"The federal government’s ability to gather and analyze energy data and produce market forecasts will be significantly impaired by the recently enacted budget cuts, the administrator of the Energy Information Administration said."
Incessant rains have delayed spring planting of corn from Minnesota to Indiana to Nebraska.
"Los Alamos National Laboratory must capture and eliminate toxic runoff from over 400 waste dump sites that discharge pollutants to the Rio Grande, a source of drinking water for Santa Fe, under a settlement agreement reached Thursday with community groups."
"A New York man who admitted smuggling nearly 4,000 live Chinese snakehead fish, which pose a danger to fish native to U.S. waters, was arrested on criminal charges, prosecutors said on Thursday."
"The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia [Friday] rejected an attempt to overturn California's authority to implement greenhouse gas emissions standards for new cars brought by the National Automobile Dealers Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce."
There is little evidence to suggest that tornado outbreaks like the one that devasted the South last week are related to global climate change.
"It has been the deadliest natural disaster on American soil since Hurricane Katrina. But the government response to the tornadoes that devastated the South last week has, at least in the first few days, drawn little of the searing criticism aimed at federal agencies back in 2005."
EPA's work on possible limits to hexavalent chromium (the 'Erin Brockovich' contaminant) in drinking water may spark a battle like the one over arsenic.
"A federal judge will decide whether to allow a lawsuit to move forward alleging two major chemical companies, Dow and Sasol North America, used a private security firm to spy on environmental groups in Louisiana and Washington, D.C."
"This year's federal budget resolution stripped money for a controversial conservation program. The move put millions of acres of Western lands back on the table for oil and gas drilling. One of those areas is a place called South Shale Ridge, a remote stretch of rugged canyons in western Colorado. The area is prized for its scenery and its natural gas. It's not considered wilderness, but the area has become a battleground over the new Interior Department term 'Wild Land.'"
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