National (U.S.)

"Under increasing pressure from the federal government, oil giant BP is agreeing to reduce the amount of a chemical dispersant it is using in the Gulf of Mexico."

"The Obama administration Monday declared a commercial fisheries failure in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, paving the way for federal grants to offset financial losses in the fisheries industry."

"A dearth of information about the ingredients of various oil-dispersing formulas is complicating an increasingly rancorous debate over which, if any, is the best choice for cleaning up the catastrophic spill in the Gulf of Mexico."

"Greenhouse gas emissions from medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks and buses will be regulated by the federal government for the first time beginning in model year 2014 under an official Memorandum issued [May 21] by President Barack Obama."

"The Senate will vote June 10 on a resolution that would undo U.S. EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said yesterday."

"The federal agency responsible for regulating U.S. offshore oil drilling repeatedly ignored warnings from government scientists about environmental risks in its push to approve energy exploration activities quickly, according to numerous documents and interviews."

The Nature Conservancy, scrambling to shield oyster beds from the Gulf Oil Spill, faces a PR backlash as a result of its partnership with oil giant BP to help fund its work.

"As the price tag for what could be the modern world's largest man-made oil spill continues to mount, navigating the complex path towards determining who will foot the bills resulting from the Deepwater Horizon accident could become as difficult as avoiding the oil plume in the Gulf of Mexico."

"Although the exact cause of the Deepwater Horizon explosion isn't certain, at least a dozen offshore drilling experts agree that cement, or pipes encased by cement, had to have failed first."

"More than ever, people are worried about how all the chemicals we're exposed to are affecting our health: among them a family of chemicals known as phthalates, which are used in everyday plastics. ... Recently the EPA, put phthalates on a list of chemicals that 'may present a risk' to the environment or human health. That's because they disrupt hormone activity and some preliminary studies show that they may be causing a slow and steady demasculinizing of men."