Economy & Business

"The country's largest nuclear plant operator, Exelon Corp., has publicly fought to torpedo the wind industry's coveted production tax credits, calling them financial threats to its reactors in the Midwest. But the Chicago-based utility is also cashing in on those credits, known as PTCs."

"Exelon's third-quarter earnings results released last week show the company benefiting from the tax incentives that provide wind developers with $23 for every megawatt-hour of electricity they produce. Details about which of Exelon's 44 wind projects generate the PTCs are private."

"Bird watching, hunting or just picnicking. Whatever the reason, visits to the nation's 561 wildlife refuges are big business."

"OLYMPIA, Washington -- With one day before the election in Washington State, grassroots organization Food Democracy Now! is urging its 650,000 members and citizens everywhere to make calls urging voters to support Yes on 522, a ballot initiative that would require labeling of foods containing genetically modified organisms."

"Consol Energy, the largest coal producer in the eastern United States, said on Monday that it was selling five highly automated mines -- about half of its production capacity -- to focus instead on natural gas and on mines that produce coal for export."

"The National Park Service (NPS) entered into agreements late Friday to reopen certain national parks in Colorado, Arizona, and South Dakota."

"WASHINGTON -- As costs and competition from cheap natural gas force more old nuclear plants to shut down, their owners have a new complaint: the electricity market is rigged against them."

"WASHINGTON -- The oil industry Tuesday filed a lawsuit with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia challenging the government’s estimate of how much ethanol must be blended into the U.S. fuel supply this year."

"BOSTON -- A Massachusetts power plant recently cited by federal regulators as one of the state's heaviest polluters is planning to shut down."

"The European Union’s top antitrust enforcer on Thursday threatened to formally charge the Russian natural gas giant Gazprom with restricting trade and price gouging, raising the stakes in a two-year investigation that has already created tensions with Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin."

"The coal sector is in its death throes, thanks to cheaper alternatives and a growing distaste for what is the worst of the global-warming fuels. The latest casualties: two coal-burning power plants in Pennsylvania that will pump their last energy into the grid, and cough their last pollution in to the air, this weekend."