National (U.S.)

"With the Obama administration about to decide whether to green-light a controversial pipeline to take crude oil from Canada’s oil sands to the United States Gulf Coast, e-mails released Monday paint a picture of a sometimes warm and collaborative relationship between lobbyists for the company building the billion-dollar pipeline and officials in the State Department, the agency that has final say over the pipeline."

"Earlier this week, I published a post pointing out that the Daily Caller's claim that the EPA plans to hire 230,000 employees to enforce new climate regulations is false. Since then the Daily Caller has quadrupled-down on the claim, despite a number of other outlets -- first Politico, then Greg Sargent's Washington Post blog -- also pointing out that it was flat-out wrong. Now the Caller has published an editor's note that, rather than reasserting the claim, attempts to reframe their entire argument."

Many people have told stories of getting severely sick near natural gas wells, especially ones using the controversial fracking technique. One of the biggest barriers to determining whether the gas production is causing illness is the gas industry's resistance to disclosing the toxic emissions and hazardous wastes they generate.

Abrahm Lustgarten and Nicholas Kusnetz originally reported the story for ProPublica September 16, 2011.

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"EPA finds trichloroethylene causes kidney and liver cancer, lymphoma and other health problems. The decision could raise the cost of cleanups nationwide, including in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys."

"SANTA FE -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved a plan for the clean up of the largest and highest priority abandoned uranium mine on the Navajo Nation."

"SACRAMENTO -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today ordered a $60 million cleanup of groundwater polluted with rocket fuel at the Aerojet Superfund Site in Sacramento County, the latest phase of a long-term decontamination project at the site."

"The U.S. Department of Energy said on Wednesday it will provide a Texas clean coal plant with $450 million in funding months after a power company shelved plans for a similar plant in West Virginia."

"An ongoing federal investigation into last year's massive rig explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has found that a particularly lax U.S. regulatory regime was a significant factor in the events leading up to the disaster."

"Five engineer climbers will take four more days to meticulously photograph every marble block as they look for damage caused by the August earthquake."

"When Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) recently suggested that the human papillomavirus vaccine — recommended for girls and young women to protect against cervical cancer — was dangerous and could cause mental retardation, the American Academy of Pediatrics pushed back hard. The AAP, which represents 60,000 pediatricians, issued a statement saying the claim had 'absolutely no scientific validity.'"