Economy & Business

A growing number of recent graduates are passing on careers in traditional industries and media for work on sustainability, often in the nonprofit sector.

"Natural gas companies have been placing enormous bets on the wells they are drilling, saying they will deliver big profits and provide a vast new source of energy for the United States. ... [But documents show industry analysts voicing] skepticism about lofty forecasts and question whether companies are intentionally, and even illegally, overstating the productivity of their wells and the size of their reserves."

"Wary of a new surge in gas prices, the Obama administration said Thursday it is selling off 30 million barrels of oil from the country’s emergency reserves as part of a broader international response to lost oil supplies caused by turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, particularly Libya."

EPA chief Lisa Jackson told the Senate Environment Committee Wednesday that American Electric Power's recent narrative about job loss resulting from EPA's mercury regulations was were "misleading at best and scare tactics at worst."

"After 33 years of consideration, the Food and Drug Administration took steps on Tuesday to sort out the confusing world of sunscreens, with new rules that specify which lotions provide the best protection against the sun and ending claims that they are truly waterproof."

"With Congress deeply divided over whether climate change is real or if the country should use less fossil fuel, efforts in the United States have paled in comparison [to enterprises in countries ranging from the U.K. to China aimed at reducing carbon emissions]. That slow start is ceding job growth and profits to companies overseas that now profitably export their goods and expertise to the United States."

"Facing heavy criticism for a sluggish economic recovery, U.S. President Barack Obama brought his talk about the importance of growing more green jobs to a thriving LED factory in North Carolina Monday."

"The plastic bag industry, increasingly on the defensive as municipal bag bans proliferate, has gone on the attack against ChicoBag, a competitor that bills itself as an eco-friendly alternative. A federal lawsuit in South Carolina accuses ChicoBag of illegal trash-talking about plastic bag waste."