"HOUSTON -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed easing new pollution restrictions that angered several states and infuriated GOP presidential contender Texas Gov. Rick Perry."

"Several environmental groups sued Arizona Public Service Co. and the other owners of the Four Corners Power Plant in New Mexico on Tuesday, seeking to shut down the power plant if they won't add additional pollution controls to the facility."

"U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was planning to set a stricter nationwide limit on ground-level ozone when the White House axed the plan last month, the 468-page rulemaking package prepared by the agency yesterday shows."

"The Environmental Protection Agency, under pressure from some states, industry and Congress, is expected to ease an air quality rule that would require power plants in 27 states to slash emissions, said people familiar with the matter."

"The federal government plans to delay until mid-November new rules to implement a set of fuel efficiency standards for cars and light-duty trucks, administration officials said Tuesday."

"NEW TOWN, N.D. — Across western North Dakota, hundreds of fires rise above fields of wheat and sunflowers and bales of hay. At night, they illuminate the prairie skies like giant fireflies."

"The Obama administration recently pulled the plug on lowering EPA limits. It seems clear, though, that the lower the level, the fewer effects on health."

"U.S. EPA plans to enforce smog rules that were put in place under George W. Bush, now that President Obama has asked the agency to wait until 2013 to move on still-stricter air quality standards for ozone, Administrator Lisa Jackson told lawmakers on Capitol Hill [Thursday] morning.

Jackson had spent the past two years reconsidering the limit of 75 parts per billion, which was finalized in 2008, because it was higher than the range of 60 to 70 ppb recommended by the agency's science advisers.

"The President's advisers have made it official and are recommending a strong veto of a House bill that would gut two key anti-pollution rules."

"Perry fast-tracked new plants and made Texas even more polluted than it already was."

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"In April 2006, a few days before Earth Day, Texas Gov. Rick Perry joined executives of TXU, the state's largest utility and biggest carbon dioxide emitter, in cheering plans to open a staggering 11 new coal-fired power plants throughout Texas. With rolling blackouts still fresh on many Texans' minds, Perry hailed TXU's rapid expansion as a path to energy security, not to mention a way to create jobs and potentially lower energy costs.

"President Obama’s decision early this month to side with anti-regulation business interests against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stop a plan to tighten smog regulations comes during an election cycle in which Obama has received campaign donations from top polluters, and only weeks after his chief of staff met with anti-regulation industry trade associations.

"ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Shell Oil Co. on Monday took a step closer to tapping vast petroleum reserves off Alaska's Arctic coasts when the federal Environmental Protection Agency approved an air quality permit for one of the company's drilling vessels."

Republicans in Congress are whipping up fear among Midwest farmers that EPA will burden them with tighter dust-control regulations. The only problem is that it isn't true.

"Arizona farmer Kevin Rogers has a new routine in the morning: Checking the wind. If it’s too high, he’s required to park his tractors and combines for the day to keep from kicking up dust that’s long been a major cause of air pollution in the Phoenix area.

"Now that it has scrapped a plan to further tighten the smog limits set by U.S. EPA under President George W. Bush, the Obama administration has told a federal court that it has no problem with reopening the litigation over that standard in court."

"

"The day the Twin Towers crumbled, more than 25,000 kids inhaled toxic substances. Ten years later, many of them are suffering from health problems that still haven't gone away."