Gadfly Stalls San Francisco Bike Measures

One-wheeled 'motorcycle' goes green with electricity—and stylish to boot

(NEWSER) - Looking like a tricked out motorbike, the Uno is electric personal transportation with style, the Chicago Tribune reports. Designed by 19-year-old inventor Ben Gulak, the device employs no throttle or brake, relying on its rider's leanings to guide it, and is so intuitive an 8-year-old picked it up instantly at a recent vehicle expo. More»

They protect polluters on the false pretext of saving jobs: EPA chief

(NEWSER) - House Republicans claim that to create jobs, we need to loosen environmental regulations. To that end, they’ve “averaged roughly a vote every day” in session to weaken the rules—and have already cut back the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and other laws, writes EPA chief Lisa Jackson in the Los Angeles Times . “This pseudo jobs plan to protect polluters might well be called ‘too dirty to fail,’” she writes. More»

It's going to start treating wastewater with lots of bleach

(NEWSER) - The good news is that San Francisco's embrace of low-flow toilets has cut annual water consumption by 20 million gallons. The bad news is the smell. Because the water doesn't have enough oomph to push waste out of sewer pipes, a not-so-pleasant odor wafts throughout the city at times, explains the San Francisco Chronicle . As a remedy, the city plans to buy $14 million of concentrated bleach—a 3-year supply—to disinfect wastewater before it goes into the bay. That's on top of a $100 million investment to upgrade plants over 5 years to cut down on the stink. More»

Vermont, Maine, and Hawaii lead the way

(USER SUBMITTED) - Which states are the most environmentally friendly? 24/7 WallSt analyzes pollution levels, energy use, and environmental policies to rank them from 1 to 50:

1. Vermont: Among its many "green" attributes, Vermont has the smallest carbon footprint in the country. It also releases the fewest carcinogenic toxins.

BP, DuPont escape environmental rules

(NEWSER) - The White House has handed wads of stimulus cash to the biggest US polluters and given them "sweeping exemptions from the most basic form of environmental oversight," finds a Center for Public Integrity investigation. Coal burners like Westar Energy and chemical maker DuPont have been among the beneficiaries of some 179,000 “categorical exclusions” related to clean energy stimulus projects, meaning those projects won't be reviewed under the National Environmental Policy Act. More»