Public

"Mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants is declining nationally after years of increases, prompted by laws in Illinois and more than a dozen other states that for the first time limited emissions of the toxic metal."

"In a setback for the only model of nuclear reactor for which ground has been broken in the United States, government regulators have found additional problems with the design of its shield building, a crucial component, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Friday."

"The operator of the nuclear power plant at the center of a radiation scare after being disabled by Japan's earthquake and tsunami confirmed Tuesday that there had been meltdowns of fuel rods at three of its reactors."

"Rescue crews dug through piles of splintered houses and crushed cars Monday in a search for victims of a half-mile-wide tornado that blasted much of this Missouri town off the map and slammed straight into its hospital."

As environmentalists flag the hydrofracking gas-drilling method as a new threat to the Susquehanna River, some basin residents say authorities have still not fixed an old threat: acid mine drainage.

"Saying innovation is being stifled and research costs are being unnecessarily increased, S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. wants the Environmental Protection Agency to ease its rules on protecting human subjects in pesticide research."

"Democratic U.S. lawmakers have asked Congressional panels to look into whether Koch, an energy company led by brothers who are powerhouses in conservative politics, will benefit if the Obama administration approves a $7 billion pipeline to bring crude from Canada into the United States."

"More than 100 million Americans believe that Judgment Day is just around the corner. It's no wonder then that a relatively long-term problem like climate change isn't a priority in the public's mind."

Fox "news" figures like commentator Glenn Beck have led the charge against the environmental movement. "The circus Roger Ailes created at Fox News made his network $900 million last year. But it may have lost him something more important: the next election."

The ugly truth in Massachusetts is this: after some three decades and $1 billion worth of Superfund cleamup work at scores of toxic sites, nobody knows whether they are still poisoning people.