The Obama administration on Monday eased new environmental barriers to some oil and gas deepwater projects, but companies will still have to meet stringent regulations before drilling resumes. Oil companies and Republican lawmakers have complained that regulations imposed after the BP oil spill have brought Gulf of Mexico drilling to a standstill. The department’s decision…

An electrical ballast is a device intended to limit the amount of current in an electric circuit. Ballasts vary greatly in complexity. They can be as simple as a series resistor as commonly used with small neon lamps or light-emitting diodes (LEDs). A more complex type is one that uses reactance. Losses in the ballast…

Yesterday ScienceInsider went through the implications of new federal rules on greenhouse gases for industries which pollute the air with these pollutants. But legal challenges could complicate an already complex landscape for the rules.

A healthy rear end is essential for a happy life. So for this New Year, a good resolution is to protect it from all threats foreign and domestic. One of its biggest threats is the dreaded cancer of the colon. However, according to a new study, there is a reliable way to keep colon cancer…

Forty-five metal pipes and poles, 22 tyres, 15 shopping trolleys, 12 bicycles, nine carpets, five traffic cones, three suitcases, two mattresses, two vacuum cleaners, two safes, one car door, one washing machine… This is just a selection of the rubbish pulled from a 50-yard stretch of South London’s Wandle river in November by 65 hardy…

Military aircraft flew supplies to an Australian town slowly disappearing under floodwaters, as authorities warned on Monday that record floods that have devastated the northeast were far from over. The spreading environmental disaster is estimated to have caused more than A$1 billion ($980 million) in damage, has forced thousands from their homes and has hit…

Large parts of Australia’s coastal northeast disappeared under floodwaters on Sunday in a spreading disaster that has brought some of the highest floods on record and forced thousands from their homes. Queensland State Treasurer Andrew Fraser described the floods as a “disaster of biblical proportions” and said the ultimate cost would exceed A$1 billion (1.02…

A severely entangled North Atlantic right whale — a species whose numbers are down to just a few hundred — was swimming off Florida on Friday after experts managed to cut off much of the fishing ropes holding it back. “The team successfully removed more than 150 feet of ropes wrapped around the whale’s head…

Texas on Thursday filed a fresh motion in federal appeals court to block the Obama Administration’s attempts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in the state, one day after another federal court rejected the state’s petitions. At issue is the state’s lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to prevent the agency from forcing it to…

A federal court on Wednesday blocked an attempt by Texas to delay the Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to impose carbon regulations in the state early next year. The state of Texas is suing the EPA to prevent the agency from forcing it to issue greenhouse gas permits for the biggest polluters when national carbon rules…