"Federal [officials] Monday issued seven safety recommendations — six of them labeled urgent — stemming from the explosion of a natural gas pipeline that killed eight people and destroyed 37 homes in the Bay Area community of San Bruno last September."
"The Obama administration today eased requirements for oil companies whose deepwater drilling activities were suspended by last year's moratorium imposed in response to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico."
"Australian troops and emergency workers were Monday battling huge flooding in the country's northeast that has left at least two people dead, with the worst devastation yet to come for some areas."
"Changes in Iowa's weather patterns, landscape, cities and farms have rendered some of the state's most trusted flood prevention safeguards outmoded and inadequate, a review by The Des Moines Register shows."
"Transocean Ltd, the world's biggest offshore rig contractor, aims to stop a seventh U.S. body from investigating the accident that sank one of its rigs while causing the largest U.S. offshore oil spill."
"Louisiana's coastline continues to be smeared with significant amounts of oil and oiled material from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, with cleanup teams struggling to remove as much as possible of the toxic material by the time migratory birds arrive at the end of February...."
After initially being blocked by naysaying Republicans, Congress cleared a $4.2-billion aid package for workers and survivors sickened by the fallout from the 9/11 collapse of the World Trade Center.
"A Transocean supervisor who worked on the Deepwater Horizon rig before it exploded has since participated in an investigation of the blowout preventer that failed to stop gushing oil from the well it was drilling — a possible conflict of interest that a congressional critic says threatens the integrity of the probe."
"BP Monday pleaded not guilty to probation violations relating to its criminal conviction for a major North Slope oil spill in 2006."
As Christmas approaches former tobacco country in rural Prince George's County, Maryland, a food bank helps poor people living in trailers, discarded campers, and even tents. It's not just food, blankets, and clothing that they need. They need kerosene, propane, heating oil, and firewood. They do not qualify for federal low-income fuel assistance. They do not have plumbing or electricity. It is 23 degress outside and they are 23 miles from the White House.
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