Incoming head of the National Park Service Jonathan Jarvis "knows the park service's problems are epic. Its maintenance backlog is $8 billion, for one, and it is seeking more money from Congress to fill potholes, improve ranger living quarters, and build more visitor centers and campgrounds."
Staff for the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming refused Thursday to rule out possible perjury charges against Steve Miller, the director of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), for sworn testimony he gave Thursday. Miller said the coal lobby group had never opposed House climate legislation, whereas evidence exists that it had.
"The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will announce the largest fine in its history on Friday, $87 million in penalties against the oil giant BP for failing to correct safety problems identified after a 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers at its Texas City, Tex. refinery, federal officials said Thursday."
The widespread perception of water abundance in Canada is a myth, according to a new report by the World Wildlife Fund-Canada. See details for the 10 selected rivers, most of which cross political boundaries within Canada or between Canada and the United States.
Strenuous local battles sometimes erupt over "daylighting" (freeing streams from culverts and paved channels), an increasingly popular method for state, county, and local governments to improve stormwater management and water quality.
Foreign ownership of privately-held US agricultural lands, on the rise for the second year in a row, can affect the local economy, politics, culture, foreign investment in the US, food security, and agricultural subsidies.
"The National Institutes of Health will devote $30 million to study the safety of bisphenol A, or BPA, an estrogen-like chemical used in many plastics, including sippy cups and the linings of metal cans."
"Idling school buses spew tons of exhaust into the air, putting children at risk when they leave school at the end of each day. In New York City alone, idling vehicles emit as much pollution as nine million diesel trucks driving from the Bronx to Staten Island. But the city's laws requiring them to shut down their engines in school zones are poorly enforced."
"Some children's face paints contain lead, a neurotoxin that can harm the brain at low doses, according to new product tests documented in a report from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a national coalition of nonprofit health and environmental groups."
"A new EPA report says that the potentially toxic pollutants in coal ash – from mercury to arsenic - are of particular concern because they can concentrate in large amounts that are discharged to waterways or seep into groundwater."
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