On Our Radar: Rising Seas April 19, 2012, 1:39 pm Nearly 300 energy installations in the United States are less than four feet above sea level and will be vulnerable to flooding by 2030, an official from the group Climate Central tells a Senate committee. Among them are natural gas infrastructure, electric power plants and oil and gas refineries. Climate Central President Obama plans to renominate a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission whose term expires in June despite opposition from Harry Reid, leader of the Senate's Democratic majority, an official says. Republican lawmakers had contended that the nomination of Kristine Svinicki was being delayed because she and three other commissioners criticized the management style of the commission's chairman, Gregory B. Jaczko (who is in turn viewed as an ally of Senator Reid). With some 150 major new dams planned in the Amazon, researchers say that 60 percent would cause the first major break in connectivity between Andean headwaters and the lowland Amazon. More than 80 percent of the dams would help drive deforestation because of new roads and transmission lines, they add. "There is an urgent need for a strategic plan," they write. China says 16 endangered finless porpoises have been found dead this year in Hunan Province. Experts blame severe water pollution and climate change for pushing the species toward extinction. Agence France-Pressse King Juan Carlos of Spain apologizes for going on an elephant hunting expedition in Botswana when so many Spaniards are suffering economically (and while serving as honorary president of a wildlife conservation group). "I made a mistake - it won't happen again," says the monarch, 74. He fractured a hip during the hunt and has since undergone an operation.