A USGS expert says the solution to problems with mercury plaguing Great Salt Lake will require more than just eliminating local sources. Also key are how it turns into harmful methylmercury and spreads through the food web.

President Obama issued an executive order empowering EPA to set a more demanding timetable for cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay and to penalize states that fail to meet it.

"The Senate confirmed Craig Fugate as administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday, hours after Sen. David Vitter, R-La., dropped his hold on the nominee."

A secret White House memo said a single federal agency complained about the cost of regulations that could result from an EPA finding that greenhouse emissions endanger health and the environment.

EPA's takover of the cleanup of TVA's coal-ash spill in Tennessee came after revelations that TVA's effort to do the job by dredging threatened to become a "major toxic event."

"A U.S. ban on the use of carbofuran in food won't affect production of the pesticide at the Institute chemical plant because most of the product is shipped overseas, officials said Tuesday."

Marathon negotiations seem to have produced a deal on key points of climate-and-energy legislation among House Democrats. Energy Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) announced late Tuesday that he though he had enough votes to pass the compromise. It reportedly gives away about half of the CO2 credits to utilities and other heavy industry -- instead of auctioning them.

"Drivers in the US Southeast could get relief at the pump thanks to a proposed government-owned stockpile of gasoline to offset major supply disruptions, but lawmakers from those states have yet to back the legislation that would create the emergency fuel reserve."

"Environmentalists fear that as many as a million acres of wetlands will fall victim to a confusing patchwork of local rules that will leave them vulnerable to destruction if money for Michigan's protection program dries up."