Environment

20110522-210358-pic-16538571.jpg

A cleaned fracking pipe is ready for use in a drill operation. In 2007, drillers had 27 wells tapping the Marcellus Shale rock deposit in the state. Last year, a record 1,445 natural gas wells were drilled. (Andrew S. Geraci/The Washington Times)

20110522-210358-pic-695973311.jpg

** FILE ** Dirt is moved over a water pipeline that will be used at a natural gas drilling site in Washington, Pa. Proponents of extracting natural gas from shale tout fracking as the key to satisfying the nation's booming energy appetite. (Andrew S. Geraci/The Washington Times)

20110522-183048-pic-992075073.jpg

ASSOCIATED PRESS A pay raise for Interior Secretary Kennth L. Salazar is being held up by Sen. David Vitter, Louisiana Republican, who is pressing for more energy exploration in the Gulf of Mexico and says Interior's policies are hurting energy workers.

Iceland Volcano_Lea.jpg

Smoke and ash rise from Iceland's Grimsvotn volcano, which lies under the Vatnajokull glacier, about 120 miles east of the capital, Rejkjavik, on Saturday, May 21, 2011. (AP Photo, Jon Gustafsson)

Mideast Libya_Live(2).jpg

Smoke rises from a ship that was hit in an airstrike at a sea port in Tripoli, Libya, on May 20, 2011. (Associated Press)

20110519-200804-pic-151192931.jpg

U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican, criticizes Democrats and the NLRB for siding with Boeing unions in a labor grievance about locating an aircraft plant in South Carolina. (Associated Press)

20110519-200039-pic-331391427.jpg

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS A farmhouse is protected by a small evee while another stands flooded near Yazoo City, Miss. For thousands of people forced from their homes by the rising Mississippi River, life has become a tedious waiting game: waiting for meals at shelters, waiting for word on their flooded homes, waiting for the river to fall.

20110519-200039-pic-347551720.jpg

Cars are stranded on a dry strip of roadway north of Vicksburg, Miss., on Thursday. Thousands have been displaced by the floodwaters from the Mississippi River in Mississippi and Louisiana.

20110519-165106-pic-807751440.jpg

ANDREW S. GERACI / THE WASHINGTON TIMES Pilot Greg Poe, an aerial acrobatic pilot, takes off from Harry P. Davis Field in Manassas, Va., in his ethanol-powered aircraft.

20110519-080701-pic-889429691.jpg

K.Hovnanian Homes is building single-family homes at Four Seasons at New Kent Vineyards in New Kent County, Va. The Berry Hill model has 2,320 square feet and is priced from $274,990.

20110519-080653-pic-267773199.jpg

Design improvements in CFL and LED lights have led to a greater selection of the energy-efficient lights than was available just a few years ago.

20110519-080653-pic-892740363.jpg

Although they are more expensive than halogen under-cabinet lighting, LED lights , which are cool to the touch, won't heat up the underside of kitchen cabinets.

20110519-080653-pic-213927761.jpg

With the coming phase-out of incandescent bulbs, innovations in CFL and LED lighting are getting notice.

Japan Earthquake_Reps.jpg

This photo from May 6, 2011, shows the reactor buildings of Unit 1 (left) and 2 at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. (Associated Press/Tokyo Electric Power Co.)

20110517-205623-pic-719428237.jpg

Farmers work as floodwaters from the Mississippi River creep across their fields Tuesday in Natchez, Miss. The Coast Guard said it closed the river at the port in Natchez because barge traffic could increase pressure on levees already burdened by heavy river flow. (Associated Press)