National (U.S.)

The NAACP last week adopted a resolution supporting clean energy development, curbs on greenhouse gas emissions, and policies to foster green collar jobs.

"The $28 billion styrene industry has filed a lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court to block California environmental officials from listing the product as a cause of cancer and birth defects."

The online environmental magazine Grist combed the Web sites of 99 senators and graded them on how well they explained the Senators' positions on climate change and energy. "The results aren’t pretty. We found a distinct lack of information among Democrats and Republicans alike, senators with and without strong environmental voting records, and from all regions of the country," Grist told parents.

Democrats trying to move two huge legislative initiaties -- on climate change and health care -- may be forced to choose which gets top priority. Meanwhile, Republicans focus on using both issues to damage Democrats politically. Are Democrats biting off more than they can chew?

"U.S. farmers and foresters could earn more money from carbon contracts than they pay in higher costs from legislation to control greenhouse gases, the Agriculture Department estimated on Wednesday."

Policies that allow small producers of alternative energy to sell it to utilities at or above market rates art catching on in the U.S. They could help revolutionize energy production.

"Back in the 1980s and 90s, dozens of communities across the US built incinerators to get rid of their trash. Many of them financed the massive furnaces with bonds they're just now paying off. And now that those debts are off their books, some cities are re-thinking whether burning trash makes environmental and economic sense."

"Imported insects have been deployed as foot soldiers in the fight against invasive bugs and plants that cause billions of dollars in damage each year. But some of those imports are proving to be pests themselves that upset the balance of nature and threaten native species."

"The Colorado River system -- which 30 million people depend on for drinking and irrigation water -- could fully deplete all of its reservoir storage by the middle of the century, a new University of Colorado study shows."

"Fruit and nut orchards in the Central Valley rely on winter chilling hours, but those are in decline, according to a UC Davis study."