Environmental Politics

"The head of the Met Office [the United Kingdom's national weather service] has revealed that he has received death threats from climate change sceptics."

"A battle over whether states can use nuisance laws to curb greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants will come to the Supreme Court Tuesday in a case that puts a twist on the debate over climate policy."

"Congress [April 14] approved a budget bill that includes a rider removing wolves in Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Utah from the federal endangered species list and sets the stage for near-term delisting in Wyoming. The measure returns control of wolf management to the states."

Taxpayers can't escape paying what they owe the U.S. Treasury. But for big oil companies who owe royalties, it's another matter.

"Some of the biggest names in the oil industry -- Exxon Mobil Corp., Marathon Oil Corp. and the American Petroleum Institute -- have waded into the fight to stop the Obama administration from strengthening Clean Water Act regulation of streams and wetlands."

"At least 45 people have been confirmed dead after a furious storm that has reportedly spawned over 100 tornadoes during the past week tore through the Midwest and moved on to southern states...." Meanwhile, budget cuts in the stopgap 2011 spending bill will diminish the National Weather Service's ability to predict weather that may harm people, property, or businesses.

State governors elected amid the Tea Party fervor are setting about dismantling laws and rules that protect people from environmental pollution, saying they are too burdensome on business.

EPA and Justice Department officials in the Obama administration are putting more emphasis on environmental justice  -- an effort to reduce the greater hazards faced by poor and minority communities. But that job is not easy, especially in the face of industry resistance.

Some 10,000 young activists descend on Washington, DC, this weekend to train, network, lobby, and demonstrate on climate change in an event called Power Shift. On dirty energy, they suspect President Obama has goe over to the dark side.

"Pennsylvania environmental regulators say they spend as little as 35 minutes reviewing each of the thousands of applications for natural gas well permits they get each year from drillers intent on tapping the state's lucrative and vast Marcellus Shale reserves."