"No leaks, no spills, no impact on climate change. The Keystone XL pipeline would have 'no impact' on the environment if it were approved and built, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Tuesday. For that reason, the billionaire said he would approve the controversial project 'immediately' if elected president."
"Several large solar power plants under construction in the United States have in the past few months promised to do something that none has done before: offer prices equal to or lesser than that of a natural gas-fired power plant, even as gas is abundant and cheap."
"U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said she has asked President Obama to bypass Congress and create three new national monuments in California, giving federal protection to more than 1 million acres of mountain ranges, sandy expanses and forests lying roughly between Palm Springs and the Nevada border."
"Oil, the lifeblood of many countries that produce and sell it, appears to be rapidly turning into an ever-cheaper economic curse. A year ago, the international price per barrel of oil was about $103. By Monday, the price was about $42, roughly 6 percent lower than on Friday."
"President Obama came to Las Vegas Monday to throw his weight behind the booming solar energy industry in its recent political struggles, and to announce a bevy of initiatives to promote clean-energy growth in America’s homes and on its rooftops. It was the first stop in a climate and energy-focused tour that will also take the president to New Orleans and Arctic Alaska this month."
"Americans’ lawns now cover an area three times larger than any irrigated crop in the U.S."
"As a lover of ancient rock art, Steve Acerson usually roams Utah’s backcountry searching for images of hunters and rams carved on boulders and canyon walls. But one morning, on a hillside speckled with those prehistoric petroglyphs, he was also finding signs of a younger civilization: Shotgun shells. Bullets. Shredded juniper trees. Exploded cans of spray paint."
"Local doctors are in the eye of a storm swirling for the past three years over whether corn that’s been genetically modified to resist pesticides is a source of prosperity, as companies claim, or of birth defects and illnesses".
"The warehouse in Tianjin that exploded on Aug. 12 was one of many buildings across China that store toxic chemicals near residential areas or major roads, in violation of safety regulations, according to a review of satellite imagery and public records."
"As of this week, the average of the group of forecast models used to predict the intensity of El Niño are calling for an event that would surpass the record-strong El Niño of 1997-1998."
