"North Dakota regulators on Tuesday ordered producers pumping oil from the Bakken shale field to begin removing flammable natural gas liquids from their product before shipment in an effort to prevent deadly explosions involving trains."

"EL DORADO SPRINGS, Mo. — This year's effort to collect wildflower and grass seeds from surviving prairie remnants has wrapped up."

"Missouri environmental advocates who have fought for stricter oversight of coal ash waste are eagerly awaiting the mid-December release of new federal rules that will require, for the first time, detailed data."

"North Dakota took on the oversight of a multibillion-dollar oil industry with a regulatory system built on trust, warnings and second chances."

"BISMARCK, N.D. -- One year after a pipeline rupture flooded a wheat field in northwestern North Dakota with more than 20,000 barrels of crude, Tesoro Corp. is still working around the clock cleaning up the oil spill -- one of the largest to happen onshore in U.S. history."

"Iowa voted for Barack Obama in the last two presidential elections, but now it is seriously considering electing a United States Senate candidate with a hard-right proposal that is truly radical: abolishing the Environmental Protection Agency."

"NELIGH, Neb. — Music legends Willie Nelson and Neil Young delivered Saturday on a promise to comfort opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline while also pleasing a few project supporters who ventured into a crowded Nebraska farm field."

"North Dakota’s oil rush brings cash and promise to reservation, along with drug-fueled crime"

"As a Texas energy company seeks approval for its plan to build a 1,100-mile pipeline carrying North Dakota crude oil across 17 Iowa counties, documents show the state's pipeline safety record has been less than spotless."

"CASPER, Wyo. — In a new oil field among the rolling hills near here, Chesapeake Energy limits truck traffic to avoid disturbing the breeding and nesting of a finicky bird called the greater sage grouse. To the west, on a gas field near Yellowstone National Park, Shell Oil is sowing its own special seed mix to grow plants that nourish the birds and hide their chicks from predators."