DOE Predicts More Coal Plants

Amid growing concerns around the country over pollution from coal-fired power plants, the U.S. Department of Energy quietly released a report this week showing a continuing surge in construction of the generators.

Electric utilities currently have plans to build 129 new coal-burning plants by 2025, with the largest numbers on the drawing boards in Illinois (13), Kentucky (8), Florida (7), Pennsylvania (7) and Montana (6), the DOE said.

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Bush Brothers Landfill Creates Mess in Virginia

In the heated race for Virginia governor, Republican candidate Jerry Kilgore is running away from both George W. Bush and his youngest brother Marvin, a central figure in a nasty landfill dispute in the usually tranquil Shenandoah Valley.

Kilgore, a former state attorney general, is in a horse race with Democratic Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine to replace Gov. Mark Warner. Virginia governors are only allowed one four-year term, and Warner’s successor will be chosen Nov. 8.

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DEA May Spell Relief for Rivers in Maine

After years of resistance, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) appears ready to consider a relaxation of federal laws governing expired pharmaceuticals that have impeded national efforts to keep expired and unused pharmaceuticals out of water supplies. The shift coincided with the latest in a wave of scientific studies showing the crippling effects of these drugs on aquatic life.

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One EPA Basher Replaced By Another

The removal of Rep. Tom DeLay from second-in-command of Congress may seem like a breath of fresh air for the environment, but his fill-in as House majority leader is quickly quashing that notion.

DeLay, indicted this week on campaign-finance charges in his home state of Texas, is a former pest exterminator who calls EPA “the Gestapo of government,” as CNN’s Candy Crowley pointed out yesterday.

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