Environmental Politics

"The Obama administration gave conditional approval on Monday for Shell Gulf of Mexico, Inc. to start drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic Ocean this summer."

"Recently proposed federal rules on mining royalties, intended to close loopholes that subsidize exports of coal mined from public lands, may instead end up giving away the coal to the industry for free, according to an environmentalist think tank."

Congressional Republicans are attacking the Obama administration's environmental policies by attacking the science on which they are based.

"The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has been without a permanent boss for 214 days."

"The University of Western Australia has handed back $4m in federal government funding to host a “consensus centre” with climate contrarian Bjørn Lomborg, saying that lack of support among its academics made the centre untenable."

The Conservative Party's win in UK elections will keep Prime Minister David Cameron in place. While Cameron had promised after the last election to lead the "greenest government" ever, environmentalists found much to be disappointed with.

"Fracking wells in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale region are disproportionately located in poor rural communities, which bear the brunt of associated pollution, according to a new study."

"A train carrying highly volatile crude oil derailed and erupted into flames on Wednesday morning, forcing the evacuation of a small town in North Dakota, according to local and federal officials."

A coalition of Native Americans, landowners and grass-roots groups seek to block construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in South Dakota and elsewhere.