"Monsanto pleaded guilty to spraying a banned pesticide on the Hawaiian island of Maui, and agreed to pay $10.2 million in criminal fines and other payments for the spraying and for illegally storing hazardous waste, U.S. prosecutors said."

"The Trump administration wants offshore drillers to tap more of the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and natural gas production. And it has just figured out a way of encouraging them to do so: cutting the operators of some new wells a break on how much they have to pay the federal government."

"The Supreme Court on Friday will consider whether to take up a prominent climatologist's defamation suit against a venerated conservative magazine, in a case that pits climate scientists against the free speech rights of global warming skeptics."

"A pollution-plagued oil refinery that shut down in 2012 is now on the verge of reopening in the U.S. Virgin Islands, thanks to the aid of EPA chief Andrew Wheeler."

"Barry Myers, the former CEO of AccuWeather Inc., withdrew late yesterday his hot-button nomination to lead NOAA and its 12,000 employees, citing health concerns."

"The Trump administration announced a plan Thursday that could allow oil drilling on over three-quarters of the nation’s largest piece of unprotected wilderness, overhauling a 2013 plan that limited development on the Alaskan reserve."

"The Environmental Protection Agency weakened a rule Thursday governing how companies store dangerous chemicals. The standards were enacted under President Barack Obama in the wake of a 2013 explosion in West, Tex., that killed 15 people, including 12 first responders."

"The House Energy and Commerce Committee forwarded on Wednesday major legislation that would target a cancer-linked chemical that is leaching into the water supply."

"A bill that would reinstate a regulation banning certain pesticides from wildlife refuges was approved by the House Committee on Natural Resources on Nov. 20."

"A panel of three appellate judges grilled attorneys for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Natural Resources Defense Council in a suit about the exemptions to the agency’s mercury inventory reporting rule."