The amount of lead that can be emitted into the air in the U.S. will be dramatically reduced under a new rule the Environmental Protection Agency announced on Thursday to protect the health of millions of Americans — especially children. | 10/16/08 15:23:00 By - Renee Schoof
Climate change: Scientists say next president needs to act
On the big picture, Barack Obama and John McCain agree — with a shared sense of urgency — that the U.S. can't keep pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere unchecked, because their accumulation threatens to bring rising seas, mass extinction of plants and animals, and more hunger, disease and natural disasters. | 10/16/08 15:00:00 By - Renee Schoof
After 30 years, EPA toughens lead emission standard
The amount of lead that can be emitted into the air in the United States has been dramatically reduced under a new rule the Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday. Studies have linked even low levels of lead to damage to children’s nervous systems that can lead to IQ loss, poor academic achievement and permanent learning disabilities. | 10/16/08 11:51:32 By - Renee Schoof
N.C. Fair trying out green scheme
Going green at the N.C. State Fair used to mean too many rides on the Tilt-A-Whirl. Now, though, it has come to represent an incremental effort by those who manage the fair and the fairgrounds to reduce their impact on the environment. | 10/16/08 06:30:00 By - Martha Quillin
Gazprom execs visit Alaska
Top executives with giant Russian energy company Gazprom met in Anchorage this week with aides to Gov. Sarah Palin as well as executives from oil company Conoco Phillips and Arctic Slope Regional Corp. | 10/15/08 09:44:01 By - Wesley Loy
High water in Everglades threatens wildlife
The Everglades are drowning. | 10/15/08 09:32:41 By - Curtis Morgan
Memos tell wildlife officials to ignore global-warming impact
The legal opinions about the Endangered Species Act come as the Bush administration seeks to change regulations to reduce the role that government wildlife experts have in protecting animals from the effects of climate change. | 10/14/08 17:50:00 By - Renee Schoof
Trash disposal becomes issue in N. Carolina governor's race
A bill that would have set limits on the location of new landfills has become the focus of angry claims that the Democratic candidate is distorting her Republican rival's opposition to it. | 10/14/08 07:54:43 By - Jim Morrill
Zoo's flamingo escapee living the wild life
One thing is certain: This dude has become a jet-setter. He has been seen gallivanting in Texas, Louisiana and now, apparently, Wisconsin. And now, this Greater flamingo -- once a resident of the Sedgwick County Zoo -- has been published in one of the nation's most prominent birding magazines. | 10/14/08 07:31:36 By - Beccy Tanner
Alaska glaciers grew this year, thanks to colder weather
Two hundred years of glacial shrinkage in Alaska, and then came the winter and summer of 2007-2008. Unusually large amounts of winter snow were followed by unusually chill temperatures in June, July and August. | 10/14/08 06:45:11 By - Craig Medred
Is the future of N. Carolina's electric power blowing in the wind?
Five years from now, 210-foot-tall wind turbines could be spinning off South Carolina's coast, generating electric power. That's the prediction from the S.C. Energy Office, which was recently awarded a $500,000, three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to study the potential for generating wind energy off the coast. | 10/13/08 16:13:09 By - Liz Mitchell
Texas seeks ideas to reduce truck engine idling time
Diesel idling — truck drivers' idling their engines to keep cab air conditioners running while they are resting or waiting to load or unload cargo — is often a simple fact of trucking in Texas, with its frequently unfriendly temperatures. | 10/13/08 09:12:23 By - Bryon Okada
Climate change may usher in different scene on Mount Rainier
Nothing lures visitors to Paradise like the transitory displays of wildflowers that populate Mount Rainier's high mountain meadows. But summer sojourns could fade into memory and panoramic vistas vanish as alpine asters, rosy pussytoes and purple lupines are crowded out by trees. | 10/13/08 07:42:16 By - Susan Gordon
Endangered species ruling likely to slow development
A ruling that development along dozens of rivers flowing from the Cascade Mountains to Washington state's Puget Sound jeopardizes endangered salmon, steelhead and killer whales could shape future construction in floodplains nationwide. | 10/12/08 06:00:00 By - Les Blumenthal
U.S. taps Canada's oil sands — but at what cost?
For decades, the U.S. has vowed to reduce its dependence on imported oil and to find a reliable source to meet the nation's growing oil needs. Now, Canada offers a solution. While oil supplies are dwindling in some places, or disrupted by hurricanes, threatened by terrorist attacks or controlled by hostile governments, Alberta's oil sands — a patch of forest about the size of Florida with a sea of oil beneath it — produce more crude than all the wells in Texas or Alaska. | 10/12/08 06:00:00 By - Renee Schoof
Gas well emissions worry EPA
Researchers are only beginning to explore whether natural gas production causes significant air pollution. There's been lots of research on emissions from cars, trucks, factories and power plants, said Al Armendariz, an engineering professor at Southern Methodist University who has studied air quality issues for several years. "The oil and gas sector kind of snuck by." No longer. | 10/12/08 12:43:19 By - Mike Lee
Did success on salmon cause Anchorage's bear problem?
Some now wonder if an environmental success story — the restoration of salmon runs in Anchorage streams — has set the stage for an unfolding community crisis. They are wondering whether a mandate to maintain salmon runs at maximum sustainable levels will make the growing bear-human problems in the city even worse. | 10/12/08 10:52:47 By - Craig Medred
Wiped clean: Volcano turned fertile island to sterile lump
The surprise eruption of Kasatochi Volcano in the central Aleutians this summer turned a small green island rich with seabirds and ocean mammals into a sterile gray lump, scientists say. | 10/10/08 07:04:00 By - George Bryson
Economy forces Florida to revisit U.S. Sugar buyout
Financing the proposed $1.75 billion purchase of the U.S. Sugar Corp. has quickly turned more complex and risky than anyone expected only a month ago -- potentially even too pricey for the South Florida Water Management District to afford. | 10/09/08 18:31:41 By - Curtis Morgan
California groups form coalition to protect Sierra open spaces
From the shores of Donner Lake on Wednesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger praised the creation of a private, non-profit coalition -- the Northern Sierra Partnership -- to work with government to protect open space, forests, watersheds and step up efforts to respond to climate change. | 10/09/08 08:23:27 By - Tom Knudson
More setbacks shackle methane drilling plans
A slipped timeline on a coal-bed methane well proposed by Fowler Oil & Gas Corp. marks the latest of several setbacks for the Palmer-based company. | 10/09/08 07:34:22 By - Zaz Hollander
Energy diversity stressed for S.C.
Alternative energy sources are critical to helping South Carolina and the country meet future demand and maintain independence - and tax credits Congress passed last week are the types of steps to help, experts said Wednesday. | 10/09/08 07:18:26 By - Lisa Fleisher
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INFORMATION ON CLIMATE CHANGE
- National Academies of Sciences
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Eyes on the Earth
- National Center for Atmospheric Research
- U.S. Global Change Research Center
- National Snow and Ice Data Center
- Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
- Smithsonian Institution
- National Council for Science and the Environment
