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"Regulators in the United States knew they had to act fast. A train hauling 2 million gallons of crude oil from North Dakota had exploded in the Canadian town of Lac-Megantic, killing 47 people. Now they had to assure Americans a similar disaster wouldn’t happen south of the border, where the U.S. oil boom is sending highly volatile crude oil every day over aging, often defective rails in vulnerable railcars."

"During their careers as oil and gas inspectors for the Texas Railroad Commission, Fred Wright and Morris Kocurek earned merit raises, promotions and praise from their supervisors. ... But they may have done their jobs too well for the industry’s taste—and for their own agency’s."

"Congressional appropriators [Tuesday] night unveiled a $1 trillion spending bill to fund most government agencies through the end of the year, making slight cuts to U.S. EPA while boosting spending at the Departments of Energy and the Interior."

"A new study looked at the health impacts on adults drinking a liquid from bottles lined with BPA, and found that the chemical not only made it into their bodies but seems to have caused a significant increase in blood pressure."

"A rust-colored shorebird known for a nearly 20,000-mile migration will now receive federal protection, setting the stage for states to coordinate preservation plans for the dwindling species."

"The federal government’s big-money commitment to restoring the Great Lakes is now almost certain to continue another five years thanks to House passage Tuesday of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative of 2014."

"BERKELEY -- Oil trains that could roll through some Bay Area cities on their way to a Central Coast refinery will not carry volatile Bakken crude, but another type that comes with equally dire threats to the environment and public safety, environmentalists warn."

"A coalition of activists on Tuesday protested outside the office of the federal Bureau of Land Management in Reno to decry an auction of huge tracts of public land for private oil and gas exploration that they claim damages the environment and guzzles water in a time of drought."

"Rebuilding Louisiana's coast, including the rapidly eroding Mississippi River delta, should be the main use of billions of dollars in expected BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill fine and restoration money, according to two reports released Tuesday by the National Wildlife Federation and a coalition of national and Louisiana environmental groups."

"Some of the millions of abandoned oil and natural gas wells in the United States are still spewing methane, marking a potentially large source of unrecorded greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study released on Monday."