The black-backed woodpecker, which depends on wildfires for the standing dead trees where it feeds on insects, is up for protection under the Endangered Species Act, the Fish and Wildlife…
WILDLIFE: FWS mulls protections for fire-dependent woodpecker
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ENDANGERED SPECIES: Bat-killing fungus spreads to critical Ala. caves
A fungus that has decimated U.S. bat populations has spread to an Alabama cave network critical for the endangered gray bat, according to government scientists. As many as 1.6 million…
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FISHERIES: Officials to consider ecosystems in West Coast management plan
The Pacific Fishery Management Council today is expected to adopt a new management plan for fish catches off the West Coast. The Fisheries Ecosystem Plan would require the council to…
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USDA: Undersecretary who crafted Forest Service planning rule is leaving
The Department of Agriculture official who has overseen the Forest Service and farmland conservation programs for the last four years is leaving USDA. In an email to colleagues yesterday announcing…
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OIL AND GAS: BLM hits pause button on controversial Colo. leases
The Bureau of Land Management today announced it is extending the life of about two dozen oil and gas leases set to expire in Colorado's Thompson Divide area, a move…
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NATURAL RESOURCES: Hastings hires 2 new press aides
House Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) this morning announced two additions to his communications team. Mike Tadeo is the committee's new press secretary, while Mallory Micetich will serve as…
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BIOFUELS: USDA mulls use of sugar-purchase program
The Agriculture Department may use a little-known farm bill program to buy up sugar from the market and sell it to ethanol producers. Agriculture officials late last week sent a…
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ENERGY POLICY: Budget cuts threaten U.S. lead in nanotechnology -- national lab director
Funding cuts under sequestration could set back U.S. progress and leadership in the world's most promising and smallest technology "by decades," according to the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National…
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CAMPAIGN 2014: McConnell planned to target Judd on coal -- recording
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's re-election campaign considered targeting actress and potential Democratic challenger Ashley Judd on her views on coal and climate change, a new audio recording reveals. The…
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NUCLEAR WASTE: Court rejects DOE's defense in fuel disposal cases
Federal judges last week shot down a frequently used Department of Energy defense in lawsuits challenging its liability for not disposing of nuclear waste. The U.S. Court of Appeals for…
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INTERIOR: Eyebrows are raised as department aces scientific integrity tests
When it comes to scientific misconduct, the Interior Department has a troubled past. Under the George W. Bush administration, environmentalists accused the Fish and Wildlife Service of doing shoddy research.…
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DOE: Senators pepper Moniz with questions on climate, gas exports
President Obama's nominee to lead the Department of Energy indicated today that he's leaning toward allowing exports of natural gas and vowed to pursue a low-carbon energy portfolio that includes…
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NEWSMAKER: From community health officer to top of U.S. EPA
CANTON, Mass. -- If, as Massachusetts political legend Tip O'Neill put it, "all politics is local," U.S. EPA administrator nominee Gina McCarthy should be ready to take the panel's best shot. Her early days as an environmental and public health official steeped her in local politics -- experience that's historically rare among EPA administrators.
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CHINA: Soil survey uncovers century-old toxic pollution
Soil samples across China have unearthed fragments of toxic heavy metals from at least a century ago and traces of a pesticide outlawed in the 1980s, an official with the…
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ARIZONA: Nev. utility's coal exit shocks partners
Arizona's Salt River Project suffered a surprise blow last week when a Nevada utility, NV Energy Inc., announced a shift away from coal power, including possibly selling its stake in…
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NEW MEXICO: Local water board jockeys for increased allotment for alfalfa growers
A local water district in New Mexico is leaning on an old law that gives groups with older water rights priority, potentially upsetting the water balance in the rest of…
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MARYLAND: Governor signs offshore wind bill
Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) signed a bill to promote offshore wind power, a measure he has been pushing for three years. The measure would guarantee a market for wind…
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MASSACHUSETTS: Local plan to dismantle wind turbines narrowly fails
A Massachusetts town was the first in the nation to consider dismantling its wind turbines, but the measure failed by a few votes. Falmouth, Mass., residents voted 125-72 to take…
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WATER POLLUTION: Italy fines cruise line over shipwreck
A Tuscan judge fined Italian cruise line Costa Crociere $1.3 million for last year's Concordia shipwreck, which killed 32 people. Costa, a division of Miami-based Carnival Corp., requested a plea…
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AIR POLLUTION: Despite smog's absence, toxins still taint Europe's skies
Europeans no longer encounter the type of pollution that killed thousands of Londoners in the Great Smog of 1952, but the air still holds invisible threats that are rarely less…
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