The Obama administration is taking shape with many key environmental appointments to the cabinet and elsewhere. This is the second half of our guide to the new players, their backgrounds and agendas.

When the journalist and author William F. Buckley Jr. died last February, much was written and said about his seminal role in the growth of the modern conservative movement after he founded National Review magazine in 1955. Read as The Beat checks in on a few of the most influential journalists and publications identified with the conservative and libertarian regions of the political spectrum to offer a sampling of their recent treatment of environmental matters.

Omnibus 2008 Appropriations Bill (PL 110-161) signed by President Bush Dec. 26, 2007, ordered him to reopen EPA libraries shuttered by his administration and earmarked some $3 million to restore them.

Henry Waxman (D-CA), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has vowed to investigate EPA's decision to prohibit states from regulating greenhouse emissions.

EPA has proposed exempting farms from a law protecting the public from toxic air pollutants. Environmental groups have objected.

President Bush has signed into law a measure aimed at strengthening the Freedom of Information Act.

Five federal agencies that are responsible for management of a high percentage of US lands and waters are doing a poor job preparing for the effects of climate change.

Scientists advising the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on air pollution issues are criticizing EPA higher-ups for ignoring their scientific counsel. Specifically, they are accusing the Bush Administration of excising science from the process the agency uses to determine how clean the air we breathe should be. The Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) challenges EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson.

One of the BLM's first actions under new director James Caswell was a final rule defining how the agency will implement portions of the National Environmental Policy Act.

On June 11, the US Supreme Court unanimously decided to allow polluters who engage in voluntary Superfund site cleanups to recoup costs from other responsible parties.