"President Barack Obama’s nominee to lead the nation’s rail safety agency told lawmakers Thursday that the agency would hold railroads to a year-end deadline to install collision-avoidance technology even if it meant that freight and passengers could be left stranded."
"Regulators have been slow to act on paint strippers, other products containing methylene chloride".
"More than half the members of the U.S. Senate are urging chamber leadership to pass a bill reauthorizing a federal conservation program before it expires at the end of the month."
"The U.S. Navy has agreed to limit its use of sonar and explosives training that harms whales, dolphins and other marine mammals off Hawaii and California in a settlement with environmental groups."
"The world has experienced record-breaking warmth every month so far this year, and NOAA scientists say global warming and El Niño are the cause".
"A long-delayed rule to strengthen safety requirements for pipelines that move oil and other hazardous liquids will be unveiled this month following a recent surge in accidents, the U.S. government's pipeline safety administrator said Friday."
"FORT BRIDGER, Wyo. — The sun was sinking and the brook trout were biting, so Andy Johnson and his daughter Aspen, 6, stepped onto their sun-bleached pier, hooked some mealworms and cast their lines into the most infamous pond in the West."
"Clout can be defined in many ways. In California's parched Central Valley farmlands, it's the ability to secure water."
"California fire officials say at least 1,400 homes have been destroyed by two Northern California wildfires."
"The Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board claim VW deliberately programmed almost 500,000 diesel cars to emit fewer pollutants under test conditions than during actual use."
