National (U.S.)

"Members of the Senate Agriculture Committee will vet options this week for the sweeping energy and climate bill, which they are expected to play a significant role in shaping."

"In a modest victory for environmentalists, the Obama administration said Monday that it was designating nearly one million acres of Arizona land near the Grand Canyon off limits to new uranium mining claims for two years."

"Researchers for the first time have linked air pollution exposure before birth with lower IQ scores in childhood, bolstering evidence that smog may harm the developing brain."

The agricultural giant, Syngenta, has petitioned the USDA to grant its new genetically modified corn a non-regulated status. Some experts fear that the strain, meant solely for producing ethanol, could end up in the food supply.

"A highly contagious fungus that destroys tomato plants has quickly spread to nearly every state in the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic, and the weather over the next week may determine whether the outbreak abates or whether tomato crops are ruined."

"A Great Lakes study linking a pesticide in fish to diabetes adds to the growing chorus of studies suggesting that environmental contaminants may play a role in the widespread disease."

"A new burst of coal-fired power plant construction now underway -- the largest in decades -- will put 43 new coal plants on American soil in the next five years, and all of them will escape the performance standards written into the climate bill now moving through Congress."

"So many of us have an old bike collecting dust in the garage. More often than not, they end up in the garbage. But ...one group has found a unique way to recycle them."

"For years, the stumbling block for making renewable energy practical and dependable has been how to store electricity for days when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing. But new technologies suggest this goal may finally be within reach."

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-MA) penned a response criticising AK Gov. Sarah Palin's July 14, 2009, Washington Post op-ed slamming the Democrat's cap-and-trade plan. The blogosphere buzz built by Palin's foray into climate matters suggests she may still have a role to play in U.S. politics. Both Republicans and Democrats seem to hope so.