Environmental Politics

"Critics say the measure allows public school teachers to challenge the topics without fear of sanction. Gov. Bill Haslam expresses misgivings about the law."

After 18 months of resistance from the White House Office of Management and Budget, the US EPA has withdrawn proposed guidelines for cleaning up dioxin-contaminated soil at polluted sites. EPA says other guidelines issued in the meanwhile made them unnecessesary. Environmental groups condemned the move and the chemical industry applauded it.

"In an announcement that stunned scientists, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has cancelled grant applications for what was supposed to be a $20-million, four-year green chemistry program."

"Mining companies and other businesses will be allowed to keep environmental studies secret, even if they detail possible pollution problems, under industry-backed legislation that gained final House approval Monday."

"The Treasury Department's $9 billion renewable energy grant program supported as many as 75,000 jobs each year it was available, according to a new report from the Department of Energy that counters Republican criticism of the grant-in-lieu-of-tax-credit effort."

"Natural-gas companies are taking concerns about looming Interior Department 'fracking' regulations to the White House with efforts that include a meeting between a major producer and the Obama administration’s top regulatory official."

Most Australiams read a newspaper owned by conservative tycoon Rupert Murdoch. New research by a journalism professor indicates that those readers are not getting a balanced or diverse view of climate change.