The Florida House abruptly adjourned a special legislative session after 49 minutes Tuesday, rejecting Gov. Charlie Crist’s proposal to let voters place a permanent ban on offshore drilling in the Florida Constitution. The party-line vote to adjourn the session was 67-44, with Republicans supporting adjournment and Democrats in favor of continuing the debate. A...
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WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama wants federal workers to cut down on business travel and commuting by car as he seeks to reduce heat-trapping emissions produced by the federal government. The White House was announcing Tuesday that the government will aim to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions from indirect sources like...
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PARIS — China has overtaken the United States as the world’s largest energy consumer, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday. China immediately questioned the calculation. The Paris-based agency said China’s 2009 consumption of energy sources ranging from oil and coal wind and solar power was equal to 2.265 billion tons of oil, compared to...
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WASHINGTON — Oil is leaking from the cap on BP’s ruptured oil well, but federal officials intend to leave it in place for now. Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen says Monday afternoon that the leaks are so far not a major concern. He also says seepage about two miles away is likely not...
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BP’s oil leak has apparently stopped shy of 200 million gallons spewed into the Gulf of Mexico and a few million more burned off into plumes of toxic smoke. Many have dubbed it the worst environmental disaster in American history. In my view, it’s not even close, but shares a great deal in common...
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A pressure test of BP’s undersea well that has kept fresh oil from gushing into the Gulf of Mexico will be allowed to continue for another day, despite concerns about potential new problems near the well, the government official overseeing the spill response said Monday. Late Sunday, the government ordered BP to step up...
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NEW ORLEANS — The federal pointman for the BP oil spill says results are short of ideal in the new cap but the oil will stay shut in for another 6 hours at least. Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said on a Friday afternoon conference pressure readings from the cap have not reached...
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WASHINGTON — Earthquakes are so rare in the Washington area that even a geology student wasn’t quite sure what was going on when a minor one hit early Friday. Was it a truck passing by? A low-flying plane? Gerasimos Michalitsianos, a rising senior and geology student at the University of Maryland, College Park, said...
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Sign this letter to make kids books rainforest-free! This children’s book contains fibers from the rainforest. Dear Friend, Indonesia’s rainforests are some of the most important ecosystems on earth for biodiversity, forest peoples and preventing climate change. Right now these rainforests are being clearcut by corrupt paper companies to make ever cheaper paper–paper that...
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NEW YORK – When British climbing legend George Mallory took his iconic 1921 photo of Mount Everest’s north face, the mighty, river-shaped glacier snaking under his feet seemed eternal. Decades of pollution and global warming later, modern mountaineer David Breashears has reshot the picture at the same spot — and proved an alarming reality....
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