Alaska and Hawaii

With a push from EPA and some stimulus money, two contaminated Alaskan mines will be cleaned up.

"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has rejected a controversial land trade that would have allowed oil and gas drilling in part of a national wildlife refuge in Alaska."

The mysterious, miles-long "blob" found floating in the Chukchi Sea is not an oil spill or alien life-form, according to early tests, but an unusual algal bloom.

"The U.S. Forest Service agreed Monday to sell timber to a Ketchikan mill in a roadless area of the Tongass National Forest after the Obama administration's approved the sale."

"The Obama administration is withdrawing a controversial Bush-era logging plan for millions of acres of federal forests in western Oregon."

"Exxon Mobil said Monday it won't appeal nearly $500 million in interest a court recently ordered it to pay to Alaska fishermen, business owners and others harmed by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill."

In Alaska, some land is rising as it is relieved of the weight of glaciers melted by climate change.