"Federal officials this week offered the first national blueprint on how to clean up methamphetamine labs — prompting state health experts to consider changes to their policies."
"Leftover sludge from water treatment plants contains human waste, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals and whatever else washes into the sewer system. It's also used as fertilizer - which concerns some experts."
"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.
"Clean air advocates are girding for a battle over a possible amendment to the annual U.S. EPA spending bill that would weaken the agency's ability to regulate air pollution from oceangoing vessels."
"Sen. Robert C. Byrd on Wednesday blasted Massey Energy for what he called 'disregard for human life and safety,' following the company's refusal to help fund a new school so Marsh Fork Elementary students could move away from a Massy coal processing plant and slurry impoundment."
"The operators of 10 U.S. mines, including the largest private-sector coal company in the world, have been warned they must improve health and safety conditions or face stricter enforcement and penalties, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration said Wednesday."
"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."