"A number of environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday challenging a recent administrative decision to allow certain major power plants to turn off some pollution controls."

"Environmentalists notched an important legal win last week when a district court called on the federal government to boost its climate analysis for fossil fuel development in the West."

"An enforcement breakthrough a decade in the making was unveiled in December: Three manufacturers of a sooty oil-based product known as carbon black had agreed to slash air pollution by thousands of tons each year. But there was a twist."

"Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has appointed 15 representatives of the outdoor recreation industry to advise him on how to operate public lands, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post, including three people whom department officials flagged as potentially having a conflict of interest on the matter."

"The Environmental Protection Agency is considering a major change to the way it assesses scientific work, a move that would severely restrict the research available to it when writing environmental regulations."

"The Interior Department’s internal watchdog has opened an investigation into P. Daniel Smith, currently the top-ranking official at the National Park Service, for allegedly making a gesture involving his genitalia in the hallways of the department’s headquarter this year."

"Next month, a Silicon Valley engineer plans to head out on a snowmobile from Barrow, on the northern tip of Alaska, to sprinkle reflective sand on a frozen lake to try to stop it from melting."

"Hackers increasingly threaten sites in the U.S. ranging from nuclear power plants to water processing systems, according to a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, adding his voice to warnings from several agencies and officials in recent weeks."