National (U.S.)

"Recent reports that two teams of scientists had genetically altered a deadly flu virus to make it more contagious have provoked fear, even outrage, in some quarters."

"BP has handed the bill for clearing up the disastrous 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill to Halliburton, the US contractor it claims botched the cement work on the failed rig."

"In Ohio, geographically and politically positioned to become a leading importer of wastewater from gas drilling, environmentalists and lawmakers opposed to the technique known as fracking are seizing on a series of small earthquakes as a signal to proceed with caution."

"The U.S. Food and Drug and Administration announced only days before Christmas that it has decided to back off a 34-year attempt to regulate the use of antibiotics in livestock feed for animals intended for human consumption, despite mounting scientific evidence that has linked the practice to the development of potentially fatal antibiotic-resistant superbugs in humans."

"The standard 100-watt light bulb is going away, and its lower-wattage cousins are soon to follow."

Leading environmental news aggregator EHN picks Fukushima meltdown, fracking controversy, the Keystone XL pipeline, widespread bisphenol A exposures, and the Obama White House's environmental ambivalence as top stories by sheer volume in 2011 media coverage.

"In a cause celebre for the right, an Idaho couple seeks a hearing on an EPA warning that a dry lot for their dream home is protected 'wetlands.'"

"WASHINGTON — A federal tax credit for ethanol expired on Saturday, ending an era in which the federal government provided more than $20 billion in subsidies for use of the product."

"WILLOWS, Calif. — These are good days to be a snow goose on the Pacific flyway. The water in the rice fields is at an ideal depth for snacking on marsh plants. A bit of grain is left over from the harvest around the Northern California city of Chico, which is gearing up for its annual Snow Goose Festival.

"Safety regulators are increasingly focusing on how seemingly minor problems with a natural-gas pipeline can combine to magnify the risk of an explosion or serious leak, as some experts say was probably the case in a blast that shook a rural Ohio neighborhood last month."