"The Energy Department must reconsider California's energy- and water-saving standards for residential washing machines, a federal court ruled [last] week."

"Protection for polar bears' shrinking icy habitat is the subject of a proposed rule sent to the White House by the Interior Department."

"Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) will go ahead and mark up climate legislation in her committee Tuesday, she announced Monday morning, even if the Republicans try to block her."

"A new test conducted for Consumer Reports magazine found bisphenol A leaching into food from nearly all cans, including those marked 'BPA-free' and 'organic.'"

"In Atlanta, Ga., you'll find southern gentility, a world-class music scene--and 21,000 pounds of environmental waste. In spite of its charms, the city's combination of air pollution, contaminated land and atmospheric chemicals makes it the most toxic city in the country."

"Americans consume over $4 billion of soy foods each year because of their many health benefits. But new studies suggest that eating large amounts of soy's estrogen-mimicking compounds might reduce fertility in women, trigger early puberty and disrupt development of fetuses and children."

"More than 60 years after scientists assembled the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, lethal waste is seeping from mountain burial sites and moving toward aquifers, springs and streams that provide water to 250,000 residents of northern New Mexico."

"Children with more of the toxic chemical C8 in their blood are more likely to have high cholesterol, according to a new scientific study filed Friday in Wood Circuit Court."

"The Department of Defense says its studies don’t bear out that burn pit smoke causes chronic illnesses. But Congress isn’t so sure, having recently sent President Barack Obama a defense spending bill with provisions that restrict and monitor burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. The president signed the bill Wednesday."

"A massive fish kill at the 38 mile long Dunkard Creek on the West Virginia–Pennsylvania border has scientists and regulators wondering what went wrong. All signs point to the toxic golden algae but some say it was the polluted creek, with high levels of chloride, which provided ripe conditions for the fish kill."

"[Oregon] State officials deliberately underestimated the cost of Gov. Ted Kulongoski's plan to lure green energy companies to Oregon with big taxpayer subsidies, resulting in a program that cost 40 times more than unsuspecting lawmakers were told, an investigation by The Oregonian shows."

"The Navajo Generating Station, the huge coal-fired power plant outside Page, supplies a fraction of Arizona's electricity demand, but its role in moving water to the state's largest cities has thrust it into a growing battle over the cost of cleaning up air pollution."

"Al Gore's views on climate change are advancing as rapidly as the phenomenon itself."

"Iowa's outdated sewage treatment plants regularly dump excess pollution into rivers and streams that provide drinking water for up to 900,000 people and recreation for many more, a Des Moines Register analysis of state records shows."

"Food and consumer groups say the practice increases the risk of cattle becoming infected with mad cow disease. A beef industry trade group say a ban isn't needed."