"Green groups celebrated Republican leadership’s decision to pull an Interior and Environment spending bill amid a raucous debate over the Confederate flag on Thursday."

"MINIDOKA, Idaho -- Invasive cheatgrass is overtaking native plants, priming this semiarid desert for fiercer and more frequent wildfires. The big loser in this ecological coup occurring throughout the Great Basin: the greater sage grouse."

"ExxonMobil, the world’s biggest oil company, knew as early as 1981 of climate change – seven years before it became a public issue, according to a newly discovered email from one of the firm’s own scientists. Despite this the firm spent millions over the next 27 years to promote climate denial."

"The Natural Resources Defense Council is spending $1 million on a television ad, starting Tuesday, attacking Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., for a vote he made allowing states to opt out of federal rules dealing with power plants and the environment."

"The CVS Health Corporation said on Tuesday that it would resign from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce after revelations that the chamber and its foreign affiliates were undertaking a global lobbying campaign against antismoking laws."

"Some children’s crayons—marketed with colorful characters such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers and Mickey Mouse—and play crime lab kits contain cancer-causing, lung damaging asbestos fibers, according to a report released today."

"A St. Louis County jury has found that Monsanto is not liable in a series of deaths and illnesses suffered by people who were exposed to the PCBs manufactured by the company until the late 1970s."

"Coal production from the controversial mountaintop removal mining technique has dropped nearly two thirds in the last six years."

Drilling companies see further profits and longer well life in reworking the wells that have been producing hydrocarbons from hydraulic fracturing in horizontal well bores.

"The Obama administration on Tuesday announced an initiative to help low- and middle-income Americans gain access to solar energy, part of a series of steps President Obama is taking to tackle climate change, according to administration officials."