"A California appeals court ruled this week that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has until the end of this month to decide whether or not to ban a widely used pesticide linked to a number of health problems."

"A divided federal appeals court on Thursday rejected an effort by a coalition of environmental groups to revoke federal approval of Royal Dutch Shell Plc's (RDSa.L) oil spill response plans related to drilling on Alaska's remote Arctic coast."

"If House Republicans get their way, President Obama won't be able to use any trade pact to strike a deal on climate change."

"Many Southern California communities stand out as some of the nation’s worst environmental justice hot spots, according to a new map released Wednesday by the Obama administration."

"After a long delay, the Obama administration has signaled that it’s ready to launch talks with Canada to renew the 51-year-old Columbia River Treaty, a controversial pact that created dams for electricity and flood control in the Pacific Northwest."

"U.S. environmental regulators are expected within days to propose rules to make trucks more fuel efficient, and trucking industry executives and lobbyists familiar with the process said the rules will probably call for boosting fuel efficiency by 2027 nearly 40 percent from 2010 levels."

"More than 35,000 square miles (90,650 sq km) of ocean habitat along the U.S. Atlantic coast gained protection on Wednesday from trawl and dredge fishing that could harm deep-sea ocean corals, according to an environmental group supporting the restrictions."

"A bill that would effectively overturn a new Environmental Protection Agency clean water rule won a critical committee vote Wednesday and now appears headed for a decision by the full U.S. Senate."

"The Obama administration said on Wednesday that it would take the first step toward regulating greenhouse gas emissions from airplanes, but it acknowledged it would most likely take years before stringent standards are enacted."

"Sitting on a hill about a half-mile from the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant is a hulking concrete and steel bunker. It is jammed full of new trucks, trailers, portable generators, pumps, hoses, electrical cables and a raft of other emergency equipment."