National (U.S.)

New social science research says that climate change deniers are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories. Climate change deniers say the study is evidence of a conspiracy.

"Limited data and unreliable estimates on air pollution from oil and natural gas production is hindering the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to police the drilling boom, the agency's internal watchdog said in a report released Thursday."

"If you order tuna at a D.C. restaurant, chances are half the time you’ll be getting another, less expensive fish in its place. But those odds are better than if you had wanted snapper. Testers nationwide found that 87 percent of the time, restaurants and grocery stores were selling something else under that label."

"Drilling specialists have been pumping heavy fluids into a gas well 50 miles off the Louisiana coast in a bid to halt natural gas moving among underground formations at the site."

"Dow Agrosciences LLC and two other pesticide makers won a bid to overturn U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service proposals to protect salmon when an appeals court found the agency’s decision 'arbitrary and capricious.'"

A surge in the use of fungicides is bringing higher crop yields; but experts warn that there is not enough monitoring of the emerging fungicide contamination of streams -- and that not enough is known about the health consequences.

"Oil production in the US is expected to rise by record amounts in 2013, thanks to a revolution in drilling techniques. The question is: How long will the oil production boom last?"

"This winter, our usually quiet Colorado valley -- so quiet that you can hear the wingbeats of the eagles and ravens that pass overhead -- has reverberated with the growls of trackhoes digging trenches across hillsides and irrigated pastures."

"Court reduces company's maximum fine a week before trial over blowout that dumped millions of gallons of oil into Gulf of Mexico."

"The National Park Service would be forced to delay the opening of roads into iconic national parks including Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and Yosemite by as much as a month if Congress fails to avert $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts, according to new information obtained by a Park Service retirees group."