Natural Resources

"FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. --  The challenges facing a proposed coal-fired power plant on the country's largest Indian reservation are stark: the withdrawal of a key federal permit, no secured customer or transmission line, and uncertainty over the future of climate change.

The Navajo Nation acknowledges the challenges, but both the tribe and its partner in building the $3 billion, 1,500-megawatt Desert Rock Energy Project say they are committed to moving forward. Environmentalists who have fought the project contend it will be nearly impossible to do so."

"Shell Oil has crossed another hurdle in its plans to drill three exploratory petroleum wells in the Arctic Ocean. The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday it had approved a clean air permit for Shell to operate its drilling ship in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast."

"CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- The federal government cleared the way for the expansion of one of the nation's biggest coal mines Thursday over the concerns of environmentalists who said the coal could contribute to climate change."

"The Obama administration on Thursday imposed strict new environmental guidelines that are expected to sharply curtail 'mountaintop' coal mining, a controversial practice that has enriched Appalachia's economy while rearranging its topography."

"The topmost peak of Ontario's most outstanding geologic feature, the Niagara Escarpment, is under threat from two proposed quarries. But now the quarriers must deal with the massed opposition of a national nonprofit organization, a provincial regulatory agency and two local community groups."

"An energy company with government approvals to launch the first significant U.S. oil sands project is trying to raise money to build a plant in eastern Utah that would turn out 2,000 barrels of oil a day."

"Water quality downstream from surface coal-mining operations in West Virginia and Kentucky greatly exceeds recommended toxicity limits, according to previously unreleased sampling data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency."

"U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said Monday her agency is not seeking to halt mountaintop removal, but will 'try to minimize, if not end, any environmental degradation to the water' caused by the practice."