In The News / Feb 10

• BPA fosters diabetes-promoting changes.

  An ingredient in plastics and food-can linings coaxes cells from the pancreas to inappropriately secrete the hormone insulin, a finding that bolsters earlier links between type 2 diabetes and low-dose exposure to the chemical, bisphenol A. Science News

• California auto recyclers brace for tightened regulations.

  Off the road, junk cars continue to pollute because of what some critics say is a decades-long failure by California to properly regulate the powerful automobile recycling industry. New York Times

• Underwater time bombs.

  Nearly 70 years on, World War Two shipwrecks are a looming time bomb – for the environment and for the inhabitants of Micronesia's Chuuk Atoll. Islands Business, Fiji

• Verdict looms in world's biggest asbestos trial.

  A court in northern Italy will rule Monday in the unprecedented trial of a Swiss billionaire and a Belgian baron for over 3,000 alleged asbestos-related deaths. Expatica, Netherlands

• Study: Oil-gas pollution tops expectations.

  Ozone-forming air pollution along the Colorado Front Range is up to twice the amount that government regulators estimated, a new study finds. Oil and gas development is the main source - a finding with broad implications for the industry across the Rocky Mountain region. Associated Press

• Opposition rising against US Arctic drilling.

  Drilling in the Arctic waters of the US may become as contested an issue as the Keystone Pipeline XL in upcoming months. Scientists, congress members, and ordinary Americans have all come out in large numbers against the Obama Administration's leases for exploratory drilling in the Beaufort Sea and the Chuckchi Sea. Mongabay

• BP's blemished safety record is off-limits in trial, judge rules.

  Plaintiffs in the lawsuit against BP over damages from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill won't be allowed to bring up the oil giant's spotty past safety record, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ruled Thursday. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Louisiana

• Watchdog clears State Department of impropriety in Keystone pipeline project.

  The State Department’s inspector general has found no conflict of interest or improper political influence in the agency’s review of the disputed Keystone XL pipeline project. But the official said the department had not adequately weighed concerns about the route of the 1,700-mile pipeline. New York Times

• NRC approves first new nuclear plant in a generation.

  Regulators on Thursday approved plans to build the first new nuclear power plant in the US in more than 30 years, despite objections of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman, who cited safety concerns stemming from Japan's 2011 Fukushima disaster. Reuters

• In a border town, drawing a line on coal for Mexico.

  The Dos Republicas Coal Partnership, which is owned by Mexican mining companies, has applied to renew a permit that would let its American partners mine about 6,300 acres of land in a Texas border town. Residents worry about harm to the environment and property damage. And it galls some that the coal will be shipped to Mexico. Texas Tribune, Texas

• In drilling country, water rights stir fracking questions.

  Water transfers for hydraulic fracturing are becoming an increasingly common sight. But in a region where state officials predict there won't be enough water to sustain expected population and agriculture levels, the tankers spark questions about how water is being used. E&E Daily

• As ‘yuck factor’ subsides, treated wastewater flows from taps.

  With climate change threatening to diminish water supplies in the fast-growing Southwest, more cities are considering the potential of reclaimed water. But will the yuck factor keep people from accepting it? New York Times

• Super PACs turning to energy donors to spread their message.

  While super PACs linked to presidential candidates have drawn most of the spotlight so far this election season, groups taking unlimited contributions to play in House and Senate races are starting to see their first cash infusions from donors with a stake in congressional energy debates. E&E Daily

• Groups want to hasten Colorado regulator's exit, call for improved oil and gas oversight.

  Citing the pending departure of the director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, environmentalists are speaking out against the “ongoing parade of regulators” leaving state government to take jobs with the industries they formerly regulated. Colorado Independent, Colorado

• Maryland court sends Exxon spill case back to trial.

  The state's second-highest court has rejected much of a $147 million jury verdict that was awarded to hundreds of northern Baltimore County residents whose groundwater was contaminated by a gasoline leak at an Exxon station. Baltimore Sun, Maryland

• EPA says food near Anaconda Mine site is safe, based on tiny sample.

  Test results, which the US Environmental Protection Agency has cited repeatedly as evidence that irrigated crops and livestock next to a polluted Nevada mine are safe for consumption, were based on samples from four onions taken more than four years ago, newly-disclosed documents show. Associated Press