Public

"Forty years after grassy narrows First Nation’s mercury-drenched river system was proclaimed off limits, a recently released report on the health fallout in the community north of Kenora has arrived at a more ominous conclusion. It’s possible that even small amounts of mercury below Health Canada’s guidelines are continuing to poison people and causing health problems."

"EPA administrator is blazing trails, from regulating greenhouse gas emissions to reforming chemical management policies."

"Many who think they have food allergies actually do not. A new report, commissioned by the federal government, finds the field is rife with poorly done studies, misdiagnoses and tests that can give misleading results."

"For 11 years, the federal government has been burying nuclear waste in New Mexican salt beds at a place called WIPP, or the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. It's waste from making atomic weapons. But now the government is looking for a place to put thousands of tons of spent fuel from reactors. These salt beds could be the place."

""A largely ignored contaminant doesn’t just resemble bisphenol A, the chemical found to leach out of hard plastic water bottles. It’s BPA’s fluorinated twin — on steroids."

"President Obama put his weight today behind legislative efforts to lift liability caps for oil spills."
 

"Federal investigators are likely to file criminal charges against at least one of the companies involved in the Gulf of Mexico spill, raising the prospects of significantly higher penalties than a current $75 million cap on civil liability, legal experts say."

Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) released their draft Senate climate and energy bill Wednesday. It pairs a cap-and-trade scheme with major concessions to the fossil-fuel and nuclear industries. Weighing in close to 1,000 pages, it covers a cross section of the nation's top environmental and energy issues. Both business groups and environmental groups have mixed reactions. The big question now is whether the bill can garner enough votes to succeed on the Senate floor.

"A House energy panel investigation has found that the blowout preventer that failed to stop a huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico had a dead battery in its control pod, leaks in its hydraulic system, a "useless" test version of a key component and a cutting tool that wasn't strong enough to shear through steel joints in the well pipe and stop the flow of oil."