Sources Energy

AP - Shaking up years of energy policy and his own environmental backers, President Barack Obama threw open a huge swath of East Coast waters and other protected areas in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico to drilling Wednesday, widening the politically explosive hunt for more homegrown oil and gas.

Most discarded plastic beverage bottles can be recycled–those imprinted with a number 1 within a triangular arrow. Yet the resulting second-generation plastic is generally unusable for making new containers. Now researchers have devised a way to manufacture plastic bottles that would increase their recycling life span.

The problem with bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) thermoplastic is that the manufacturing process often needs metal oxide or metal hydroxide catalysts. These catalysts linger in the recycled material and weaken it over time, making it impractical to reuse for a third generation. Instead second-generation PET ends up in less demanding applications, such as carpets and fiberfill for coats and sleeping bags. Or it ends up as trash. In the U.S., nearly 24 billion plastic beverage containers have been incinerated, dumped in landfills or discarded as litter within the first three months of this year, according to the nonprofit Container Recycling Institute in Culver City, Calif.

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HOUSTON (Reuters) - Oil companies with their sights on drilling for oil off Alaska on Wednesday said President Barack Obama’s offshore oil announcement allows them to press ahead with big projects there.

AP - A new legal agreement committing nations around the world to curb greenhouse gas emissions is unlikely to be completed before the end of 2011, two years later than originally envisioned, the top U.N. climate official said Wednesday.

Gov. Charlie Crist’s plan to revive the dying Florida Everglades by buying back the land is in jeopardy after a judge orders the state to resume construction on a restoration project.









Everglades - Florida - United States - Charlie Crist - Travel and Tourism

Exposure to certain chemicals and pollutants before a woman reaches her mid-30s could treble her risk of developing breast cancer after the menopause, Canadian scientists said.











Breast cancer - Health - Menopause - Cancer - Breast

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama unveiled plans on Wednesday for a limited expansion of U.S. offshore oil and gas drilling in an effort to win Republican support for new proposals to fight climate change.

President Barack Obama threw open a huge swath of East Coast waters and other protected areas in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico to drilling Wednesday.

Offshore drilling - Virginia - Oil well - Energy - Business

AP - Shaking up years of energy policy and his own environmental backers, President Barack Obama threw open a huge swath of East Coast waters and other protected areas in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico to drilling Wednesday, widening the politically explosive hunt for more homegrown oil and gas.

AFP - Environmentalists gave a thumbs-down Wednesday to President Barack Obama’s plan to expand oil drilling off US coasts.