"VIENNA, Austria -- Russia has decided to extend the life of a controversial generation of nuclear reactors like the one that catastrophically exploded at Chernobyl in 1986, the head of Russia's state-owned nuclear monopoly said."
"A bipartisan effort to secure at least 80 percent of fines from the BP Gulf oil spill for the five Gulf Coast states — Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas — advanced Wednesday as the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved the bill by voice vote."
A deadly typhoon crossed Japan, causing widespread death and damage, but authorities said it caused little significant increase in release of radiation from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant.
"Worrying levels of BPA, an industrial chemical with suspected links to cancer, lurk inside canned soups and pasta targeted at American children, the Breast Cancer Fund said Wednesday."
"Monsanto Co., the world's largest seed company, has prevailed in another lawsuit against a U.S. farmer, earning a ruling from a federal appeals court that protects Monsanto's interests even when its patented seeds are sold in a mix of undifferentiated "commodity" seeds."
"Leaked World Bank documents propose that rich countries should eliminate the $50bn a year they give in fossil fuel subsidies, in order to financially help poor countries address climate change.
The documents, due to be presented to the G20 finance ministers in November, also suggest that countries redirect "climate aid" money already pledged, towards the propping up ailing carbon markets.
Joan Guilfoyle, the new head of Interior's wild horse and burro program, faces a dilemma. The 38,000 animals roaming 34 million western acres are breeding rapidly. If she moves to fast to cull them, she faces the wrath of conservationists; if she moves too slowly, she faces the wrath of ranchers.
"San Francisco -- The shipping companies responsible for the 2007 Cosco Busan oil spill, which polluted San Francisco Bay and killed thousands of birds and fish, have agreed to pay $44.4 million to restore habitat and reimburse the agencies that responded to the disaster, state and federal officials announced Monday."
"The President's advisers have made it official and are recommending a strong veto of a House bill that would gut two key anti-pollution rules."
Dam inspections began before the Dec. 2008 spill incident of 5.4 million cubic yards of coal-ash slurry in Tennessee. Afterward, the initial draft engineer's report of the pre-spill inspection noted several eroded areas needed to be fixed "immediately;" the word was subsequently struck from the report.
