National (U.S.)

"BISMARCK, N.D. -- Temporary, no-cost permits to tap surplus water from North Dakota's Lake Sakakawea will be issued to oil drillers and other industrial users until a national policy can be developed on how much, if anything, to charge, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday."

"SALT LAKE CITY -- An environmental activist is asking a federal appeals court to overturn his two-year prison sentence for disrupting an auction of drilling parcels on public lands near Utah's national parks."

"With a simple statement on Tuesday, State Farm Insurance became the latest company to withdraw its support from the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based think-tank which claims a 'realist' position questioning that humans are responsible for climate change."

"More people on the East Coast are acquiring a taste for snakehead, an exotic fish that's moved here from Asia. But the fish are still multiplying and spreading."

"The Environmental Integrity Project filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit Tuesday seeking details about dozens of White House meetings with interest groups to discuss Environmental Protection Agency regulations. The non-profit group, which advocates for the enforcement of environmental rules, filed the lawsuit after receiving no response from the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to a January FOIA request seeking more details on the meetings."

"With efforts to revamp the nation's chemical safety law stalled in Congress, the Obama administration's top environmental regulator vowed three years ago to act on her own to beef up the oversight of toxic substances. But key parts of the initiative by Lisa Jackson, the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, are still bottled up in an obscure White House office under intense pressure from industry lobbyists to back off."

"CAMBRIA COUNTY, Pa. -- A pipe is spewing toxic water into Topper Run from the old Maryland No. 1 coal mine here."

"The video shows corn being harvested against an orange sky as a pianist plays a somber tune."

"The problem facing cigarette manufacturers decades ago involved tragic deaths and bad publicity, but it had nothing to do with cancer. It had to do with house fires. Smoldering cigarettes were sparking fires and killing people. And tobacco executives didn't care for one obvious solution: create a 'fire-safe' cigarette, one less likely to start a blaze."

"The Interior Department's rollout of hydraulic fracturing disclosure rules for public lands late last week was preceded by a bevy of White House meetings between President Obama's aides and industry lobbyists."