Environmental Politics

Colorado's experience may prove that EPA's new carbon rule is survivable.

"SAN FRANCISCO -- Environmental advocates seeking to curb Chevron's plans to modernize and expand its Richmond oil refinery sued Bay Area air-quality regulators Thursday, claiming they approved construction based on outdated reports that understated the plant's greenhouse gas emissions and the pollutants it would spew into surrounding neighborhoods."

"Kentucky may be well positioned to meet a carbon emission target for power plants set by federal regulators, even as U.S. Senate candidates there blast the plan, saying it will cripple the state's coal industry."

"Will Russian President Vladimir Putin get richer thanks to a sweetheart government coal deal in Montana? Last month the Treasury Department informed Congress that Mr. Putin personally held an interest in an international oil and gas investment fund called the Gunvor Group, run out of Geneva, Switzerland. Team Putin adamantly denied his involvement, but the Treasury Department insisted it was right."

"For months, a company that stores giant mounds of petroleum coke on Chicago's Southeast Side has maintained it had nothing to do with gritty clouds of dust blowing into surrounding neighborhoods or black residue staining the sides of nearby houses."

"The United States slapped new import duties on solar panels and other related products from China on Tuesday after the Commerce department ruled they were produced using Chinese government subsidies, potentially inflaming trade tensions between the two countries."

"When House Speaker John Boehner told a group of reporters on Thursday that he would not discuss climate change on the grounds that he, himself, was not a scientist, he joined the ranks of other prominent Republican politicians who have refused to talk about the issue on the same grounds."

"Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) lambasted the Obama administration’s proposed regulation to limit carbon emissions from power plants, saying the middle class will bear the brunt of the rules."

"In large part, the wide-ranging reaction to President Barack Obama's signature effort to cut power plant carbon emissions could have been written months in advance."

"Michael Stark, a contributor to The Huffington Post. Ken Ward, a reporter for The Charleston Gazette. Margaret Newkirk, a former reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal. What do they have in common? Murray Energy, the largest privately owned coal company in the United States—which has accused them all of publishing defamatory articles about the company or its founder and president, Robert E. Murray."