Natural Resources

Campo Kumeyaay Nation, a small tribe in the desert mountains east of San Diego, benefitted from the casino that opened in 2001. Now it wants to build a 25-turbine wind farm called Kumeyaay 1, the only large-scale renewable energy plant on Indian land in the country. But a big problem is the tribe's tax status: as a sovereign nation it can not receive the federal tax credits that make such projects feasible.

"Volunteering in state parks has long been a staple of the Boy Scouts experience. But in Georgia this year, as the Boy Scouts celebrate their 100th anniversary by building bridges and park benches, maintaining trails and cleaning up waterways, the ongoing event is unusual in one respect: It’s sponsored by Verizon Wireless."

"The Navajo Nation's proposed coal plant always rested on shaky ground. Now, it may collapse entirely."

"EDGARTOWN, Mass. — Standing alongside the 13th green at the Vineyard Golf Club on Martha’s Vineyard, Jeff Carlson spotted a small broadleaf weed between his feet. As the superintendent charged with maintaining the club grounds, he instinctively bent to pluck it, then stopped."

"Researchers at the University of Georgia said Monday that more than three-quarters of the oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon drilling-rig explosion could still be in the Gulf threatening fisheries and marine life, disputing government statements that much of the oil had been safely dispersed."

"In the race to build hybrid cars and wind turbines to feed growing demand for green technology, China has one clear advantage, it holds the world's largest reserves of rare earth metals and dominates global production."

"In the end, Gov. Charlie Crist’s effort to buy huge swaths of sugar company land for the Everglades restoration was just too much: too much money, too much land to handle, and too much of a fight with critics and the courts."

"The Interior Department has released the rest of a partially leaked document listing potential sites for new national monuments, but the move did nothing to quell Republican accusations that the Obama administration is plotting to lock up public lands."