"WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama said on Thursday he would pick Howard Shelanski, an antitrust expert, as his new regulatory czar, a powerful White House position charged with reviewing regulations proposed by government departments."

"Digging a large mine in southwest Alaska would inflict widespread ecological damage, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a report on Friday that could hurt the chances of a proposed project in that region winning regulatory approval."

"PITTSBURGH -- The Environmental Protection Agency has dramatically lowered its estimate of how much of a potent heat-trapping gas leaks during natural gas production, in a shift with major implications for a debate that has divided environmentalists: Does the recent boom in fracking help or hurt the fight against climate change?"

"The Environmental Protection Agency is reporting promising but uneven results in its latest report on costly efforts to control toxic pollution creeping away from Delaware’s largest Superfund cleanup site."

"Federal officials are cautioning nuclear-powered plants that store spent fuel in dry casks to be on the lookout for water damage."

"GENEVA -- At the start of a major conference to regulate chemical and hazardous waste safety, top officials voiced optimism Saturday that delegates will approve new international controls on several industrial compounds and agree to clamp down on some cross-border pollution."

"Budget cuts, expired grants and shifted priorities have decimated [Detroit's] response to child lead poisoning. Detroit has some of the highest child lead poisoning levels among all large U.S. cities."

"President Obama plans to nominate Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx to serve as transportation secretary, a White House official said Sunday."

"WASHINGTON -- Eighteen years after a domestic terrorist murdered 168 people in Oklahoma City with an ammonia nitrate bomb, the federal government and the chemical industry are still jockeying over how to regulate a volatile and plentiful fertilizer that contributed to the devastating plant explosion in West.

At least five federal agencies enforce a patchwork of overlapping and sometimes conflicting regulation of chemical plants. The system is reliant on voluntary reporting by industry, and by nature is largely reactive to complaints or catastrophes.

"EU member states vote in favour of continent-wide suspension of neonicotinoid pesticides."