Environmental Politics

"For renewable energy supporters, this was supposed to be a year of statehouse setbacks."

"President Obama will invoke his executive authority Tuesday by undertaking a slew of measures aimed at curbing climate change and its impacts, from imposing the first carbon limits on existing power plants to requiring all federal projects to withstand rising seas and more intense storms."

"President Obama will announce his intention to limit greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants, increase appliance efficiency standards and promote renewable energy development on public lands in a speech Tuesday outlining his plan to use executive powers to address climate change."

"Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives made manifest yesterday how much they dislike President Barack Obama's clean-energy agenda as a House spending panel voted for massive cuts in clean-energy research."

"A federal environmental regulator will not finish and review a draft report tentatively linking hydraulic fracturing to Wyoming groundwater contamination and will instead allow state agencies to further investigate the issue."

"Foes of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada to Texas, said on Thursday that an expected White House package of proposals to combat climate change was not an adequate trade-off for approval of the controversial project."

"The surprise defeat of the farm bill in the House on Thursday underscored the ideological divide between the more conservative, antispending Republican lawmakers and their leadership, who failed to garner sufficient votes from their caucus as well as from Democrats."

PETA and other animal-welfare groups go undercover to document animal abuse in various agricultural and scientific facilities. Now, as state legislatures pass "Ag-Gag" laws at the urging of industry, the crime may be exposing it.

"Ever heard of the World Food Prize? It's sometimes called the "Nobel Prize for food and agriculture," but it has struggled to get people's attention. Prize winners tend to be agricultural insiders, and many are scientists. Last year's laureate, for instance, was Daniel Hillel, a pioneer of water-saving 'micro-irrigation.'"

"President Obama is preparing regulations limiting carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants, senior officials said Wednesday. The move would be the most consequential climate policy step he could take and one likely to provoke legal challenges from Republicans and some industries."