TOKYO (Reuters) – An earthquake measuring 6.3 struck off the eastern coast of Japan on Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. The quake struck 300 km (180 miles) east of Iwaki, Honshu, at a depth of 77.8 km, USGS said. (Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by […]
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BERLIN (Reuters) – Strong winds swept across Germany on Thursday, killing six people and forcing the cancellation of trains in Berlin and the north. Police said a woman died when a tree fell on a car carrying her in the northern port city of Hamburg. The driver was taken to hospital with serious injuries, the […]
Read More WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Thursday named Andrew Wheeler, a coal industry lobbyist and former congressional staffer, as his pick for deputy administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, prompting contrasting reactions from industry and environmental groups. The Sierra Club, an environmental group, called his nomination, which is subject to Senate confirmation, “absolutely […]
Read More By Valerie Volcovici WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Greenhouse gas emissions from America’s largest industrial facilities fell 2 percent in 2016 to 2.99 billion tonnes, led by a large cut from the power sector, according to data published on Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency. The decline, which came in the final year of Barack Obama’s presidency, […]
Read More (Reuters) – A group of 38 U.S. senators asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday to abandon plans to lower biofuel requirements for oil refiners in 2018, according to a letter made public by the office of Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. The senators, including Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said in […]
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By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) – When black rats invaded Lord Howe Island after the 1918 wreck of the steamship Makambo, they wiped out numerous native species on the small Australian isle in the Tasman Sea including a big, flightless insect that resembled a stick. But the Lord Howe Island stick insect, once declared extinct, […]
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By Nia Williams and Ethan Lou CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – TransCanada Corp abandoned its C$15.7 billion ($12.52 billion) cross-country Energy East pipeline on Thursday amid mounting regulatory hurdles, dealing a blow to the country’s oil export ambitions. The demise of the pipeline comes less than a year after the Canadian government rejected another export pipeline, […]
Read More By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) – Car crash death rates get increasingly high as population density drops, fueled in part by lower seat belt use in the remotest rural areas, a U.S. study suggests. “We already knew that death rates were higher and seat belt use was lower in rural versus urban areas,” said lead […]
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By Rod Nickel HOUSTON (Reuters) – Huge volumes of dirty water produced by U.S. shale firms are driving up investment in water-handling specialists, as cash-conscious oil and gas companies try to trim costs. For every barrel of crude, drillers generate up to six barrels of brackish water containing chemicals used to release oil and gas […]
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By Axel Bugge MACAO, Portugal (Reuters) – Large parts of Portugal’s interior are desolate places these days, with charred trees as far as the eye can see and an acrid smell lingering in the air. Sixty-four people died in this year’s summer fires, Portugal’s deadliest natural disaster in living memory. Three months after the biggest […]
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OSLO (Reuters) – Norway will study ways to make its economy greener and reduce dependence on oil and gas reserves that are likely to lose value amid efforts to slow climate change, Environment Minister Vidar Helgesen said on Thursday. A government commission of experts, to be appointed in coming days, will examine the nation’s green […]
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BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Health experts from European Union countries are expected to discuss whether or not to extend the license for herbicide glyphosate at a meeting starting on Thursday, but will only vote on the issue later this year. Europe has been debating for two years whether to allow the weed-killer, used in Monsanto’s Roundup, […]
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