"What does it take to trade in a commodity that cannot be seen or touched - and isn't even a commodity in the United States? First of three parts."

"The world's most high-profile climate change  sceptic is to declare that global warming is 'undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today' and 'a challenge humanity must confront', in an apparent U-turn that will give a huge boost to the embattled environmental lobby."

"Last night, Michael Bromwich, the new director of the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (formerly known as the Minerals Management Service), circulated an email to staffers outlining new ethics policies for employees who deal with offshore drilling, an attempt to reform his run amuck division's rep for being too cozy with oil and gas interests."

"While it is too early to gauge the long-term environmental or economic effects of the release of 4.9 million barrels of oil into the gulf, it now appears that the direst predictions about the moratorium will not be borne out."

"Another BP employee is refusing to testify in the investigation into the cause of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, invoking his Fifth Amendment right to not produce testimony that could incriminate him."

"Television and movie makers have no excuse for not jumping on the 'green' movement bandwagon. A new website with resources on everything from recycling sets to cruelty-free mascara makes it simple to do so."

"Global wheat crops are taking it on the chin, thanks to a drought and fires in Russia, too much rain in Canada, and locusts in Australia. Prices are at levels not seen in almost two years." Climate-driven harvest failures in other parts of the world may be good news for US grain dealers -- and may alter the balance of UN climate talks.

"A new split over climate policy is brewing within the ranks of the US Chamber of Commerce  as a breakaway group of local chambers is getting ready to publicly split with the business lobby's hardline stance against climate legislation."

Bloomberg News is gamely standing by a story in which critics say it inaccurately interprets its own polling data -- to imply that most Americans oppose President Obama's temporary deepwater drilling ban.

The Firestone company, the second largest employer in Liberia, is so powerful in that country that the people there have little recourse when they complain that it is poisoning their water. Firestone's massive rubber plantation there was set up with help from the U.S. government in the 1920s. Firestone is now owned by the giant Bridgestone Americas, a Japanese company.

"The official groundbreaking of a new advanced battery manufacturing plant in Holland [Mich.] on Thursday attracted both President Barack Obama and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm."

"Congressional budget experts say a climate and energy bill now stalled in the Senate would reduce the federal deficit by about $19 billion over the next decade."

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are balking at backing loans that include federal stimulus financing for solar panels and other energy improvements.

"Louisiana is married to the oil and gas business, for better or for worse. The energy industry depends on Louisiana to supply 30 percent of the nation's oil supply, and Louisiana depends on the industry as the state's biggest economic engine. But there is a cost, as the Deepwater Horizon has proven."

A new report makes the myth-busting assertion that the coal industry costs the state of West Virginia more in expenses than it brings in economic benefits.