"After an eighth victim dies from the Sept. 9 San Bruno, Calif., explosion, senators introduce another bill that would require remote and automatic shut-off capability. The industry urges regulatory caution."
"The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday said it has formally committed $1 billion in federal stimulus money to the recently retooled FutureGen clean-coal project, beating a deadline to use the money or lose it and kicking off years of further work that could finally see the project completed."
"A large portion of fines that BP Plc may pay for its role in the worst oil spill in U.S. history should go toward fixing the damage caused to Gulf Coast states, a federal official said on Tuesday."
Pakistan's ambassador told a House Committee last week that the floods devastating his country were a warning of what the future may hold in a future world of climate disruption.
"A long-delayed government epidemiological study of possible ties between diesel exhaust and lung cancer in miners may finally be published this fall -- but only after a mining industry group, represented by the Washington lobbying powerhouse Patton Boggs, finishes a pre-publication review of the study's drafts."
If you are wondering why climate legislation was defeated during the 111th Congress and expanded offshore drilling won -- it may have something to do with over $500 million spend by fossil energy companies on lobbying, campaign contributions, and other forms of political influence.
"Michigan could be seeing the beginning of a new boom in drilling for natural gas. Leases for drilling rights are going for unheard of prices in northern-lower Michigan."
"The company whose pipeline exploded into a fireball in San Bruno this month has reported leaks at a rate six times the annual average for other large pipeline operators, data analyzed by The Times show."
"The tension between drillers in Pennsylvania's gas-rich Marcellus shale and communities trying protect natural resources has reached a fevered pitch in Clinton County, where a zoning hearing board resigned rather than allow a water withdrawal station at a scenic bend of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River that draws kayakers, hang gliders, hunters and fly fishermen."
For years, mine safety experts urged the Mine Safety and Health Administration to require coal-dust monitors in mines. Mining companies and MSHA resisted. Now Massey Energy Co. is using the lack of such monitors as an argument to deny charges that it did not do enough to control the buildup of explosive coal dust at its Upper Big Branch Mine, where 29 workers died in a massive blast on April 5.
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