"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."

Chinese government subsidies to the energy industry may be among nearly 200 items the U.S. is complaining about before the World Trade Organization.

"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."

"The world is tantalisingly close to eradicating guinea worm disease, which would make it only the second disease of humans to be wiped from the planet, according to former US president Jimmy Carter."

"Massive floods have ravaged vast swathes of Asia's rice bowl, threatening to further drive up food prices and adding to the burden of farmers who are among the region's poorest, experts say."

"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."

"TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- A one-two punch of excessive nutrients and ravenous mussels is causing a sharp drop-off in Great Lakes fish populations and the worst outbreak of algae blooms in decades, says a report released Tuesday."