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reuters.com — U.S. drivers need to pay more gas taxes and new user fees to fix crumbling roads and bridges and ease congested highways, a transportation commission is set to recommend to Congress later this month. U.S. gasoline taxes should be raised 10 cents a gallon to help fund improvements, at least until new systems are created to charge drivers for how much they use roads, according to a draft copy of recommendations from the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission. "We've basically had a 30-year experiment in this country in under-investing in surface transportation infrastructure," said Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and chairman of the commission.

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cnn.com — The drinking water in the area of last month's coal-sludge spill in eastern Tennessee is safe, but elevated levels of arsenic have been found in the sludge, authorities said. A billion gallons of the sludge, made up of water and fly ash from a coal-burning Tennessee Valley Authority steam plant in Kingston, Tennessee, swamped 300 acres of mostly private property when a dike on a retention pond collapsed December 22. Preliminary results from water samples taken in the spill area show no unsafe levels of toxins, said Leslie Sims, on-scene coordinator for the Environmental Protection Agency. The testing includes municipal supplies and private wells, he said.

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nytimes.com — A coal ash spill that blanketed residential neighborhoods and contaminated nearby rivers in Roane County, Tenn., earlier this week is more than three times larger than initially estimated, the Tennessee Valley Authority said on Thursday.

Coal ash, a byproduct of burning coal, contains toxic heavy metals like arsenic, lead and selenium that can cause cancer and neurological problems.

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iht.com — Environmentalists sued the Bush administration on Monday, trying to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from changing a U.S. rule they say keeps mining waste from entering mountain streams. At issue is mountaintop mining, in which forests are clear cut and holes are drilled to blast apart rock. Massive machines then scoop coal from the exposed seams. The rock and dirt left behind is dumped into adjacent valleys, changing the natural shape of the earth, lowering the height of the mountain and covering streams.

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news.bbc.co.uk — U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has welcomed the multi-billion dollar aid package for US carmakers, but said the industry faced some "hard decisions." The U.S. government is to provide $17.4 billion in loans to help General Motors and Chrysler survive..Mr. Obama said the package was a "necessary step" to "help avoid a collapse" in the industry. But he urged carmakers not to "squander this chance to reform bad management practices." "With the short-term assistance provided by this package, the auto companies must bring all their stakeholders together... to make the hard choices necessary to achieve long-term viability," Mr. Obama said.

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msnbc.msn.com — President-elect Barack Obama has selected two of the nation's most prominent scientific advocates for a vigorous response to climate change to serve in his administration's top ranks, according to sources, sending the strongest signal yet that he will reverse Bush administration policies on energy and global warming. The appointments of Harvard University physicist John Holdren as presidential science adviser and Oregon State University marine biologist Jane Lubchenco as head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which will be announced tomorrow, dismayed conservatives but heartened environmentalists and researchers. Like Energy Secretary-designate Steven Chu, Holdren and Lubchenco have argued repeatedly for a mandatory limit on greenhouse gas emissions to avert catastrophic climate change.

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washingtonpost.com — The Environmental Protection Agency ruled that new power plants are not required to install technology to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, rejecting an argument from environmental groups. The ruling, in a memorandum signed by EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson, turns on a seemingly arcane regulatory question that could govern the future of new fossil fuel-burning buildings and power plants under the Clean Air Act. During the Bush administration, the EPA has rejected the idea that greenhouse gases should be regulated like soot, smog precursors and other kinds of air pollution, despite an April 2007 Supreme Court ruling that said carbon dioxide fit the definition of a pollutant that could be regulated under the Clean Air Act.

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cnn.com — Between 1.5 trillion and 2 trillion tons of ice in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska have melted at an accelerating rate since 2003, according to NASA scientists, in the latest signs of what they say is global warming. Using new satellite technology that measures changes in mass in mountain glaciers and ice sheets, NASA geophysicist Scott Luthcke concluded that the losses amounted to enough water to fill the Chesapeake Bay 21 times. "The ice tells us in a very real way how the climate is changing," said Luthcke, who will present his findings this week at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco, California.

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iht.com — From the plains of North Dakota to the deep waters of Brazil, dozens of major oil and natural gas projects have been put on hold or canceled in recent weeks as companies scramble to adjust to the collapse in energy markets. In the short run, falling oil prices are leading to welcome relief for consumers across the globe, particularly in the United States, and even in countries where taxes represent a large share of the cost of gasoline and other fuels. But the project delays are likely to reduce future energy supplies — and analysts say they may set the stage for another rapid spike in oil prices once the global economy recovers.

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marketwatch.com — The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries began a closely watched meeting marked by Saudi Arabia's oil minister saying that the cartel's members are poised to reduce output about 2 million barrels a day. Ali Naimi cited a "consensus on a cut of 2 million barrels a day" during talks by oil ministers in Oran, Algeria. With crude prices hovering near $44 a barrel and OPEC attempting to boost oil prices, the group is widely expected to attempt its largest-ever reduction in output. Speculation of a production cut has been building in the market in recent days. While the reduction would mark a historic turn for OPEC, the group faces a world where oil prices are set by factors outside of the traditional supply and demand.

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