"Trains carrying a potentially more flammable crude oil have begun rolling with little notice through Sacramento and California in the last year, prompting concerns about safety and calls for more transparency, but state officials said Friday they have decided for now not to release information to the public on where those trains run or how many there are."

"'What gets everybody really suspicious is that you don't have access to watch it, which raises all kinds of issues about transparency.'"

"Drive just an hour and half north of San Francisco and you're in Drakes Estero, or estuary, named for the first English explorer to lay claim to California."

"A U.S. federal judge has denied ExxonMobil Corp's bid to dismiss a government lawsuit and instead ordered the oil giant to hand over documents going back decades on a pipeline that ruptured last year and inundated an Arkansas town with oil."

"The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that a federal law seeking to improve accountability for environmental spills and pollution can be circumvented by certain kinds of state laws."

"The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined a request from BP to block payments to businesses while the oil giant appeals its 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster settlement. For the time being, the decision upholds the ruling by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans that under terms of the settlement, businesses claiming damages from the undersea eruption need not prove direct harm."

"A federal appeals court today threw out a high-profile Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order that provided incentives for electricity users to consume less power, a practice dubbed demand response."
 

"The court established in the southern province of Fujian has appointed 12 specialist consultants who will assist litigators on technical issues, Xinhua news agency reported."