"For the roughly 130 power plants, refineries and other facilities embroiled in the air permitting dispute between U.S. EPA and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, a new program being finalized by EPA could allow them to get on with business as usual."

"The New Mexico Environmental Law Center today appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a lower court decision that allows uranium mining in the Four Corners region of New Mexico. The appeal claims the mine would contaminate drinking water used by some 15,000 Navajo people."

"For 40 days, flares burned 500,000 pounds of toxic chemicals over BP's Texas City refinery. Yet residents didn't know until weeks later that the flare released 17,000 pounds of cancer-causing benzene."

"The Navajo Nation's proposed coal plant always rested on shaky ground. Now, it may collapse entirely."

"A BP Texas City refinery that was the site of a massive 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers has a pattern of poor operation and maintenance practices, Texas environmental regulators reported after investigating a 46-day release of toxic and cancer-causing chemicals from the plant this spring."

"More than 2,000 people filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court on Tuesday seeking over $10 billion in punitive damages from BP Plc for 40 days of excess pollution from the company's Texas City, Texas, refinery, according to court documents."

"FORT WORTH, Texas -- For nearly a year Christine and Tim Ruggiero have battled the powerful Texas oil and gas industry and the inertia of regulators responsible for protecting air quality and public health."

"TXI will permanently shut down its four oldest, highest-polluting cement kilns in Midlothian and will stop burning hazardous waste as fuel, the Dallas-based company said Tuesday."

A wildfire near Flagstaff, Arizona, has reached 10,000 acres in size and is threatening hundreds of homes.

"A natural gas explosion in north Texas killed one member of a crew installing utility poles, and authorities were trying to figure out if the gas line had been marked before digging started."

"A seven-foot-tall Latin cross in the middle of both the Mojave Desert and a Supreme Court case on the separation of church and state has been stolen, federal officials said Tuesday."

"When you combine Albuquerque's few trees with the city's hot, dry and often windy weather, it could mean big problems for allergy sufferers. This despite a 1994 pollen-control ordinance that bars residents from planting certain types of trees."

"FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. --  The challenges facing a proposed coal-fired power plant on the country's largest Indian reservation are stark: the withdrawal of a key federal permit, no secured customer or transmission line, and uncertainty over the future of climate change.

The Navajo Nation acknowledges the challenges, but both the tribe and its partner in building the $3 billion, 1,500-megawatt Desert Rock Energy Project say they are committed to moving forward. Environmentalists who have fought the project contend it will be nearly impossible to do so."

"The EPA  on Wednesday struck down a Texas air-pollution program that has let thousands of companies bypass rigorous reviews under the Clean Air Act."

"The city of Austin, Tex., [Thursday]  presented a wide-ranging list of recommendations for remaking its electricity system, including more energy efficiency measures and a change to the business model of the local utility."