"A Russian company that took control of uranium mines in Wyoming is barred from exporting produced material and executives at U.S.-based subsidiaries will remain in charge, according to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission report."

"Members are linked by the spiritual connections between their local desert landscapes and the parched sacred grounds that have nurtured some of the world's great religions."

The Obama administration's efforts to toughen mine safety enforcement, following the Upper Big Branch disaster in April that killed 29, are encountering the same old evade-and-delay resistance from the mining industry. Those are the tactics that appear to have led to the disaster in the first place.

"The battle over whether oil companies should be allowed to drill in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is nothing new — but the fight over nearby public land called the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska is."

"Data obtained by The Associated Press indicates that just a small percentage of the leveled Appalachian mountain landscape has been transformed into new developments such as businesses, prisons, golf courses and subdivisions."

"When you were trying to figure out what to buy for the environmentalist on your holiday list, fur probably didn't cross your mind. But some ecologists and fashion enthusiasts are trying to rekindle a market for fur made from nutria -- rodents that are destroying Louisiana's wetlands."

"China said on Tuesday it will cut its export quotas for rare earth minerals by more than 11 percent in the first half of 2011, further shrinking supplies of metals needed to make a range of high-tech products."

"The Obama administration has restored U.S. land managers' powers to curb development on vast tracts of America's back country, undoing what conservation groups called a 'no more wilderness' policy put in place under President George W. Bush."

"Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) this week blocked a package of public lands bills pushed by Democratic leadership after the removal of his own proposal to promote a land exchange in Arizona to allow a new copper mine."

"The Department of Interior has identified some two dozen potential sites for large-scale solar power installations on public lands in six Western states as part of an effort to encourage development of renewable energy on public lands and waters."

"The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta would become a "national heritage area" and receive federal funding and planning oversight under a controversial provision slipped into a massive spending bill that died a sudden death Thursday night."

"The United States is too reliant on China for minerals crucial to new clean energy technologies, making the American economy vulnerable to shortages of materials needed for a range of green products — from compact fluorescent light bulbs to electric cars to giant wind turbines."

"In the fight over proposed mining projects in northern Minnesota, a new player with a surprising amount of clout has emerged -- wild rice."

"Congress may lose its best chance to pass a suite of public lands proposals that would protect more than 2 million acres of federal lands as wilderness if it fails to move an omnibus measure in the lame-duck session, conservation groups say."

"Approximately 13 million metric tons of rare earth elements (REE) exist within known deposits in the United States, according to the first-ever nationwide estimate of these elements by the U.S. Geological Survey."