"The protracted fight over this year's federal budget has left its mark on the nation's climate and weather satellites, experts said yesterday at a conference organized by defense trade publisher IHS Jane's."

"For the first time in more than 30 years, the construction of new nuclear power plants is under way in the United States despite the ongoing nuclear crisis at Fukushima in Japan." That's according to Standard & Poor's, the profit-driven credit rating agency that painted a rosy picture of Wall St. financial institutions as they were melting down in 2008.

"Federal protections for some 1,200 gray wolves in Montana and Idaho end on Thursday under unprecedented legislation passed by the U.S. Congress last month removing them from the endangered species list."

Depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer, which has supported life on the U.S. High Plains for decades, poses as much of a threat to the region as drought, depression, or depopulation.

"Two environmental groups have challenged the air pollution permit for a $750 million iron plant in southwestern Louisiana, which is the first project that was approved under the greenhouse gas regulations that were implemented by U.S. EPA in January."

"Advocates of stringent curbs on greenhouse gas emissions sued the federal government on Wednesday, arguing that key agencies had failed in their duty to protect the earth's atmosphere as a public trust to be guarded for future generations."

"Anticipating a slow-motion disaster that could break flood records dating to the 1920s, thousands of people from Illinois to Louisiana have already been forced from their homes, and anxiety is rising along with the mighty river, even though it could be a week or two before some of the most severe flooding hits."

"HACKLEBURG, Ala. — Over the last week, this close-knit little town has had to grapple with a most unfamiliar feeling: not knowing where everyone is. When the tornadoes came through last Wednesday, ripping over the hills at speeds of up to 200 miles an hour, it left a town alien to itself. The bodies of strangers showed up in backyard ponds, survivors found themselves lying in open fields away from homes that were no longer there and, at night, there was no light, not as much as a streetlamp, to gather around and take stock."

"The potential for public exposure to dangerous levels of asbestos in the contaminated mining town of Libby [Mont.] remains a concern to federal health officials, according to preliminary results of a risk-assessment study announced Tuesday, more than a decade after cleanup operations began."

As all-electric cars are just arriving in showrooms, there is a new movie out called "Revenge of the Electric Car." It's by Chris Paine, who directed the 2006 documentary, "Who Killed the Electric Car?"