"The central U.S. was hit Tuesday with a massive storm with wind gusts up to 81 mph. The storm snapped trees and power lines, ripped off roofs, delayed flights and soaked commuters hunched under crumpled umbrellas. The storm spanned from the Dakotas to the eastern Great Lakes. The unusual system had barometric pressure similar to a Category 3 hurricane, but with much less destructive power."
"Members of President Barack Obama's Oil Spill Commission said this week that they were shocked to learn during their months of investigation that federal drilling rig inspectors generally know little or nothing about the process of safely lining and sealing an offshore oil well."
"The federal government announced the first national emissions and fuel economy standards for heavy vehicles on Monday, one of a series of regulatory steps that the Obama administration is taking to increase energy efficiency and reduce atmospheric pollution in the absence of Congressional action on climate change."
"Pregnant women living in Texas neighborhoods with higher air levels of benzene – a pollutant often released from oil refineries and traffic exhaust – are more likely to have babies with neural tube defects. Women living in the areas with the highest benzene levels had a two times greater risk for their children to be born with spina bifida."
Hydraulic fracturing of underground shale to produce natural gas also releases uranium that is part of the rock, say researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo. The uranium may pollute groundwater.
"Health and environmental concerns have become a factor in next Tuesday’s Navajo Nation presidential election."
"Criminal enforcement of federal water-pollution laws has continued a more than decadelong slide under the Obama administration, despite pledged improvements, according to U.S. EPA data."
"The U.S. Interior Department on Monday approved a permit for the world's biggest solar power project that will provide electricity to up to 750,000 homes."
"It took years for Illinois officials to discover that southwest suburban Crestwood was pumping contaminated water to its residents, in part because the state took village officials at their word that nothing was wrong. Such lax oversight is a problem in scores of communities throughout the nation, according to a new report from the U.S. Environmental Agency's inspector general that urged federal and state officials to conduct more rigorous inspections and adopt tighter reporting guidelines."
The majority of Republicans running for House and Senate seats disagree with proven scientific facts about global warming. That means that if Republicans take control of one or both chambers this November, there is little hope for legislation to address climate change.
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