By
Meredith Shiner
| June 18, 2013, 7:32 p.m.
Sen. Barbara Boxer of California is privately lobbying fellow Democrats on the Environment and Public Works Committee against a toxic chemical bill negotiated by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg in the weeks before his death.
By
Lauren Gardner
| June 18, 2013, 2:59 p.m.
Both sides in the fight over a proposed hard-rock mine near Alaska’s Bristol Bay are ratcheting up their public relations efforts, as the EPA’s comment period for a draft ecological risk assessment of the watershed draws to a close at the end of June.
By
Lauren Gardner
| June 18, 2013, 2:55 p.m.
The EPA has only used its Section 404(c) “veto” authority 13 times; twice in the 21st century. The power was exercised most frequently during the Reagan administration. Here are some highlights of proposals regulators blocked:
By
Emma Dumain
| June 13, 2013, 6:59 p.m.
Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., has yet to win the Senate seat vacated by now-Secretary of State John F. Kerry, but Reps. Peter A. Defazio and Raúl M. Grijalva are already fighting over who should replace him as the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee.
Andrew J. Littlefair
| June 7, 2013, 1:05 p.m.
United Parcel Service’s announcement that it plans to expand its fleet of trucks running on liquefied natural gas, or LNG, to 800 by the end of next year is just the latest in a line of companies casting their vote for natural gas as the preferred commercial vehicle fuel. UPS joins AT&T, Frito-Lay, Republic Services, Ryder, Swift, Waste Management and many others making the switch to American natural gas.
By
Lauren Gardner
| June 4, 2013, 1:57 p.m.
Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start to the summer driving season — and in recent years that has meant steadily rising gas prices. But for the second consecutive year, drivers filling their tanks for holiday road trips paid less at the pump on average than a year earlier.
Raymond J. Keating
| May 30, 2013, 5 a.m.
Considerable attention on Capitol Hill has been given to America’s natural gas potential in the past month, yet the Department of Energy continues to slow-walk liquefied natural gas export permits. Despite the recent DOE decision to grant approval of a single application for a LNG export facility in Freeport, Texas, more than 20 export applications remain in limbo.
Dale Hall
| May 20, 2013, 1:20 p.m.
As the Agriculture committees in the House and Senate turn their attention to considering and reporting out a five-year farm bill this month, it’s important to consider how many Americans have felt the negative effects of not having a comprehensive bill.
Mark Wenzler
| May 17, 2013, 1:41 p.m.
When he visited the Grand Canyon 100 years ago this month, President Theodore Roosevelt admonished Americans to “leave it as it is. You can not improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children’s children, and for all who come after you.”
By
Lauren Gardner
| May 14, 2013, 3 p.m.
To mark National Skin Cancer Awareness Month, a group dedicated to educating schoolchildren about the hazards of too much sun exposure will hold a reception Wednesday to honor winners of its annual poster contest.
By
Lauren Gardner
| May 14, 2013, 2:52 p.m.
SunWise isn’t the only EPA education program on the budget chopping block.
By
Emily Cadei
| May 13, 2013, 3:55 p.m.
After a temporary lull, Congress is gearing up to try to pass new Iran sanctions legislation in the coming months that could severely restrict whole segments of Iranian commerce, including oil. The aim is to have votes in both chambers as early as June, with a consensus bill moving to the president’s desk before the August recess.
Andrew Garfinkel and H Kenneth Hudnell
| May 13, 2013, 1:27 p.m.
Congress must ask the Environmental Protection Agency why, after more than 40 years of increasingly costly watershed management (WSM) technologies and best-management practices, water quality is continuing to deteriorate. Since enactment of the Clean Water Act in 1972, controlling point- and nonpoint-source nutrient and pollutant loading from watersheds into waterbodies has been the EPA’s sole method of addressing waterbody impairment. The agency failed to implement the third pillar of the CWA, waterbody management (WBM). A systems approach is needed to improve water quality using effective and cost-efficient WSM practices and WBM interventions so that freshwater impairment can be reversed and prevented in the near term at a much lower overall cost.
By
Nathan Hurst, Lauren Gardner
| May 10, 2013, 6:31 p.m.
Louisiana Democrat Mary L. Landrieu has revamped her amendment to freeze flood insurance rates for five years, removing the biggest obstacle to final Senate action this week on legislation to authorize federal projects for flood control, navigation and environmental restoration.
Rep. Bill Cassidy
| May 10, 2013, 2:03 p.m.
In 2010, President Barack Obama failed to pass his signature cap-and-trade legislation in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Among the concerns was that the expensive, onerous mandates placed on manufacturers and energy producers would destroy jobs and lead to increased energy costs for consumers and businesses. Realizing Congress was unwilling to pass such destructive and far-reaching mandates, Obama took an alternate route of pursuing his cap-and-trade policies through backdoor regulations at the Environmental Protection Agency.
J.C. Boggs
| May 9, 2013, 5 a.m.
The Keystone Kops, fictional incompetent policemen featured in silent film in the early 20th century, are back in less comedic and all too real form with a new mission to block development of the Keystone XL pipeline and trip up efforts to obtain the requisite government approvals that will enable the United States to enhance its energy independence.
David Williams
| May 7, 2013, 5 a.m.
The Environmental Protection Agency is always looking for ways to expand its power and scope. That’s not exactly news in Washington and not dissimilar to most federal bureaucracies. But unlike many other agencies, the EPA has figured out a way to completely eschew government transparency and circumvent the traditional regulatory process in a way that needlessly spends more taxpayer dollars.
Gregory C. Staple and Brian A. Skretny
| May 6, 2013, 5 a.m.
During a March trip to Argonne Labs, one of the government’s premier research sites, President Barack Obama challenged Congress to help him “break th[e] cycle of spiking gas prices” and “shift our cars and trucks off of oil” by creating a new Energy Security Trust. Funded with royalty payments from federal oil and gas leases, the trust would invest $2 billion over 10 years on research and development for alternative transportation fuels including electric batteries, biofuels, hydrogen fuel cells and natural gas.
By
Ellyn Ferguson
| May 3, 2013, 1:21 p.m.
A House panel’s decision to look back at mandates set in the 2007 renewable-energy law could be a pivotal moment for industries hoping to slow down growth in the ethanol industry.
By
Ellyn Ferguson
| May 3, 2013, 1:19 p.m.
The Renewable Fuel Standard underscores the difficulties of trying to plan for the future.
