National (U.S.)

"The letter to the Environmental Protection Agency from Attorney General Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma carried a blunt accusation: Federal regulators were grossly overestimating the amount of air pollution caused by energy companies drilling new natural gas wells in his state. But Mr. Pruitt left out one critical point. The three-page letter was written by lawyers for Devon Energy, one of Oklahoma’s biggest oil and gas companies, and was delivered to him by Devon’s chief of lobbying."

"Oil, gas and coal interests that spent millions to help elect Republicans this year are moving to take advantage of expanded GOP power in Washington and state capitals to thwart Obama administration environmental rules."

"American women gave birth to 3,932,181 babies in 2013 as the nation’s birthrate fell to another record low, federal researchers reported Thursday."

"The new chairman of the small but influential climate advocacy nonprofit 350.org is promising to keep fighting the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline while expanding his activist group."

"The expected disappearance of the famed glaciers at Montana's Glacier National Park by 2030 could spell doom for a rare aquatic insect confined to high mountain streams that are warming due to climate change, U.S. scientists said on Thursday."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants the federal appeals court in New Orleans to overturn an order that forces the EPA to decide whether federal rules are needed to curb the flow of pollutants into the Mississippi River. The pollutants ultimately feed a low-oxygen "dead zone" along Louisiana's coast each spring."

"Companies in drought areas have begun looking at liquefied petroleum gas gel for hydraulic fracturing as a way to reduce dependence on already-scarce water supplies."

"When Terry Rambler, the chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, woke up Wednesday in Washington, D.C., it was to learn that Congress was deciding to give away a large part of his ancestral homeland to a foreign mining company."

"Singer Barbra Streisand took to Twitter Tuesday night to attack the Senate’s best-known climate change skeptic."

Development plans threaten the rim of the Grand Canyon.