AP - The owners of a Lexington ethanol plant and their insurer are suing a subsidiary of a Houston-based natural gas provider they say is responsible for an explosion and fire that shut down the plant for weeks.

AP - Asian carp may have breached an electronic barrier designed to prevent the giant invaders from upsetting the ecosystem in the Great Lakes and jeopardizing a $7 billion sport fishery, officials said Friday.

AP - At a time of budget cuts, Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter’s administration last year paid employees and outside contractors $1.1 million to lobby Colorado lawmakers on legislation ranging from renewable energy tax credits to increasing motor vehicle license fees.

AP - The fleet of new cars and trucks sold to U.S. consumers averaged 21 miles per gallon in the 2008 model year, a modest increase over the previous year, the Environmental Protection Agency reported Friday.

AP - Goodyear said Friday the 2010 Toyota Prius now includes its fuel-efficient tire, Assurance Fuel Max, as standard equipment.

AFP - Thawing permafrost caused by global warming is costing Russian energy firms billions of dollars annually in damage control and shrinking Russia’s territory, Greenpeace warned in a new study Friday.

AFP - Turkey on Friday scrapped a 2008 tender won by a Russian-led consortium to build the country’s first nuclear power plant — a process that had been under threat of being invalidated by a court decision.

AP - Hoping to sway lawmakers, two of the state’s most famous residents and one of its former governors joined groups opposed to the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in announcing a push for Town Meeting Day votes on whether the plant should keep operating past 2012.

AP - Rep. Shelley Moore Capito says she’s troubled by what she heard in a meeting with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson.

AP - LDK Solar Co. Ltd., a Chinese maker of parts for solar cells, on Friday said it completed the sale of a 15 percent ownership stake in a polysilicon plant in China for about $219 million.