"The Interior Department on Tuesday finalized a much anticipated new regulation aimed at the oil and gas industry, one that seeks to capture flared natural gas and corral “fugitive” emissions of methane that are escaping drilling operations on public and Native American lands."

"Demonstrators fanned out across North America on Tuesday to demand the U.S. government halt or reroute the Dakota Access pipeline as the companies behind the controversial project asked a federal court for permission to complete it."

"The Army Corps of Engineers dealt a blow to the progress of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline on Monday, saying in a letter that more analysis and discussion with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe is needed before construction can take place under the Missouri River."

"The Obama administration took action Thursday to boost development of solar and wind energy on public lands, part of President Barack Obama's strategy to develop cleaner domestic energy and reduce emissions blamed for global warming."

"Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to bring back jobs to struggling coal communities, and laid-off miners contributed to his presidential victory. But the reality is more complicated."

"In recent years, a number of communities in the state have passed local [fracking] bans, but the state Supreme Court struck them down. Activists then decided to try to change the constitution to allow local fracking bans. So the oil and gas industry then decided to try to make changing the constitution more difficult."

"Protests. Hunger strikes. Sit-ins that disrupt construction. At the immense Muskrat Falls hydroelectric dam project in a remote and rugged part of Labrador, the indigenous people who live nearby have been raising louder and louder alarms. But it is not about the dam itself. The controversy is over what will flow from it."

"Leaders of West Virginia’s coal industry were rejoicing Wednesday over the election of Republican Donald Trump as the nation’s 45th president — and the possible regulatory rollbacks that may come with it — but industry and economic experts remained skeptical that Trump can really bring back a significant number of mining jobs lost largely to competition with low-priced natural gas."

"Donald Trump’s stunning victory in the presidential election on Tuesday helped usher in a new era of Republican rule in Washington. But voters also weighed in on several science-related state ballot items. Here’s a roundup of the results:" Measures include a California cigarette tax, a Montana measure funding biomedical research, and an Oregon measure against wildlife trafficking.