National (U.S.)

"WESTLAKE, La. — Stacey Ryan already knows where he'll be buried."

"Regulators in the United States knew they had to act fast. A train hauling 2 million gallons of crude oil from North Dakota had exploded in the Canadian town of Lac-Megantic, killing 47 people. Now they had to assure Americans a similar disaster wouldn’t happen south of the border, where the U.S. oil boom is sending highly volatile crude oil every day over aging, often defective rails in vulnerable railcars."

"Congressional appropriators [Tuesday] night unveiled a $1 trillion spending bill to fund most government agencies through the end of the year, making slight cuts to U.S. EPA while boosting spending at the Departments of Energy and the Interior."

"A new study looked at the health impacts on adults drinking a liquid from bottles lined with BPA, and found that the chemical not only made it into their bodies but seems to have caused a significant increase in blood pressure."

"A rust-colored shorebird known for a nearly 20,000-mile migration will now receive federal protection, setting the stage for states to coordinate preservation plans for the dwindling species."

"The federal government’s big-money commitment to restoring the Great Lakes is now almost certain to continue another five years thanks to House passage Tuesday of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative of 2014."

"Some of the millions of abandoned oil and natural gas wells in the United States are still spewing methane, marking a potentially large source of unrecorded greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study released on Monday."

"President Obama spoke in dismissive terms of the Keystone XL pipeline Monday during an interview on "The Colbert Report Monday, saying its modest benefits need to be weighed against its contribution to climate change, 'which could be disastrous.'"

"Gary Southern, the former Freedom Industries president, faces federal charges for allegedly lying about his role at the bankrupt firm to protect his personal fortune from legal actions over the January chemical spill at Freedom’s Elk River facility."

"GARDI SUGDUP, Panama -- As the Obama administration makes headway at home in the fight against global warming, it has helped stoke record exports of fossil fuels that are contributing to rising levels of pollution elsewhere.

U.S. exports of diesel and gasoline have doubled since President Barack Obama took office, and the carbon embedded in them has meet political goals by taking it off America's pollution balance sheet. But that does not necessarily help the planet.