"The giants of the tobacco industry know what it’s like to face heavy government regulation. So as the makers of Marlboro, Newport and Camel enter the booming market for electronic cigarettes, they are pressing to keep their new products free of such strict oversight."

"The European Union’s top antitrust enforcer on Thursday threatened to formally charge the Russian natural gas giant Gazprom with restricting trade and price gouging, raising the stakes in a two-year investigation that has already created tensions with Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin."

"Environmental groups are howling, but energy companies are mostly staying mum about the government shutdown and the trench warfare that has paralyzed Washington."

"The Supreme Court returns from its summer recess today with a U.S. EPA air pollution case already on its calendar and several other environmental issues potentially on the horizon."

"The White House confirmed Monday that Heather Zichal plans to step down as President Barack Obama’s chief energy and climate adviser."

"Consumer safety advocates are sounding the alarm now that fewer government officials are at work to inspect food in light of the shutdown. But in reality, the government wasn’t doing much of that in the first place."

The total number of journalists now charged with piracy by Russia: two.

"Promoters of a giant coal export terminal, proposed for north of Bellingham, have given $40,000 to the Washington Republican Party, bucks that a Western Washington University professor suspects are being funneled into campaigns of sympathetic but officially 'non-partisan' Whatcom County Council candidates."

"WASHINGTON — Elijah Zarlin was handcuffed outside the White House two years ago for joining in weeks of protests against the Keystone XL pipeline. His arrest would have been an ordinary rite of Washington, except for one thing: Mr. Zarlin had been an aide at the headquarters of Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign."

An environmental video journalist was among those charged by Russia for piracy after a protest of Arctic drilling.