"The Commerce Department agency that oversees everything from daily weather forecasts to storm warnings, climate monitoring and fisheries management would be transferred to the Interior Department under an ambitious plan of government consolidation announced by the president [Friday].

In an address, President Obama proposed merging six government agencies that primarily oversee business and trade into one, a move designed to 'help businesses grow, save businesses time and save taxpayer dollars.'

Ongoing controversy over Pennsylvania's oversight (or lack thereof) of fracking for gas in the Marcellus Shale has brought a lot of readers to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's "Pipeline" reporting portal. The Post-Gazette offers interactive maps of drilling data from the Department of Environmental Protection. One big problem: "DEP's production data ... says there are 495 more wells producing gas, or ready to produce gas, than DEP has recorded as ever being drilled, and 182 of those wells don't even show up on the state's Marcellus Shale permit list."
 

"Dr. Paul Anastas, a top EPA scientist who heads the agency’s research branch is leaving EPA and returning to Yale University in February."

"EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced the news in a memo to staff Thursday. Anastas is EPA’s formal science adviser and heads the Office of Research and Development."

Ben Geman reports for the Hill's E2 Wire January 6, 2012. [16]

"Having left Congress after an embarrassing 2007 arrest, former Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) has quietly reemerged in Washington as a lobbyist working on behalf of the coal industry. According to his federal filings, Craig has registered to wheedle his former Capitol colleagues on the obscure but critical issue of mine safety."

"BEIJING — Armed with a device that looks like an old transistor radio, some Beijing residents are recording pollution levels and posting them online. It’s an act that borders on subversion. The government keeps secret all data on the fine particles that shroud China’s capital in a health-threatening smog most days. But as they grow more prosperous, Chinese are demanding the right to know what the government does not tell them: just how polluted their city is."

The gas drilling boom is making at least one congressman rich.