Disasters

"Regulators overseeing the country’s electric grid want to set new rules to better protect it from disturbances caused by solar storms."

"Seven environmental groups filed a lawsuit on Thursday challenging safety rules issued earlier this month for trains carrying oil, arguing the regulations are too weak to protect the public."

"President Barack Obama on Thursday called for greater federal spending on infrastructure in the wake of the deadly Amtrak crash that killed eight people."

"Paddle-powered activists hit the waters of Elliott Bay in kayaks Thursday to throw an 'unwelcome party' for a massive Shell drilling rig as it reached the Port of Seattle."

A federal judge Wednesday rejected Freedom Industries' bankruptcy proposal and ordered the company to clean up the site where its January 2014 chemical spill contaminated Charleston, W.V., drinking water.

"Shell Oil says its offshore oil rigs will arrive shortly on Seattle’s waterfront to prepare for drilling in Alaska, despite a Port of Seattle resolution Tuesday asking it to delay while the Port challenges a city ruling aimed at keeping the rigs out."

"Enbridge Energy and its affiliates will pay $75 million to settle a 2010 oil spill into Michigan's Talmadge Creek and Kalamazoo River that dumped 800,000 gallons of oil, state officials said on Wednesday."

"Duke Energy ignored repeated warnings before a broken pipe dumped tons of coal ash into the Dan River last year, according to court filings Thursday as the company faces a federal judge."

"The Port of Seattle’s board voted Tuesday to ask that the arrival of Shell’s Arctic drilling rigs be delayed, bowing to a wave of public pressure by protesters and city officials over the company’s plans to drill this summer off the coast of Alaska and use Puget Sound as a home port."

"The oil industry is challenging new federal rules intended to improve the safety of oil-by-train transportation, opening the first legal fight in a two-year effort to reduce the risks of moving hazardous materials on railroads."