"Natural gas is causing angst and excitement in local communities across the country, but the rise of fracking will have an impact on an issue that affects everyone on the planet: climate change. Gas Planet, a special hour of radio, explores whether unconventional natural gas can help or hinder efforts to solve climate change."
"The federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said Monday that it would seek to impose a $3.7 million fine -- a record civil penalty -- on the pipeline operator Enbridge over an oil spill in the Kalamazoo River in Michigan two years ago."
"With widespread power outages still plaguing a multistate swath from Indiana to Virginia after the severe “derecho” event on Friday night, the late June heat wave continues to make headlines. Numerous all-time high temperature records were set on Saturday, with additional records expected to be set during the first few days of July.
"After several years of relatively benign fire seasons, the West is headed into a hot, dry summer of potentially ferocious blazes like the ones that have scorched Colorado in recent weeks."
"MARSHALL, Mich. -- An acrid stench had already enveloped John LaForge's five-bedroom house when he opened the door just after 6 a.m. on July 26, 2010. By the time the building contractor hurried the few feet to the refuge of his Dodge Ram pickup, his throat was stinging and his head was throbbing."
"Now that he survived his recall election, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is lending his support to an upcoming fundraiser for the Heartland Institute, a climate-denying think-tank."
"When meteorologists predict temperatures will be in the low 90s in downtown Los Angeles, it's a given the mercury will reach the high 90s or triple digits in many parts of the San Gabriel Valley and Inland Empire."
"The Obama administration's Bureau of Land Management auctioned a major tract of Wyoming coal to Peabody Energy at a bargain-basement price of $1.10 per ton yesterday."
"Congress passed a transportation bill Friday worth over $100 billion, sending the bill to the president’s desk after months of brinksmanship."
"The massive majorities by which the package passed — 373-52 in the House and 74-19 in the Senate – do not capture the weeks of wrangling ahead of the votes.
The bill was in doubt until the last minute, with current transportation policy set to expire. The bill also capped federal student loan interest rates, which were expected to jump on Sunday. And it extended federal flood insurance programs."
"Residents began returning to charred areas of Colorado Springs on Sunday after the most destructive wildfire in Colorado's history forced tens of thousands of people from their homes and left the landscape a blackened wasteland."
"Bears and burglars posed further danger to home owners who headed back to towns and cities after the fire, which killed two people.
The so-called Waldo Canyon Fire has scorched 17,659 acres, burned 346 homes and devastated communities around Colorado Springs, the state's second-largest city, since it began eight days ago.
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