"OMAHA, Neb. -- A Nebraska environmental group wants federal regulators to keep the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant shut down because it would be inundated by floodwaters in the unlikely event of a dam failing upstream."

"The Clean Nebraska group said Wednesday that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's own assessment of the flood threat at the plant about 20 miles north of Omaha predicts all major equipment at Fort Calhoun would be flooded if the Oahe dam on the Missouri River failed.

"With the worst drought in half a century driving feed prices sky high, pork producers are facing an untenable choice: drain their savings and gamble on a better future, or sell off their herd and get out of the business altogether."

The Army Corpts of Engineers changed the operating schedule for the Clearwater Dam on the Black River in Missouri in the 1990s in response to requests by Missouri farmers. On October 3 Arkansas is going to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that the Corps action has damaged the 23,000-acre Black River Wildlife Management Area 115 miles downstream. What's more, the state is arguing that the Corps should compensate it under the "takings clause," a favorite conservative legal weapon.

"Energy companies should not drill for crude oil in Arctic waters because the environmental risks are too high, Total SA Chief Executive Officer Christophe de Margerie said in the Financial Times on Wednesday."

"The newspaper described de Margerie's comments as the first time a major oil company has publicly criticised offshore exploration in the Arctic.

The risk of an oil spill in such an environmentally sensitive area was simply too high, according to de Margerie."

"Global grain production is expected to hit record levels this year, despite the drought that gripped most of the Midwest, the Worldwatch Institute said in a report released yesterday."

"WINNSBORO, Texas -- Two anti-tar sands pipeline activists were arrested in east Texas on Tuesday as demonstrators continue a three-day-old tree-sit to block TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline."

Shannon Bebe of Dallas and Benjamin Franklin of Houston delayed pipeline construction for most of the day when they locked arms around construction machinery being used by TransCanada to build the southern branch of a pipeline from the Alberta tar sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast.