Public

"As the Deepwater Horizon disaster unfolds in the Gulf of Mexico, public health practitioners are having a sinking déjà vu feeling. Once again, environmental disaster has struck, and tens of thousands of emergency responders -- some professionals, but many more volunteers -- have swung into action, potentially risking their health as they work to clean up the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Veterans of similar disasters are wondering if historical lessons learned can help keep the ?damage to a bare minimum. But a paucity of ?hard data on emergency responder health makes it difficult even to ask the right questions."

A lot of politicians have bet their futures on what they think the voters want regarding climate change, energy policy, and oil spills. Or what the politicians can make the voters think they want. The election season now underway is already providing data about who was right. President Obama may have reversed initial criticism of his Gulf spill performance and is now campaigning against the GOP as a spill villain. Media portrayed Republicans who voted for the House climate bill in 2009 as vulnerable to conservative vengeance -- but this has not proven true in primaries. One pundit says the public's disapproval for Congress' failure to act on climate, energy, and spills may turn out to fall on both parties alike.

"Much of the crude still in the Gulf and coastal areas more than three months after BP's blowout has permeated deep into marshes and wetlands, complicating cleanup."

"NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- BP finished pumping fresh cement into its blown-out oil well Thursday as it aimed to seal for good the ruptured pipe that for months spewed crude into the Gulf of Mexico in one of the world's worst spills."

"A federal judge on Thursday reinstated protections for wolves in Montana and Idaho, saying the government made a political decision in removing the protections from just two of the states where Northern Rocky Mountain wolves roam."

"A research team organized by Thomas Kunz of Boston University has concluded in a new paper that a common, beneficial bat species is likely to be completely wiped out across much of the Northeastern United States within 20 years due to a spreading fungal infection."

"The government is still keeping crucial information about the extent of the damage a carefully guarded secret--from everyone except BP."

"BP Plc, Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc units were among dozens of energy companies that agreed to pay $42 million to settle claims brought by communities on New York’s Long Island alleging contamination of water with a gasoline additive."

"A U.N. panel has declared the Florida's Everglades to be an endangered World Heritage site due to the wetlands' continued degradation, officials said on Friday."