"A Brazilian rancher accused of ordering the murder of U.S. nun and Amazon defender Dorothy Stang was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison."

"Maritime authorities have pulled off an incredibly complex salvage operation without spilling any more oil into Great Barrier Reef waters. Nine days after the coal carrier Shen Neng 1 ran aground on Douglas Shoal off Rockhampton it has been refloated, and is now anchored in safe waters."

A document accidentally disclosed the Obama administration's strategy for the upcoming Cancun climate talks: bypass traditional news media, manage expectations, and present the Copenhagen Accord as an all-or-nothing, take-it-or-leave-it text.

"With the bruising health care debate over, President Obama's top economic adviser left little doubt last week that energy and climate has taken its place atop the administration's agenda."
 

The Mine Safety and Health Administration's investigation of the Massey mine disaster in West Virginia will be held in secret -- despite efforts by news media to open such investigations to the public.

A Tennessee-based chemical company, cited and fined by New Mexico authorities for environmental violations there, won $75,000 in punitive damages in its SLAPP suit against a community activist for what it claimed were defamatory public presentations.

"An 18,000 gallon spill of crude oil from a pipeline into the Delta National Wildlife Refuge has personnel from the U.S. Coast Guard, the state of Louisiana, and the Cypress Pipe Line Company scrambling to contain the spreading mess."

"A deadly accident in the early hours of April 2 at the Tesoro  refinery 70 miles north of Seattle has focused attention on the petroleum industry’s plant practices and commitment to worker safety."

North Carolina "largely ignores millions of tons of ash from coal-fired power plants that threatens to contaminate N.C. groundwater, lakes and streams, the N.C. Sierra Club says in a report today."

"Should New Jersey's environmental agency play a key role in economic development? New Jersey Environmental Commissioner Bob Martin thinks so, and soon he will appoint an assistant commissioner for economic development -- believed to be a first in the agency's nearly 40-year history."