SMUD dams face changes. The U.S. Forest Service is demanding major changes and improvements at American River dams near Sacramento, California after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission relicensed 11 dams and eight powerhouses. [News Source]

Strict air-quality rules to kick in. While stopping short of advising Bay Area residents to hold their breath, clean air experts say they expect more pollution warnings this winter as stricter federal air-quality standards kick in. [News Source]

Canopy of trees will earn city carbon credits.

Mayor Graham Richard believes planting urban trees will clean the environment in a way that could make money for the city.

[News Source]

New school buses cleaner, cooler. The 45 new buses in Seminole County Public Schools' fleet of about 460 feature lower emissions and better gas mileage, and, more important for parents, all of them have seat belts. [News Source]

Environmentalists face friendlier Congress. Environmentalists say the Democrats' takeover means they no longer will have to spend most of their time and money trying to stop drilling in the Alaskan wilderness or the weakening of protections for clean air and water. [News Source]

Election aftermath. Environmental groups spent millions of dollars to help elect the sympathetic Democratic majority that will take over committees overseeing air, water and land issues. [News Source]

A burning issue heats up. Nearly 60 per cent of the Torontonians who think the city should build an incinerator support building it in their own neighbourhood. [News Source]

Students producing biodiesel. A private boarding and day school outside Carbondale has had a biodiesel after-school work program for the last four years, where students gain hands-on experience to make the alternative fuel. [News Source]

Greenpeace co-founder warms to nuclear energy. The issue has been dead since the Three Mile Island crisis. But get ready for the nuclear-energy debate to re-ignite in Michigan. [News Source]

Global climate alarm sounded. The global economy must be radically restructured to curb the world's gluttonous appetite for resources and its climate-warming ways, or it will face ecological and social collapse, environmental guru Lester Brown said Saturday. [News Source]

Scotland’s global warming roll of shame. More than 25 million tonnes of climate-wrecking pollution is being spewed into the atmosphere every year by 80 industrial plants across Scotland, the Sunday Herald can reveal. [News Source]