Many landowners who sign leases with oil and gas companies as the "fracking" boom rolls through Texas, Colorado, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia think the lease terms pay them well and protect them from damage. Investigative reporters from the New York Times got the leases and read the fine print. They concluded that many of the leases victimize landowners.

"Exposure to atrazine, a commonly used weed killer, increases the risk of reproductive problems in a wide range of animals, says a new review study that analyzed research from around the world."

"Worries about fires, explosions and chemical releases prompted the federal agency in charge of workplace safety on Wednesday to expand a special inspection program focusing on the nation's chemical plants. Regulators believe the industry is particularly vulnerable to such hazards, meriting the closer attention."

"Yet some plants will continue to be shielded from the special inspections, despite past worker deaths, because of their status as 'model workplaces.'

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, who once thought climate change was man-made and required action, has changed his position. He now denies the scientific consensus.

"Jon Jarvis, the director of the National Park Service, has said that its decision to scuttle a planned ban on small plastic water bottles at Grand Canyon National Park had nothing to do with opposition from the Coca-Cola Company. But a November 2010 e-mail released on Thursday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request tells a different story."

Felicity Barringer reports for the New York Times' Green blog December 1, 2011. [20]

"Millions of cattle graze on public lands all over the West and have done so for more than a century. But a new complaint filed by an environmental group charges that despite Clinton-era moves to examine and diminish the impact of grazing in the arid West, Interior Department employees have blocked the use of federal data on the impact in regional scientific studies.

"The gusts that pummeled the western San Gabriel Valley, including Pasadena and La Cañada-Flintridge, were produced by two separate weather systems that channeled cold air from the north into the L.A. area."

"The Obama administration said Thursday that a series of new air pollution rules for power plants would not cause power shortages, although the expert panel designated by the government to ensure electricity reliability warns that compliance with these rules could strain generating capacity.

"NEW ORLEANS — Under a new formula announced on Wednesday by Kenneth R. Feinberg, the administrator of the $20 billion fund set up by BP for victims of the 2010 oil spill, shrimp and crab fishermen along the Gulf Coast may be eligible for settlement payments significantly larger than what they were previously offered."

"State oil and gas agencies across the country are straining to prevent a flood of new drilling from harming human health and the environment. But that's not really their job. Or at least not all of it. Their job is also to promote drilling. And sometimes the law makes that their top priority."