Two environmental groups are challenging Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli's legal action to block federal regulation of greenhouse gases.

The Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of Wetlands Watch filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington late Thursday supporting the Environmental Protection Agency's findings that greenhouse gases are dangerous to people.

The groups say Cuccinelli's challenge to the EPA findings is an "unwarranted stall tactic" that is a dangerous distraction from the impacts of climate change.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it will launch a $1.9 million study into how drinking-water supplies are affected by hydraulic fracturing, a method used to turn shale rock into natural gas wells.

The practice, which has been used for decades, unlocks natural gas by shattering shale rock with high-pressure blasts of water, chemicals and sand. Starting a well requires millions of gallons of water and results in some leftover water that is contaminated; drilling companies say it can be safely contained, but environmentalists argue that this residue could endanger public drinking supplies.

WASHINGTON--The Obama administration on Thursday indicated that it is moving on two fronts to gain information about a key oil and natural-gas production technique that is viewed as essential for boosting gas supplies but that critics fear could contaminate drinking water.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched a study to determine whether "hydraulic fracturing" is contaminating water supplies. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told a House panel that he is considering requiring oil and gas companies that drill on federal lands to disclose the chemicals used in the practice, which involves pumping water, sand and chemicals under pressure into deep ...

epa to study 'fracking' gas drilling method new orleans — the environmental protection agency said thursday that it will study potential human health and water quality threats from an oil and natural gas drilling technique that injects massive

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will do a detailed study of hydraulic fracturing, the technique used to extract natural gas from dense shale formations, to determine whether it poses risks to surface and ground water.

The study has been expected for some time but the EPA formally announced its plans today, saying it has $1.9 million set aside for the study this year with more funds possible next year.

March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Risks to water quality and public health from using hydraulic fracturing to obtain natural gas will be studied by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the regulator said.

The EPA is in “the very early stages” of designing a research program and will spend $1.9 million this year to begin the work, according to a statement by the agency today.

Energy companies are expanding their use of fracturing, injecting water and chemicals into rock to free gas deposits from shale formations. Organizations such as the Washington- based Environmental Working Group say hydraulic fracturing can taint drinking-water supplies.

complaints of dogs and cats injured and sometimes even killed by flea treatments have increased significantly, the environmental protection agency said wednesday as it outlined plans to make the products safer. the epa says it will develop stricter

, it will develop stricter testing and evaluation requirements for flea and tick treatments that are applied to pets' skin. the agency also will begin reviewing labels to determine which ones need to say more clearly how to use the products. (ap photo/sharon

Anti-flea and tick products, known as spot-on, and sold for use on dogs and cats, will not be banned or pulled from the market after a nearly nine-month government investigation into their safety.

But labels are expected to change in the coming months.

The products under scrutiny are called spot-on because they are liquid products that are applied topically, usually once a month, to a dog or cat's skin, often between the shoulder blades. After a reported spike in the number of dogs and cats getting sick or dying in 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency investigated whether the anti-flea and tick products were the cause.

March 17 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration said it will increase restrictions on tick-and-flea “spot-on” products for pets because of a rise in adverse reactions in cats and dogs, including seizures and death.

The Environmental Protection Agency will start reviewing product labels to determine which require more information and then will work to develop more stringent testing and evaluation requirements, the agency said today in a statement. Names must be different for products to treat cats and dogs to avoid confusion, the agency said.

SEATTLE - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it will consider ways the states can address rising acidity levels in oceans, which pose a serious threat to shellfish and other marine life.

The agency's decision was announced in a legal settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity. The environmental group sued the EPA last year for not requiring Washington state to list its coastal waters as impaired by rising acidity under the Clean Water Act.

SEATTLE-The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it will consider ways the states can address rising levels of carbon dioxide in oceans.

The agency on Thursday settled a lawsuit filed last year by the Center for Biological Diversity in San Francisco.

The problem stems from oceans absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and results in the rising acidity of the water. It seriously threatens shellfish and other marine life.

WASHINGTON - The head of the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday pushed back against lawmakers' attempts to halt the EPA's regulation of greenhouse gases from power plants, refiners and other industrial facilities.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the agency's proposed new rules, which would take effect next year, could help ignite new demand for clean energy technology.

Instead of trying to block new rules, lawmakers should spend their energy focusing on 'new legislation to do something' about climate change, Jackson told reporters after a speech at the National Press Club.

as the company and the federal environmental protection agency were set to release separate reports assessing the dredging in 2009 of pcb "hot spots" north of albany. the epa had yet to release its report monday afternoon, but the agency

As climate change legislation stalled in the Senate, the Obama administration noted that it had a workable -- although admittedly unwieldy -- Plan B. If Congress wouldn't cap U.S. emissions, officials said, the Environmental Protection Agency would do it instead.

Now, even Plan B may be in trouble.

On Thursday, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) introduced a bill that would put a two-year freeze on the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gases from power plants. His was the latest of various congressional proposals -- from both chambers and both parties -- designed to delay or overturn the EPA's regulations.

March 4 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would be blocked from regulating greenhouse gases from power plants, oil refineries and other industrial sources for two years under legislation introduced today by Senator Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat.

The “two-year suspension” will give Congress “the time it needs to address an issue as complicated and expansive as our energy future,” Rockefeller said in an e-mail. Under the EPA's current plans, new regulations for industrial sources of carbon dioxide and other gases that scientists have linked to climate change would start next year.

CHICAGO -- The Environmental Protection Agency has added a cluster of waste-disposal sites in Chicago and a former copper smelter in southern Illinois to its list of Superfund locations, allowing the government to go after polluters and force them to pay up for cleanup.

The 87-acre Lake Calumet Cluster in Chicago and the former Chemetco smelter in Madison County near St. Louis were among 10 the EPA added this week to its Superfund National Priorities List. The listing will enable the EPA to continue its investigation into the contamination's extent and pinpoint the best way to deal with it.

A pesticide that contaminates the tap water consumed by millions of Americans has been found to produce gender-bending effects in male frogs, "chemically castrating" some and turning others into females, a study shows.

Frogs in the experiment were exposed to amounts of the weedkiller, atrazine, that are comparable to the levels allowed in drinking water by the Environmental Protection Agency, says lead researcher Tyrone Hayes of the University of California-Berkeley. The study was released Monday afternoon in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

WASHINGTON - Two top House Democrats have introduced a measure aimed at blocking the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating pollution-causing greenhouse gases.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson of Minnesota and Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton of Missouri want to veto the EPA's finding in December that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.

HONOLULU - The Environmental Protection Agency is sharply criticizing the military's plan to move thousands of Marines to Guam, saying its failure to plan for infrastructure upgrades would lead to raw sewage spills and a shortage of drinking water.

Further, the agency said the military's plan to build a new aircraft carrier berth at the U.S. territory's Apra Harbor would result in "unacceptable impacts" to 71 acres of a high quality coral reef.