"The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights says coal ash ponds and landfills disproportionately affect poor and minority communities across the U.S. But that’s not what North Carolina officials found when they conducted their own 'environmental justice reviews' of two sites this year."

"With checkbooks in hand, executives from the embattled coal mining industry converged last year on the remote Olde Farm Golf Club near southwest Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains."

"Maryland’s long-awaited fracking regulations would ban drilling in three watersheds in Western Maryland and require extensive safeguards around drilling sites, protections that Secretary of the Environment Ben H. Grumbles called 'the most stringent' in the country."

"OPEC’s 14 oil producing nations agreed on Wednesday to modestly cut their collective oil output later this year in an effort to bolster sagging prices, according to a cartel official. The decision sent global oil prices soaring by more than 5 percent."

"Fast-growing aviation powerhouse India is not ready to join the world's first climate deal to curb pollution from commercial flights because it fears that talks beginning on Tuesday may not lead to a fair agreement, its civil aviation minister said."

"The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill has been called one of the worst environmental disasters in American history — and more than six years later, scientists are still investigating how much damage it actually caused. Now, a new study suggests the spill may have permanently marred one of the Gulf shore’s most important ecosystems. "

"The Pacific NorthWest LNG project, which would produce more than five million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, has 190 legally binding conditions attached to the approval."

"Republican incumbent Rob Portman built a big lead in the polls over former Gov. Ted Strickland after flurry of ads painting the Democrat as anti-coal."

"President Obama’s signature effort to combat global warming was alternately lauded as a reasonable attempt to move the nation toward cleaner energy sources and faulted as an unconstitutional, job-killing power grab during seven hours of vigorous legal arguments Tuesday."

"U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday avoided direct mention of a pipeline that has provoked high-profile protests from Native Americans but urged tribal leaders to use the spotlight to continue pushing for recognition even after he leaves office."