Not doom, gloom but hope. America has hard, urgent choices to make about how to move past petroleum. As daunting as that might seem there are already reasons for hope in ordinary cities and towns across America. [News Source]

Smoking ban is well-crafted. Rep. Mark Cloer of Colorado Springs has raised concerns that the new law might infringe on the religious rights of Indians by preventing smoking in off-reservation ceremonies in such locations as sweat lodges. [News Source]

Senate must dump air quality nominee. This is one presidential nomination that needs to be rejected. If not, citizens of Connecticut and its neighbors in the Northeast could be breathing much dirtier air in future years. [News Source]

Stricter mercury limits contested. Environmentalists hailed a proposal Monday by Gov. Jennifer Granholm for a 90-percent reduction in mercury emnissions from power plants by 2015 as a step in the right direction. [News Source]

Governor orders mercury reductions. Gov. Jennifer Granholm ordered environmental regulators Monday to write new rules for 21 coal-fired power plants in Michigan with the goal of reducing mercury pollution by 90% by 2015. [News Source]

State’s largest mercury source to shut down. Alabama's largest source of mercury pollution, Occidental Chemical Corp.'s Muscle Shoals chlorine factory, will close "sometime in 2008." [News Source]

New pollution testing starts in Endicott. Scientists using state Superfund money began the latest phase this week of a multimillion-dollar search for trichloroethylene pollution in the Town of Union and Endicott, NY. [News Source]

Big Blue is No. 1 polluter. IBM Corp.'s discharges to the Gildersleeve Brook in East Fishkill increased four-fold after it started producing a new generation of microchips in 2002, the latest federal data show. [News Source]

The greening of a landmark of urban blight. It is in a South Bronx vacant lot, of all places, that Nancy Biberman is planning to build big — and green. [News Source]

Power plant was North Shore’s top polluter in 2004. A Massachusetts coal-fired power plant created more than half a million pounds of ammonia, hydrochloric acid and other chemicals. [News Source]

House OKs air pollution bill. The Arizona House today narrowly approved a bill that critics say will undermine new air pollution rules to limit emissions of hazardous substances believed to cause cancer, birth defect and other health problems. [News Source]