The Washington Post’s Innovations blog examines the implications of a solar-powered airplane that flew from California to Washington, D.C.

“Solar Impulse’s flight across America could unlock the future potential of solar energy,” their piece states.

Reuters unwraps a new World Bank report that explores how global warming threatens developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and south and southeast Asia.

The New York Times looks at why natural gas prices are increasingly un-tethered from oil pricing worldwide.

Discover magazine asks, “how opposed to nuclear energy are liberals?”

Politico reports that a Tuesday House hearing showed that “even if the debate over climate change is largely settled in much of the scientific community, it’s still alive in the halls of Congress.”

White House climate aide Heather Zichal will discuss Obama’s agenda at a morning forum titled: “The Politics of Climate Change.”

A bipartisan group of state attorneys general are warning environmental regulators not to let threats of lawsuits force the release of new rules for carbon emissions from power plants.

Officials from 21 states sent a letter to acting Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Bob Perciasepe claiming that threats to sue the agency for delaying the rules have "no legal merit" and should be ignored.

"Appropriate process should not be subjugated, and effective policymaking cannot be forced to fruition, by threatening litigation," the attorneys general write.

The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) has hired Lindsay Fitzgerald, an Environmental Protection Agency expert on the national renewable fuels mandate, to be its director of regulatory affairs.

Fitzgerald comes to the newly created position from her role as a specialist in EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality, where she worked on the Renewable Fuel Standard, which mandates increasing amounts of biofuels in the nation’s transportation fuels supply.

“Her extensive knowledge of the RFS will be a tremendous benefit to our industry and to our members as they navigate the program,” Anne Steckel, NBB's vice president of federal affairs, in a statement.

Hunters cannot import skins or rugs made from polar bears for their own personal display, a federal court affirmed on Tuesday.

Since 2008, polar bears have been listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act and protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) used to prevent hunters from importing pelts and other parts of the animals.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said he’s sure Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is bluffing about ending the filibuster.

House Democrats on the Appropriations Committee on Tuesday blasted their Republican counterparts for cutting Energy Department spending on renewable energy by 50 percent.

The committee moved a bill out of subcommittee Tuesday that would cut $911 million in spending on renewable energy research and development.

“We must develop a more secure energy future for this country,” subcommittee Ranking Member Marcy Kaptur (R-Ohio) said. “This is not really forward looking development for our country.”

Full committee Ranking Member Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) called the cuts “deep and severe.”

“With global carbon emissions at record highs and extreme weather events caused by global warming happening with increased frequency and deadly force, I see no justification for such drastic cuts to investments in renewable energy that decrease our carbon footprint,” she said

“The only other ... use of that term is Holocaust denier,” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said Tuesday at a hearing.

Opponents of proposed coal export terminals in the Pacific Northwest were dealt a blow Tuesday when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it wouldn’t conduct a broad environmental evaluation for the projects.

Jennifer Moyer, the Corps’s acting regulatory chief, said during a House hearing that there is “no compelling justification” to conduct an area-wide environmental impact statement for each of the three outstanding applications to build coal export terminals in Washington and Oregon.

“They are independent projects in different locations, whose impacts are not related,” she told the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Energy and Power.