National (U.S.)

"The tobacco industry is accused today of misleading smokers over the safety of additives in cigarettes."

"Energy and the environment are typically 'back burner' issues in national elections, but both are huge this year for Republicans. From tarring President Obama’s administration with allegations of mismanagement and favoritism for pushing renewable-energy and a 'green jobs' agenda, to lambasting 'job-killing' environmental regulations, GOP candidates have embraced both energy and environmental issues with gusto. Take a look at where each of them stands."

"The massive drought that has dried out Texas over the past year has killed as many as half a billion trees, according to new estimates from the Texas Forest Service."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will release standards to combat air-toxics emissions from power plants during an event tomorrow at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington."

"In the last-minute rush in Congress to finalize spending for the current fiscal year and head home for the holidays, one of the losers appears to be USEC, the uranium enrichment company, and the politics are more convoluted than ever.

"Want a sleek tablet or a fax-scanner-printer for Christmas? As you part with the old stuff, be aware that more states have made it illegal this year to simply throw away computers, printers and TVs.

Seventeen states have banned electronic waste from landfills, requiring it to be recycled so its toxic materials don't leach into groundwater. Seven of these bans took effect this year, and two more will take effect soon: Illinois in January 2012 and Pennsylvania in January 2013.

"MONTPELIER, Vt. -- The likely death of a planned nuclear waste site at Nevada's Yucca Mountain has left federal agencies looking for a possible replacement. A national lab working for the U.S. Department of Energy is now eying granite deposits stretching from Georgia to Maine as potential sites, along with big sections of Minnesota and Wisconsin where that rock is prevalent."

"Robert Finne was talking with a friend about the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission earlier this year when they both started wondering, 'Who are these people?' So they wrote to the commission and asked. Finne, a critic of gas drilling in the Fayetteville Shale, was surprised to learn that most of the commissioners owned oil and gas drilling companies. 'I knew the cards were stacked against us, but I had no idea how badly,' Finne said."

Mike Soraghan reports for Greenwire December 19, 2011.

"Despite a long history of accidents, and a stack of warnings from safety investigators, there are still thousands of miles of antiquated, leak-prone, cast-iron pipelines running under the streets of Pennsylvania cities and towns. Some are more than 100 years old."

Joseph Tanfani and Craig R. McCoy report the last of a four-part "Battle Lines" series for the Philadelphia Inquirer's Deep Drill reports December 18, 2011.

"At a fall retreat, board members of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the environmental advocacy group, listened as a political consultant gave a critique of the green movement."