Disasters

"Conrad Ely drove from Olympia with three friends, a double kayak and a canoe."

"Royal Dutch Shell can drill oil exploration wells this summer in the Chukchi Sea, if Shell shows it can prevent and clean up a potential spill. Environmentalists are skeptical; Shell says it's ready."

"Oil tycoon Harold Hamm told a University of Oklahoma dean last year that he wanted certain scientists there dismissed who were studying links between oil and gas activity and the state's nearly 400-fold increase in earthquakes, according to the dean's e-mail recounting the conversation.

"Commodity investors are in a twist about the weather. Warmer ocean temperatures last spring indicated an El Niño event was on the horizon, signaling buys, sells, and hedging positions in securities linked to products impacted by storms and droughts. Everything from sugar prices to coffee futures were retooled."

"Regulators overseeing the country’s electric grid want to set new rules to better protect it from disturbances caused by solar storms."

"Seven environmental groups filed a lawsuit on Thursday challenging safety rules issued earlier this month for trains carrying oil, arguing the regulations are too weak to protect the public."

"President Barack Obama on Thursday called for greater federal spending on infrastructure in the wake of the deadly Amtrak crash that killed eight people."

"Paddle-powered activists hit the waters of Elliott Bay in kayaks Thursday to throw an 'unwelcome party' for a massive Shell drilling rig as it reached the Port of Seattle."

A federal judge Wednesday rejected Freedom Industries' bankruptcy proposal and ordered the company to clean up the site where its January 2014 chemical spill contaminated Charleston, W.V., drinking water.

"Shell Oil says its offshore oil rigs will arrive shortly on Seattle’s waterfront to prepare for drilling in Alaska, despite a Port of Seattle resolution Tuesday asking it to delay while the Port challenges a city ruling aimed at keeping the rigs out."