"Tea Party Republicans succeeded in grinding the federal government to a halt, and they are the biggest holdouts in the face of overwhelming evidence that climate change is happening. Mainstream Republicans, however, are much less likely to reject the fact that the planet is getting hotter."

"An Arizona utility commissioner is asking for all the key players in a debate over a solar energy policy in the state to reveal any additional secret funding of nonprofits or public relations campaigns. The probe comes after Arizona Public Service, the state's largest utility, admitted last week that it had been secretly contributing to outside nonprofits running negative ads against solar power."

"DENVER -- Four cities along [Colorado's] Front Range will decide Tuesday whether to halt new oil and gas development when voters cast their ballots on a series of local initiatives."

"President Barack Obama will use his executive powers to protect more mountains, rivers and forests from development if Congress does not act to preserve such wild spaces, the U.S. Interior Secretary said on Thursday."

"'American policymakers need to understand just who they will be doing business with if they approve the Keystone,' says environmental artist Franke James."

As a centerpiece of its bid to hold the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia boldly promised a "Zero Waste" program. State-owned companies are already systematically and publicly violating that pledge.

"In the year since Hurricane Sandy struck the Mid-Atlantic, news articles have widely declared that the storm has 'changed the public’s view of weather threats' and that 'resilience' would be the environmental buzzword of 2013. That sounds all well and good, but are headlines enough to move public opinion and spark new discussions?"

"Voters in swing states are more likely to favor the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed carbon pollution standards for power plants, according to a new poll funded by the League of Conservation Voters."

"Bisphenol A has gotten a much higher profile in recent years, as the 'BPA-free' label adorns an increasing number of water bottles and baby products. News headlines regularly hint at possible connections between BPA and a lengthening list of health problems. But the ingredient is still common in plastics, food can liners -- and in our bodies."

"Last week, the Whatcom County Council in northwestern Washington voted to buy six new SUVs for the local Sheriff's Department and introduced its annual road construction plan. These were significant developments in this sleepy rural enclave of scarcely 200,000 people, but nothing compared to what's on the horizon: A proposal to build the largest coal export terminal on the West Coast, capable of annually shipping a whopping 48 million tons of Montana and Wyoming coal to Asia."