National (U.S.)

"Lawmakers are primed for a fight over the future of a critical environmental conservation program."

"NEW YORK -- Several news organizations gained rare access Saturday into a private gathering of influential Republican donors hosted by Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, a nonprofit organization backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch. But journalists covering the three-day event, held at a luxurious California resort, had to agree to an unusual restriction. They weren’t allowed to report the names of any of the 450 donors attending without the individual’s permission."

"Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who has made varying statements on climate change this year, said Thursday that he believes humans are partly responsible for it. "

"In the strongest action ever taken in the United States to combat climate change, President Obama will unveil on Monday a set of environmental regulations devised to sharply cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from the nation’s power plants and ultimately transform America’s electricity industry."

"Top Interior Department officials got an earful in their first of five listening sessions on the future of the federal coal program, which produces about 40 percent of our nation’s coal."

"U.S. EPA appears to be leaning toward giving states an extra two years -- until 2022 -- to start cutting carbon emissions from power plants under a final Clean Power Plan rule expected to be rolled out as early as Monday."

"The U.S. Senate Energy Committee on Thursday narrowly passed a bill to lift a 40-year-old ban on the export of crude oil, but the measure faces an uphill battle in getting passed by the full Senate."

"Just before 6 p.m. Thursday night, Shell Oil's controversial icebreaker MSV Fennica weaved through nine remaining protesters hanging from the St. Johns Bridge and made its way toward the Pacific Ocean."

"MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- On a muddy hill above a World War II ordnance plant that made material for atomic bombs, a fracking crew will drill thousands of feet underground in a search for life itself. The drilling is a hunt for microscopic organisms, first introduced hundreds of millions of years ago, which have evolved to live in the shale 7,000 feet below the ground, at pressures 600 times that of the surface, and temperatures around 160 degrees F."

"For the first time, the U.S. Department of Defense has detailed what it views as its greatest challenges related to climate change. In a report to Congress, the Defense Department said that global warming poses a 'present security threat, not strictly a long-term risk.'"