A fatal November 30, 2012, collapse of part of a coal-slurry impoundment in West Virginia served as a reminder of safety issues that may not be adequately regulated in some states and localities. You can locate local coal-slurry impoundments and information on their status with an online public database.
Is the public entitled to see documents that may bear on the safety of a for-profit utility's plan to restart the flaw-stricken San Onofre nuclear plant in California? Maybe not. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled the utility must turn the documents over to the board — but currently plans to keep them secret from the public.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was joined by the Washington (PA) Observer-Reporter in a suit to unseal records of the July 2011 settlement of a case in which a family had sued four natural gas companies over damages they claimed were caused by hydraulic fracturing. The appeals court said a lower court had erred in throwing out the newspapers' case.
The Society of Environmental Journalists wrote Interior Secretary Ken Salazar about the Election Day incident of attempted intimidation in Colorado, when the Secretary threatened to "punch out" SEJ member Dave Philipps, senior investigative reporter with the Colorado Springs Gazette.
Negotiations over an international treaty to combat mercury emissions will reach a climax next month in Geneva.
"NACOGDOCHES, Texas -- Texas landowner Michael Bishop, 64, an analytical chemist and former U.S. Marine, has been granted a temporary restraining order that halts construction of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline across his land while a judge considers Bishop’s charges of fraud against the company."
"NEVADA, Iowa -- Science and engineering company DuPont has started construction of a large cellulosic ethanol biorefinery in Iowa, with completion expected in mid-2014."
Illinois may soon approve the mining of fracking sand near a beloved state park.
"Today -- to the dismay of whale lovers and friends of marine mammals, if not divers and submarine captains -- the ocean depths have become a noisy place."
"Representative Edward Markey and some of his congressional colleagues are imploring the US Food and Drug Administration to investigate hair straightening treatments, such as the popular Brazilian Blowout, that contain formaldehyde, a carcinogen. ..."
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