"FRONT ROYAL, Va. — The five red panda cubs in large boxlike cribs at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute here are bottle-fed, sleepy and wobbly on their legs. They have bandit masks and thick, rich fur, and they make soft squealing noises and something called a huff-quack, which sounds like … a huff-quack."
"The impact of low oil prices could have long-term consequences for drilling companies. But hydraulic fracturing technology could allow the industry bounce back more quickly, experts say."
DuPont, a major U.S. chemical company, for years hid what it knew about the threats to employees and neighbors from a chemical -- perfluorooctanoic acid, also known as PFOA or C8 -- that can cause cancer and other health damage. The PFOA was used in operations of DuPont's Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, WV. Its health damage was the focus of a major class-action lawsuit.
"The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said Monday it will begin investigation the Aug. 5 incident that sent 3 million gallons of toxic sludge into Colorado’s Animas River."
"The Obama administration is expected to propose as soon as Tuesday the first-ever federal regulation to cut emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming, by the nation’s oil and natural-gas industry, officials familiar with the plan said on Monday."
"The Obama administration is giving Shell permission to fully drill an exploratory well in the Arctic Ocean and burrow into potential oil-bearing rock thousands of feet below the seafloor that previously was off limits."
"YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — Even for a park with a history of unhappy encounters between people and wildlife, 2015 is shaping up as an eventful year for Yellowstone and its bison. Since mid-May, five visitors have been hurt — gored, trampled or tossed into the air — in run-ins with the park’s most famous residents."
"In the last few years, doctors in the southern U.S. have seen some strange diseases: Chagas disease, parasitic infections of the brain known as neurocysticercosis, dengue, the virus chikungunya and more."
"The Obama administration on Friday gave oil companies temporary permission to export a limited amount of oil to Mexico at a time when a glut is cutting into domestic petroleum profits and employment."
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has tightened standards for the nation's landfills to reduce emissions of methane and other harmful air pollutants."
