"Refiners are pushing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to delay tighter pollution rules for gasoline, while automakers say they need the cleaner fuel."
"MANSFIELD, La.—The brilliant green artificial turf on high-school football fields here serves as a vivid symbol of the natural-gas boom that brought prosperity to this traditionally poor corner of northwest Louisiana.
But the foundation of this wealth has started to crumble. The price of natural gas has plunged to a 10-year low, prompting a flight of energy companies from gas fields across the country.
"Ottawa is headed for a legal showdown with British Columbia first nations if it insists on proceeding with the Northern Gateway pipeline, the leader of the Yinka Dene Alliance warns."
"SACRAMENTO -- Energy companies across California are injecting a mysterious mix of chemicals into the ground to tap oil deposits while frustrating attempts to regulate the controversial process, known as hydraulic fracturing."
The nation's entire electrical grid depends on about 2,100 high-voltage transformers spread throughout the country. Recently, engineers and homeland security officials held a drill to practice replacing one or more if some are knocked out.
"The electric grid, which keeps beer cold, houses warm, and city traffic from turning to chaos, depends on about 2,100 high-voltage transformers spread throughout the country.
"Map used to define Nebraska Sandhills doesn't include nearby areas also vulnerable to contamination, InsideClimate News has learned."
"Eighty percent of the world's nuclear power plants are more than 20 years old, raising safety concerns, a draft U.N. report says a year after Japan's Fukushima disaster. Many operators have begun programs, or expressed their intention, to run reactors beyond their planned design lifetimes, said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) document which has not yet been made public."
"The Energy Department is mismanaging oversight of $34 billion in taxpayer-backed loans for green-energy and other projects, congressional auditors said Monday in a new report."
"The Government Accountability Office said it took Energy Department staff more than three months to come up with data on the status of applications for loan guarantees, leading auditors to question whether oversight of the program is timely or fair to companies seeking federal subsidies.
"A team of Australian scientists has bred salt tolerance into a variety of durum wheat that shows improved grain yield by 25% on salty soils. Using 'non-GM' crop breeding techniques, scientists from CSIRO Plant Industry have introduced a salt-tolerant gene into a commercial durum wheat, with spectacular results shown in field tests."
"The world's water supply is being strained by climate change and the growing food, energy and sanitary needs of a fast-growing population, according to a United Nations study that calls for a radical rethink of policies to manage competing claims.
"Freshwater is not being used sustainably," UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said in a statement. "Accurate information remains disparate, and management is fragmented ... the future is increasingly uncertain and risks are set to deepen."
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