WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Postal Service, struggling to cut costs and conserve cash, said on Thursday it wants to end overnight delivery of letters and postcards and will study about 250 processing sites for possible closure.

The agency, which lost more than $3 billion last quarter, has said it must downsize drastically or will be forced to stop delivering mail by the end of next summer. Overseen by Congress and a regulator, it funds its services with postal-related revenue and does not get any taxpayer dollars.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. power plants can comply with new environmental rules without disrupting the supply of electricity if providers and local authorities have time to plan for the changes, energy regulators told congressional Republicans seeking to unwind the rules.

“I believe this nation can retire a significant amount of existing generation,” said Philip Moeller, a Republican member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) – U.S. power plants can
comply with new environmental rules without disrupting the
supply of electricity if providers and local authorities have
time to plan for the changes, energy regulators told
congressional Republicans seeking to unwind the rules.

“I believe this nation can retire a significant amount of
existing generation,” said Philip Moeller, a Republican member
of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

WASHINGTON, Sept 13 (Reuters) – The U.S. government will
test for six more strains of E. coli bacteria in raw beef,
officials announced on Tuesday, a step sought by consumer
groups but opposed by the cost-conscious meat industry.

Inspectors in March will begin testing beef trim for the
the “Big Six” bacteria strains that have caused thousands of
sicknesses each year, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack
told reporters.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A group of Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation on Monday that would allow the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service to delay for 90 days a massive upcoming payment for retiree health benefits.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has said the mail agency will default on the $5.5 billion payment, due at the end of September. The Obama administration wants Congress to extend the due date while it crafts an agency overhaul, an official told lawmakers last week.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House is crafting a plan to overhaul the Postal Service and wants to delay a massive health benefits obligation the agency says it cannot pay, a federal official said on Tuesday.

The White House will offer its reform plan in the next few weeks for the agency, which lost $3.1 billion last quarter and is approaching due dates for multiple billion-dollar payments, said John Berry, director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican Representative Darrell Issa is pressuring Congress to act on his controversial plan to overhaul the Postal Service by ticking down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the beleaguered mail agency defaults on its obligations.

SavingthePostalService.com, launched on Thursday to detail problems dogging the agency and tout Issa’s bill, is the latest indication that lawmakers plan to tackle the mail agency’s financial straits, which are set to come to a head in late September.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. nuclear regulator is refining a plan to change its rules for power plants following Japan’s Fukushima disaster, selecting half a dozen high-priority items to tackle first, senior staff said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is sorting through how to update its requirements for plants to withstand earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters — a detailed and involved process expected to take years.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A fund that compensates federal employees for work-related injuries will run out of cash in the last quarter of 2012 if the U.S. Postal Service defaults on an upcoming $1.2 billion payment, according to the Labor Department.

The mail carrier, which has been losing billions of dollars each year, has more than 560,000 full-time employees and is the largest employer of workers covered by the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In just a few weeks, the U.S. Postal Service expects to be insolvent, barring intervention by a divided Congress bogged down by partisan sniping.

The quasi-independent agency, which delivers almost half the world’s mail and employs more than half a million Americans, lost $3.1 billion in its most recent quarter and expects to default next month on a massive health benefits payment after reaching its $15 billion borrowing limit.