"Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he will 'soon' pardon one of his sharpest critics — jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky — and said that a newly enacted amnesty law would free imprisoned Greenpeace activists and two members of the punk band Pussy Riot."
"This coming Sunday, Dec. 22, marks five years since the Kingston Coal Plant's ash dam in Tennessee ruptured, sending more than a billion gallons of toxic sludge into homes, onto farmland, and into the Emory and Clinch Rivers in Roane County - one of the biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history. Five years later, we're still waiting - and pushing - for the Environmental Protection Agency to put in place long-overdue protections to prevent more coal ash disasters."
"U.S. gasoline pump prices are poised to reach their lowest level this year as supply expands to a two-decade seasonal high and winter curbs demand."
"U.S. federal regulators on Thursday said oil and gas company Chesapeake Energy Corp will pay a civil penalty of $3.2 million to settle Clean Water Act violations in West Virginia where it drills in the Marcellus Shale."
"New Mexico's attorney general sued on Thursday to block a horse slaughter plant scheduled to open next month from becoming the first facility of its kind to operate in the United States in more than five years."
"OTTAWA — An environmental and economic review panel approved plans for a pipeline and port project that, if built, will move oil from Alberta’s oil sands to tankers on Canada’s Pacific Coast."
"The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday struck down portions of a law that stripped some of the powers municipalities have to decide where the booming natural gas industry can operate."
ASEH's 2014 Environmental History Conference in San Francisco, March 12-16, will include more than 100 sessions, 10 field trips, a digital history workshop, and more.
"HOUSTON — Nearly four years after the Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion that left 11 dead, a former low-level engineer at BP was found guilty on Wednesday of obstruction of justice for deleting messages during a federal investigation into how much oil leaked."
"SAN FRANCISCO -- Chevron Corp. failed to maintain equipment at a California refinery and has not responded adequately to multiple airborne chemical releases, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday."
