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In the pursuit of cleaner energy, there's also an environmental cost: dead birds and bats killed by turbine blades. Now a unique research project in North Texas is trying to find out how many are dying and what can be done to save them.

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Dish Mayor Calvin Tillman says some levels of cancer-causing agents and neurotoxins are 100 times above state standards in the tiny town southwest of Denton.

As U.S. Air Force officials marked the 50th anniversary of the deployment of nuclear missiles to sites in the rural United States this past week, residents in some of these communities are still grappling with another legacy -- groundwater pollution from chemicals used to clean and maintain the weapons.

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Oncor, the company that builds and maintains electric lines in North Texas, has decided against seeking federal stimulus money to bring clean wind power from West Texas. That could result in higher bills for you.

Maldives government ministers are taking scuba lessons and learning underwater signs in preparation for an unprecedented Cabinet meeting at the bottom of the ocean intended to highlight the threat global warming poses to the low-lying nation.

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Chase Hendricks, a Denton resident, voices opposition to the drilling.

Protesters say their biggest concern is that the gas wells are an environmental hazard. Some worry drilling could cause earthquakes, similar to those in Cleburne.

Environmental activists sued the Texas environmental agency Tuesday in an effort to force the state to regulate greenhouse gases, asking that coal-fired power plant projects be halted until that happens.

A survey finds that the number of beluga whales in Cook Inlet is again declining.

Environmental concerns will likely lead to a dramatic change in the way we fly over the next three decades.

The Environmental Protection Agency is taking its first steps to control climate-changing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, factories and refineries.

The average electric bill for one of the energy-efficient homes built in New Orleans by Brad Pitt's Make It Right foundation is $35 a month, the actor said Thursday during an update on the project at the Clinton Global Initiative.

AP

President Barack Obama told a U.N. summit on climate change that the United States was slow to recognize the magnitude of the problem, but that Washington is moving swiftly to catch up.

An editorial in a British medical journal suggests giving contraceptives to people in developing countries as a way to combat climate change.

Gather a hundred heads of state in the same place, get them talking privately among themselves and hope a global climate pact starts to gel.

If China's economy continues to expand rapidly and rely heavily on coal and other fossil fuels until the middle of the century, its power consumption would be unsustainable, according to a study by government think tanks released Wednesday.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is scheduled to sign an executive order requiring California utilities to get a third of their energy come from renewable sources by 2020.

Sweden's environment minister urged the U.S. Senate on Monday to pass legislation to control greenhouse gases, saying a delay in the vote is impeding negotiations on a new international climate treaty.

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Bus and train riders will see some big changes Monday morning; with new service added and some higher fares.

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Agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug, the father of the "green revolution" who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in combating world hunger and saving hundreds of millions of lives, died Saturday in Texas, a Texas A&M University spokeswoman said.

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Celebrations will be held at the new stops on Saturday.

Just in time for the State Fair of Texas later this month, DART has expanded its rail service into south Dallas, with stops at Fair Park.

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Five months after News 8 requested the information, Fort Worth has issued a list of the biggest water users — movers and shakers who drench their lawns with more than their fair share of the increasingly precious fluid.

Watching grass grow is tedious, but researchers in the Oklahoma Panhandle say they'll stare at their switchgrass — all 1,000 acres of it — until they know whether they've found a commercially viable source of biofuel.

The federal "Cash for Clunkers" program is over, but Texas is offering a similar incentive to get polluting cars off the road.

The Arctic is warmer than it's been in 2,000 years, even though it should be cooling because of changes in the Earth's orbit that cause the region to get less direct sunlight.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon told a meeting of some 150 governments on Thursday that time is running out for a new climate deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The basic makeup of the ocean waters off the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic region has fundamentally changed in the past 40 years because of climate change, commercial fishing pressures and growing coastal populations, according to a new report.

Developing countries need between $500 billion and $600 billion a year from rich nations to adapt to climate change and make sure their economies grow, a U.N. report concluded Tuesday.

The Irving-based oil giant admitted to causing the deaths of approximately 85 migratory birds in Texas and four other states.

A kind of sticker shock in Austin is leading some drivers puzzled over paying to use new solar parking meters.

Silent surroundings almost tease the ears as clouds skitter across the top of this eastern corner of Maine. The wind, barely audible, swishes through beech and fir trees crowding the hills of an area so remote it's part of the state's Unorganized Territory.

Sarah Jo Lambert, who will be a junior at Lubbock High School this fall, has her driver's license now and may be able to find work next summer as a general contractor.

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GM came up with the figure in early tests of the Volt using draft guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency.

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With the blockbuster success of big federal rebates for old, fuel-inefficient vehicles, will there be anything left for prospective buyers this weekend?

Climate change legislation before Congress would boost electricity prices by about 20 percent by 2030, although most of the increases wouldn't begin until after 2020, a government analysis concluded Tuesday.

A federal appeals court Wednesday blocked road construction in more than 50 million acres of pristine national forests.

AP

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is predicting swift approval for an extension of the popular "cash-for-clunkers" program, which is rapidly running out of money after surging demand from consumers eager to purchase new cars with federal help.

The Gulf of Mexico Alliance will meet in Mobile for three days beginning Tuesday to discuss the health of the Gulf Region.

Federal officials have raided two facilities of an environmental waste company in Southeast Texas where three workers have died in the last six months.

A little prairie grouse could give the wind energy industry big fits.

One official said the average fuel economy of new vehicles purchased through the program was 25.4 miles per gallon and the average fuel efficiency of the trade-ins was 15.8 mpg, representing a 9.6 mpg fuel economy increase.

The largest U.S.-owned cement company has filed a lawsuit alleging unconstitutional discrimination from a large Dallas suburb.

The Energy Department is making available $36 billion in loan guarantees for renewable energy projects and for modernizing the electricity grid.

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The supply-and-demand factor means less mileage for a program designed to help recession-weary car buyers — and con artists are already at work.

Jason Whitely / WFAA-TV

Johnny Ussery has 28 wind turbines on his ranch south of Sweetwater, but many sit idle because of a power line bottleneck. "If we can't get this wind, this energy to Dallas/Fort Worth ... we're in trouble," he said.

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Edward Bounds didn't think he could afford a new car until he heard about the federal rebate plan that offers up to $4,500 for qualified trade-ins.

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Richard Vincent made a few changes that cut his electric bill in half. Then he installed 45 solar panels. "This year, I'm producing more [electricity] than I'm using," he said.

The United States and China should use high-level meetings next week to work toward improved cooperation in curbing greenhouse gases, according to a new Senate report.

A new government analysis predicts farmers will experience modest declines in income if Congress enacts legislation to limit the gases blamed for global warming.

Chrysler says it will match the $4,500 government incentive for people to trade in their old gas guzzlers for new vehicles.

Federal officials are set to wrap up the first part of their wide-ranging study of pollution levels in the North Texas town of Midlothian.

The leader of the Navajo Nation marked the 30th anniversary of a massive uranium tailings spill by reaffirming the tribe's ban on future uranium mining.

The British government detailed ambitious plans Wednesday to cut carbon emissions substantially by 2020, and said 40 percent of the country's electricity by then would come from renewable sources.

The city of Newark is downsizing, at least when it comes to its automobile pool.

Toyota rolled out its first hybrid-only Lexus luxury model Tuesday, as the world's top automaker seeks to turn itself around by pushing the increasingly popular green technology.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm is taking her campaign for green technology to the governor's residence, where a wind turbine has been erected and solar panels will soon go up to increase the home's energy efficiency.

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Finally, a federal bailout that can really help the average guy — at least the motorist who is driving an aging gas guzzler.

Plans for the world's largest wind farm in the Texas panhandle have been scrapped, energy baron T. Boone Pickens said Tuesday, and he's looking for a home for 687 giant wind turbines.

Times may be tight, but in making your home more energy-efficient it's actually true that the more you spend the more you save.

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Denton leaders believe by using wind power, they've taken a giant step toward producing greener and cleaner electricity that will lower their air pollution.

The White House says its high-profile garden on the South Lawn has tested positive for lead although it is not at dangerous levels.

Portugal announced a plan Monday to install about 1,300 recharging sites for electric vehicles over the next two years, part of an effort to create a mass market for environmentally friendly electric cars expected to go on sale next year.

The government will help companies build powerful solar farms in the desert Southwest by pre-qualifying huge swaths of federal land for development.

The White House says it's confident that the Senate will pass comprehensive energy legislation.

AP

Adventurer Bertrand Piccard says the Solar Impulse "will be an ambassador of renewable energies."

President Barack Obama is pressing again for passage of legislation that would confront the problem of global warming head-on.

The Sears Tower will undergo a $350 million green remodeling effort at the 110-story skyscraper, including wind turbines, green roofs and solar panels.

President Barack Obama is calling on members of the House to pass legislation that he says will "spark a clean energy transformation" and reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil.

Toyota Motor Corp. got 180,000 orders for the new Prius hybrid in Japan in just a month, far surpassing its target of 10,000 vehicles in monthly sales, the automaker said Friday.

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New rules may mean some production moves to China.

Until now, the cement companies have won most of their battles over pollution but they were mainly fighting regulators from the state. Now new folks are in charge of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency and they want to make significant changes.

Landfill operators strongly encourage cities and haulers to haul yard clippings to a facility where they are composted and then sold back to the public as mulch.

Harmful effects from global warming are already here and worsening, warns the first climate report from Barack Obama's presidency in the strongest language on climate change ever to come out of the White House.

Republicans on Saturday slammed a Democratic bill before the House that seeks to address climate change, arguing that it amounts to an energy tax on consumers.

Congress is all but abandoning President Barack Obama's goal of producing fully one-quarter of the nation's electricity from renewable sources -- wind, solar and the like -- by 2025, though a push for at least some increase is making headway.

The wind, a favorite power source of the green energy movement, seems to be dying down across the United States. And the cause, ironically, may be global warming — the very problem wind power seeks to address.

Russia will rebuild its Soviet-era network of polar stations and use its icebreaker fleet to help support its claim to the vast resources of the Arctic, the man who led a mission to plant a Russian flag on the Arctic seabed said Wednesday.

Going green helped a woman rob an Austin bank.

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A 23-mile area along the levees in Dallas are nearly 3,000 trees. The Army Corps of Engineers wants the trees out, but some that promote tree preservation wonder if the city is doing all it can to save them.

Going green helped a woman rob an Austin bank.

Fresh from a medium-security prison in California, radical environmentalist and arsonist Tre Arrow flew into Portland and then bicycled to a halfway house where he's assigned to finish the last six months of a prison sentence.

BP Products North America Inc. is being sued by Texas authorities who accuse the petrochemical giant of 46 separate pollution violations at its Texas City refinery -- including one tied to an explosion that killed 15 workers and injured 170 others four years ago.

T. Boone Pickens is reaching out to American Indians in his crusade for U.S. energy independence.

The United States is not likely to enter into a new international treaty to reduce the emissions blamed for global warming without China and other major greenhouse-gas emitters on board, the Obama administration's chief climate negotiator said Wednesday.

Guy Reynolds/Dallas Morning News

Around the state, North Texas is being called a water hog.

Despite the public being asked to do more to conserve water, not every city is doing its part.

Officials say Cincinnati's new free parking for electric cars demonstrates the city's commitment to the environment, even if it won't have a major impact.

The New York Jets and Giants signed a memorandum of understanding with the Environmental Protection Agency that will make their new $1.6 billion football stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands one of the greenest in professional sports.

Climate-change disasters kill around 300,000 people a year and cause about $125 billion in economic losses, mainly from agriculture, a think-tank led by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan reported Friday.

The Obama administration is calling for a one-year moratorium on road-building and development on millions of acres of remote national forests.

In a Western trip devoted mainly to raising political money, President Barack Obama is highlighting two favorite issues: clean energy and his economic stimulus plan.

A new study suggests the Northeast will face the greatest sea level rise as glaciers melt into ocean waters.

The amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide seeping into the atmosphere will increase by nearly 40 percent worldwide by 2030 if ways are not found to require mandatory emission reductions, a government report said Wednesday.

The University of New Hampshire has celebrated its efforts to be green by using gas from a landfill to power the loudspeakers at its commencement and turning leftover food from the ceremony into compost.

A GOP senator from the nation's leading coal-producing state contends Democrats will increase energy costs and make the U.S. more dependent on foreign oil if they focus solely on alternative energy.

Texas shoppers can get a break on state and local sales taxes when they purchase certain energy-efficient products this Memorial Day weekend.

Shares of SolarWinds climbed today during the network management software maker's first day of trading in New York.

Several of Germany's top carmakers said Tuesday they likely won't be affected by changes to U.S. emissions and fuel standards, staking a claim to be the market leaders in efficiency.

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President Barack Obama's proposed new fuel and emission standards for cars and trucks will save billions of barrels of oil but are expected to cost consumers an extra $1,300 per vehicle by the time the plan is complete in 2016.

With California facing a huge budget deficit, officials at the state Department of Finance saw an opportunity to resurrect a controversial proposal for oil drilling off the coast of Santa Barbara as a way to boost revenue and potentially bring $1.8 billion into state coffers over time.

A budget proposal from the Obama administration would spend $475 million on beach cleanups, wetlands restoration and removal of toxic sediments from river bottoms around the Great Lakes.

The global sea level will only rise about 10 feet if the West Antarctic ice sheet collapses.

A California-based company demonstrated a new battery-swapping technology Wednesday that could overcome a key obstacle to the adoption of electric cars — their reliance on frequent, long stops for recharging.

Former President Jimmy Carter says the nation's energy problems haven't changed from those he faced three decades ago.

As the switch from analog to DTV nears, some of those who have purchased new television sets may be wondering what to do with their old ones.

Going green isn't just for granola types. More parents are thinking eco-friendly when it comes to products and gear for their little ones.

Just like any person, our autos periodically get “sick” and need special attention. They age and sometimes need new body parts to replace the originals. But in many situations, we replace when we could repair. There are a variety of ways you can conserve Earth’s resources by opting to repair rather than replace.

Vinegar of the four thieves sounds like a summer blockbuster starring Hollywood's latest hunk. In fact it's far from it, as DeSoto mom Christine Stewart found out. "I began to search for the strongest, all-natural, nontoxic cleaner available," writes Mrs. Stewart on her Web site, "and I soon found information about Vinegar of the Four Thieves."

Look up the word “garage” in the dictionary, and you’ll see some variation of the definition “an indoor area for parking/storing motor vehicles.” If only life were that simple. Chances are your garage contains much more than cars. Today’s garage is used for storage, housing noisy appliances (washer/dryer) and maybe even shelter for surprise visitors. So while you’re cleaning the garage this summer, consider greening it as well.

My apartment is haunted by phantoms, and I’ll bet your home is too. Don’t bother calling the Ghostbusters, though. Unlike their mean, slimy movie cousins, these phantoms are easy to neutralize. I’m talking, of course, about phantom power draws—those useful, innocent-looking devices and appliances that inhabit nearly every room of our homes.

Just in time for summer, the EPA has launched an effort designed to help program your thermostat, saving hundreds on cooling bills as well as reducing energy use. The new site provides simple tips and resources for staying cool while remaining green this summer.

Do you know how much water your lawn needs? Most people don't. If you turn on your sprinklers two or more times a week, you might be overwatering. Watering too much isn't just wasteful. Deep and infrequent watering is better for the health of your grass.

Energy independence is not some far-off dream: High quality solar technology exists here and now. The initial investment cost is still high, but as more and more folks purchase solar collection equipment it will become less expensive.

Don't feed your plants without considering how rich their food is. Urea, for example, is the fertilizer equivalent of a chocolate bar, a very rich food, rich enough so that one cup could kill a rose bush. Near the other extreme might be bone meal, the unbuttered popcorn of fertilizers, providing nourishment but nothing to get fat on.

In case you haven’t heard, the TV world is changing on February 17, 2009. Television stations will begin broadcasting only in digital format, and analog TV users will have some adjustments to make.

With Earth Day fast approaching, books on "living green" are covering bookstore shelves like kudzu – everything from the encyclopedic Green Living for Dummies to tips on doing the right environmental thing from actor Ed Begley Jr.

To honor Earth Day in kids' crafting, one really needs to think trash. That is, "What can I rescue from the garbage bin and reuse?" This is no time for going heavy on the non-recyclable doodads, such as pipe cleaners and pom-poms, in our art projects. For Earth Day, which is April 22, consider these crafts that make the most of objects you probably already have.

For the most part, creating an eco-friendly garden involves returning to the Earth as much as or more than what you've been taking out of it. Water, for instance. Soil nutrients. And it can be done on the cheap. Here's how to get started improving your own little piece of the universe.