Activism

"Soon after horrific natural gas explosions killed five people in Allentown and a utility worker in Philadelphia, a Pennsylvania congressman called a hearing in March to talk about improving pipeline safety. Right away, U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster made one thing clear: He wasn't sure the solution was more federal inspectors, or even a more powerful U.S. pipeline safety agency with tougher regulations."

"Is the U.S. leading or blocking progress toward stopping global warming? It's a key question this week as officials from more than 190 countries begin the latest round of negotiations seeking an eventual global climate-protection plan."

"VANCOUVER -- A Canadian environmental organization has launched a new automated system to draw public attention to the number and size of the oil tankers that transit Vancouver's Burrard Inlet."

"Republicans have been attacking environmental regulations, arguing that they hurt the economy and that the costs outweigh the benefits. But four decades of data show they are wrong."

"France's state energy firm EDF has been fined €1.5m by a Paris court for spying on Greenpeace."

A car struck three "Occupy DC" protestors blocking traffic outside an event at the DC Convention Center, where two GOP presidential candidates were honoring the anti-environmental Koch brothers. The protestors were ticketed for blocking traffic and sent to the emergency room, while the driver who struck them was not charged. Accounts of the incident differed. Protestors said the driver sped up to plow through two different sets of protestors. Police said that the protestors jumped in front of a moving car and that they released the driver because he had a green light when he hit them.

"Thousands of protesters opposed to a new oil pipeline from Canada to the United States circled the White House grounds on Sunday to press President Barack Obama to reject the project for environmental reasons.

Opponents to TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport crude produced from oil sands, have dogged the president for months, arguing that the carbon emissions produced in the process of extracting oil from the sands would exacerbate climate change.

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says that four members of a fringe militia used a book written by Fox News 'expert' Mike Vanderboegh as a basis for a plot to commit domestic terrorism. Federal law enforcement authorities on Tuesday arrested four Georgia senior citizens for allegedly plotting to kill government officials and spread terror with guns, explosives and the toxin ricin."

"Hollywood legend Robert Redford has starred in his second anti-Keystone video in less than two weeks. And this time he is advocating encircling (not occupying) the White House on November 6 to show President Barack Obama the 'people's' opposition to TransCanada's $7-billion pipeline.

"NEW YORK -- Environmental activists spent the weekend here trying to push their issues to the forefront of the Occupy Wall Street movement, staging mini-protests in the shadow of the World Trade Center on everything from relicensing the Indian Point nuclear power plant to hydraulic fracturing to global water scarcity.

The protests were the result of three weeks of planning by an Occupy splinter group that wants to use the broader movement's momentum to bring attention to energy-sector profits and what the activists view as widespread greed within associated industries."