National (U.S.)

Congress' drive to cut spending could increase the threat to US citizens' from bioterrorism as well as more common epidemics, a new study says.

"Having left Congress after an embarrassing 2007 arrest, former Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) has quietly reemerged in Washington as a lobbyist working on behalf of the coal industry. According to his federal filings, Craig has registered to wheedle his former Capitol colleagues on the obscure but critical issue of mine safety."

"In light of just-passed federal legislation, a chemical industry group is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to change course on its assessment of the most potent form of dioxin, a pollutant that causes cancer and is linked to reproductive problems. Such a move by the agency could drag out completion of the assessment, which has been underway for 20 years."

"US President Barack Obama would have until late February to act on TransCanada's application to build the controversial Keystone XL crude oil pipeline under legislation expected to be approved by Congress on Friday."

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission unanimously approved a radical new reactor design on Thursday, clearing away a major obstacle for two utilities to begin construction on projects in South Carolina and Georgia.

"There is good news from Vermont this Christmas for the little brown bat, a threatened species that’s hanging on to existence 'by a tiny little fingernail,' said a state conservationist who’s watched them die by the millions in the Northeast from a mysterious disease."

A conservative GOP freshman congressman from Ohio, Bill Johnson, has been attacking federal surface-mining regulation for costing jobs. It advances him politically. The only problem is that it does not seem to be true.

All along the Mississippi-Missouri river system, floodplains have been reclaimed  as farmlands. Often government agencies like the Corps of Engineers must make agonizing choices between these two beneficial uses.

"The gray wolf in Minnesota could go from protected to hunted - perhaps as soon as next fall - after it is removed from the endangered species list in January. "

US energy independence -- for decades a seemingly unreachable strategic goal -- seems now tantalizingly almost within reach as hydrofracking and high oil prices bring into play oil and gas deposits once economically unfeasible. But the US will continue to import hydrocarbons from Canada and Mexico, and price corrections (much less depleting reserves) could snatch the boom from industry's hand. More to the point: should a nation whose political rhetoric uses "energy independence" to justify gifts to industry be preparing to export petroleum products and natural gas?