US Supreme Court to hear six cases with important environmental implications. Issues involved are: use of sonar in Naval training; logging in California; power plant operation; disposal of mining wastes; royalties paid to the Navajo Nation on coal leases; and liability under Superfund law.
New U.S. refineries will process crude oil from Canada's Tar Sands, which means that much of the pollution associated with that refining will occur in the lower 48.
Compact fluorescent lighting reduces energy use, but what's the trade-off in mercury exposure via broken bulbs and disposal? Now a team of Yale scientists has estimated where there will be a net increase or decrease in mercury emissions.
The future of alternative energy development in coastal US waters will likely become clearer at the end of March 2007, when a draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement is scheduled to be released.
Spurred by recent tsunami and hurricane disasters in the US and around the world, NOAA, USGS, and other government agencies are taking a closer look at the hazards lurking on US shores.
Although the evidence is not yet ironclad, two recent reports support fears that populations of hundreds of bird species strongly dependent on water bodies are declining in much of the world.
An extensive report on the growing threats posed to the Colorado River system by climate change, drought, and increasing population is scheduled to be released Feb. 21, 2007.