"Army Corps of Engineers officials on Wednesday defending their handling of a rowdy crowd of coal industry supporters who repeatedly interrupted other speakers at a mountaintop-removal public hearing Tuesday night."

"The state is poised to ban the use of mercury-tainted coal fly ash at a Ravena cement plant that is the state's second largest source of airborne mercury pollution."

"Oil prices reached a fresh one-year high above $75 a barrel Thursday in Asia on a weaker U.S. dollar and growing investor optimism about an economic recovery."

Despite Democrats' promises, a Congressional investigation into whether military contractor KBR knowingly exposed soldiers to toxic sodium dichromate in Iraq seems to be going nowhere.

"The politically influential American Farm Bureau, the self-described 'national voice of agriculture,' has outlined a new campaign effort to derail Congressional bills to combat climate change."

Fixing leaks of natural gas -- alias methane, a potent heat-trapping gas that causes up to a third of human-caused global warming -- can save money and slow warming.

"Environmentalists are taking the fight over coal beyond Capitol Hill and onto college campuses."

"Canada's major waterways have suffered significant alterations in their natural flows, a WWF-Canada report contends."

"With 360 days a year of pure, unclouded sun, California's Imperial Valley has the potential to become the Silicon Valley of renewable energy."

"A controversial e-mail message buried by the Bush administration because of its conclusions on global warming surfaced Tuesday, nearly two years after it was first sent to the White House and never opened."

"A powerful fall storm packing strong winds and rain drenched fire-scarred hillsides around California on Wednesday, and residents from north to south braced for possible mudslides and debris flows."

"More than 100,000 people in northern Iraq have abandoned their homes since 2005 because of water stress, after drought and over-extraction of groundwater caused the collapse of an ancient water system, UNESCO said on Tuesday."

"President Obama travels to New Orleans this week for a town hall meeting -- and for a look at the recovery in the city battered by Hurricane Katrina four years ago. It will be Obama's first visit since the presidential campaign, when, as a candidate, he had a long list of promises for the city."

"Twenty percent of the drinking fountains and faucets at Utica elementary schools tested positive for lead, according to results of a voluntary testing program released Tuesday."

"Equipment manufacturers and energy efficiency advocates agreed today on new standards aimed at dramatically reducing energy use in homes."