National (U.S.)

"Until an outbreak of tornadoes in the past week, this year had been a relatively quiet one for twisters in the Midwest and Plains states."

"WASHINGTON, DC -- The Obama Administration’s plan to remove the gray wolf from the protections of the Endangered Species Act, as detailed in a draft Federal Register notice released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, PEER, is temporarily on hold."

"In a rare display of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, a group of key senators unveiled legislation Wednesday that would require chemical companies to provide more health and safety information about their products and give regulators more power to force harmful compounds off the market."

"The House of Representatives approved a bill as expected on Wednesday declaring that a presidential permit was not needed to approve the Canada-to-Nebraska leg of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a move that would take a decision on the project away from the Obama administration."

"At least 800,000 people across the United States live near hundreds of sites that store large amounts of potentially explosive ammonium nitrate, which investigators are blaming as the source of last month's deadly blast at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, a Reuters analysis shows."

"The Forest Service would be allowed to forgo environmental reviews for forest thinning projects smaller than 10,000 acres under a provision in the House farm bill."

"The owners of power plants that burn coal are playing high-stakes poker as they decide whether to install expensive pollution controls or shut down."

"The White House [Tuesday] threatened to veto the latest version of House legislation designed to fast-track the controversial Keystone XL pipeline between Canada's oil sands and Gulf Coast refineries."

"Most utilities have not implemented voluntary cybersecurity measures recommended by an industry organization that oversees reliability, according to findings from a report released this morning by two House Democrats who say they reveal gaps in the government's voluntary approach to cybersecurity."

"Pinning the deadly tornado in the US state of Oklahoma on climate change is wrongheaded, even though the world is set to see a rise in high-profile weather disasters due to global warming, the leader of a UN body said Tuesday."