Alaska and Hawaii

"A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a Maui County ban on the cultivation of genetically engineered crops is pre-empted by federal and state law and invalid."

"U.S. Coast Guard and police boats cleared a way through protesters in kayaks at a Seattle-area port on Tuesday so Royal Dutch Shell's second of two Arctic drilling rigs could depart for Alaska."

"Green groups urged the U.S. Department of Interior on Tuesday to revoke the agency's conditional approval of Royal Dutch Shell's 2015 Arctic oil exploration plan, saying it runs counter to established protections for walruses."

"In a new study, scientists with the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and several other institutions report a staggering finding: Glaciers of the United States’ largest — and only Arctic — state, Alaska, have lost 75 gigatons (a gigaton is a billion metric tons) of ice per year from 1994 through 2013."

"Two fast-spreading Alaska wildfires have forced a series of evacuations, destroyed up to 45 homes and forced authorities to restrict traffic on a major highway connecting two of the state's largest cities, state officials said on Monday."

"The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is putting the blame squarely on Royal Dutch Shell’s shoulders for the late 2012 grounding of an offshore drilling rig it owned on an Alaska island."

"State and federal courts handed down three decisions against a proposed copper and gold mine in Alaska that environmentalists are staging a nationwide fight against."

"Royal Dutch Shell can drill oil exploration wells this summer in the Chukchi Sea, if Shell shows it can prevent and clean up a potential spill. Environmentalists are skeptical; Shell says it's ready."

"Paddle-powered activists hit the waters of Elliott Bay in kayaks Thursday to throw an 'unwelcome party' for a massive Shell drilling rig as it reached the Port of Seattle."

"The Port of Seattle’s board voted Tuesday to ask that the arrival of Shell’s Arctic drilling rigs be delayed, bowing to a wave of public pressure by protesters and city officials over the company’s plans to drill this summer off the coast of Alaska and use Puget Sound as a home port."