National (U.S.)

"Despite Obama’s pledge to cut carbon emissions, production at North Antelope Rochelle mine in Wyoming is booming - and climate change is off the agenda."

"A Senate subcommittee on investigations will hold a two-day hearing when Congress returns from recess on Wall Street banks' involvement with physical commodities like oil, natural gas and metals."

"A federal judge this week struck down a government prohibition on harming the threatened Utah prairie dog on private property, setting up a potential constitutional showdown on the reach of the Endangered Species Act."

"A panel of federal appeals court judges in New Orleans has refused to reconsider a ruling that BP and Andarko Petroleum Corp. must pay federal fines related to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil disaster."

"Promoters of the Yucca Mountain, Nev., nuclear waste repository left for dead by the Obama administration are celebrating Republicans' Senate takeover as a chance for resurrecting a project stymied by outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)."

"Genuine General Tso’s chicken may soon be on the plate. The Department of Agriculture will allow Chinese poultry processing companies to ship fully cooked, frozen and refrigerated chicken to the United States."

"As cases of a worrisome respiratory virus continue to pop up in the Middle East, scientists who study it in the U.S. are struggling to understand how they'll be affected by a government moratorium on certain kinds of experiments."

"Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc agreed to spend more than $52 million on plant improvements and pay a $1.3 million civil penalty to resolve U.S. charges that it violated the Clean Air Act over the emission of harmful pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, U.S. authorities said."

"Bad news in the bug department: The emerald ash borer, a tiny, glitter-green insect from China expected to kill virtually all ash trees in the eastern U.S. - unless they are treated with expensive chemicals - may have a new target."

"More than 600 American service members since 2003 have reported to military medical staff members that they believe they were exposed to chemical warfare agents in Iraq, but the Pentagon failed to recognize the scope of the reported cases or offer adequate tracking and treatment to those who may have been injured, defense officials say."