"Several wildfires raged unchecked across drought-parched Colorado on Thursday, one threatening oil and gas wells close to the Utah border and another about 300 miles to the southeast chased a group of Boy Scouts from their camp near New Mexico."

"By century's end, rising sea levels will turn the nation's urban fantasyland into an American Atlantis. But long before the city is completely underwater, chaos will begin."

"COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- As the West battles one catastrophic wildfire after another, the federal government is spending less and less on its main program for preventing blazes in the first place."

"Federal prosecutors unveiled new criminal indictments on Wednesday against a former BP Plc executive and a former BP engineer charged with obstructing investigations into the April 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill."

"TOKYO — Japan’s new nuclear regulator adopted a fresh set of safety guidelines on Wednesday, starting a process that could allow some of the country’s idled reactors to come back online early next year."

"TransCanada Corp., which says Keystone XL will be the safest pipeline ever built, isn’t planning to use infrared sensors or fiber-optic cables to detect spills along the system’s 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) path to Texas refineries from fields in Alberta."

"State and federal investigators in Louisiana are working to uncover what caused fatal blasts at two different chemical plants in the span of two days."

"GEISMAR, La. -- A bomb-like explosion ignited a raging fire at the Williams Olefins chemical plant early Thursday, killing one man and injuring dozens as terrified workers sought shelter from the sprawling flames."

"Two people have been killed by the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history, law enforcement officials said on Thursday, as crews fought to keep the fierce, wind-whipped blaze from roaring into the outskirts of Colorado Springs."

"Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Thursday proposed major changes to New York City’s building code, saying Hurricane Sandy showed that both commercial and residential properties needed additional safeguards against severe weather."

"Severe weather cost the nation $110 billion in damages in 2012, the second-costliest in history, according to disaster information released Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration."

"Rising seas and increasingly severe weather are expected to increase the areas of the United States at risk of floods by up to 45 percent by 2100, according to a first-of-its-kind report released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday. These changes could double the number of flood-prone properties covered by the National Flood Insurance Program and drastically increase the costs of floods, the report finds."

"The U.S. Justice Department filed a joint lawsuit with Arkansas on Thursday against oil producer Exxon Mobil Corp over the pipeline spill in March of thousands of barrels of heavy Canadian crude oil in a suburban neighborhood."

"CHICAGO — A massive line of storms packing hail, lightning and tree-toppling winds rolled through the Midwest Wednesday evening driving people into basements for shelter, tearing down power lines and causing flooding in low-lying areas."

"BLACK FOREST, Colo. -- Shifting winds whipped flames through the winding roads and hills of Black Forest on Wednesday, forcing new evacuations and sending a plume of thick smoke across the Front Range."