Environmental Politics

"The head of the Energy Department’s embattled clean energy loan program is leaving in what officials called a planned departure."

"Early last year, the Obama administration was so optimistic about the business prospects of Solyndra, the solar equipment manufacturer that declared bankruptcy last month after receiving a $528 million government loan, that officials entertained the possibility of giving the California company a second loan of almost half a billion dollars, according to internal e-mails."

"A document filed with Canada's Energy Board appears to cast doubt on claims by Koch Industries that it has no interest in the controversial pipeline."

"An environmental group accused Republican Rep. Steve Pearce of New Mexico of inciting a county in his district to flout federal environmental laws by bulldozing 47 road crossings through a stretch of the San Francisco River in the Gila National Forest."

"The Environmental Protection Agency, under pressure from some states, industry and Congress, is expected to ease an air quality rule that would require power plants in 27 states to slash emissions, said people familiar with the matter."

"Canada is spending billions of dollars on poorly planned climate change programs and could miss its modest 2020 target for greenhouse gas emission cuts, Parliament's environmental watchdog said on Tuesday."

"Robert Lee High School's typically lush, green field is bone-dry and dusty this year, on account of punishing drought. In a place where football is a religion, locals do all they can to save the sod."

"U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was planning to set a stricter nationwide limit on ground-level ozone when the White House axed the plan last month, the 468-page rulemaking package prepared by the agency yesterday shows."

"A century-old federal program that compensates counties straddling huge tracts of nontaxable national forests has expired, and House Republicans are using its reauthorization to push for opening the land to more logging and mining."