Natural Resources

"Interior Secretary Sally Jewell won’t allow a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska."

"Global mining giant Rio Tinto said Monday it is considering dumping its stake in Alaska’s Pebble Mine, a huge open pit mine planned for the best remaining wild salmon stronghold on Earth."

"Today's number: 1.6 million. That's 1.6 million acres — about the area of the state of Delaware. That's how much land was removed this year from the federal Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP, which pays farmers to keep land covered with native grasses or sometimes trees. Most of that land now will produce crops like corn or wheat.

"WASHINGTON –- The federal government isn't doing enough to ensure it collects a 'fair return' for the oil and gas that companies produce from public lands, in part due to policies on revenues for onshore drilling that are nearly a century old, according to a critical report on the Department of the Interior released Tuesday."

"Sand is becoming New England coastal dwellers’ most coveted and controversial commodity as they try to fortify beaches against rising seas and severe erosion caused by violent storms."

"RICHMOND, Va. — A company is suspending its campaign to mine one of the world’s largest known deposits of uranium ore in Virginia, concluding that Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe’s opposition presents a significant challenge over the next four years."

"Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and state officials today announced the latest and largest slate of proposed projects to be funded by BP PLC to restore environmental damage and lost public use from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill."

"Over a four-year span, the United States lost more than 360,000 acres of freshwater and saltwater wetlands to fierce storms, sea-level rise and booming development along the coasts, according to a newly released federal study."

"No other coal deposit on the planet is so big, so close to the surface, and so cheap to mine as the rich seams in eastern Wyoming and Southern Montana."