Greenwire

Tesla Motors Inc. has given itself an influence boost, hiring its first outside lobby shop in almost four years.

Legislation filed in the Senate today would allow Congress to circumvent the president when telling an agency it is overstepping statutory authority.

House Democrats are ratcheting up pressure on outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to raise the nation's debt limit before a looming Nov. 3 deadline.

A coalition of utility and power grid interests has outlined its opposition to a number of amendments to the Senate cybersecurity bill that it says would undercut the thrust of the legislation.

Republicans on both sides of Capitol Hill are poised to introduce resolutions early next week to kill U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan and its new power plant rule, which were published in the Federal Register this morning.

State and federal authorities declined to prosecute Colorado rancher and livestock hauler Tom Davis even after he admitted to making arrangements to send nearly 1,800 wild horses to Mexican slaughterhouses, the Department of the Interior Office of Inspector General revealed today.

For several years, the Bureau of Land Management imposed a de facto moratorium on oil and gas leasing in prime sage grouse habitat, deferring the sale of more than 5 million acres industry had nominated to drill in seven Western states. The idea was to wait until BLM had regulations in place that could allow drilling to proceed without destroying the bird's sage-steppe habitat.

The Obama administration's final rule setting a new ozone standard will be published Monday in the Federal Register.

The legal onslaught against the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan kicked off today as 25 states, industry and labor groups challenged the rule in court.

The popularity of birds as pets in Indonesia is taking a toll on the health of many species, according to a new report calling for the government to enforce laws banning the trade of wild-caught birds and protected species.

The government of Mauritius plans to shoot nearly 20,000 Mauritius fruit bats, a protected species found nowhere else but the Indian Ocean island, to curb significant crop losses.

A whale-watching boat sank off the coast of British Columbia yesterday, leaving five people dead and another missing.

At least 135 people in Afghanistan and Pakistan were killed today by a major earthquake centered around the remote Hindu Kush mountains.

Florida halted its first bear hunt since 1994 yesterday after hunters killed nearly 300 bears in two days.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) was asked to leave an Amtrak "quiet car" yesterday after he spoke loudly into his cellphone, passengers on the train said.

The most ambitious tunneling project ever in the United States will almost certainly take longer and be more expensive than expected, according to documents associated with California's $68 billion high-speed rail project and expert interviews.

The release of a vapor cloud at Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Torrance, Calif., refinery Friday led to warning sirens before authorities determined the release did not pose a safety risk.

The United Nations World Health Organization's cancer research arm announced this morning that it has found processed meats to be carcinogenic to humans and that red meat is "probably" carcinogenic to humans, according to the weight of evidence linking the widely eaten foods to incidences of cancer.