"One day after deadly tornadoes knocked out power to nuclear reactors in Alabama, the head of the U.S. nuclear safety regulator expressed concern whether backup batteries at sites across the United States have the staying power in a prolonged emergency."
"In an effort to encourage nuclear power, Congress voted in 2005 to authorize $17.5 billion in loan guarantees for new reactors. Now, six years later, with the industry stalled by poor market conditions and the Fukushima disaster, nearly half of the fund remains unclaimed. And yet Congress, at the request of the Obama administration, is preparing to add $36 billion in nuclear loan guarantees to next year’s budget."
"The death toll soared to near 300 Thursday as rescuers dug through rubble from Mississippi to Virginia in the nation’s deadliest natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina."
As ominous as a floating hearse, twin barges creep up the Mississippi River carrying a payload of explosives bound for southeast Missouri and a levee facing the prospect of being sacrificed to spare a flood-threatened Illinois town just upriver."
"Big coal is hardly in retrenchment mode. Four of the nation’s five biggest coal companies saw sales rise in 2010, even as the Obama administration blocks expansion of coal mines and focuses on greener energy."
"One of U.S. EPA's longest ongoing enforcement matters is about to be wrapped up after a federal jury ruled this week that the Clean Water Act protects 46 acres of wetlands filled in by a Massachusetts cranberry farmer more than two decades ago."
"Of the food pathogens that cost society the most money — in terms of medical care, lost days of work, long-term chronic health problems or deaths — half are found in poultry, pork, beef and other meat products, according to a study due for release Thursday."
"The federal agency overseeing offshore drilling in Alaska says the worst-case scenario for a blowout in the Chukchi Sea lease could result in a spill of more than 58 million gallons of oil into Arctic waters."
"Four authors of a new report concluding that bisphenol A is safe have ties to companies and groups that benefit from the controversial chemical."
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