Environmental Politics

"It's worth a lot to the oil and coal lobbies to get the Congress they want and the investment seems to be paying off."

"The Republican takeover of the U.S. House makes Rep. Mike Simpson chairman of Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies and the second-ranking Republican on the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development."

"Lynda Lovejoy, a state senator in New Mexico, and her running mate, Earl Tulley, have lost their bid to become the first woman and the first environmental leader to lead the Navajo Nation, the largest American Indian tribe."

"In the wake of Election Day, prepare for a new round of politicized skirmishes in the never-ending climate wars, with the battleground shifting once again to Capitol Hill hearing rooms."

"The coal industry, facing a host of new health and safety regulations, is spending millions of dollars in lobbying and campaign donations this year to influence the makeup of the next Congress in hopes of derailing what one industry official called an Obama administration 'regulatory jihad.'"

"Looks like Proposition 23, the attempt to torpedo California's landmark AB32 climate bill, is going down by a very large margin. According to the most recent tally, 61 percent of state voters said 'No' to the initiative."

"Opponents of a Nevada nuclear waste dump thought they'd finally managed to kill the Yucca Mountain project. Then came Sharron Angle."

"Battle lines have been hardening over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline over the last couple of weeks. The pipeline, which will stretch from Alberta in Canada to refineries on the Gulf Coast, would nearly double the United States' capacity to import oil made from Canadian oil sands. Canadian oil sands are a plentiful and secure source of oil, but the extraction process is high in carbon dioxide emissions and takes a toll on pristine Canadian forest ecosystems."

"It is a 20-block trip from the Interior Department headquarters to the House Natural Resources Committee's Capitol Hill hearing rooms, and Secretary Ken Salazar may get to know it well."

"Until recently, Prop. 26, which would require the Legislature and local governments to use a two-thirds vote rather than a simple majority to pass fees on businesses, had been overshadowed by other measures."