"The Obama administration said Monday that it would require significantly more environmental review before approving new offshore drilling permits, ending a practice in which government regulators essentially rubber-stamped potentially hazardous deepwater projects like BP’s out-of-control well."
"To ensure that oil rigs, tankers and other commercial ships are in safe operating condition, governments around the world, including the U.S. government, often rely on inspections by private firms that are hired and paid by the vessels' owners. But how much confidence should the world have in the maritime watchdogs?"
"U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he has never seen anything like the flood disaster in Pakistan, and urged foreign donors to speed up assistance to the 20 million people affected."
"Trains carrying deadly chemicals rumble through our backyards every day, but railroad companies hauling them refuse to publicly disclose exactly what those substances are, or how often they travel through the area."
"Delving into the gritty details of how offshore drilling is regulated, a National Academy of Engineering inquiry into the Deepwater Horizon well blowout found a big hole in oversight during a hearing on Thursday."
"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."
Reporters can find most of the environmental monitoring data EPA has collected on one webpage in a form that can be queried or downloaded.
Before leaving town for its August vacation, Congress stripped $12 million for the commission from an appropriations bill and denied that panel the subpoena power it needs to find out what happened or what should be done to prevent another spill.
St. Petersburg Times' Craig Pittman reports the scientists' announcement in May that research boats had discovered a 6-mile long underwater oil plume was greeted with shushing from the Coast Guard and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"Drilling the final feet of a relief well intended to permanently plug the busted BP oil well deep below the Gulf of Mexico will have to wait two to three days as a strengthening tropical depression bears down on the site."
Advertisement 
