Natural Resources

"The Obama administration on Thursday imposed strict new environmental guidelines that are expected to sharply curtail 'mountaintop' coal mining, a controversial practice that has enriched Appalachia's economy while rearranging its topography."

"The topmost peak of Ontario's most outstanding geologic feature, the Niagara Escarpment, is under threat from two proposed quarries. But now the quarriers must deal with the massed opposition of a national nonprofit organization, a provincial regulatory agency and two local community groups."

"An energy company with government approvals to launch the first significant U.S. oil sands project is trying to raise money to build a plant in eastern Utah that would turn out 2,000 barrels of oil a day."

"Water quality downstream from surface coal-mining operations in West Virginia and Kentucky greatly exceeds recommended toxicity limits, according to previously unreleased sampling data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency."

"U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said Monday her agency is not seeking to halt mountaintop removal, but will 'try to minimize, if not end, any environmental degradation to the water' caused by the practice."

"The Obama administration has delayed action on a set of broad-ranging and specific measures to reduce the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal, after details of the plan were leaked to coal-state mining regulators."

"A White House working group of Cabinet-level officials on Thursday outlined a road map for speeding the design and construction of coastal restoration projects in Louisiana and Mississippi, and pledged to give coastal restoration the same priority as navigation and flood protection in future federal decision-making."