News bites: Oil rises amid hopes for ‘cliff’ deal, Sen. Wyden eyes nuke waste policy, and more

Reuters reports that oil prices rose Tuesday amid signs that Republicans and the White House are closer to a deal that would avoid the “fiscal cliff.” Coal is expected to rival oil as the world’s top energy source by 2017 as consumption rises, the International Energy Agency concludes. The Guardian has more.

The New York Times looks at how new Senate energy chief Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) hopes to break the nation's nuclear waste policy logjam.

The Times reports:

The incoming chairman of the Senate Energy Committee suggests that the Energy Department should stop billing utilities more in waste disposal fees than the department is actually spending on addressing nuclear wastes. And he wants the department to pay for moving some of the wastes out of spent fuel pools at the nation’s highest-risk reactors and into dry casks.

Time magazine explores how oil is fueling tensions between Iraq and its autonomous Kurdish region.

National Public Radio reports on a project that tracks how climate change is affecting Mount Everest and its glaciers.