Natural Resources

"President Obama's nominee for Interior secretary was grilled this morning over how she would balance conservation and development on hundreds of millions of acres of public lands, whether she would support a carbon tax and how she would regulate the controversial technique of hydraulic fracturing."

"Sally Jewell, the CEO of outdoor retail giant REI, was also criticized by some Republican senators over her role as a board member of the National Parks Conservation Association and her support of outgoing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's former "wild lands" policy.

"Sally Jewell's first political test as President Obama's nominee for Interior secretary comes Thursday before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where she will be grilled on how she plans to run the $12 billion agency that controls one-fifth of the U.S. landmass and nearly all of its oceans."

"Sea Shepherd is claiming victory after Japan temporarily suspended its annual whale hunt in the Southern Ocean."

"The National Park Service would be forced to delay the opening of roads into iconic national parks including Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and Yosemite by as much as a month if Congress fails to avert $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts, according to new information obtained by a Park Service retirees group."

"MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- The U.S. Department of Labor wants a federal judge to order the immediate shutdown of a potentially dangerous West Virginia coal slurry impoundment it says hasn't been certified by a professional engineer for two years."

"LONDON -- The Arctic needs to be better protected from a rush for natural resources as melting ice makes mineral and energy exploration easier, the United Nations' Environment Programme (UNEP) said."

"JUNEAU -- A bill moving through the Alaska Legislature would eliminate wilderness restrictions in a portion of a state park in the Bristol Bay region so a utility can study a hydroelectric project on a lake where such development now is banned."

"It's legal to catch the animals outside the national park. But critics say the trappers are after bobcats that often crisscross the invisible park boundaries."

"PAICINES -- With a California condor overhead and history underfoot, hundreds of people gathered beneath a canopy of blue skies Monday to celebrate an accomplishment almost as rare as statehood itself: the dedication of America's 59th national park."