"The Interior Department will investigate whether mining companies are gaming the federal government by skirting royalty payments, a pair of senior senators announced Friday."
"President Barack Obama’s annual addresses to Congress offer a glimpse at a leader whose rhetoric on energy and the environment has changed dramatically over the past four years -- from his calls to pass sweeping climate legislation in 2009 to a full-throated embrace of natural gas last year."
"For the first time, scientists report, they have found bacteria living in the cold and dark deep under the Antarctic ice, a discovery that might advance knowledge of how life could survive on other planets or moons and that offers the first glimpse of a vast ecosystem of microscopic life in underground lakes in Antarctica."
"President Barack Obama is considering naming nuclear physicist Ernest Moniz, one of his science and energy advisers, as the next energy secretary, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday."
"YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Backlash over Hard Rock Excavating’s decision to dump thousands of gallons of fracking waste into a storm drain continued Wednesday with sharp criticism of both state law and the oil and gas industry."
"TransCanada, the company currently constructing the southern segment of the Keystone XL pipeline, claims to use 'top quality steel and welding techniques' throughout its pipeline network. Last week, however, activists fighting the construction of the pipeline released images of what they claim are improperly welded pipeline seams. The photos were released by Keystone XL blockader Ramsey Sprague at the Pipe Tech Americas 2013 conference in Texas and were taken by blockader Isabel Brooks."
"Southern California Edison and the maker of steam generators at San Onofre nuclear plant knew about problems with the generators even before they were installed, Boxer and a congressman assert."
"Greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. power plants fell 4.6 percent in 2011 as more generators were switched to cleaner-burning natural gas and renewable sources from coal, according to new data from the Environmental Protection Agency."
"When colleagues want to conduct business with Sally Jewell, they have a better chance getting her to schedule a lengthy hike than a coffee date. President Obama’s unconventional pick to lead the Interior Department -- a former oil engineer and commercial banker who heads the consumer co-op Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) -- represents an effort by the administration to defuse the partisan fight over conservation and energy."
"Canada's offshore petroleum boards are not equipped to cope with a major spill, the country's environmental watchdog warned on Tuesday in a report that also said the booming energy sector needed more oversight."
