National (U.S.)

"Southern California is poised to become the world's solar power capital as the Obama administration continues to stamp its approval on large-scale renewable energy projects across the Mojave and Colorado deserts."

The market-based cap-and-trade approach to climate legislation was originally a product of a business coalition and Republican principles. Then some of the people who invented it began vilifying it.

"BP has agreed to pay a record $50.6 million fine to the federal government for safety violations found by regulators last year at its troubled refinery in Texas City, Tex., where 15 workers died in a 2005 explosion."

"Television and movie makers have no excuse for not jumping on the 'green' movement bandwagon. A new website with resources on everything from recycling sets to cruelty-free mascara makes it simple to do so."

"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."

"Lowe’s Companies Inc., the nation’s No. 2 home improvement chain, has set off a legal firestorm by agreeing to a national settlement over tainted drywall in a class-action suit being decided in a Georgia state court. The $6.5 million settlement would pay relatively small amounts to individuals who had the tainted drywall in their homes. But the handful of attorneys who quietly negotiated the deal will receive a separate payment of $2.1 million."

"The White House Office of Management and Budget is reviewing a proposed rule from U.S. EPA that would require carbon storage facilities to report their emissions, ensuring they are keeping the carbon dioxide they inject out of the atmosphere."

"The Environmental Protection Agency's plan to roll out regulations on planet-warming gases may hit a snag in the coming months -- opposition from environmentalists."

"It may be one of the most beloved activities of hyperactive children and the parents who love them: bouncing in a bounce house [Ed. Note: aka 'Moon Bounce']. But, according to Attorney General Jerry Brown of California, it may also be toxic."