"A group of community organizations has sued the Environmental Protection Agency about new rules on pesticide emissions, saying the regulations do too little to protect public health."

"The pheasant, once king of Iowa’s nearly half-a-billion-dollar hunting industry, is vanishing from the state. Surveys show that the population in 2012 was the second lowest on record, 81 percent below the average over the past four decades."

"The Environmental Protection Agency has granted California a Clean Air Act waiver allowing the state to set new standards to control emissions of various pollutants, including greenhouse gases, for passenger vehicles through 2025."

"ANCHORAGE -- Royal Dutch Shell PLC's foray into Arctic offshore drilling has suffered a serious setback after one of its two Alaska drilling rigs ran aground in shallow water off a small island."

"A one-year extension of a key tax credit for the wind industry made it into the fiscal cliff deal the U.S. Senate and House passed on Tuesday."

"TOKYO — The newly elected prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, said Sunday that he would seek to build nuclear reactors, reversing within a week in office a campaign pledge to move Japan away from nuclear power."

"WASHINGTON -- For the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, whose lands straddle the North and South Dakota border, river water means drinking supplies. For Illinois farmers, it's irrigation for their crops."

"Friends say he has the vigor of a younger man, but Ed Merrifield knows the truth. He is tiring at age 65, and ready to give up his demanding third career as the Potomac riverkeeper."

"If the United States ever enacts a major climate-change law, it will owe a debt to Arnold Schwarzenegger."

"LIBERAL, Ks. -- Real estate agent Mark Faulkner recalls a day in early November when he was putting up a sign near Ulysses, Kansas, in 60-miles-per-hour winds that blew up blinding dust clouds."