"Virginia is about to limit state regulators' ability to protect public health and the environment from toxic discharges entering state waters from surface coal mines."

"The first link between salmon farms on the British Columbia coast and elevated levels of sea lice on juvenile Fraser River sockeye salmon has been demonstrated by new research published today."

"New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday vetoed a proposed offshore liquefied natural gas project 16 miles off the coast of Asbury Park, saying the plan is too risky to the state's crucial tourism and fishing industries."

"The federal Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that it will review the consequences of large-scale development projects, such as the proposed copper and gold Pebble mine, in [Alaska's] Bristol Bay watershed."

"A congenital defect combined with U.S. government plans to kill bison exposed to an infectious cattle disease could doom America's last wild herd of pure-bred buffalo at Yellowstone National Park, a genetics expert said in a new study."

"The Chesapeake Bay's beleaguered oyster population spawned a bumper crop of babies last year, state officials announced Monday, and there are signs that the diseases that have ravaged the bay's bivalves for more than two decades might have loosened their stranglehold."

"The Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that the Pacific walrus, greatly recovered from decades of slaughter but facing stress in the warming Arctic climate, merits protection under the Endangered Species Act. But the species, like others that face rising pressure but are not in imminent danger, will for now remain in the regulatory equivalent of an overcrowded hospital triage department."

Which has a stronger influence on human thinking -- power, money, ideology, or science? House Energy Chairman Fred Upton's recent denial that humans are causing climate change casts science as the weakling in the ring. His switch comes even as new documents reveal that the Bush White House overruled EPA science findings on climate -- even though former EPA head Stephen Johnson testified under oath to the contrary.

"Bruce Power has been given the go-ahead to transport 16 decommissioned steam generators from southwestern Ontario to Sweden for recycling."

"U.S. agricultural regulators on Friday said despite a court ban, they would allow commercial planting of genetically modified sugar beets under closely controlled conditions while they complete a full environmental impact statement."