What about Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne? Or any other federal agency political appointee accused of putting the White House and industry before environmental science?

Yesterday Kempthorne announced an executive change to the Endangered Species Act: federal agencies will replace independent scientific review panels as the source for decisions affecting everything from ...

Get out your shovels, Alaskans! The New York Times' Felicity Barringer reports that the Interior Dept. has opened 2.6 million acres of a petroleum reserve in northeast Alaska. The area could unleash 965,000 barrels of oil.

The Bush administration has not, however, approved opening up 600,000 acres at the tip ...

That's the news this morning from the Washington Post, which looks at a 120 year-old problem  involving Native American lands. Del Quentin Wilbur lays out the ongoing lawsuit by hundreds of thousands of Native Americans seeking $58 billion ...

The Interior Dept. announced yesterday that the polar bear would be designated as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. But as the New York Times’ Felicity Barringer explains, it’s not all good news for the polar bear or the environmental groups that have pushed for its protection. Interior Dept. ...

A number of environmental groups have sued Interior Dept. Secretary Dirk Kempthorne for his delay in deciding if the polar bear is an endangered species. As Mother Jones’s Daniel Schulman reports, many more groups could sue when that decision is made.

The Dept.’s Fish and Wildlife Service could ...

The Washington Post’s Carol D. Leonnig details a troubling audit by the Interior Dept’s inspector general on unsafe parks, dams, schools and fish hatcheries. For example, there could be dangerous levels of carbon monoxide around a Yosemite Park tunnel. Thirteen schools ...

A U.S. district judge in California ruled yesterday that the Bush administration has until May 15 to decide whether or not to put the polar bear on the endangered species list. The Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin notes that the decision goes against ...

Interior Department Secretary Dirk Kempthorne promised 15 months ago that in a year he would determine whether the polar bear is an endangered species. The Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin notes that he still hasn’t and environmental groups are suing because of it.

Yesterday, Kempthorne was ...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is considering whether to put four different kinds of seals in the Bering Strait on the endangered species list because of melting ice. The Washington Post’s Juliet Elperin points out that the seals may not be the first arctic ...

The New York Times editorializes today against – hold on to your seat – the Environmental Protection Agency for overruling the environmental protection recommendations of staff scientists. The struggle in question involves the White House’s Office of Management and Budget successfully pressuring EPA not to put pollution controls ...