"The House on Wednesday failed to pass a bill to make it easier for federal regulators to shut down mines with a history of safety problems, dealing a blow to groups that had sought tougher regulation."
"The Obama administration won't be able to fill a key science position until it testifies about a decision to block areas of the eastern Gulf and Atlantic seaboard from new oil and gas drilling, a Republican senator said Thursday."
"The world's governments struggled on Wednesday to break a deadlock between rich and poor nations on steps to fight global warming and avert a new, damaging setback after they failed to agree a U.N. treaty last year in Copenhagen."
"A Libyan intelligence officer convicted of the bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland was released from prison following threats to British business interests, US State Department documents released by WikiLeaks reveal."
The House late Wednesday passed a stopgap omnibus appropriations measure that included $7 billion in new loan guarantee authority for commercial nuclear power plants -- as well as the food safety bill.
"An extension of the major U.S. ethanol subsidy 'is part of the deal at the moment' in negotiations for an omnibus tax bill, but the size and lifespan of the subsidy are not set yet, a trade group said on Wednesday."
"The United States government lobbied the head of the U.N. climate panel to block the appointment of an Iranian scientist to a key position, saying it would be problematic, leaked U.S. diplomatic cables show."
"One day after U.S. EPA asked for more time to issue controversial limits on air pollution from industrial boilers, an influential advocacy group for state and local regulators today urged the agency not to be swayed by 'total hyperbole' from industry."
The conservative Daily Telegraph yesterday published a headline saying glaciers were growing, when the story beneath it -- and the study it reported -- said glaciers were melting. That is, the headline stated the opposite of the truth, a convenience for deniers of climate change and opponents of regulating greenhouse gases. The Daily Telegraph's reputation on Fleet Street has been burnished in recent years by the publication of no less than four premature obituaries. Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones, pondering why the public are confused about climate change, concludes: "The press has really blown it on coverage of this and other issues of science on global warming in the past year."
"The Environmental Protection Agency said on Wednesday it was again delaying its final rule on smog limits, with the rule now expected by the end of July 2011."
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