Idaho Falls voters mull buying in to Utah coal plant. Last winter, Idaho lawmakers banned new coal-fired power plants for two years. But the law does not prevent cities, like Idaho Falls, from buying coal power from across the Utah border. [News Source]

The direction of U.S. energy policy. We're facing higher energy prices. There's worry about climate change, and wars in the Middle East. Even former oilman President Bush says we have to kick our addiction to oil, but what's the government doing about it? [News Source]

With cheap gas, Venezuelans buy big SUVs. In oil-rich Venezuela, gasoline costs as little as 12 cents a gallon due to government subsidies _ and SUVs are selling briskly. [News Source]

Earth’s ecological debt crisis: mankind’s ‘borrowing’ from nature hits new record. For the first time a British think-tank ­ has sought to pinpoint how quickly man is using the global resources of farming land, forests, fish, air and energy. [News Source]

Everest, the world’s garbage dump. It has been described as the highest junkyard in the world and is covered in discarded mountaineering detritus and suffers under thousands of tourists' boots every year. [News Source]

Report warns of ‘mass exodus’. Rising sea levels caused by global warming could force the mass exodus of millions of Pacific Islanders as "environmental refugees". [News Source]

Trying to clear the air about air. Illinois' next governor faces a difficult balancing act between the potential conflicts of trying to reduce carbon emissions and preserve open space while spurring job creation and the economy. [News Source]

As oil ebbs, the nation still needs a sane energy policy. The policy challenge can be summed up this way: How do you keep oil prices low so as to deflate petro-bullies but simultaneously high so as to stimulate alternative fuels? The answer is taxation. [News Source]

Carbon capture may only be quick fix for climate change (The Economic Times) LONDON/OSLO: Burying greenhouse gases underground is emerging as humanity‘s number one weapon to fight global warming, hailed by the oil and coal industry and even cautiously welcomed by environmentalists. [News Source]

Climate change threatens economies, security: report (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) A CSIRO report has warned climate change will threaten the region's economy and security unless governments and aid agencies start preparing for its impacts. [News Source]

Global Warming Charging Up Hurricanes (KXAN 36 Austin) Talk about a heated question. Is global warming leading to more destructive hurricanes? A leading researcher from MIT says yes. KXAN NBC Austin Meteorologist Laura Skirde caught up with him Thursday in Austin to get the full story. [News Source]