Environmental Politics

"Thousands of protesters opposed to a new oil pipeline from Canada to the United States circled the White House grounds on Sunday to press President Barack Obama to reject the project for environmental reasons.

Opponents to TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport crude produced from oil sands, have dogged the president for months, arguing that the carbon emissions produced in the process of extracting oil from the sands would exacerbate climate change.

"Over the protests of its Democratic minority, a House subcommittee voted on Thursday to authorize the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee to subpoena documents from the White House related to the solar manufacturer Solyndra."

"Democrats on Thursday blocked the first major bill in the Senate that would have delayed the Environmental Protection Agency's clean air rules."

"Earlier this year, top officials with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and the Department of Justice hauled a handful of senior State Department officials into a White House meeting. The gathering was the governmental equivalent of being called into the principal's office."

As GOP presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Hermain Cain speak to the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity Foundation Friday, hundreds of protesters plan to rally against the billionaire brothers who bankroll anti-environmental causes. The Koch-Cain connection is the nexus of an evolving political scandal over alleged improper management of campaign funds by Cain's smoking campaign manager, Mark Block.

"A county Circuit judge in Virginia has sided with the University of Virginia's effort to restrict the release of personal emails from one of its former faculty members."

Republicans in a House subcommittee will vote Thursday to stop enforcement of a nonexistent rule on dust which EPA says it has no intention of ever issuing.

Front-running Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain revealed that he was unaware that China had nuclear weapons. The revelation came in an October 31, 2011, interview with Judy Woodruff on PBS Newshour.

"President Obama said Tuesday that he will decide whether to approve or deny a permit for a controversial 1,700-mile Canadian oil pipeline, rather than delegating the decision to the State Department.

"The Obama administration announced Monday that it has extended nearly 1,400 deep-water oil and gas drilling leases to make up for delays caused by last year's Gulf spill and a subsequent moratorium on some offshore exploration."