"The Obama administration's greenhouse gas ruling Monday was meant to send a warning to industry, the U.S. Congress, and the world: with or without a law, Washington will tackle global warming in a serious way."
"Many major automakers have unveiled vehicles at the L.A. Auto Show that are within a year or two of the showroom, but a lot has to change for such cars to be common sights in the U.S. private fleet."
"As America's petroleum heartland, Texas isn't known for being environmentally sensitive. But its oil-boom, energy savvy attitude could put the state in a surprising position--leading the charge to alternative energy in the U.S."
"The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that it would probably increase the amount of ethanol that gasoline retailers could blend into ordinary fuel, to 15 percent, if tests established that the blend would not damage cars."
"A new top inspector took charge Tuesday of the International Atomic Energy Agency as it faces one of the most turbulent periods in its 52-year history." Also: "The newly elected chemical weapons chief says he will pursue the last seven holdouts — including Israel, Egypt and Syria — to get them to sign a disarmament treaty and submit weapons stockpiles for inspection."
"A large Southern utility said Tuesday that it would close 30 percent of its North Carolina coal-fired power plants by 2017, a step that represents a bet that natural gas prices will stay acceptably low and that stricter rules are coming on sulfur dioxide emissions, which cause acid rain."
"The Environmental Protection Agency has put off, until the middle of next year, any decision about whether to increase the amount of ethanol allowed into the nation’s fuel."
Hoping to please the farm lobby, Congress ordered the nation's gasoline refiners to blend more ethanol into the fuel Americans use. But fuel demand falling because of the recession and more efficient vehicles has made this impossible.
Health problems, some fatal, linger for workers at the Bannister Federal Complex in south Kansas City. It is being closed by Honeywell, the latest in a series of contractors who have operated it for the Energy Department's nuclear weapons program. No nuclear weapons were made there -- only non-nuclear components. But some 785 toxic substances were used there. Despite a $65-million cleanup, workers feel abandoned.
"One of the world's largest nuclear plant suppliers has ordered its Canadian division to hermetically seal itself off from its U.S. parent, going so far as to forbid engineers at the U.S. wing from having anything to do with Canadian reactors."
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