"Philadelphia's $2 billion plan to manage its storm water with green methods - porous pavement, green roofs, and a plethora of trees -- got the official nod Tuesday from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency."

Both President Obama and the GOP-controlled House are pushing infrastructure investment as a job-producing way of maintaining and upgrading U.S. roads, bridges, dams, waterways, airports, and quality of life. The big questions include how to do it -- a set of choices with huge environmental consequences.

"Despite billions of dollars spent on nanotechnology research and development over the past decade, the human and environmental safety of nanomaterials remains unclear. As a result, a new nanomaterials safety research strategy is needed, and new governmental oversight is required to ensure the essential research is carried out, according to a report released [Wednesday] by the National Research Council (NRC)."

"Carbon emissions from cement are set to grow explosively as developing countries such as India create a 'first-world' infrastructure. Scientists and entrepreneurs are struggling to push alternative technologies out of the lab and onto the street."

"DETROIT -- The Obama administration intends to open a new advanced battery research center this year, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu told an audience at the Detroit Economic Club on Tuesday."

"An undercover law enforcement operation has resulted in charges being filed against 12 people in the Southland and Las Vegas who were allegedly trafficking endangered or illegal wildlife or products made from them."

"LOS ANGELES — After a five-year delay, an Earth-observing satellite will be launched to test new technologies aimed at improving weather forecasts and monitoring climate change."

"A breakthrough in oil cleanup technology allows crews to skim spilled oil off the water's surface at a much faster rate. The new device wasn't developed by Exxon, BP or any of the major oil companies — it's the work of Elastec/American Marine, based in Illinois. And the design won the company a rich prize from the X Prize Foundation.

Oil is attracted to plastic. And water is not. That, in essence, is the basis of Elastec's new skimmer.

"For more than half a century, International Molasses Corp. has sold its product to bakeries and manufacturers that use the sticky syrup in cookies and candy.  But recently, the Saddle Brook company found a new and unexpected market — at contaminated industrial sites, where the molasses literally gets pumped into the soil."

"RECYCLING refrigerators — especially those made more than 15 years ago — is a tricky job. The coolant in old appliances (now banned from newer versions) can cause serious trouble, warming the atmosphere and depleting the ozone layer."

"Free for dinner in Washington? Nineteen groups of architecture students will be serving meals next week at houses they have built in West Potomac Park, adjacent to the National Mall, as part of the Department of Energy’s biennial Solar Decathlon, a kind of “America’s Got Talent” for green architecture."

"A defunct NASA satellite the size of a bus that is expected to fall to Earth on Friday will likely miss North America, NASA said.

The agency's 13,000-pound (5,900 kg) Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, has been slowly tumbling from orbit since its mission ended in 2005. It is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere and break apart on Friday."

The Tevatron particle collider near Chicago -- once the largest such device in the world -- will be closing down this month. It is being superseded by the Large Hadron collider in Switzerland.

Nell Greenfieldboyce reports for NPR's Morning Edition September 6, 2011.

"Seattle is the home of the U.S. Coast Guard's entire fleet of polar-class icebreakers.

Both of them.

Capt. George Pellissier commands both the Polar Sea and the Polar Star. He has spent much of his career on these ships, which were built in Seattle in the 1970s.

"NO wonder they are called conveniences. Flush toilets swirl human waste down the drain quickly and neatly. But the convenience comes with a rising price for all that follows the flush — a cost that is often paid by municipal water and sewage treatment systems.

Now some groups are rethinking the venerable technology of the flush toilet, particularly for regions that lack such systems or for places where waste water treatment plants, many of them aging, are overburdened by the demands of fast-growing populations.