"An independent government inquiry into the State Department's choice of a private contractor to steer the latest Keystone XL environmental review could remain open through this fall, raising the specter of a further delay in a final decision on the contentious pipeline project that President Obama vowed in March to rule on before 2014."

"The Enbridge pipeline, converted from natural gas, would carry tar sands crude like the Keystone XL but is expected to easily win regulatory approval."

"The expansion of a terminal along the heavily industrialized Houston Ship Channel normally receives little attention. But Kinder Morgan Energy Partners’ plans to refurbish two docks have opened a new front in the fight over coal."

"Keystone XL pipeline is under scrutiny as State's inspector general probes conflict of interest charges surrounding a review of Keystone XL."

"Google’s climate scientists are not happy with the company’s political support for climate science denying Senator James Inhofe (R-OK)."

"The world's soil is in trouble. Ecologists say without dramatic changes to how we manage land, vast swathes of grassland are at risk of turning into hard-packed desert. To make sure that doesn't happen, researchers are testing out innovative ways to keep moisture in the soil."

"A leak in Exxon Mobil Corp's nearly 70-year-old Pegasus pipeline, which spilled thousands of barrels of crude oil in a small Arkansas town in March, appears to have been caused by an original manufacturing defect, U.S. regulators said on Thursday."

"While environmentalists, energy executives and elected officials across North America await the State Department’s critical decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, a little-noticed trial scheduled for next month in Nebraska could spell problems for the $5.3 billion project."

"ANNAWAN, Ill. — The outside world is not allowed in a sanitized and isolated pig farm here, not far from the Iowa border."

"PORT EDWARD, British Columbia -- Some of the world's largest energy companies are racing to transform backwaters like this hamlet of 544 people into boomtowns."