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"House Republican leaders are desperately searching for the votes to pass their $260 billion transportation bill this week."

"After pushing through some of the most sweeping and contentious environmental measures in years, the Obama administration has slowed action on several policies as it calculates what it should undertake before the end of the term."

"Concern is growing that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan is no longer stable after temperature readings suggested one of its damaged reactors was reheating."

"A mysterious epidemic is devastating the Pacific coast of Central America, killing more than 24,000 people in El Salvador and Nicaragua since 2000 and striking thousands of others with chronic kidney disease at rates unseen virtually anywhere else. Scientists say they have received reports of the phenomenon as far north as southern Mexico and as far south as Panama. ..."

"PITTSBURGH -- As natural gas prices continue to drop, the recent nationwide boom in drilling is slowing. Drillers don't make money if prices go too low — and drilling wells isn't cheap."

"Bottled water is trickling away from college campuses nationwide, thanks to the efforts of student activists and the non-profit groups that support them with campaigns like Ban the Bottle.

But that's not going over too well with the International Bottled Water Association. The industry, which had $10.6 billion in revenue in 2010, went on the defensive this month with a YouTube video to counter what it calls "misinformation" used to turn college students against bottled water.

"The State Department Inspector General issued a review on Thursday that found 'no evidence' the company that wants to build the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL crude oil pipeline had improperly influenced on a contractor that performed the environmental review of the project."

Timothy Gardner and Ayesha Rascoe report for Reuters February 10, 2012.

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"Harry Truman was president the last time we exported more energy than we imported. Now complete energy independence may be within reach as President Obama plans to tap all domestic sources to achieve that goal."

President Obama will send his budget request for fiscal 2013 to Congress today. It is expected to fund the clean energy programs he mentioned in his State of the Union speech. But Congress, which actually appropriates the money, will have the last word. Republicans want to cut many environmental and clean-energy programs drastically. After agency-specific budget briefings today, some agency heads will explain the budget requests to Congressional committees later in the week.