"Shell has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to loosen air pollution requirements for its Discoverer drill rig, which is planning to begin exploratory drilling operations off the North Slope of Alaska early next month."
"The beleaguered federal agency that oversees oil and gas pipelines meets today to consider lobbying push-back against congressional orders that it stop charging the public up to $995 to read one of its industry-developed safety standards."
"Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. has become the first major insurance company to say it won't cover damage related to a gas drilling process that blasts chemical-laden water deep into the ground."
"ANCHORAGE -- BP has indefinitely suspended a $1.5 billion offshore oil project in Alaska due to cost overruns and technical setbacks, a company spokeswoman said [last] Monday."
"WASHINGTON -- A wide-ranging surveillance operation by the Food and Drug Administration against a group of its own scientists used an enemies list of sorts as it secretly captured thousands of e-mails that the disgruntled scientists sent privately to members of Congress, lawyers, labor officials, journalists and even President Obama, previously undisclosed records show."
"Congress is poised to scrap funding for the only program that consistently tests select vegetables and fruit for pathogens — an initiative that’s led to about 30 recalls since 2009."
"A dispute between Canadian pipeline giant Enbridge Inc. and a small Colorado operator is flaring into a political showdown over whether U.S. domestic production will be squeezed out by oil sands crude flowing from across the northern border."
"It's high season in the nation's national parks as millions of visitors come to see nature. If last year's visitor figures hold up -- and early indications suggest they will -- nine million visitors will see the Great Smoky Mountains, the most visited national park. Three other parks -- Grand Canyon (more than four million visitors in 2011) Yellowstone (about three million) and Acadia (more than two million) -- combined will attract roughly the same number."
"WASHINGTON -- Taking aim at California's pioneering efforts to bolster animal safety, the House Agriculture Committee has moved to block states from imposing their own standards for agriculture products on producers from other states."
"WASHINGTON -- A U.S. senator questioned federal environmental health officials at a hearing Thursday about what is being done to address lead poisoning risks posed by contaminated soil around hundreds of old lead factory sites featured in a recent USA TODAY investigation."
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