Environment

Las Vegas waives energy efficiency standards for older buildings: Wednesday, June 19, 2013; By Conor Shine; Renovating and rehabilitating older buildings in downtown Las Vegas will be a bit easier and cheaper after the city council voted Wednesday to relax its energy efficiency standards.

GOP threatens to build Yucca if Reid kills filibuster: Tuesday, June 18, 2013; By Karoun Demirjian; Sen. Harry Reid has long been warning Republicans he has the power to get his agenda around their “nay” votes by curtailing the procedural filibuster.

California wildfire triggers air quality warning in Las Vegas: Tuesday, June 18, 2013; By Riley Snyder; California wildfires mean smoke-filled days in Las Vegas, and a recent fire has prompted air quality officials on Tuesday to issue an air quality warning.

Boaters asked to avoid main launch at Lake Mead’s Echo Bay: Monday, June 17, 2013; By Riley Snyder; Lake Mead officials are asking boaters to avoid using the main launch area at Echo Bay because of low water levels.

Don't like the color of the sky? Blame it on what's in your garage: Friday, June 7, 2013; ENVIRONMENT: Region made significant advances in carbon monoxide, particulate levels in past decade, but ozone remains our nemesis; By Tovin Lapan; Southern Nevada has been winning some air-quality battles, but ozone remains the nemesis. Nevada Assemblywoman Peggy Pierce said in 2001 that Las Vegas should be dubbed "Smog City," not "Sin City." Today, Pierce is pleased about the turnaround but knows the fight is a continuous one.

Report: Las Vegas has big parks, but poor access to them: Wednesday, June 5, 2013; By Cy Ryan; Las Vegas has some large parks but access to them is below the national average, according to a report released Wednesday.

Las Vegas should stick with its energy code: Tuesday, June 4, 2013; OTHER VOICES:; Jennifer Turchin and Randy Lavigne; If ever there was a case to call a proposed ordinance a rotten apple, that case is at hand with one on Wednesday’s Las Vegas City Council agenda.

Mo Denis and the walking dead: Majority leader keeps recycling legislation alive as 'zombie bill': Saturday, May 25, 2013; Nevada Legislature 2013:; By Andrew Doughman; Senate Majority Leader Mo Denis, D-Las Vegas, resurrected one of his bills Friday after other legislators had presumptively killed it. He had earlier faced scrutiny after the Sun reported that he had authored two bills that would directly benefit his previous employer, a materials recycling facility.

Reid bill would preserve Nevada’s chunk of Grand Canyon: Thursday, May 23, 2013; By Karoun Demirjian; Sen. Harry Reid announced Thursday that he has introduced legislation to create the Gold Butte Conservation Area, a public land site in Clark County that would include 220,000 acres of wilderness.

Republicans press NRC chair for answers on Yucca Mountain: Thursday, May 23, 2013; By Karoun Demirjian; The crisis that engulfed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and threatened to tip the scales on the Yucca Mountain project last year is in the past, if the bipartisan nods of reserved approval that new chairwoman Allison MacFarlane received at her reconfirmation Thursday are any indicator.

Joe Downtown: Challenges daunting but foundation solid for conservation league, departing official says: Tuesday, May 21, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; As Scot Rutledge prepares to leave Las Vegas after seven years heading the Nevada Conservation League, he has to take some pride in how far his organization has come since he took the reins. At the same time, he admits the environmental challenges facing his organization and the state are daunting. One of the biggest, he predicts, will be if and when the state starts to deal with climate changes brought on by global warming.

Big trout saved from close call with extinction: Thursday, May 16, 2013; conservation:; Tom Knudson, Sacramento Bee; Hour after hour, Brian Dunn lofted his fly line into the turquoise-blue water of this shimmering desert lake north of Reno. Finally, just after lunch, his line straightened and a smile spread on his face. Before long, a 6-pound, 25-inch-long cutthroat trout was splashing in the net.

To citizen legislator Mo Denis: Don't forget about the rest of us citizens: Friday, May 3, 2013; J. Patrick Coolican:; By J. Patrick Coolican; Catching up on the news after a little vacation, and, oh, look, it’s like I never left -- a state senator has offered up some cheesy legislation that would help his old boss.

PEPCON anniversary serves as reminder: Hazardous materials emergencies could occur in Clark County: Friday, May 3, 2013; Disaster preparedness:; By Tovin Lapan; After the 1988 PEPCON blast, Clark County commissioners attempted to encourage development of industrial sites farther away from population centers, and the Apex site was developed north of Las Vegas. Today the companies with the largest quantity of hazardous materials near large population centers in the valley are in and around the Basic Management Inc. complex, a 5,000-acre county island surrounded by Henderson.

No desert oasis necessary for plants offered at this sale: Thursday, April 25, 2013; By Brian Nordli; Nursery manager Amy Dunn tends to more plants at the Las Vegas State Tree Nursery than she can count. Tucked into the corner of Floyd Lamb Park off a gravel road, the nursery is home to hundreds of plants indigenous to Southern Nevada.Underneath a stretch of shaded area, there are rows upon rows of trees and shrubs sprouting up from buckets filled with soil, sand and fertilizer. There are desert willows and desert almonds, eucalyptus trees and honey mesquites. They range from older 3-foot-tall bright green shrubs to young tiny seedlings peeking out of a dirt-filled yellow test tube.