Energy/Environment

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.

A group of House Republicans is pressing the Department of Energy for details on a loan program that has come under fire for its assistance to a number of failed green companies.

Five GOP leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee are pushing the department to give details about apparent discrepancies between the number of advertised and realized jobs created by the government program, which provides loans for some renewable energy projects.

In a letter, the representatives assert that expected jobs "have failed to materialize," yet the Energy Department has not updated its website to reflect the jobs estimated to be created or saved by the program. 

The federal environmental watchdog needs a better strategy to update its toxic chemical regulations, a government audit has concluded.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the Environmental Protection Agency's attempts to reform its chemical oversight found that the EPA has not developed planning practices to guide its work or strategies to directly address upcoming challenges. 

Outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Monday that new fuel economy standards he helped usher in with President Obama are “a big deal” that will outlast both of them.

“That will be part of President Obama’s legacy. What a legacy — cleaning up the air in America, getting cleaner burning cars,” LaHood said at a news conference in which Obama tapped Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx to lead the Transportation Department (DOT).

The updated Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standards require cars to get 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. They were finalized last August.

The Obama administration is pushing to protect public lands that could be used for producing renewable energy.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on Tuesday will publish a regulation in the Federal Register to limit mining claims near areas that have been identified as potential sites for wind or solar energy production or that are included in pending permits.

The move will prohibit claims for mining operations on a renewable energy proposal's right-of-way lands while the BLM considers the application. The bureau has had an interim rule on the books since 2011, but the adoption of the final rule will give the government a long-term mechanism to safeguard those lands.

A proposed mine near Alaska’s coast that’s garnered Capitol Hill attention would harm a habitat that houses nearly half the world’s sockeye salmon, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Friday.

The EPA’s revised draft assessment of the Pebble Mine project’s potential impact on the aquatic ecosystem in Bristol Bay, Alaska determined the mine would destroy 90 miles of streams and up to 4,800 acres of wetland salmon habitat.

New Senate legislation to implement a U.S.-Mexico energy accord omits House language that exempts oil companies operating under the pact from controversial regulations that force them to disclose payments to foreign governments.

The bipartisan leadership of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee introduced legislation Thursday to enable the Interior Department to implement the Transboundary Hydrocarbons Agreement.

The accord, which U.S. and Mexican officials signed in 2012, is designed to enable cooperation in development of oil-and-gas along a maritime boundary in the Gulf of Mexico.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Foundation is asking federal regulators to extend endangered species protections to a single whale named Lolita that is kept in a Miami aquarium.

House Republicans are livid that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is objecting to the State Department's plans to proceed with the Keystone XL oil pipeline, and accuse the regulatory agency of trying to shut down the project by saddling it with endless delays and analysis.

A federal appeals court has upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to scuttle a previously issued permit for a big mountaintop removal coal mining project in West Virginia.

Tuesday’s decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturns a lower court ruling that found the EPA had overstepped its bounds in yanking a mining company’s right to put waste into two streams and their tributaries.

It’s the latest — but not the last — chapter in the political and legal battle over the agency’s 2011 veto of the Clean Water Act permit for Arch Coal Inc.’s Spruce No. 1 mine, which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted in 2007.

The EPA’s 2011 action enraged Republicans and some coal-country Democrats who called the permit veto evidence of an agency run amuck, while green groups cheered the veto as a blow against mountaintop mining, a practice they call environmentally disastrous.