"Steve Lipsky’s tainted water well had already stirred national debate about the impacts of oil and gas production. Now it stars in a free speech dispute that has landed in Texas’ highest court – the biggest test of a state law meant to curb attempts to stifle public protest."

Faceless on Facebook, a shadowy but aggressive anti-environmental propaganda group called the Institute for Energy Research turns out, documents reveal, to be founded and funded by oil billionaire Charles Koch. It's mission: preserve tax breaks for big oil.

"NEW ORLEANS -- U.S. EPA's policy staffers, not its scientific experts, are the ones who should be answering reporters' policy questions, a longtime EPA spokesman told environmental journalists gathered here this week."

"NEW ORLEANS -- With the fourth anniversary of the busted well's final sealing coming up in a couple weeks, BP has been pushing back aggressively against the company's critics. On Wednesday night—just hours before the court's ruling—Geoff Morrell, the company's vice president of US communications, spoke in New Orleans at the Society of Environmental Journalists conference, and blamed the media and activists for BP's rough ride."

"Imaginary television weather forecasts predicted floods, storms and searing heat from Arizona to Zambia within four decades, as part of a United Nations campaign on Monday to draw attention to a U.N. summit this month on fighting global warming."

"About 19 months after closing down its special team of environmental reporters, the New York Times has named Adam Bryant as editor overseeing climate change and environmental issues for the paper's science coverage."

"Extensive reporting from the Associated Press on the Koch brothers' financial background and political influence glossed over the duo's ties to the fossil fuel industry and ignored their efforts to dismantle action on climate change."

""Big food producers are moving to try to head off criticism of how they use additives, with a main industry group saying it plans to give more information to regulators about how companies determine the safety of the thousands of chemicals and other ingredients in processed foods."

The wolf known as OR7 prompted some reflective writing -- and a flood of reader response -- in the Pacific states. The coverage reminds us that there is room for the personal and evocative as well as the objective and informative in environmental journalism. And it restored Sacramento Bee writer Matt Weiser's faith in the newspaper.

"An activist’s controversial crusade against genetically modified crops."