National (U.S.)

"Climate-change activist and author Bill McKibben and Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn headlined a Saturday demonstration against coal and oil exports."

"The good news: A sample of what are probably the best fracked wells in the country finds low emissions of methane, a potent heat-trapping gas. The bad news: The study likely missed the super-emitters, the wells that are responsible for the vast majority of methane leakage."

"CENTRALIA, Wash. — Proposals to make the Northwest a major coal exporting region have made for a familiar debate over the potential impacts on people and the environment."

"ALTON, Iowa — The puny, yellow corn stalks stand like weary sentries on one boundary of Dennis Von Arb’s field here. On a windy day this spring, his neighbor sprayed glyphosate on his fields, and some of the herbicide blew onto Mr. Von Arb’s conventionally grown corn, killing the first few rows."

"The Environmental Protection Agency will move Friday to strictly limit the amount of carbon that future coal- and gas-fired power plants can pour into the atmosphere, the first such restrictions on greenhouse gases imposed by the agency."

"Women in Northern California farm towns gave birth to smaller babies if they lived within three miles of strawberry fields and other crops treated with the pesticide methyl bromide, according to researchers."

"The nominee for Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chairman reached out to executives at oil giant BP PLC for help with the confirmation process, according to emails released yesterday by a conservative think tank opposing his nomination."

"The U.S. government rejected the sale of coal in Wyoming after an auction drew the lowest top bid in 15 years, as the outlook for the power-plant fuel weakens because of cheap natural gas and new rules coming out this week."

"New rules limiting emissions from U.S. power plants that are expected to be proposed on Friday will 'provide certainty' to the coal industry, environment and energy chiefs told lawmakers anxious about the fuel's future."

A new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control ranks the causes of the antibiotic resistance in bacteria that kills an estimated 23,000 Americans every year. One surprise is the finding that hospitals are an even bigger source of resistant bacteria than are food animal feeding operations.