"A study released on Thursday finds that 39 sites in 21 states where coal-fired power plants dump their coal ash are contaminating water with toxic metals such as arsenic and other pollutants, and that the problem is more extensive than previously estimated."

"CLARION, Iowa — The scrambled eggs, as always, were hissing in a skillet on a recent morning at a coffee shop here, in an egg-producing county that has suddenly found itself at the center of the nation's egg recall over salmonella. But the conversation at the weekly gathering of local ladies turned uncharacteristically tense.

"A critical device at the center of an investigation into the Gulf oil rig explosion didn't undergo a rigorous recertification process in 2005 as required by federal regulators, a worker responsible for maintaining the equipment told investigators Wednesday."

"With global warming legislation sidelined, advocates are bracing for battle over U.S. EPA climate rules, the only game in town for curbing emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases."

"New Orleans is about to get hit with another storm, this one made up of administration officials showering attention on city's recovery on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. In a well-organized campaign to play up what the administration has done for the city and for the state of Louisiana, President Obama will cap the parade of top officials visiting the area from today to Sunday."

A veterans group is warning that climate change could be a matter of life and death that literally puts U.S. troops in harm's way.

"A deal that secured Senate Republicans' support for a bill to clean up the Chesapeake Bay has undermined the legislation and could weaken water-pollution protections nationwide, according to four law professors who helped write the original measure."

"California's long-awaited boom in solar power plant construction took a major step forward Wednesday when state regulators approved the first in a string of projects that will soon blanket thousands of acres of desert with mirrors harnessing the energy of the sun."

The likely primary upset of Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski could signal big changes on the GOP side of the Senate Energy Committee -- and possibly a shift toward hard-line opposition to any Democrat legislation.

Billionaire Brothers David and Charles Koch, who own the petroleum-based Koch Industries, are among the top ten air polluters in the country and stout opponents of environmental regulation. Their empire has vastly outdone ExxonMobil in funding opposition to legislation to control climate change and has been dubbed by Greenpeace a "kingpin of climate science denial."