"Federal regulators may be able to assert Clean Water Act jurisdiction over more waters and wetlands than are now protected on the basis of a draft scientific study that links all streams and certain wetlands with larger, downstream navigable waters, attorneys and policy analysts say."
"WASHINGTON -- The Transportation Department office charged with overseeing the 2.6 million miles of pipelines in the United States is spending more time at oil and gas industry conferences than it is addressing spills and other incidents, a watchdog group contends in a new report."
"Tesoro Logistics LP detected anomalies during an inspection of its 20-year-old North Dakota pipeline just days before the line ruptured and spilled 20,600 barrels of oil onto farmland, the company said on Thursday."
"Nuclear power plants: Some regions have many more safety violations than others, suggesting inconsistent enforcement of nuclear power plant regulations, according to a GAO study."
"By agreeing to hear a narrowly focused challenge to one portion of the Obama administration's global-warming regulatory agenda, the Supreme Court on Tuesday cast uncertainty on the scope and timing of President Obama's ambitious efforts to fight climate change—an issue on which, like his signature health care law, he hopes to build his legacy."
"LOS ANGELES -- Two U.S. senators angered by the firing of whistle-blower Walter Tamosaitis from the contaminated Hanford, Wash., nuclear site sharply criticized the U.S. secretary of Energy on Wednesday."
"Two activists and photographer to remain in jail after they, and 27 others, were arrested on ship approaching Arctic oil rig"
"The Supreme Court returns from its summer recess today with a U.S. EPA air pollution case already on its calendar and several other environmental issues potentially on the horizon."
In 2010, BLM denied Horseback Magazine photojournalist Laura Leigh access to federal land to photograph a roundup. She went to court, was rejected, then went to a complex chain of appeals. Now the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and other j-groups have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of photojournalists' First Amendment rights to cover government actions.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on September 12, 2013, approved a bill shielding journalists from being compelled to reveal their confidential sources. Its prospects for enactment look iffy in a Congress noted for gridlock. The panel approved the bill (S 987, titled "The Free Flow of Information Act of 2013) by a 13-5 vote.
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