Greenwire

Thirteenth in a series on key players on energy and environment issues in 2015.

Dwayne Meadows had his back toward the Indian Ocean that day, turning around only seconds before a wall of water swallowed him whole.

Three top Bureau of Land Management officials, one who oversees conservation and two who manage 31 million acres in New Mexico and Wyoming, will retire at the end of the month.

LAS VEGAS -- After 15 straight years of drought, this desert city is rolling the dice on a major engineering project that it hopes will keep some 25 million households from going dry.

ELIZABETH, N.J. -- The short drive between the Fish and Wildlife Service office at the seaport here to New York City is a gritty maze of snarled highways, railroad tracks and airstrips. Business comes first here. Nature is an afterthought -- except for FWS officers. While African savannas and Amazon swamps are a world away, the nation's third-largest port is the front line of the agency's crusade against the $20-billion-and-growing illegal wildlife trade.

The Staten Island Zoo has taken steps to prevent New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) from holding any animals at its annual Groundhog Day ceremony Feb. 2 after last year's celebration ended with a potentially fatal fall.

San Diego authorities remain perplexed after a woman unclogged an office toilet, pulling a 5.5-foot snake out in the process.

Maine law enforcement officials discovered a truck full of state-subsidized energy-efficient light bulbs yesterday that three men were reportedly planning to sell in Chicago for profit.

Idaho regulators have started fining the U.S. Department of Energy after federal officials missed yet another deadline in the treatment of 900,000 gallons of liquid radioactive waste stored in the central Idaho desert.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead (R) praised the 10 states yesterday that have joined Wyoming's lawsuit against U.S. EPA over the boundary of the Wind River Indian Reservation in central Wyoming.

NEW YORK -- U.S. EPA today fined DuPont $531,000 for chlorofluorocarbon leaks at a massive chemical plant on the shores of the Delaware River.

American car companies' increased reliance on aluminum to meet fuel efficiency standards has one of the world's largest aluminum companies focusing on the United States.

Johnson Controls Inc. will work with Toshiba Corp. to make a 12-volt lithium titanate battery that it says could help boost gas mileage on vehicles.

President Obama yesterday touted the auto industry bailout and manufacturing gains across the country in a speech at a Ford Motor Co. factory in a Detroit suburb.

U.S. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, addressing a group of scientists in Phoenix yesterday, said it is crucial that researchers keep explaining to the public that climate change is real.

Companies that collectively own two Minnesota wind farms are seeking bankruptcy protection.

A boost in domestic oil production in recent years calls for the "modernization" of how the United States stashes crude for emergencies, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said yesterday.