National (U.S.)

"Climate-related disasters will exacerbate conflict and stresses in vulnerable countries, with implications for global and US security, says a new report by Oxfam America and the Center for Naval Analysis. In order to make developing nations more resilient, US aid should focus more on using risk reduction strategies, seeking to prevent climate-related humanitarian disasters before they occur."

"Exposure to wildfire smoke -- particularly that from smoldering peat -- can dramatically increase the risk of cardiac and respiratory illness, according to new research led by the Environmental Protection Agency."

"FORT CALHOUN, Neb. — When safety regulators arrive for a tour of a nuclear plant, the operators usually give the visitors a helmet, safety glasses and earplugs. When Gregory B. Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, got to the Fort Calhoun plant on Monday morning, the Omaha Public Power District offered him a life jacket."

"The Obama administration is telling American automakers that it would like cars and light trucks to average 56.2 miles per gallon by 2025 — a boost to fuel economy that would save consumers money at the pump and help with global warming but drive up the cost of automobiles."

A growing number of recent graduates are passing on careers in traditional industries and media for work on sustainability, often in the nonprofit sector.

"Thousands of residents calmly fled Monday from the mesa-top town that's home to the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory, ahead of an approaching wildfire that sent up towering plumes of smoke, rained down ash and sparked a spot fire on lab property where scientists 50 years ago conducted underground tests of radioactive explosives."

"As America's nuclear power plants have aged, the once-rural areas around them have become far more crowded and much more difficult to evacuate. Yet government and industry have paid little heed, even as plants are running at higher power and posing more danger in the event of an accident, an Associated Press investigation has found."

"Despite criticism over perceived ties to oil and gas companies, judges of the New Orleans-based federal appeals court that frequently handles cases affecting the energy industry have made little effort to divest themselves of investments that could create conflicts of interest, according to new financial disclosure statements."

"BROWNVILLE, Neb. — Like inhabitants of a city preparing for a siege, operators of the nuclear reactor here have spent days working to defend it against the swollen Missouri River at its doorstep. On Sunday, eight days after the river rose high enough to require the operators to declare a low-level emergency, a swarm of plant officials got to show off their preparations to the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission."

"Jeff Fulcher has spent $70,000 on legal fees and expert witnesses trying to get Drake Petroleum to clean up pollution that has crept from the Xtra Mart gas station in Westbrook to the business that Fulcher runs with his wife."