Greenwire

With political momentum on the rise for lifting crude-oil export restrictions, a free-market think tank is aiming to put an exclamation point on the growing body of analyses showing positive economic impacts from ending the decades-old ban.

United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts issued a rallying cry this morning for workers to fight Obama administration regulations and protect worker benefits amid a deep market downturn.

For freshman Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), supporting federal workers runs in the family.

After emerging moments earlier from a car, former TV personality and Marriott executive Kathleen Matthews stood in front of a busy Washington, D.C.-area Metro station this morning to announce that she's running for Congress.

Former Rep. Baron Hill (D) kicked off his Senate campaign today, announcing he would formally file for the Indiana office three weeks after revealing his plans to seek a return to Congress at a local Democratic Party dinner.

The Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee voted today to condemn the Obama administration's decision not to conduct a small-business review panel on the Waters of the U.S. rule finalized last week.

Lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee this morning easily approved a bipartisan bill to update the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, though rifts emerged among some pushing for additional provisions.

U.S. EPA is expected to take steps this week to regulate aviation emissions.

A senior official at the National Weather Service illegally set up his own post-retirement consulting gig with the agency, arranging both his salary and a $50,000 housing stipend, according to the Commerce Department's inspector general.

Last month's deadly floods in Texas and Oklahoma are forcing some Republican lawmakers from those states who opposed Superstorm Sandy recovery funding to walk a fine line as they support federal disaster spending in their own districts.

U.S. EPA's handling of the ethanol "blend wall" in its proposed renewable fuel targets nods to both the ethanol and oil industries but manages to infuriate both. "It reads a little bit like 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,'" said Geoff Cooper, senior vice president for the Renewable Fuels Association. References to the Robert Louis Stephenson classic have popped up on both sides of the bruising brawl over the renewable fuel standard.

With news this week that U.S. EPA has sent its Clean Power Plan to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review, how are states gearing up for the pending final rule? During today's OnPoint, Tim Echols, commissioner on the Georgia Public Service Commission, explains why his state has not officially begun working on a compliance mechanism for the power plan. He also talks about the impact construction delays at Georgia Power's Vogtle nuclear facility could have on his state's power plan compliance.

Federal environmental regulators are investigating a land-clearing project that environmentalists say would decimate critical habitat for one of Australia's rarest birds.

Large companies that consistently violate environmental laws in the United Kingdom should not be surprised when they face large fines, judges at the Court of Appeal of England and Wales said.

An Annapolis couple is suing their home's seller and real estate agent after they were driven from it by a massive snake infestation.

A runaway emu has returned home after more than two weeks lost in north Idaho.

Gov. Gary Herbert (R) issued an executive order yesterday requiring all state agencies to minimize their water use.

A German shipping company that admitted to dumping oily water in the Bering Sea was ordered to pay $750,000 in fines and community service payments.

A Harvard University study published yesterday links airborne soot to higher death rates in people over age 65, even at pollution concentrations below federal standards.

The California state Senate yesterday approved 30-10 a bill to require labels on children's products that contain flame retardant chemicals, in what would be an expansion of the state's newly aggressive policy against the controversial substances.

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