Energy & Fuel

"If companies want to continue storing giant mounds of petroleum coke on Chicago's Southeast Side, they soon will have to start doing so indoors."

"This coming Sunday, Dec. 22, marks five years since the Kingston Coal Plant's ash dam in Tennessee ruptured, sending more than a billion gallons of toxic sludge into homes, onto farmland, and into the Emory and Clinch Rivers in Roane County - one of the biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history. Five years later, we're still waiting - and pushing - for the Environmental Protection Agency to put in place long-overdue protections to prevent more coal ash disasters."

"U.S. gasoline pump prices are poised to reach their lowest level this year as supply expands to a two-decade seasonal high and winter curbs demand."

"U.S. federal regulators on Thursday said oil and gas company Chesapeake Energy Corp will pay a civil penalty of $3.2 million to settle Clean Water Act violations in West Virginia where it drills in the Marcellus Shale."

"OTTAWA — An environmental and economic review panel approved plans for a pipeline and port project that, if built, will move oil from Alberta’s oil sands to tankers on Canada’s Pacific Coast."

"The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday struck down portions of a law that stripped some of the powers municipalities have to decide where the booming natural gas industry can operate."

"HOUSTON — Nearly four years after the Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion that left 11 dead, a former low-level engineer at BP was found guilty on Wednesday of obstruction of justice for deleting messages during a federal investigation into how much oil leaked."

"WOLF POINT, Mont. -- It's tough to miss the trains hauling crude oil out of the Northern Plains. They are growing more frequent by the day, mile-long processions of black tank cars that rumble through wheat fields and towns, along rivers and national parks."

"US government scientists have for the first time found direct evidence of toxic exposure in the Gulf of Mexico."