Natural Resources

"The federal government should establish a trust fund to pay for coastal restoration  projects in states along the northern Gulf Coast, to be initially financed by penalties paid for violating federal laws, including 80 percent of any fines levied as a result of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, concludes a report released Tuesday by America's Energy Coast and its parent America's Wetland Foundation."

"COROLLA, N.C. -- On a stretch of barrier island without paved roads, some of the last wild horses in the eastern United States are seeing their world get smaller each year."

"Though B.C. has said the project could net $5-billion worth of economic activity, local natives say they'll give their lives to stop it."

"A federal judge has ordered Patriot Coal Corp. to spend millions of dollars to clean up selenium pollution at two surface coal mines in West Virginia. Environmental groups said it was the first time a court had demanded restrictions on selenium, a trace mineral commonly discharged from Appalachian surface mines, where the tops of mountains are blown away to expose coal."

Eight small earthquakes in central West Virginia since April have Chesapeake Energy and the state Department of Environmental Protection discussing the possibility of seismic monitoring near a disposal well for gas-drilling fluids."

Grand Canyon National Park is threatened by factors ranging from climate change and mining to flyovers and management of the Colorado River.

Campo Kumeyaay Nation, a small tribe in the desert mountains east of San Diego, benefitted from the casino that opened in 2001. Now it wants to build a 25-turbine wind farm called Kumeyaay 1, the only large-scale renewable energy plant on Indian land in the country. But a big problem is the tribe's tax status: as a sovereign nation it can not receive the federal tax credits that make such projects feasible.