National (U.S.)

"President Obama's nominee to lead the Forest Service and farmland conservation programs says he withdrew his name from consideration for family and financial reasons."

"Google Inc is closing in on its goal of producing renewable energy at a price cheaper than coal, the company's so-called green energy czar, the engineer in charge of the project, said on Tuesday."

"A U.S. clean-energy boom could force the nation to shed its addiction to foreign oil, only to develop a dependence on imported minerals and metals."

"The Army Corps of Engineers is on a mission to chop down every tree in the country that grows within 15 feet of a levee — including oaks and sycamores in Louisiana, willows in Oklahoma and cottonwoods in California."

The House passed a bill that would give some $4 billion in vouchers to owners of gas-guzzlers who trade them in for more efficient cars. It would boost car sales.

"The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved expanded oil and gas leasing today in the eastern Gulf of Mexico in a bipartisan vote that would upend a 2006 compromise with Florida senators that provided their state at least a 125-mile buffer in most areas until mid-2022."

"U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson at a Senate hearing Tuesday outlined several changes to the agency's scientific review and assessment processes that reverse protocols enforced during the Bush administration."

Green collar jobs are at the heart of President Obama's economic program. Some laid-off blue-collar workers are starting to wonder what those green collar jobs will look like.