The head of the U.S. Environmental Agency is in the political hotseat; Melbourne looks at maglev mass transit; and build your own green utopia online.

Three senators call for EPA chief to resign: The head of the United States’ top environmental regulatory agency is under fire. On Tuesday, three Democratic senators called for the resignation of EPA chief Stephen Johnson, accusing him of putting corporate interests instead of issues such as air pollution. The trio say they will also request the U.S. Attorney General investigate to see whether Johnson made misleading statements in testimony to the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee. (Reuters)

Tidal Power Comes to Market: Northern Ireland has its first commercial-scale tidal power installation. British-based Marine Current Technologies was responsible for the project, which consists of two submerged turbines producing 1.3 megawatts of electric power. Tidal power works in a similar manner to wind farms, with one important advantage: they’re predictable. Although one turbine on the new installation was damaged during testing, the tidal plant is expected to be operational and supplying power to about a thousand home by November. (Technology Review)

Plans to build Geelong-Melbourne-Frankston monorail: Melbourne, Australia, is closer to building a maglev rail system. City leaders on Tuesday gave the nod to a German company’s plan for a high-speed magnetic rail monorail system linking two airports and three cities. How fast is high speed? The projects design requirements have the monorail operating “silently” at 155 miles per hour in urban settings, and twice that between cities. (The Herald Sun)

Zero Energy Idea House Breaks Ground: There are lots of green building concept homes popping up these days, but Jetson Green has details on one which goes further than most. Contractors broke ground last week on the Zero Energy Idea House near Bellevue, Washington. Unlike more conventional projects, the Zero Energy Home aims generate all the power it needs from on-site energy and efficiency measures — essentially, on off-grid home with on-grid conveniences. Planned: rooftop solar, solar hot water, and a vertical-axis small wind turbine. (Jetson Green)

Let’s play green games: ElectroCity is a Flash-based web game similar to Populus or Sim City — but with a green twist. Set in New Zealand, the object is to construct clean, sustainable communities without running out of power or breaking the bank. We had trouble getting it to work on Mac Firefox 3, but it ran well in Safari. You can save cities for later play, so let us know if you manage to build a green utopia. It’s sponsored Genesis Energy, and is free to play.

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