National (U.S.)

"U.S. EPA won't meet its goal of releasing new nationwide standards for ground-level ozone this month, the agency told a federal court Friday."

"A federal appeals court panel on Friday ruled that wild steelhead remain an endangered species and rebuffed Central Valley irrigators' efforts to relax federal government protections on the Pacific salmon."

As species in many parts of the world move uphill in response to global warming, they get stranded on "mountain islands" where there very existence could be endangered.

"American farmers have been ridiculing a proposal by U.S. regulators to reduce the amount of dust floating in rural air."

"A Federal judge recently struck down a ruling that is keeping high level nuclear waste from being stored on an Indian reservation in Tooele County.  It's a judicial move that could make it easier to bring the highly toxic waste into the state of Utah where it will be stored."

"Children whose mothers were exposed to widely-used pesticides such as malathion during pregnancy may be at increased risk of developing an attention disorder by age 5, a new study shows."

The New Orleans-area citizens' group Louisiana Bucket Brigade has been conducting a survey of the Gulf oil spill's possible health effects that may pave the way for larger and more scientific federal studies yet to be started.

"A group of Democrats who defied their party to oppose a landmark climate bill last year is facing attacks by political challengers from an unexpected direction: Cap and trade is being used against them, despite the fact that they voted no."

Campo Kumeyaay Nation, a small tribe in the desert mountains east of San Diego, benefitted from the casino that opened in 2001. Now it wants to build a 25-turbine wind farm called Kumeyaay 1, the only large-scale renewable energy plant on Indian land in the country. But a big problem is the tribe's tax status: as a sovereign nation it can not receive the federal tax credits that make such projects feasible.

"People and businesses seeking a lump-sum settlement from BP’s  $20 billion oil spill compensation fund  will most likely have to waive their right to sue not only BP, but also all the other major defendants involved with the spill, according to internal documents from the lawyers handling the fund."