Environmental Politics

"A prominent coal industry association spent nearly $10 million over the past 18 months on lobbying efforts supervised by a public affairs firm currently under congressional investigation for its involvement in sending forged letters opposing the climate bill."

"Army Corps of Engineers officials on Wednesday defending their handling of a rowdy crowd of coal industry supporters who repeatedly interrupted other speakers at a mountaintop-removal public hearing Tuesday night."

"A congressional panel will hold a hearing Thursday into those forged letters urging lawmakers to oppose climate change legislation. The letters purported to come from minority, senior, and veterans' groups, but in fact were sent by Bonner & Associates, a GOP-aligned astroturf lobbying firm, on behalf of a coal industry client."

"The group of Cabinet secretaries and White House advisers who meet regularly to craft the president's energy and environmental agenda now numbers 13, double what it was during the administration's early days. It's just one of the signs that the administration is stepping up its push to pass energy and climate legislation this year."

The US Chamber of Commerce violated its own rules to reach a climate change position that has driven companies out of its fold. That is the picture painted by interviews with current and former US Chamber board members, several of whom divulged new revelations about the Chamber's internal climate controversy.

"The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted [Thursday] to confirm Pennsylvania's controversial mining director as the director of the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement."

"The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is hemorrhaging staff as it faces a critical test in the coming weeks to pass a comprehensive global warming bill."

"Apple is pulling out of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of the organization's strident criticism of plans to reduce U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions, the computer giant said Monday."

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently denied that it was in denial about climate change. But in filings earlier this year with EPA, it questioned the science behind climate change, suggested air-conditioning would protect people, and theorized that global warming would be good for people anyway.