House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) is not pleased with EPA’s decision Thursday to toughen water quality requirements for proposed mountaintop coal mining projects in West Virginia and other Appalachian states.

"While EPA's effort to more clearly articulate the criteria it wants to impose on proposed coal mining operations in Appalachia is appreciated, I continue to have a fundamental concern with the agency treating coal mining in this region differently than any other industrial activity in the United States," Rahall said in a prepared statement, according to the West Virginia State Journal.

"The Clean Water Act should be applied evenly and equally throughout the country, as has been done so in the past. EPA is departing from that practice and I strongly disagree with it creating a separate set of standards and criteria for Appalachian coal mining," he added.

A big wind energy conference in Texas next month will feature a speech by former President George W. Bush, who didn’t always see eye-to-eye with renewable energy advocates while in office.

From the American Wind Energy Association announcement earlier this week that Bush will address their WINDPOWER 2010 conference in Dallas:

The former president will talk about his experience as Texas's governor, and as President, in advancing the wind energy agenda. (Texas is the number one wind state in the United States and, though most people don't realize it, it was President Bush who first raised the prospect of getting 20% of U.S. electricity from wind.)

There’s plenty of coverage of EPA’s decision Thursday to toughen water quality rules for Appalachian coal mining operations, which Jim blogged about here.

The Wall Street Journal calls the action a “significant step in the EPA's push under the Obama administration to limit the practice of mountaintop coal mining and its environmental effects.”

Environmentalists are thrilled with the plan, while the industry said it will cost jobs.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, is removing his state from the Governor’s Wind Energy Coalition after the group sent a letter supporting a national renewable electricity mandate he opposes. Here's the termination letter.

McDonnell says he supports wind power, particularly off his state’s windy coasts, as part of an “all of the above” energy strategy. “I am concerned, however, that a mandated standard could increase energy prices for Virginia consumers,” McDonnell wrote to the executive director of the coalition, which now includes 28 governors as members.

McDonnell said the wind energy coalition's letter was sent without his approval.

The White House insists its oil-and-gas drilling plan isn't a matter of horse trading for the climate change votes.

A day after environmentalists roundly criticized the Obama administration for expanding offshore drilling, green groups are cheering newly-finalized rules that boost vehicle fuel economy and limit tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions.

The Transportation Department and EPA completed joint rules Thursday – covering model years 2012-2016 – that they estimate will conserve nearly 1.8 billion barrels of oil and cut emissions by nearly a billion tons over the lives of the vehicles.

“This action represents an essential step toward meeting the president’s goals of transforming our nation’s energy policies, rebuilding the struggling economy and protecting the planet for future generations,” said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, one of several environmental groups that cheered the new rules.

EPA announced today new permit requirements for mountaintop mining operations designed to reduce water pollution levels. An industry official called the changes "sweeping" in scope and a threat to jobs in Appalachia.

The guidance from EPA establishes a range of conductivity levels for streams affected by runoff from mountaintop mining, a controversial practice in which explosives literally blow off the tops of mountains to expose coal seams near the surface. Conductivity is a measure of the salt in the water. The higher the salt levels the more difficult it is for organisms to survive.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the intention wasn't to stop coal mining but to stop water pollution from coal mining and to provide the industry with greater clarity on water standards mines have to meet.

"The people of Appalachia shouldn't have to choose between a clean, healthy environment in which to raise their families and the jobs they need to support them," Jackson said in a statement.

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Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Thursday that finalizing new auto efficiency rules took lots of work for his department.

The Transportation Department and EPA rolled out final rules Thursday – covering model years 2012-2016 – that sharply increase fuel economy standards and impose first-time carbon dioxide limits on vehicles.

Asked on a conference call if DoT and EPA would continue collaborating on rules for subsequent years, he joked: “Anything post-2016 will come after people get a good week of sleep.”

Sarah Palin is alleging that White House plans to expand offshore oil-and-gas drilling are an effort to "shore up fading support" for climate change legislation and said the proposal creates roadblocks to new energy production.

"Behind the rhetoric lie new drilling bans and leasing delays; soon to follow are burdensome new environmental regulations. Instead of 'drill, baby, drill,' the more you look into this the more you realize it's 'stall, baby, stall,'" Palin wrote Wednesday night in commentary posted on the website of the National Review, a conservative magazine.

Palin – the former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP candidate for vice president – pointed to the decision to cancel planned lease sales for regions off Alaska’s northern coast to allow further study. President Obama is also placing Alaska’s Bristol Bay off-limits to drilling.

"I've got to call it like I see it: The administration's sudden interest in offshore drilling is little more than political posturing designed to gain support for job-killing energy legislation soon to come down the pike," Palin writes. "I'm confident that GOP senators will not take the bait."

Click here to see a map that describes the Alaska offshore drilling strategy.

Click here to see a map that describes the Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico drilling strategies.