Carbon Dioxide

KENTUCKY DERBY-winning trainer Doug O'Neill could face a suspension in California after one of his horses was found to have an elevated level of total carbon dioxide, an infraction for which he previously has been punished. The California Horse Racing Board is considering the case, which involves "milkshaking," the illegal practice of giving a horse a blend of bicarbonate of soda, sugar and electrolytes. The mixture is designed to reduce fatigue and enhance performance. O'Neill faces his third total carbon dioxide violation in California and fourth in a career that has spanned 25 years.

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed the first limits on greenhouse-gas emissions from U.S. power plants, the largest source of carbon dioxide, a pollutant linked to climate change. The rules would permit emissions from new power plants at 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour, about the level for a modern natural-gas plant, the EPA said Tuesday in an e-mailed statement. The limit would effectively preclude construction of new coal-fired plants. "We're taking a common-sense step to reduce pollution in our air, protect the planet for our children, and move us into a new era of American energy," Lisa Jackson, EPA administrator, said in a statement.

BILOXI, Miss. - Republican presidential contenders and their super PAC supporters campaigned aggressively Monday on the eve of primaries in Alabama and Mississippi that could solidify or shake Mitt Romney's standing as front-runner. In the Deep South, one of the most conservative regions of the country, Romney and his Republican rivals polished their credentials with attacks on President Obama's handling of the economy and the nation's use of energy. "The dangers of carbon dioxide?

Seven Pennsylvania coal-fired power plants are among the 100 highest industrial emitters of greenhouse gases in the United States, according to data released Wednesday by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Ranking 12th on the national list is FirstEnergy Generation Corp.'s Bruce Mansfield plant in Beaver County, the state's biggest. The other plants are Brunner Island, Conemaugh, Hatfield's Ferry, Homer City, Keystone, and Montour. No New Jersey plants made that top 100 list.

A look into the fossil record suggests that tables may one day be turned on humanity. It probably won't happen the way it did in the original Planet of the Apes , where chimps and gorillas exploit their former exploiters. Instead, our planet could be reclaimed by a more ancient life-form - sulfur-eating bacteria. Oxygen is poison to them, so they live in shadowy places, such as the bottom of the Black Sea. But when the climate gets disturbed, they can come back with a vengeance.

By George Parry On Saturday afternoon, well into my second full day of we're-all-gonna-die television coverage of the approaching Hurricane Irene, I sat in my Barcalounger feverishly loading banana clips for my assault rifle. Rivulets of sweat coursed down my face as Terror Track Weather warned yet again that Philadelphia was squarely in the path of a killer storm. "Dear," my wife said tenderly, "what in the hell are you doing?" I explained that I was preparing to deal with the looters who were sure to pillage the neighborhood in the storm's aftermath.

LOS ANGELES - Think Mars today is a hostile place? It was worse 600,000 years ago, according to new research that suggests the planet had a dustier, stormier atmosphere. "It was an unpleasant place to hang out," said lead researcher Roger Phillips of the Southwest Research Institute. He said Mars' climate was probably a lot like the American Dust Bowl of the 1930s - but a lot worse. The evidence comes from the discovery of a huge underground reservoir of dry ice, or frozen carbon dioxide, at its south pole - much more than scientists had realized.

In the Region Jobs, hours cut for some at Einstein Albert Einstein Healthcare Network is undergoing its second round of layoffs in as many months. It told 48 employees this week that their jobs are being eliminated or hours reduced. Most were administrative and clerical workers and aides, said Lynne Kornblatt, vice president of human resources. Einstein, Philadelphia, which has 7,400 employees, laid off 28 employees in May. Kornblatt said human resources would work with the affected employees to match them to jobs that open in the system.

Air Products & Chemicals Inc., Allentown, said it would receive $253 million in federal stimulus money to design, build and operate a system to capture carbon dioxide at a Valero Energy Corp. refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. The funds, from the Department of Energy, will pay for two-thirds of the $384 million project. The carbon dioxide is a by-product of methane reformers that produce hydrogen to help make cleaner-burning transportation fuels.    - Paul Schweizer

By Reese Palley There's little time left to reduce the globe-warming gases in our atmosphere. The first step toward doing so must be replacing more than 1,500 coal-fired electricity plants in the United States, which dump millions of tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere each year. Population projections indicate that in the next few decades, we will need half again as much electrical energy as these plants produce now. Should we continue to depend on coal and other fossil fuels, global warming will accelerate beyond our ability to cope with it. The only form of energy that exists on the scale required to replace these coal-fired monsters is nuclear.