Greenwire

Two rural Utah counties are suing the Interior Department and Bureau of Land Management over a moratorium on new coal leases that harms the local economy, the suit alleges.

Oregon's top FBI agent, who was involved in the bureau's handling of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation, has said he will retire in January.

The death toll from wildfires near Great Smoky Mountains National Park rose to seven yesterday, but rain helped firefighters suppress the flames.

Researchers at Yellowstone National Park say more than 900 wild bison would need to be killed or removed this year to begin reducing the size of herds that spill into Montana.

The Bureau of Land Management will offer a slew of lands in Utah — including sections of Nine Mile Canyon — in an upcoming online oil leasing auction, in a move that has sparked ire from environmental groups as well as state officials who say the government isn't auctioning enough terrain.

The Interior Department yesterday celebrated its acquisition of Werowocomoco, a former Native American village that served as the capital of a 17th-century confederation of Virginia tribes known as the Powhatan Chiefdom.

The Bureau of Land Management set a date today for auctioning off roughly 56 million tons of coal in Utah after an Interior Department board tossed an environmental group's appeal.

California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) today nominated House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra as the next state attorney general. Becerra, if confirmed by both houses of the state Legislature, would succeed Sen.-elect Kamala Harris (D) and become the first Latino to hold the position.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is backing having the Democratic caucus elect the head of the party's House campaign arm, a concession in the wake of a leadership challenge in which she was criticized by colleagues for having too much control over top posts.

Trump transition officials have selected a second critic of U.S. EPA's policies to work on the transition team for that agency.

Princess Cruise Lines Ltd. will pay a $40 million penalty and plead guilty to seven felony charges for illegally dumping oily waste into the ocean, the Justice Department announced today.

U.S. EPA released a plan yesterday for setting objectives to protect the nation's drinking water.

North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp is scheduled to meet with President-elect Donald Trump tomorrow, a signal that she may be in the running for a top administration post.

President-elect Donald Trump has already outpaced President Obama's 2008 speed in picking Cabinet officials, but he's lagging behind when it comes to getting staffers in the trenches at some federal agencies.

More than two-thirds of Australians want the Great Barrier Reef's deteriorating condition to be declared a "national emergency" and would support tougher measures to protect it, according to a recent poll.

The United Nations issued an apology yesterday for its role in the 2010 cholera outbreak in Haiti, which caused widespread suffering and killed an estimated 10,000 people.

The northernmost community in the United States perches on the Arctic Ocean's edge in Alaska, and it is about to get back its original name.

An 18-month investigation by The Portland Oregonian/OregonLive.com has found that the National Guard has allowed the spread of toxic dust to endanger soldiers and visitors to armories.

As wildfires steamrolled southern Appalachia this week, ravaging the iconic mountain town of Gatlinburg, Tenn., and killing at least 13 people, experts warned that air pollution from the thick clouds of smoke could compromise communities far from the flames.

Four large cities will ban all diesel-powered cars and trucks by 2025.

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