Most midsize luxury cars falter in a frontal crash analysis by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The new test is designed to replicate what happens when a car strikes another car or a fixed object like a tree or utility pole. The test strikes 25 percent of a car’s front end into a five-foot rigid barrier at 40 miles per hour. The results don’t bode well for non-luxury models, which will be the next to undergo the new evaluations. In the tests, only the Acura TL, Volvo S60 and Infiniti G earned good or acceptable ratings from the institute. Four others — the Mercedes C-Class, Lexus IS 250, Audi A4 and Lexus ES 350 — earned poor ratings. The test indicates that side air bags may fail to protect occupants. The Associated Press
Obama administration proposes opening nearly 12 million acres of Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve to drilling. The move would restrict oil and gas production on the other 11 million acres of the reserve on Alaska’s North Slope. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the proposal strikes “an important balance” between energy production and environmental conservation. The reserve is home to bears, wolves and falcons, as well as caribou herds used by Alaska native villages. The plan was praised by environmentalists but called too restrictive by critics. Nearly 3 million acres of the reserve is under lease, but production has not begun. Salazar said the plan would allow construction of a new pipeline. The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post
Website for disclosing fracking chemicals often lacks data. An analysis by the news organization Bloomberg turned up gaps in FracFocus.org, a voluntary website that oil and gas companies helped design amid calls for mandatory disclosure of drilling chemicals. In the eight states where disclosures from April through December last year were evaluated, energy companies failed to list chemicals for more than two of every five fracked wells. The gaps reveal shortcomings in the voluntary disclosures on the site, which was funded by energy trade groups and the U.S. Energy Department. “FracFocus is just a fig leaf for the industry to be able to say they’re doing something,” said U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo. Bloomberg
Environmental Protection Agency takes on some of the nation’s most polluted waterways. More than three decades after the Superfund program was established by Congress to clean up the most contaminated sites, the EPA is undertaking its most expensive and technically complex projects ever — large stretches of urban waterways where the pollution is out of sight. But the projects, many in the New York-New Jersey area, pose serious risks and challenges. Even the most notorious hazardous-waste dumps on land pale beside the prospect of cleaning up miles of riverbed, in which the slightest movement can stir up long-buried wastes that tides, floods and even motorboat traffic can spread later on. The New York Times
Scientists say chemical in hundreds of household products may harm heart and muscles. University of California, Davis and University of Colorado researchers found that triclosan — used in products such as antibacterial soap, toothpaste and mouthwash — decreased heart function and grip strength in mice and slowed minnows’ swimming. They said triclosan’s effects on people required further study but called for tighter restrictions on the chemical, which is being reassessed by federal authorities. “Triclosan can be useful in some instances, however it has become a ubiquitous ‘value added’ marketing factor that actually could be more harmful than helpful,” said one of the study’s authors. Los Angeles Times, Daily Mail
Recalls: Mercedes-Benz M-Class SUVs
Compiled by Stuart Silverstein and Bridget Huber
