"EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson spent an hour listening to residents of El Paso, Vinton, Westway, Sunland Park and other locations who spoke of health problems they believe are related to pollution from a steel plant, a landfill, chemical plants, dairies and Asarco, the shuttered smelter."

"Residents believed they could stop Vulcan Materials Co. from shifting its operations within the city's foothills. But in a special election, voters gave the go-ahead."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed tight restrictions on using people as test subjects — or, as critics have put it, guinea pigs — in pesticide research."

"The United States said on Thursday farmers could proceed with planting genetically altered alfalfa without any of the restrictions that opponents say are crucial to protect organic and conventional farm fields from contamination."

"Many of the world’s top shark-fishing nations have yet to develop plans to manage and conserve dwindling shark populations, despite a 2001 pledge to do so, a new report from two conservation groups says."

"From the sometimes bizarre front lines of the climate-change culture wars: It seems the brothers Koch, proprietors of the giant, Kansas-based industrial conglomerate and well-heeled supporters of Tea Party causes, have now set their sights on a group of anonymous pranksters who spoofed a Koch Industries press release last month — one that suggested the brothers were having a change of heart on climate change."

"U.S. EPA's air division has made headlines under President Obama for its push to limit greenhouse gases and toxic pollution, but the busy office is running late with new limits on asthma-inducing soot, close observers of the rulemaking process say."