"In the midst of the domestic energy boom, livestock on farms near oil-and-gas drilling operations nationwide have been quietly falling sick and dying. While scientists have yet to isolate cause and effect, many suspect chemicals used in drilling and hydrofracking, or fracking, operations are poisoning animals through the air, water or soil."

A new study suggests that BP's use of dispersants during the 2010 Gulf oil spill likely allowed oil to penetrate beaches more deeply, making harmful effects last longer.

"When the Obama administration temporarily banned BP from federal contracts Wednesday, it pointed to BP's 'lack of business integrity' and conduct relating to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill. The sanction, however, has been years in the making."

"The 'American' in American Petroleum Institute, the country's largest oil lobby group, is a misnomer. As I reported for The Nation in August, the group has changed over the years, and is now led by men like Tofiq Al-Gabsani, a Saudi Arabian national who heads a Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) subsidiary, the state-run oil company that also helps finance the American Petroleum Institute. Al-Gabsani is also a registered foreign agent for the Saudi government."

"Ken Salazar, the secretary of the interior, announced on Thursday that he would not extend the lease of an oyster farm in the Point Reyes National Seashore in Northern California, allowing the estuary there to become a wilderness area."

"Foresters are on the watch for a potential invasion of an insect that has decimated millions of acres of forest across the West and in Canada, with continued evidence showing the mountain pine bark beetle is on the march into Nevada and the Sierra."

"The U.S. government's proposal to use the canal to deliver water to Mexico doesn't sit well with farmers and officials in the Imperial Valley."

"A series of drenching, powerful storms is lining up from the Pacific Ocean and will roll onshore in the West Coast through the weekend."

"Years of delays in addressing contamination at an old lead factory property near a Chicago elementary school appear to be coming to an end in the wake of pressure this week from community groups and a city official."

"CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A longtime Massey Energy executive has agreed to cooperate with investigators as they continue to try to work their way up the corporate ladder in their probe of the worst U.S. coal-mining disaster in nearly 40 years, federal prosecutors revealed Wednesday."