Public

As a kid, Gary Mechanic didn’t think twice about playing along the banks of the Chicago River, just a half block from his home, despite the sewage and industrial runoff that fouled the waterway when it rained.

"Jeff Fulcher has spent $70,000 on legal fees and expert witnesses trying to get Drake Petroleum to clean up pollution that has crept from the Xtra Mart gas station in Westbrook to the business that Fulcher runs with his wife."

"Fishermen are gearing up and hunters are taking aim — for Marcellus Shale gas drilling."

"With a January deadline looming on a US law mandating energy efficiency standards for lightbulbs, some political forces don't want to turn out the lights."

"With trips that began two months after he took office, President Obama has devoted more than half of his out-of-town private-business visits to promoting a single industry: clean technology, which the president says will lead the nation back to economic prosperity."

"Natural gas companies have been placing enormous bets on the wells they are drilling, saying they will deliver big profits and provide a vast new source of energy for the United States. ... [But documents show industry analysts voicing] skepticism about lofty forecasts and question whether companies are intentionally, and even illegally, overstating the productivity of their wells and the size of their reserves."

"The Canadian delegation at an international summit admitted Thursday it agrees with the work of a United Nations scientific panel that wants limits placed on the export of chrysotile asbestos, but Canada still won't back the move."

"After the Navy complained that cargo ships were traveling through its testing area to avoid pollution regulations closer to shore, the California Air Resources Board votes to extend the clean-fuel zone."

"U.S. EPA warned of the potential dire consequences of legislation being fast-tracked through the House that would give states final say on rules concerning water, wetlands and mountaintop-removal mining."

Rice farmers in Texas worry about their future in the face of looming water restrictions and drought.