National (U.S.)

"NIPTON, Calif. — The Ivanpah solar power plant stretches over more than five square miles of the Mojave Desert. Almost 350,000 mirrors the size of garage doors tilt toward the sun with an ability to energize 140,000 homes. The plant, which took almost four years and thousands of workers assembling millions of parts to complete, officially opened on Thursday, the first electric generator of its kind. It could also be the last."

"WASHINGTON — The sign is ubiquitous on city buses around the country: 'This bus runs on clean burning natural gas.' But a surprising new report, to be published Friday in the journal Science, concludes that switching buses and trucks from traditional diesel fuel to natural gas could actually harm the planet’s climate."

"RALEIGH — The U.S. Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into the state environmental agency tasked with regulating Duke Energy after a coal ash spill left the Dan River so polluted that people were advised to avoid contact with the water."

"A new experiment by scientists at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has found that bisphenol A does not affect the health of rats fed low doses. Other scientists say the study is flawed."

"U.S. scientists announced on Wednesday an important milestone in the costly, decades-old quest to develop fusion energy, which, if harnessed successfully, promises a nearly inexhaustible energy source for future generations."

"HOUSTON — T. Boone Pickens has personified the nation’s oil industry for more than a generation. So when he made an offhand comment at a conference here a few weeks ago expressing reservations about lifting the nation’s ban on exports of crude oil, he startled some of his old allies in the business."

"We often talk about climate change as a matter of science. But the biggest questions are really about money. How much would it cost to fix the problem — and what price will we pay if we don't?"

"CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency denied a request from Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin to reimburse costs associated with responding to the chemical leak that continues to affect central West Virginia."

"The major winter storm that has left hundreds of thousands in the southern USA without power is blazing a trail up the East Coast."

"WASHINGTON -- Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer proposed emergency drought legislation Tuesday ahead of President Obama's planned visit to Fresno, as Democrats scrambled to counter GOP charges that trying to save rivers and fish during California's historic drought is destroying the nation's chief source of fruits and vegetables."