"BOARDMAN, Ore. -- A new link in the world's future energy supply could soon be built here on the Columbia River, and it would have nothing to do with the vast acres of wind turbines or the mammoth hydroelectric dams that give this region's power sources one of the cleanest carbon footprints in the nation."
"The company planning the disputed Keystone XL oil pipeline has proposed a new route through Nebraska that avoids the state's environmentally sensitive Sandhills region."
"WASHINGTON -- Oil and gas companies will have to capture toxic and climate-altering gases from wells, storage sites and pipelines under new air quality standards issued on Wednesday by the Environmental Protection Agency. The rule is the first federal effort to address serious air pollution associated with the natural gas drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which releases toxic and cancer-causing chemicals like benzene and hexane, as well as methane, a powerful greenhouse gas."
"Greenpeace released its latest report today asking, 'How clean is your cloud?' The annual report examines the server farms built by the largest Internet companies -- including Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo -- and ranks them according to how efficient their cloud facilities are, and where they get their electricity."
The New York Times' Felicity Barringer interviews Sierra Club head Michael Brune about environmental politics, money, and President Obama.
"Cheniere Energy Inc. has cleared a major regulatory hurdle to building a $5 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana."
"President Barack Obama pushed Congress Tuesday to give oil market regulators more muscle to deter price manipulation by speculators, the latest White House response to determined Republican attacks on administration energy policies amid high gas prices at the pump."
"Electric vehicles in the United States save money on fuel and are less polluting than most gasoline-powered vehicles, even in places where electricity is made by burning coal, the Union of Concerned Scientists said in a report released on Monday."
"'Drivers should feel confident that owning an electric vehicle is a good choice for reducing global warming pollution, cutting fuel costs, and slashing oil consumption,' said Don Anair, a senior engineer on UCS's clean vehicles program.
"An oil sheen in the Gulf of Mexico last week came from a natural sea floor seep and not from Royal Dutch Shell offshore production platforms, the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said on Monday."
"'A modest amount of oil is being released from a natural sea floor seep previously suspected as the source of an oil sheen reported last week in the Gulf of Mexico,' BSEE said in an emailed news release."
Bruce Nichols reports for Reuters April 17, 2012.
"Two billion years ago, around the time atmospheric oxygen levels were rising, one cell engulfed another, and instead of becoming lunch, the ingestee became an Earth-changer and, eventually, a vital part of you: mitochondria."
