"Environmentalists and state regulators faced off Tuesday in the start of a major permit appeal hearing that puts the spotlight squarely on West Virginia's opposition to a federal crackdown aimed at reducing strip-mine pollution across the Appalachian coalfields."
 

"The U.S.-raised animals we eat consumed about 29 million pounds of antibiotics in the last year alone, according to a first-ever Food and Drug Administration accounting of antimicrobial drug use by the American livestock industry."

"A worst-case scenario devised by US researchers shows that the American southwest could experience a 60-year stretch of heat and drought unseen since the 12th century."

The aging oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico -- pipelines, wells, platforms, and other rigs -- could well prove another disaster waiting to happen.

"The Obama administration supports a full study of the effects of gas drilling in the watershed that provides drinking water for Philadelphia and New York City, but it doesn't want to wait until it's finished for drilling to begin."

"Louisiana's 17 refineries averaged 10 upsets a week between 2005 and 2009, according to a study of emission reports by the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an environmentalist coalition, and the United Steelworkers union."

"Gulf oil spill claims czar Kenneth Feinberg introduced a new option Monday to the 170,000 claimants who have already received an emergency payment, offering 'quick' payments of $5,000 to individuals and $25,000 to businesses who are willing to sign away their rights to sue."

"A federal appeals court has decided to move ahead with lawsuits challenging the Department of Energy's authority to scrap plans to make Yucca Mountain, Nev., a national repository for nuclear waste."

"In many places around Western Pennsylvania residents see clusters of death and clusters of people sickened by cancer or heart and lung diseases. And, like Lee Lasich, a Clairton resident, they're frustrated that government health and environmental agencies don't see them too, don't do something about the problems and don't take a tougher stance on enforcement of air pollution regulations."

"Rare minerals. Food and water. Arable soil. Air-cleansing forests. In the intellectual heart of the American military and policy-making world, these are emerging not just as environmental issues, but as the potential stuff of conflict in the 21st century."