"Massachusetts and California are the two most energy-efficient states, according to a report this week from a group that promotes new energy policies, technologies and investments."

"The U.S. federal budget fight might prevent a timely study of the country's new energy bonanza, a senior official said, and stands in the way of data that could help ease volatility that is costly to energy companies and traders alike."

"Pregnant women exposed to higher levels of the chemical bisphenol A gave birth to baby boys with lower thyroid hormones, according to a new study published today."

"It's lights out for the standard 100-watt incandescent light bulb after new national energy-efficiency laws took effect Monday."

"ST. LOUIS -- Doris Spates was a baby when her father died inexplicably in 1955. She has watched four siblings die of cancer, and she survived cervical cancer. After learning that the Army conducted secret chemical testing in her impoverished St. Louis neighborhood at the height of the Cold War, she wonders if her own government is to blame."

"A standoff between environmentalists in trees and workers clearing the way for a Texas portion of the Keystone XL pipeline has led crews to move around the protesters."

"It is the issue most notable by its absence in the 2012 presidential race. But the environment may yet have an impact this election as campaign groups target the vulnerable congressional seats of Republicans who dismiss the dangers of climate change."

"DENVER -- The deep division between President Barack Obama’s green energy policies and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney’s preference for coal and tar sands oil were apparent in their first presidential debate tonight in Denver."

"Challenged by Obama to explain his plan for the country if he is elected on November 6, Romney replied, 'My plan has five basic parts. One, get us energy independent, North American energy independent. That creates about four million jobs.'

Nancy Rabalais, a marine ecologist dedicated to studying the "dead zones" in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere, has won one of this year's MacArthur "genius" grants. Rabelais directs the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium in Chauvin, La., and, since the mid-1980s, she has conducted the major monitoring program collecting basic data on seasonal oxygen levels and nutrients in Gulf waters.

"At 9:30 a.m. on a warm day in March, eight men and two women stepped off Pennsylvania Avenue and into the northwest gate of the White House. They were top-level refining executives from the world's largest oil companies, Chevron Corp., Marathon Petroleum Corp. and BP PLC, escorted by Jack Gerard, the brash president of the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry's top lobby."