"The Obama administration is nine months behind schedule on a proposal to bolster safety standards for the type of rail car that killed at least 13 people after slamming, filled with U.S. shale oil, into a small Canadian town over the weekend."
"Across the Midwestern corn belt, a familiar battle has resumed, hidden in the soil. On one side are tiny, white larvae of the corn rootworm. On the other side are farmers and the insect-killing arsenal of modern agriculture."
"The United States and China, the world's top emitters of greenhouse gases, agreed to five initiatives on Wednesday to cut carbon output from the largest sources, including heavy duty vehicles, manufacturing and coal-fired plants, the State Department said."
SEJ collaborated in June 2013 with MSU's Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, Kellogg Biological Station's Long Term Ecological Research site, and the Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources, for a 2-day workshop for scientists and journalists. It's purpose: to better communicate climate change information to the public. Read a write-up of the event here. Photo courtesy MSU.
"BALTIC, Ohio -- In parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania where horse-drawn buggies clip-clop at the pace of a bygone era, Amish communities are debating a new temptation — the large cash royalties that can come with the boom in oil and gas drilling."
"As its name implies, the sage grouse lives in sagebrush country, the rolling hills of knee-high scrub that's the common backdrop in movie Westerns. Pristine sagebrush is disappearing, however, and so are the birds. Biologists want to protect the sage grouse, but without starting a 21st century range war over it. So they've undertaken a grand experiment in the American West, to keep the grouse happy, as well as cattle ranchers and the energy industry."
"On a typical day in North Dakota prairie towns like Williston, Dickinson and Beulah, trains with 100 tank cars line up to be loaded with oil destined for markets to the east, west, and south."
"On its face, Eastman Chemical’s lawsuit against two small Texas labs that have said its plastics may be unsafe for consumption looks like a David and Goliath kind of fight (in fact, that’s how the labs are describing it). Corporate giant attempts to silence scientists -- including a professor at the University of Texas at Austin -- from publicizing research that runs counter to its commercial interests."
"If you doubt that climate change is transforming the American landscape, go to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Sweltering temperatures there have broken records this summer, and a seemingly permanent orange haze of smoke hangs in the air from multiple wildfires."
"A natural gas leak in the Gulf of Mexico has left a four-mile-wide "rainbow sheen" on the water's surface south of Louisiana, the Coast Guard said Tuesday, but the owner of the well said it expects the leak to be plugged within a day."
