Environment News
Decades-old defect caused Exxon's Arkansas oil spill: regulator
WASHINGTON - A leak in Exxon Mobil's nearly 70-year-old Pegasus pipeline, which spilled thousands of barrels of crude oil in a small Arkansas town in March, was caused by an original manufacturing defect according to an initial review, U.S. regulators said on Thursday.
Conservationists excited by tiger population rise in Nepal
KATHMANDU - The number of wild Royal Bengal tigers in Nepal has increased to 198, a 63.6 percent rise in five years, a government survey of the big cats showed.
French court overturns ban on Monsanto GMO maize
PARIS - France's highest administrative court rejected on Thursday a government ban on growing Monsanto's MON810 genetically modified maize (corn).
Crews battle wildfires threatening homes in Pacific Northwest
SEATTLE/ PORTLAND, Oregon - Firefighters in Washington state and Oregon were grappling on Wednesday with blazes that have blackened more than 200 square miles of terrain across the Pacific Northwest, forcing hundreds of residents to flee their homes.
TransCanada ramps up East Coast pipeline plan as Keystone stalls
- TransCanada Corp on Thursday said it would move ahead with a $12 billion oil pipeline to ship Western Canada's oil sands crude to refiners on its east coast and beyond, scaling up the project as its U.S.-bound Keystone XL line stalls in Washington.
Analysis: Poland to get dirtier as it leans towards lignite coal
WARSAW/LONDON - Poland, one of the heaviest polluters in Europe, will become even dirtier now that its shale gas ambitions have faded and it turns to cheap domestic lignite coal to secure its energy supply.
Mexico's opposition party proposes sweeping energy reform
MEXICO CITY - Mexico's opposition conservative party proposed sweeping energy reform on Wednesday to change the constitution to allow more private investment and promote competition, while the ruling party is expected to present its own plans for an overhaul next week.
Ford to offer F-150 pick-up that can run on compressed natural gas
DETROIT - Ford Motor Co, the second-largest U.S. automaker, will offer this fall an F-150 pickup truck that can run on compressed natural gas to take advantage of the resurgence in truck demand.
Exclusive: Frost damages nearly fifth of Brazil sugar cane crop: analyst
SAO PAULO - Last week's frosts in southern Brazil damaged nearly a fifth of the unharvested cane crop in the principal growing region, an event likely to cut sugar exports from the world's largest producer, agriculture research company Datagro said Wednesday.
Japanese utility, and the public, in dark about crippled nuclear plant
TOKYO - Two and a half years after the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, the operator of Japan's wrecked Fukushima plant faces a daunting array of unknowns.

