National (U.S.)

"To call the Interior and Environment spending bill the House will debate this week partisan would be an understatement."

"The National Park Service is proposing a rule that would allow American Indian tribes to remove plants and minerals from national parks for traditional uses, a break from a Reagan-era policy that barred such activities, according to a draft obtained by Greenwire."

"Less than half of Pennsylvania's fossil-fueled power plants have pollution controls, a long-tolerated dirty habit that's now getting its comeuppance in tougher, new federal regulations."

"Three judges who will hear a coal slurry pollution lawsuit against Massey Energy have declared any reference to a deadly 2010 mine explosion off limits for the August trial and ordered the plaintiffs' lawyers to avoid inflammatory phrases including 'poison' or 'toxic soup' in opening statements."

"Less than half of Pennsylvania's fossil-fueled power plants have pollution controls, a long-tolerated dirty habit that's now getting its comeuppance in tougher, new federal regulations."

A report from the independent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board says workers at the Energy Department's Hanford nuclear waste site in washington were fired for raising safety concerts and that the safety culture there is broken.

"A three-year study to determine the possible impacts of climate change on federal flood insurance will warn of huge increases to the amount of land that could be inundated by rising sea levels, heavier downpours and stormier coastlines."

"Thousands of residents living atop the gas-rich Marcellus Shale ... signed lowball leases in the years leading up to the boom in Pennsylvania. In those early days a half-decade ago, virtually no layperson had even heard of the rock formation, let alone knew that drillers had found a way to access the huge reservoir of natural gas locked inside it."

"According to a new report released yesterday, efforts to protect children's health have been fatally blocked by American industry's refusal to submit information on the commercial use of chemicals."

"In an unusual show of bipartisanship, nine Gulf Coast senators joined forces Thursday to introduce a bill that would require at least 80 percent of penalties from last year's BP oil spill paid under the Clean Water Act to be directed to restoration projects in the five Gulf states: Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and Texas."