Former Vice President Gore slammed the White House press corps Tuesday for failing to press President Obama on climate change during a news conference.

Draft federal rules on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, will be released in a matter of “weeks, not months,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Tuesday.

The draft rules have undergone “sufficient change,” Jewell said during a media call. They’ll go through a public comment period once revealed.

Interior decided in January to rewrite the rules that would govern fracking on federal lands.

A federal reassessment found the region holds twice as much shale oil and three times the gas as previously estimated.  

The federal environmental regulator has established limits for residues of the chemical weed-killer commercially known as Roundup on fruits and vegetables.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing tolerances for residues of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's popular herbicide brand, on agricultural crops.

The new rule, scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, establishes different limits for various crops including carrots, canola seeds and citrus fruits. For instance, the EPA is setting the limit for sweet potatoes at 3 parts per million of the chemical, while most oilseeds have a limit of 40 parts per million.

Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes is stepping down after four years as the second-ranking official at the agency that plays a major role in setting and carrying out U.S. energy policy.

Hayes plans to leave at the end of June. He will be a senior fellow at the Hewlett Foundation and plans to teach at Stanford Law School, where he received his law degree, next fall.

“It was a difficult decision to leave the department, but I’m looking forward to heading out West to return to Stanford and to partner with the Hewlett Foundation, where I will continue to develop progressive solutions to our nation’s environmental and natural resources challenges,” said Hayes, who won unanimous Senate confirmation in May 2009.

Saudi Arabia’s oil chief said Tuesday that he expects newfound fossil fuel reserves in the United States will further integrate — rather than isolate — the nation into the international market.

“I believe these reserves will lead the United States into a much deeper engagement in world energy markets,” Saudi Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Ali al-Naimi said at a Washington, D.C., event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The recent discovery of a wealth of U.S. fossil fuels has many lawmakers heralding a not-too-distant future free of oil imports from the Middle East, Venezuela and other nations.

A bipartisan group of 14 farm-state senators is pressing the Obama administration to challenge new European duties on U.S. ethanol imports before the World Trade Organization.

In a letter to U.S. trade officials, the lawmakers call the penalties announced in February “unprecedented” and say that European officials failed to make the case that any specific producers or marketers are engaged in “dumping.”

“We believe this rule sets dangerous precedent for trade and trade remedies in advance of the well-publicized start of important trade talks between the United States and the European Union, and will dramatically and unilaterally change the boundaries and limits of international anti-dumping law,” states the April 29th letter to acting U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis and acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank.

Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) and eight others signed the letter.

Want to encourage politically conservative shoppers to buy climate-friendly, energy efficient products? Ditching the green messaging would help, new research suggests.

The study led by a Wharton School researcher says “promoting the environment can negatively affect adoption of energy efficiency in the United States because of the political polarization surrounding environmental issues.”

Here’s more from the summary of the paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences:

The New York Times goes hiking with newly minted Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in Shenandoah National Park, where she chats about the job. From the paper's story:

[S]he said that no matter how determined she is to spend her time promoting outdoor recreation or increasing renewable energy production, events can rudely intrude.

“You never know what’s going to hit you in a job like this,” she said. “For Secretary Salazar, very unfortunate, but the Deepwater Horizon spill happened relatively early in his term and it took an enormous amount of time and energy that one has to deal with. Things happen. Earthquakes happen. Natural disasters happen. The American West is a tinderbox right now.” Read more...