Public

"Parents, scientists and officials blasted the federal Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday at a hearing on whether to relax safety standards for toxins in public schools."

"Petrochemical giant BP didn't file a plan to specifically handle a major oil spill from an uncontrolled blowout at its Deepwater Horizon project because the federal agency that regulates offshore rigs changed its rules two years ago to exempt certain projects in the central Gulf region, according to an Associated Press review of official records."

"Orange-colored oil from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has washed up on the western side of North Island, the northernmost sliver of the Chandeleur and Breton Island chain, and officials with BP and federal and state agency say they have drafted a strategy to begin cleaning it up."

"A federal judge ordered a documentary filmmaker Thursday to turn over about 600 hours of raw footage from a film about a court fight over whether Chevron Corp. owes billions of dollars in damages for oil contamination in Ecuador."

"As the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill raises questions about the safety of offshore drilling, the Interior Department has indefinitely suspended plans for an oil and gas lease sale off the Virginia coastline."

"More than 250 U.S. scientists on Thursday defended climate change research against 'political assaults' and warned that any delay in tackling global warming heightens the risk of a planet-wide catastrophe."

"The Consumer Product Safety Commission ... voted to begin writing a rule to allow manufacturers, big and small, to essentially break the required testing process for lead, lead paint and other potential dangers into parts."

"U.S. emissions of the main greenhouse gas from fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas fell a record 7 percent in 2009 due to the recession and more efficient use of fuels, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday."

NOAA scientists say recently observed sea turtle strandings along the Gulf Coast are not related to the oil spill there, although NOAA is planning to help oiled sea turtles.

Native Americans in Michigan are trying "to stop an international mining giant from destroying the site where Ojibwa ceremonies have taken place as long as elders can remember."