National (U.S.)

Climate change may be more of a deciding issue in November's election than many analysts realize.

The vaunted "free market" is a fairy tale when energy industries are begging for subsidies from the federal government.

"COEBURN, Va. — Wearing helmets, headlamps and uniforms streaked with grime, the workers at Paramont Coal sound weary of fighting. They are in the middle of what they call a long-running 'war on coal' that is threatening their livelihood and stoking fury directed at the federal government."

The political and public relations artifact that is the "nuclear renaissance" may be slowed by the industry's and the government's inability to deal with nuclear waste.

"As part of his work as a community organizer for environmental causes, Juan Parras takes photos of refineries and petrochemical plants near the Houston Ship Channel. Sometimes, he says he’s made to feel like a criminal for doing it."

Dave Fehling reports for State Impact Texas/NPR September 24, 2012.

"The wind industry’s main trade association is predicting that new installations will fall to zero without a renewal of the production tax credit, which applies only to projects finished by New Year’s Eve. Since renewal is iffy, some wind machine factories are already shutting down, as my colleague Diane Cardwell reported on Friday."

"SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Jeff Rothschild’s machines at Facebook had a problem he knew he had to solve immediately. They were about to melt."

"Brace yourself for some shocking news: a new study on Friday found that the two major publications of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation greatly mislead their audiences about climate change. The Union of Concerned Scientists combed six months of Fox News broadcasting and a year's worth of Wall Street Journal editorial pages for mentions of the science of 'climate change' and 'global warming,' then compared each claim to 'mainstream scientific understanding' of the topic at hand." They found 93% of the statements on Fox News were misleading and 81% of the statements on the Wall St. Journal's opionion pages were misleading.

"WASHINGTON -- House lawmakers skipped out of town on Friday until after the November elections, but not before pushing through a sweeping anti-environmental package that has no chance of becoming law."

"On June 4, 1963, less than a year after the controversial environmental classic 'Silent Spring' was published, its author, Rachel Carson, testified before a Senate subcommittee on pesticides. She was 56 and dying of breast cancer. She told almost no one. She'd already survived a radical mastectomy. Her pelvis was so riddled with fractures that it was nearly impossible for her to walk to her seat at the wooden table before the Congressional panel. To hide her baldness, she wore a dark brown wig."