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Federal Highway Trust Fund nearly depleted due to driving cutback

High gasoline prices have spurred Americans to sharply curtail their driving in recent months and the resulting sustained dip in fuel sales has helped bankrupt a federal fund for major transportation projects across the country. The Highway Trust Fund, which is paid for almost entirely through money generated by the federal gasoline and diesel taxes, […]

Grist and Arizona State University team up on newsletter for students

As Newsweek reports in its latest issue, Grist is launching a newsletter designed specifically for Arizona State University, which has built up an impressive rep on sustainability by doing everything from installing significant solar capacity to opening the nation’s first School of Sustainability. Every two weeks the newsletter will go out to 60,000 students and […]

Snippets from the news

• Highway repair fund, paid for with gas-tax revenue, is nearly depleted. • Want to put stinkweed in your tank? • Climate change could harm giant sequoias. • Engineers unveil new generation of tidal turbines. • Power outages from hurricanes hamper gasoline production. • Iraqi marshes thought to be site of Garden of Eden will […]

Cameroon and Nigeria team up to protect endangered gorilla

Cameroon and Nigeria will partner up to protect the world’s most endangered gorilla under an agreement facilitated by the Wildlife Conservation Society. Only some 300 Cross River gorillas remain, all of which live only in those two Central African countries. Gorilla gorilla diehli is threatened by illegal logging, agricultural conversion of its habitat, and poaching […]

Snippets from the news

• BLM releases plan for opening public land to oil-shale development. • What are the effects of public participation on environmental policymaking? • Media ignores Energy Dept. data when reporting on drilling. • Chile reforms salmon farms. • U.S. now world leader in wind electricity generation. • California prepares for water crisis.

EPA requires emissions cuts by lawn mowers and speedboats

Gas-powered lawn mowers and speedboat engines will be cleaner under new regulations announced Thursday by the U.S. EPA. By 2011, engines in new lawn and garden equipment must emit 35 percent less smog-forming emissions, and recreational watercraft must cut emissions 70 percent by 2010. “EPA’s new small engine standards will allow Americans to cut air […]

Defenders of Wildlife releases ad on Palin’s support of aerial wolf hunting

Defenders of Wildlife just released this ad targeting GOP VP candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for supporting aerial hunting of wolves:

Snippets from the news

• Giant Arctic ice shelf breaks away. • New eBay site is environment minded. • Big Auto’s sales continue to skid. • Toddlers chock full o’ flame retardants. • Western forests face flammable future.

Snippets from the news

• Efforts to clean up Naples trash blocked by the mob. • Amazon deforestation jumped 69 percent in last year. • Melting of Greenland ice sheet could lead to accelerated sea-level rise. • Are fireflies endangered? • Climate change could mean less plague. • Rajendra Pachauri reelected as head of IPCC.

RNC: Spotted in downtown St. Paul

A T-shirt: “The Bible talks all about St. Paul. It doesn’t mention Minneapolis.” Civic pride!