The Canadian company in charge of a ruptured oil pipeline in southern Michigan says a spill into the Kalamazoo River has been contained -- and the Environmental Protection Agency agrees the spill presents no real threat to Lake Michigan. But cleaning up the site may take many more months.

The changes do not signify a lessening of the oil giant's commitment to clean up the oil spill, but do signify that some areas don't need a continuing effort, incoming executive Bob Dudley said Friday.

Robert Siegel speaks with John Voelcker, editor of GreenCarReports.com, and senior editor of High Gear Media Inc., about why the Chevy Volt may not qualify for a California Tax Rebate of $5,000, and why single drivers of Volts may not be able to use the HOV lanes in California, as the Nissan Leaf drivers will.

BP's incoming CEO, Bob Dudley, says it's time to scale back the oil spill cleanup in the Gulf. At a news conference today, he also announced that former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief James Lee Witt will help BP's work to restore Gulf communities in the wake of the spill.

The Gulf of Mexico has a few ways of cleansing oil from its waters: it hosts legions of microbes adapted to dine on natural oil seepages, and its warm water temperatures favor the evaporation of oil. But scientists say it's still too early to know how long it will take the Gulf to recover.

Up to 1 million gallons of crude oil has spilled from a broken pipeline into the Kalamazoo River. There are concerns that the oil could reach Lake Michigan if it isn't stopped soon.

BP has spent more than $4 billion cleaning up the oil spill. But what about the non-human cost. How much should BP pay for dead and injured animals?

Federal officials say a pipeline that spewed up to 1 million gallons of crude oil into a river in southern Michigan earlier this week must remain closed for the time being. Enbridge Energy Partners had hoped to fix the leak and restart the pipeline in a few days. But Transportation Department officials say that can't happen until it is thoroughly inspected and tested.

The administrator of BP's compensation fund is trying to persuade Gulf Coast residents not to sue the company, but to take a settlement instead. But many in the region affected by the oil spill say it's too early to pinpoint their damages.

A White House-backed program to allow property owners to pay for energy-efficiency improvements through property tax assessments may be shut down. The federal agency that oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac says the program poses a risk to mortgage lenders.

In 2007, UNESCO included the World Heritage site on its endangered list because of damage from tourism, immigration and invasive species. A UNESCO committee meeting in Brazil on Wednesday said strong action by Ecuador's government to battle these problems means the Galapagos Islands are now safer.

A company operating a pipeline that dumped more than 800,000 gallons of oil into a southern Michigan river said Wednesday that it is doubling its workforce on the containment and cleanup effort.

A recent Coast Guard flight over the site of the exploded BP oil well shows that the thick black swaths of oil have dissipated in the Gulf. It appears that months of skimming, surface burns and other methods of containing the spill are working, and one environmental chemist says under the surface, bacteria are feasting on the oil.

Microscopic plants in the ocean are among the most important creatures on Earth and produce half of the planet's oxygen. But they are in trouble. A new study finds that since 1950, the amount of phytoplankton in the ocean's surface waters has declined by 40 percent.

BP capped the well, and the oil on the surface appears to be dissipating faster than many scientists expected. Now, BP predicts it's only weeks or even days away from sealing the well for good. But while new oil may stop flowing, nobody knows the extent of the damage the spill may have caused.