"A lot of dead dolphins continue to wash ashore along the Gulf Coast and now a lot of sea turtles — most of them rare Kemp's ridleys — are washing up dead too, federal officials said Thursday."

"Two years ago some University of South Florida researchers began studying the effects of the most widely used fungicide in the country to see if it might kill more than just fungus. Turns out it's also a pretty effective frog-icide."

"The House of Representatives passed legislation on Thursday that would stop the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating emissions of gases blamed for warming the planet, a day after the Senate rejected similar legislation."

"A shutdown would cut short a key NASA field campaign to survey Arctic land and sea ice, and a larger project it is part of. The measure now funding federal operations expires on April 8."

"U.S. officials say the nation’s health system is ill-prepared to cope with a catastrophic release of radiation, despite years of focus on the possibility of a terrorist 'dirty bomb' or an improvised nuclear device attack."

"The 2011 Atlantic hurricane season will be above average in activity and there is a more than 70 percent chance of at least one major hurricane hitting the U.S. coastline, Colorado State University forecasters predicted on Wednesday."

"Faced with a lawsuit from environmentalists, U.S. EPA has changed course and rejected Alabama's plan to change how the state decides whether industrial plants are releasing too much soot from their smokestacks."

"A long-term Republican budget plan released this week by Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin calls for drastic cuts in federal spending on energy research and development and for the outright elimination of subsidies and tax breaks for wind, solar power and other alternative energy technologies."

"An often-overlooked renewable energy source is gaining momentum as lawmakers on Capitol Hill struggle to find consensus in an increasingly partisan environment and the Obama administration is looking to decrease reliance on foreign oil."