Environmental Politics

'Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the passing of her government's carbon tax is a major milestone in Australia's efforts to cut carbon pollution.'

'The State Department's inspector general will conduct a special investigation of the handling of the pending decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline in response to reports of improper pressure on policy makers and possible conflicts of interest, according to documents released on Monday.'

As the Supercommittee casts about for ways to reduce the federal deficit, the massive taxpayer subsidies for massively profitable oil and gas companies have been mentioned as a possible cut. The industry has mounted a big ad campaign and media blitz to deny that the subsidies are real.

"The White House Counsel's Office has formally rejected a congressional subpoena of documents relating to the $535 million loan guarantee that the administration shepherded for Solyndra, the now-defunct solar energy company.

In a letter to the chairs of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation, Kathryn H. Ruemmler, counsel to the president, calls the request for documents made by House Republicans a 'vast fishing expedition' and a 'significant intrusion on Executive Branch interests.'"

A car struck three "Occupy DC" protestors blocking traffic outside an event at the DC Convention Center, where two GOP presidential candidates were honoring the anti-environmental Koch brothers. The protestors were ticketed for blocking traffic and sent to the emergency room, while the driver who struck them was not charged. Accounts of the incident differed. Protestors said the driver sped up to plow through two different sets of protestors. Police said that the protestors jumped in front of a moving car and that they released the driver because he had a green light when he hit them.

"Thousands of protesters opposed to a new oil pipeline from Canada to the United States circled the White House grounds on Sunday to press President Barack Obama to reject the project for environmental reasons.

Opponents to TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport crude produced from oil sands, have dogged the president for months, arguing that the carbon emissions produced in the process of extracting oil from the sands would exacerbate climate change.

"Over the protests of its Democratic minority, a House subcommittee voted on Thursday to authorize the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee to subpoena documents from the White House related to the solar manufacturer Solyndra."

"Democrats on Thursday blocked the first major bill in the Senate that would have delayed the Environmental Protection Agency's clean air rules."

"Earlier this year, top officials with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and the Department of Justice hauled a handful of senior State Department officials into a White House meeting. The gathering was the governmental equivalent of being called into the principal's office."