"WASHINGTON — A senior Energy Department official pushed hard for the government’s $535 million loan to the now-bankrupt California solar energy company Solyndra even after he had disclosed that his wife’s law firm represented the company and he had promised to recuse himself from matters related to the loan application, according to e-mails provided to Congressional investigators by the administration.

"Mesothelioma, an exceedingly rare and lethal form of cancer, was once thought to be caused only by inhaling asbestos fibers. Then in the late 1970s, when astonishing rates of the disease were reported among villagers in central Turkey, it turned out that a different fibrous mineral was the culprit. Erionite was abundant in native soil and stone, and so easy to work with that villagers had used it to build homes."

"WASHINGTON — With the formal debate over on Friday, a decision on an oil pipeline that will cross America's heartland and open up a greater market for Canada's oil sands now rests with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton."

"HOUSTON -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed easing new pollution restrictions that angered several states and infuriated GOP presidential contender Texas Gov. Rick Perry."

Green climate activists have declared their solidarity with the "Occupy Wall Street" movement.

"Inspectors from the Food and Drug Administration are searching fields in Colorado's Rocky Ford region for clues as to how cantaloupes grown there this summer caused at least 100 illnesses and 18 deaths. But if a new law had been in place, they might have been there before the outbreak."

"The Republican-controlled House passed the first of two bills Thursday to delay rules to cut toxic air pollution and mercury from cement plants, solid waste incinerators and industrial boilers."

"Friends of the Earth, an environmental group, expanded its Freedom of Information Act request concerning the State Department’s evaluation of the Keystone XL pipeline proposal, which involves the construction of a new pipeline to carry crude from Canadian oil sands to the Gulf Coast. The environmental group’s original request had centered on communication between the State Department and Paul Elliott, the chief Washington lobbyist for TransCanada, the pipeline company."

"A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has ruled with the coal industry — and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection — in the first phase of a lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s crackdown on mountaintop removal mining."

"The head of the Energy Department’s embattled clean energy loan program is leaving in what officials called a planned departure."