One plant, the Fort Calhoun Station, about 19 miles north of Omaha, was shut down in April for refueling, and the operators elected to keep it in “cold shutdown” in anticipation of the flooding. The other plant, Cooper Nuclear Station, located downriver and situated on higher ground, is still operating.

Each of the 104 commercial nuclear power plants in the United States has a unique license issued by the federal government that details conditions under which it may operate, including what river water levels, wind speeds or hurricane surge levels require shutdowns. Reactors in Florida and Louisiana, for example, have shut down in anticipation of approaching hurricanes.

A McCain spokesperson later told Salon’s Justin Elliott that “a Forest Service official” told McCain that “illegal immigrants” were involved in setting the fires. However, that directly contradicts what U.S. Forest Service spokesman Tom Berglund told ABC News yesterday:

When asked if there is substantial evidence that some fires were caused by undocumented immigrants, as McCain said at a news conference Saturday, Berglund said: “Absolutely not, at this level.”

“There’s no evidence that I’m aware, no evidence that’s been public, indicating such a thing,” he said.

The cave fishes of Madagascar are very poorly known, primarily because of the inaccessibility of their remote habitats — underground streams and pools within razor-sharp karst formations. We studied cave fishes of the genus Typheleotris in the south of Madagascar in 2008, discovering new species and expanding our knowledge of the evolution of this entirely subterranean group of fishes. Now we want to see if the cave gobies of the north, genus Glossogobius, are similarly diverse. We want to know what these cave-adapted species are related to — is their closest relative a sighted and pigmented species found nearby or on a distant landmass separated from Madagascar for nearly 100 million years? This question, and an examination of how the various subterranean freshwater habitats are connected, will be determined using DNA analyses.

Within the large Gondwanan family Cichlidae (also found in Africa and the Neotropics), only the Malagasy and Indian-Sri Lankan cichlids exhibit a suite of structural modifications of the gas bladder and the posterior portion of the skull. In some of these species this anatomy creates a direct mechanical link between the gas bladder and inner ear, analogous to the human tympanum, or eardrum. This grants these fishes the ability to hear much fainter sounds and a wider range of frequencies. We are here to test the hypothesis that this super-sensitive hearing has evolved as an adaptation to very quiet habitats. We expect to increase our understanding of the diversity of this linkage and characterize the acoustic natural habitats of each species.

When congressional Republicans cut the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget 16 percent as part of a deal with President Obama in April to keep the government running, they hailed it as a blow to a federal bureaucracy that had overreached in its size and ambition.

But now that the agency has detailed how it is making the $1.6 billion cut for fiscal 2011, the reality is somewhat different. Because the EPA passes the vast majority of its money through to the states, it has meant that these governments — not Washington — are taking the biggest hits. Already constrained financially at home, state officials have millions of dollars less to enforce the nation’s air- and water-quality laws, fund critical capital improvements and help communities comply with new, more stringent pollution controls imposed by the federal government.

The 8-0 decision Monday was a setback — but not a surprise — for environmentalists. The outcome puts more pressure on the Obama administration and the EPA to follow through with promises to propose new regulations in the fall that will restrict carbon pollution from power plants.

The EPA under President Obama has already adopted stricter emissions standards for cars and trucks. However, more ambitious moves contemplated by the administration could be difficult to implement because the Republican-led House has voiced opposition to new regulations that would affect energy producers.

Eight states had filed suit against Midwest and Southern power producers based on the old doctrine that a state or a private party could file a “public nuisance” suit against another party for polluting its air or water.

In throwing out the suit, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said it posed a classic “who decides” question. In this instance, she said, it is clear that environmental policy should be decided by the EPA, not by a single federal judge overseeing a legal dispute.

The Army Corps sets national standards for levee safety. In 2007 it unveiled a revised maintenance policy that forbids trees or shrubs on levees. Instead, only short grass is allowed on levees and within 15 feet on either side.

The policy raises significant concerns in California, where levee vegetation composes much of the remaining 5 percent of the Central Valley’s historic riparian forest. As such, it is crucial shade and habitat for migrating endangered fish, as well as nesting habitat for many endangered birds.

“This would be the most massive intentional infliction of environmental damage on our rivers that we’ve seen in modern times,” said Bob Wright, senior counsel at Friends of the River in Sacramento. ”It’s mind-boggling.”

Other plaintiffs are Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity.

The plaintiffs allege the Army Corps policy violates the Endangered Species Act, because the agency did not consult with federal wildlife agencies; and the National Environmental Policy Act, because it didn’t prepare an environmental study. Army Corps spokesman Pete Pierce declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Gov. Rick Perry has signed a bill requiring drillers to disclose the chemicals they use when extracting oil and gas from rock formations, making Texas the first state to pass such a law. Some state agencies have passed rules forcing some disclosure, but no other states have made it a law. Texas’ law will force drillers to post the chemicals and the amounts used beginning in July 2012. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is being used in more states. In the fracking process, drillers pump chemical-laced water into the ground at high pressure to crack the rock. Environmental groups worry that the chemicals could taint water supplies. The industry says the process is safe.

Time after time, officials at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission have decided that original regulations were too strict, arguing that safety margins could be eased without peril, according to records and interviews.

The result? Rising fears that these accommodations by the NRC are significantly undermining safety — and inching the reactors closer to an accident that could harm the public and jeopardize the future of nuclear power in the United States.

Examples abound. When valves leaked, more leakage was allowed — up to 20 times the original limit. When rampant cracking caused radioactive leaks from steam generator tubing, an easier test of the tubes was devised, so plants could meet standards.

Failed cables. Busted seals. Broken nozzles, clogged screens, cracked concrete, dented containers, corroded metals and rusty underground pipes — all of these and thousands of other problems linked to aging were uncovered in the AP’s yearlong investigation. And all of them could escalate dangers in the event of an accident.

Yet despite the many problems linked to aging, not a single official body in government or industry has studied the overall frequency and potential impact on safety of such breakdowns in recent years, even as the NRC has extended the licenses of dozens of reactors.

Industry and government officials defend their actions, and insist that no chances are being taken. But the AP investigation found that with billions of dollars and 19 percent of America’s electricity supply at stake, a cozy relationship prevails between the industry and its regulator, the NRC.

Millions of barrels of salty, toxic wastewater from natural-gas wells in Pennsylvania are coming into Ohio despite efforts to keep it at bay.

The Environmental Protection Agency said it will extend the public comment period for a proposed mercury and air toxics rule, responding to calls from lawmakers to give companies more time to weigh in on the standards.

The EPA will extend the comment timeline by 30 days, according to a statement today. The November deadline for issuing final standards will remain the same.

U.S. Representative John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, was among lawmakers calling on the agency to give utilities, manufacturers, environmental groups and other interested parties 120 days to comment, double the current schedule.

Former White House energy and climate adviser Carol Browner on Tuesday lamented GOP-led attacks on the Environmental Protection Agency, arguing they’re at odds with the historical success of agency protections.

“There does seem to be, among some, a lot of hostility toward EPA writ large, just toward the whole idea that we are going to set public health standards and we are going to require companies to meet them,” said Browner, who left the White House earlier this year and is now a senior fellow with the liberal Center for American Progress (CAP).

“And it is just really unfortunate, because if you look at the history of EPA standards – air, water, toxics, whatever – it shows that you are able to do it in a cost-effective manner and that you actually can create jobs and that you can provide important public health benefits,” she added.