"Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt said on Monday that he is placing a hold on Gina McCarthy, President Obama’s pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency, which could delay a full Senate vote on the nominee."

"BILLINGS, Mont. -- A mining company plans to start exploratory work this spring on an estimated 400 million tons of coal beneath Montana's Crow Indian Reservation, adding to a spate of recent interest in the region's huge coal reserves despite flagging domestic demand for the fuel."

"YELLOWKNIFE -- Federal officials are scrambling to clean up a crumbling, abandoned northern gold mine that is in imminent danger of releasing massive amounts of arsenic, asbestos and other toxins."

"With government snow plows idled by federal budget cuts known as the 'sequester,' small Wyoming towns on the fringe of Yellowstone are organizing a private fund-raising drive for this year's spring road-clearing operation inside the national park."

"U.S. EPA will head to court [Thursday] to defend its authority under the Clean Water Act to revoke a strip mining permit issued by the Army Corps of Engineers."

"President Obama's nominee for Interior secretary was grilled this morning over how she would balance conservation and development on hundreds of millions of acres of public lands, whether she would support a carbon tax and how she would regulate the controversial technique of hydraulic fracturing."

"CARRIZO SPRINGS, Tex. -- In this South Texas stretch of mesquite trees and cactus, where the land is sometimes too dry to grow crops, the local aquifer is being strained in the search for oil. The reason is hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a drilling process that requires massive amounts of water."

"MADISON, Wisc. -- Assembly Republicans sent Gov. Scott Walker a bill Thursday that could clear the way for a miles-long iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin, handing the GOP governor a victory that eluded him last year."

"Sally Jewell's first political test as President Obama's nominee for Interior secretary comes Thursday before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where she will be grilled on how she plans to run the $12 billion agency that controls one-fifth of the U.S. landmass and nearly all of its oceans."

"The National Park Service would be forced to delay the opening of roads into iconic national parks including Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and Yosemite by as much as a month if Congress fails to avert $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts, according to new information obtained by a Park Service retirees group."

"Sea Shepherd is claiming victory after Japan temporarily suspended its annual whale hunt in the Southern Ocean."

"MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- The U.S. Department of Labor wants a federal judge to order the immediate shutdown of a potentially dangerous West Virginia coal slurry impoundment it says hasn't been certified by a professional engineer for two years."

"JUNEAU -- A bill moving through the Alaska Legislature would eliminate wilderness restrictions in a portion of a state park in the Bristol Bay region so a utility can study a hydroelectric project on a lake where such development now is banned."

"LONDON -- The Arctic needs to be better protected from a rush for natural resources as melting ice makes mineral and energy exploration easier, the United Nations' Environment Programme (UNEP) said."

"It's legal to catch the animals outside the national park. But critics say the trappers are after bobcats that often crisscross the invisible park boundaries."