National (U.S.)

"Clean air advocates are girding for a battle over a possible amendment to the annual U.S. EPA spending bill that would weaken the agency's ability to regulate air pollution from oceangoing vessels."

"The operators of 10 U.S. mines, including the largest private-sector coal company in the world, have been warned they must improve health and safety conditions or face stricter enforcement and penalties, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration said Wednesday."

"The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted [Thursday] to confirm Pennsylvania's controversial mining director as the director of the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement."

"An overhaul of federal toxics regulations will require prioritizing tens of thousands of chemicals currently in the marketplace, representatives of industry and advocacy groups agree. At issue: the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today published a final rule to ensure that safe and reliable drinking water is provided to aircraft passengers and crew. The rule requires airlines to have their water systems inspected at least once every five years, report the test results to the EPA and fix any 'significant deficiencies.'"

Engineering and construction firm KBR has profited from the war in Iraq, thanks to secret-no-bid contracts coordinated by the office of then VP Cheney, who had previously headed KBR's parent company. Evidence shows that US soldiers were exposed to carcinogen sodium dichromate as part of KBR's activities in Iraqi oil fields.

"Uncle Sam looks to eliminate the biggest hurdle to expanding renewable energy – the need for suitable sites to place commercial-scale wind and solar farms – by reusing hundreds of old mines, landfills and industrial sites."

"Dow Chemical has unveiled a residential roof shingle in the form of a solar panel designed to be integrated into asphalt-tiled roofs."

"The government plans to aggressively sterilize wild horses and transplant thousands to new public preserves in the Midwest and East as a solution to the nearly 40-year-old problem of how to manage the exploding numbers of wild horses in the West, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday."