Public

"WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned a federal rule that laid out how much air pollution states would have to clean up to avoid incurring violations in downwind states.

 The decision sends the Environmental Protection Agency, and perhaps even Congress, back to the drawing board in what has become a long and paralyzing argument over how to mesh a system of state-by-state regulation with the problem of industrial smokestacks pumping pollutants into a single atmosphere.

Lawyers who won hundreds of millions suing tobacco companies have now set their sights on a big payday from food manufacturers. They are filing suits alleging that food companies are "misleading consumers and violating federal regulations by wrongly labeling products."

"MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Nearly 100 boats and barges were waiting for passage Monday along an 11-mile stretch of the Mississippi River that has been closed due to low water levels, the U.S. Coast Guard said."

"Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is likely to shrink to a record small size sometime next week, and then keep on melting, a scientist at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center said on Monday."

"Southern California Edison announced plans to cut nearly one-third of its workforce at the troubled San Onofre nuclear plant, raising new questions about whether the plant will ever return to full operations."

"The nuclear power industry has made behind-the-scenes payments to the tune of at least 3.18 billion yen ($40 million) to six local governments hosting nuclear-power related facilities since the Fukushima disaster last year."

"What do the energy and environment policies of President Obama and presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney bode for the country?"

"RICHMOND -- The chairman of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board toured the scene of the Chevron refinery fire Monday and released photos of the gigantic vapor cloud that loomed over Richmond before it caught fire."

" ... wouldn't it be lovely if somebody came up with a biofuel that didn't take food out of people's mouths? A few years ago, some people thought they'd found it: A miracle tree called Jatropha. Unfortunately, the miracle turned out to be a mirage."