President Obama's $3.8 trillion fiscal 2011 budget proposal, released Feb. 1, funds private nuclear plants, Great Lakes and Chesapeake cleanup, and acquisition of land for conservation. It cuts Yucca Mountain, fossil subsidies, and EPA. It still hopes to get revenue from cap-and-trade ... and affects the environment in myriad other ways.

"The Obama administration is planning to propose tripling a program that provides loan guarantees to construct nuclear reactors, an administration official said Friday, aiming to reach out to Republican lawmakers in an effort to break a logjam over energy policy."

"U.S. EPA's final air quality standard for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) entails new requirements for measuring peak exposures near roads, but it would monitor fewer roadside locations than the agency's original proposal."

"Jared Blumenfeld, the newly appointed director of the U.S. EPA's Pacific Southwest region, Region 9, is pledging to make life difficult for polluters, especially those who despoil the environment in underserved and vulnerable communities."

President Obama announced Thursday that the Transportation Dept. is awarding $8 billion in economic stimulus funds to develop America's first nationwide program of high-speed intercity passenger rail service.