"Weary of plastic litter, Grand Canyon National Park officials were in the final stages of imposing a ban on the sale of disposable water bottles in the Grand Canyon late last year when the nation’s parks chief abruptly blocked the plan after conversations with Coca-Cola, a major donor to the National Park Foundation."

"Disturbing images of pregnant bellies confronted commuters in Washington, DC this week. The threat of mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants affecting babies was splashed across 160 subway cars as part of the Sierra Club's new campaign."

"It's one thing to say that Pennsylvania has become a battleground in the debate over natural gas extraction. But it's quite another to actually endorse and employ counterinsurgency tactics to fight opponents of hydraulic fracturing, the controversial process used to extract the gas from the ground. But that appears to be exactly what industry insiders called for at a recent conference."

Kate Sheppard reports for Mother Jones November 9, 2011.
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'Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the passing of her government's carbon tax is a major milestone in Australia's efforts to cut carbon pollution.'

'The State Department's inspector general will conduct a special investigation of the handling of the pending decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline in response to reports of improper pressure on policy makers and possible conflicts of interest, according to documents released on Monday.'

As the Supercommittee casts about for ways to reduce the federal deficit, the massive taxpayer subsidies for massively profitable oil and gas companies have been mentioned as a possible cut. The industry has mounted a big ad campaign and media blitz to deny that the subsidies are real.

"The White House Counsel's Office has formally rejected a congressional subpoena of documents relating to the $535 million loan guarantee that the administration shepherded for Solyndra, the now-defunct solar energy company.

In a letter to the chairs of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation, Kathryn H. Ruemmler, counsel to the president, calls the request for documents made by House Republicans a 'vast fishing expedition' and a 'significant intrusion on Executive Branch interests.'"

A car struck three "Occupy DC" protestors blocking traffic outside an event at the DC Convention Center, where two GOP presidential candidates were honoring the anti-environmental Koch brothers. The protestors were ticketed for blocking traffic and sent to the emergency room, while the driver who struck them was not charged. Accounts of the incident differed. Protestors said the driver sped up to plow through two different sets of protestors. Police said that the protestors jumped in front of a moving car and that they released the driver because he had a green light when he hit them.

"Thousands of protesters opposed to a new oil pipeline from Canada to the United States circled the White House grounds on Sunday to press President Barack Obama to reject the project for environmental reasons.

Opponents to TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport crude produced from oil sands, have dogged the president for months, arguing that the carbon emissions produced in the process of extracting oil from the sands would exacerbate climate change.