Public

"President Obama's nominee for Interior secretary was grilled this morning over how she would balance conservation and development on hundreds of millions of acres of public lands, whether she would support a carbon tax and how she would regulate the controversial technique of hydraulic fracturing."

"Sally Jewell, the CEO of outdoor retail giant REI, was also criticized by some Republican senators over her role as a board member of the National Parks Conservation Association and her support of outgoing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's former "wild lands" policy.

"Environmental groups and wildlife lovers near Joshua Tree National Park on Monday applauded a proposed state law that would ban trapping of bobcats for commercial purposes."

"Report says toxic waste is being spread by scrap metal dealers, and describes its 'alarming' use in civilian areas during Iraq wars."

"RICHMOND -- The Environmental Protection Agency will not appeal a federal district court’s ruling declaring it is illegal for the EPA to regulate storm water as a pollutant as it flows into Virginia waterways."

"New York’s Assembly approved a two- year ban on the natural-gas drilling method known as fracking, after two previous attempts to block the practice failed and with the state Senate taking a different approach."

"BILLINGS, Mont. -- Environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the owners of Montana's massive Colstrip coal-fired power plant, seeking to force the installation of more pollution controls at the decades-old facility."

"AUSTIN, TEXAS — More than three decades ago, after an energy crisis that gripped the world, a Catholic priest in the Texas city of Lubbock took a stand for the environment. His congregation needed a new church. So the priest, the Rev. Joe James, anchored the building deep in the earth to optimize insulation. He also ordered five wind turbines for the church grounds. The largest was called Big Bird, because it stood 80 feet tall."

"Home satellite TV provider DISH Network Corp has signed a deal to run 200 of its trucks on propane, in the latest indication that the niche fuel could soon rival natural gas as the United States' cheap transport alternative."

"BANGKOK, Thailand -- Governments have refused to ban trade in polar bear pelts, paws and teeth from Canada, amid what one observer called “controversial and frosty scenes” at the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in Bangkok [Thursday]."

"The Department of Energy on Wednesday put forward a long-term plan to extract and ship low-level radioactive waste from leaking tanks at Washington state's Hanford Nuclear Reservation to a dump in New Mexico."