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Proposals afloat in Congress would raise taxes on the oil industry to help pay for spill cleanup. The industry objects, claiming the burden would harm not only companies, but the country. But the oil industry already gets tens or hundreds of billions in tax breaks and outright subsidies from the federal government.

"In the 77 days since oil from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon began to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, BP has skimmed or burned about 60 percent of the amount it promised regulators it could remove in a single day."

"Concerns about large-scale marine pollution, fuelled by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, are set to be heightened by a new development in exploitation of the oceans: deep-sea mining." The Gulf spill has raised concern about other oil and gas operations as well.

"The Environmental Protection Agency proposed tough pollution caps for the Chesapeake Bay Thursday, requiring Maryland and other mid-Atlantic states to do more to clean up the troubled estuary than previously thought necessary."

"The Minnesota Department of Health on Thursday released a list of hundreds of chemicals that pose a potential health risk. The state's list includes 1,755 substances, among them lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium. But it also includes many other organic chemicals that include pesticides, flame retardants, dyes and other chemicals used in industry or found in consumer products."

"An international group of researchers is renewing its call for a global ban on the mining and use of asbestos, a known cause of cancer they say is unsafe in any form."

"The Obama administration has given its tentative approval to a new mountaintop removal permit, provided the Logan County operation makes changes federal regulators say are needed to protect downstream water quality."

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are balking at backing loans that include federal stimulus financing for solar panels and other energy improvements.

"The House on Thursday passed the first major bill related to the Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion, voting to allow families of those killed and injured workers to be compensated far more generously than current law allows."

Clean-looking sand is being dumped on the beaches of Grand Isle, and some of it is layered over asphalt-like oil residue, according to several reports based on photo and video documentation. But whether this is being done to fortify beaches or to hide oilspill damage is impossible to say -- because of a BP-Coast Guard media blackout threatening $40,000 fines to anyone who tries to get close enough to tell.