"The Commerce Department agency that oversees everything from daily weather forecasts to storm warnings, climate monitoring and fisheries management would be transferred to the Interior Department under an ambitious plan of government consolidation announced by the president [Friday].

In an address, President Obama proposed merging six government agencies that primarily oversee business and trade into one, a move designed to 'help businesses grow, save businesses time and save taxpayer dollars.'

Ongoing controversy over Pennsylvania's oversight (or lack thereof) of fracking for gas in the Marcellus Shale has brought a lot of readers to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's "Pipeline" reporting portal. The Post-Gazette offers interactive maps of drilling data from the Department of Environmental Protection. One big problem: "DEP's production data ... says there are 495 more wells producing gas, or ready to produce gas, than DEP has recorded as ever being drilled, and 182 of those wells don't even show up on the state's Marcellus Shale permit list."
 

"Dr. Paul Anastas, a top EPA scientist who heads the agency’s research branch is leaving EPA and returning to Yale University in February."

"EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced the news in a memo to staff Thursday. Anastas is EPA’s formal science adviser and heads the Office of Research and Development."

Ben Geman reports for the Hill's E2 Wire January 6, 2012.

"Having left Congress after an embarrassing 2007 arrest, former Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) has quietly reemerged in Washington as a lobbyist working on behalf of the coal industry. According to his federal filings, Craig has registered to wheedle his former Capitol colleagues on the obscure but critical issue of mine safety."

"BEIJING — Armed with a device that looks like an old transistor radio, some Beijing residents are recording pollution levels and posting them online. It’s an act that borders on subversion. The government keeps secret all data on the fine particles that shroud China’s capital in a health-threatening smog most days. But as they grow more prosperous, Chinese are demanding the right to know what the government does not tell them: just how polluted their city is."

The gas drilling boom is making at least one congressman rich.

"State oil and gas agencies across the country are straining to prevent a flood of new drilling from harming human health and the environment. But that's not really their job. Or at least not all of it. Their job is also to promote drilling. And sometimes the law makes that their top priority."

Maryland is struggling with a backlog of water pollution violations.

"CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Investigators from the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General have found that federal regulators are not identifying 'scofflaw violators' who don't pay mine safety and health fines, allowing those mine operators to avoid debt-collection lawsuits or other enforcement actions."

"BOISE, Idaho -- When lightning ignited a wildfire near Idaho's Sun Valley in 2007, environmental regulators used monitoring gear to gauge the health effects for those breathing in the Sawtooth Mountains' smoky, mile-high air.

That equipment sits idle today after the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality was hit by $4 million in spending cuts, a quarter of its budget, since the recession began. Water testing on selenium-laced streams in Idaho's phosphate mining country also has been cut back, as have mercury monitoring and hazardous waste inspections.

"France's state energy firm EDF has been fined €1.5m by a Paris court for spying on Greenpeace."

'U.S. EPA has still not implemented recommendations from the agency's inspector general that stretch as far back as 2001, according to a recent IG review.'

"The US Department of Interior plans to integrate the responsibilities of two sub-agencies with diverse portfolios overseeing surface mining, federal land management, oil and natural gas royalty collection and hard-rock mining, among other areas, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday."

"A former police spymaster who spent years living deep undercover in the protest movement has confessed he tricked an innocent woman into having a long-term relationship with him, as part of an elaborate attempt to lend 'credibility' to his alter ego."

"Why did the FBI detain and question a 62-year-old British environmentalist upon his arrival at New York City's John F. Kennedy Airport? The bureau won't say, and the activist, who was subsequently shipped back to London, never got a clear explanation." The answer, it seems, involves superglue.