Despite Democrats' promises, a Congressional investigation into whether military contractor KBR knowingly exposed soldiers to toxic sodium dichromate in Iraq seems to be going nowhere.

"The state is poised to ban the use of mercury-tainted coal fly ash at a Ravena cement plant that is the state's second largest source of airborne mercury pollution."

A big-money rancher alumnus caused Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to change a scheduled lecture by best-selling sustainable food writer Michael Pollan -- raising questions about academic freedom.

"A proposed coal-fired power plant in Surry County (Va.) would add 'significant and harmful' amounts of mercury and other pollutants to the Chesapeake Bay and several river systems in coastal Virginia already suffering from excessive mercury levels, a study released Wednesday concludes."

"Canada's major waterways have suffered significant alterations in their natural flows, a WWF-Canada report contends."

"Environmentalists are taking the fight over coal beyond Capitol Hill and onto college campuses."

Fixing leaks of natural gas -- alias methane, a potent heat-trapping gas that causes up to a third of human-caused global warming -- can save money and slow warming.

"The politically influential American Farm Bureau, the self-described 'national voice of agriculture,' has outlined a new campaign effort to derail Congressional bills to combat climate change."

"Oil prices reached a fresh one-year high above $75 a barrel Thursday in Asia on a weaker U.S. dollar and growing investor optimism about an economic recovery."

"Army Corps of Engineers officials on Wednesday defending their handling of a rowdy crowd of coal industry supporters who repeatedly interrupted other speakers at a mountaintop-removal public hearing Tuesday night."