Greenwire

President Obama's nominee to head the U.S. EPA office responsible for high-profile climate and air quality rules told a Senate panel today that she had plenty of practice balancing economic and environmental concerns from her days as a state regulator in Indiana.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- A group of landowners’ case, CTS Corp. v. Waldburger, will be heard by the Supreme Court this month. CTS is attempting to use a technical legal argument to prevent the case from going to a full trial. The company claims that Asheville residents took too long to file their claims. The case is complicated and entangled in esoteric legal terms, so it has gone largely unnoticed by Supreme Court watchers. But it has grabbed the attention of at least one major player, the federal government, which has intervened and sided with CTS.

A New Jersey court recently ruled that Gov. Chris Christie lacked the legal justification for pulling his state out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in 2011. What could the court's decision mean for the state's future participation in RGGI? And what role could RGGI play in U.S. EPA's pending existing source rule for power plants? During today's OnPoint, Collin O'Mara, secretary of Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and immediate past chairman of RGGI, discusses the role state flexibility will likely play in EPA's final rule for existing sources. He also talks about RGGI's upcoming June auction.

Regulators in Wyoming plan to begin plugging some of the 1,200 abandoned coalbed methane wells in the Powder River Basin as soon as weather permits.

Energy companies will pay Pennsylvania $630 million in drilling fees this year.

California lawmakers have stalled a bill that would ban SeaWorld Entertainment Inc.'s orca shows until after this year's election on the grounds that the decision requires further research.

Southern California air regulators have denied a request to resume operations from the operators of a battery recycling plant accused of violating arsenic pollution standards.

Drought in Texas has crippled the state's cotton industry and could send clothes prices soaring, experts said.

A deadly virus has killed millions of pigs in the United States and increased the price of pork products.

Target Corp. yesterday announced plans to expand its line of eco-friendly products in response to growing consumer demand.

Gasoline consumption by cars, pickup trucks and other light-duty vehicles dipped in 2012, resuming a decline that began a decade ago, according to a new report by the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute.

Top executives in the solar energy industry this week praised the potential of crowdfunding as an investment mechanism and downplayed some utilities' fears that rooftop generation would threaten their business model.

The Bureau of Land Management's approval late last month of the Hollister underground gold and silver mining project northwest of Elko, Nev., is being protested by a colony of the Western Shoshone tribe who question the mine's potential impact on archeology sites and groundwater.

North Carolina's environmental regulators are siding with Duke Energy Corp. through an appeal of a ruling over cleaning up groundwater polluted by the company's coal ash dumps.

An Australian zoo has launched a new crowdsourcing app that aims to facilitate the tracking of illegal wildlife trade.

Rescue workers in Washington state yesterday increased the official death toll from a massive mudslide last month to 35 after they found two additional bodies in the rubble.

Poachers are going after a prized feature of ancient redwood trees in Northern California, officials say.

Attorneys for Louisiana regulators who are suing 97 oil, gas and pipeline companies have proposed waiving fees they are due to collect from the companies if they agree to begin settlement negotiations.

Each U.S. taxpayer dollar invested in three coastal restoration projects resulted in an average of more than $15 in net economic benefits for those regions, according to a new report released today by the left-leaning Center for American Progress and Oxfam America.

In the grips of drought that's compounding long-standing tensions over water management, Western waterways dominate this year's list of most endangered rivers released today by the nonprofit American Rivers.

Latest Images