"Dozens of coal-mining permits proposed across Appalachia need much more scrutiny because of concerns they will illegally damage water quality, the Obama administration said Friday."

"Cass Sunstein, President Obama’s pick to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, was confirmed handily by the Senate just now by a vote of 57 ayes to 40 nays."

"Russia is surpassing Saudi Arabia in oil exports for the first time since the Soviet Union’s collapse as Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin exploits OPEC production cuts to gain market share."

"The federal government said Thursday that it would seek an unprecedented role as the environmental police of the Chesapeake Bay -- enforcing new rules on farmers and keeping a closer eye on state-level bureaucrats -- in an effort to halt the estuary's long decline."

"A federal lawsuit by two industry groups aims to halt the U.S. government and the state of California from moving ahead with new greenhouse gas emissions rules for cars and trucks."

"For hundreds of years, mariners have dreamed of an Arctic shortcut that would allow them to speed trade between Asia and the West. Two German ships are poised to complete that transit for the first time, aided by the retreat of Arctic ice that scientists have linked to global warming."

"Workers at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site have finished excavating a leaky pool built in the 1950s to hold spent fuel from nuclear reactors."

"Hispanics have a cancer risk from air pollutants as much as five times the rate of others living in the same cities. But it isn’t outdoor air posing the greatest danger; it is something much closer to home: Toilet deodorizers and moth repellents in their bathrooms and closets. Researchers call for a ban on the carcinogenic chemical used in the consumer products."

"Even as Idaho has sold more than 14,000 wolf-hunting permits, the first 10 days of the first legal wolf hunt here in decades have yielded only three reported legal kills."