Environmental Politics

"Key weather and climate satellites would get a boost under a new Senate spending proposal."

"Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Tuesday released his budget proposal calling for approval of the Keystone XL pipeline and slashing the discretionary spending that helps protect Americans from climate-related threats."

"President Obama hosted a casual off-the-record meeting with a diverse group of energy and climate change experts at the White House on Thursday evening, officials and participants said Friday."

"'Even on a good day, I get discouraged thinking about the election of a new pope,' laments Maureen Fiedler, a nun and blogger at the progressive Catholic newspaper National Catholic Reporter. 'They all look like a Vatican version of the tea party movement.'"

"When China's environment ministry told attorney Dong Zhengwei he couldn't have access to two-year old data about soil pollution because it was a 'state secret', it added to mounting public outrage over the worsening environment."

"Many of Pennsylvania's policymakers, regulators and enforcement workers have come from the oil and gas industry they oversee, or they leave state jobs for industry jobs, according to a recent report that questions the impacts of such a "revolving door" on public policy decisions."

"MADISON, Wisc. -- Assembly Republicans sent Gov. Scott Walker a bill Thursday that could clear the way for a miles-long iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin, handing the GOP governor a victory that eluded him last year."

"President Obama's nominee for Interior secretary was grilled this morning over how she would balance conservation and development on hundreds of millions of acres of public lands, whether she would support a carbon tax and how she would regulate the controversial technique of hydraulic fracturing."

"Sally Jewell, the CEO of outdoor retail giant REI, was also criticized by some Republican senators over her role as a board member of the National Parks Conservation Association and her support of outgoing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's former "wild lands" policy.

"Two consulting firms provided State Department with key analysis of whether the pipeline would speed development of Canada's oil sands."

"Sally Jewell's first political test as President Obama's nominee for Interior secretary comes Thursday before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where she will be grilled on how she plans to run the $12 billion agency that controls one-fifth of the U.S. landmass and nearly all of its oceans."