"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."

"CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Air pollution from coal-fired power plants costs the U.S. more in health damage than those plants contribute to the American economy, according to a new study in a respected economics journal."

"Early last year, the Obama administration was so optimistic about the business prospects of Solyndra, the solar equipment manufacturer that declared bankruptcy last month after receiving a $528 million government loan, that officials entertained the possibility of giving the California company a second loan of almost half a billion dollars, according to internal e-mails."

"The Obama administration on Wednesday moved to speed up permitting and construction of seven proposed electric transmission lines in 12 states, saying the projects would create thousands of jobs and help modernize the nation's power grid."