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Reuters points out one fascinating subplot to the story of whether the Obama administration will approve completion of the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast: It would help make his most prominent political adversaries even richer. What’s been left out of the ferocious debate over the pipeline, however, is the prospect that if president Obama allows a permit for the Keystone XL to be granted, he would be handing a big victory and great financial opportunity to Charles and David Koch, his bitterest political enemies and among the most powerful opponents of his clean economy agenda… An unknown amount of company profits — figures are unavailable as the company is privately held — come from the Pine Bend Refinery near St.

Environmentalists might be applauding the Obama administration’s new restrictions on mountaintop coal mining as the most significant step the government has

Senator-elect Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is among the most forthright of conservative deficit hawks when it comes to straight talk about cutting spending, but in his

James Bopp, Jr., the conservative First Amendment lawyer who argued Citizens United and is also representing the National Organization for Marriage in a number

Fresh out from the Department of Defense: word of the first units deployed to Afghanistan as part of the extended surge. It’s a whole lot of Marines and the

Sometime during the week-end of March 14-15, the U.S. Federal Reserve decided the government of the United States could not permit the investment bank Bear

President Barack Obama (Pic by The White House, via Flickr) A petition protesting the EPA’s “numeric nutrient criteria,” a set of stringent water pollution standards specific to the state of Florida, has been sent to President Barack Obama, in an attempt to urge him to “reign in the EPA’s power grab and return water quality regulation to state government.” The petition was backed largely by the Florida Farm Bureau , a group whose members could be hit with costly upgrades or fines because of the new rules. The Farm Bureau worked with “a coalition of municipalities, regulated industries and other agricultural associations” to gather at least 5,000 signatures for the petition, which reads: I am a registered voter in Florida and concerned about the higher costs associated with the EPA’s numeric nutrient criteria rule. Several studies put the cost of this rule in the billions

After spending at least a month “right in the corner of (Wis.) Gov. Scott Walker 100 percent,” Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain told

Arguing that access to health care is the right of everyone, not a privilege for the wealthy, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) explains that while doesn’t really

IOWA CITY — The general public has a warped view of a bill that would make it a crime to produce audio or video of an agriculture facility because media coverage of the proposal “is disingenuous,” according to Iowa Sen. Sandy Greiner (R-Keota).

It was a scenario that tapped into Americans’ deepest fears about increased government involvement with health care: President Obama was planning to a create

State health officials are reassuring people who live near the Kalamazoo River that touching submerged oil on the river bottom is not likely to cause cancer.

The University of Florida campus (Pic by Random McRandomhead, via Flickr) New reports indicate that Gov. Rick Scott is in the early stages of forming his policy to change higher education in the state of Florida.

Hoping to avoid a case of mistaken identity, two Twin Cities–based businesses are trying to make it clear: They’re not affiliated with contentious political figures who share their names. Bachman’s Floral Gift & Garden and Koch Industries, Inc. , a Golden Valley wholesaler of chain, rope and fasteners, have both posted notices on their websites, Bachman’s noting that it is in no way related to the controversial Minnesota congresswoman and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, and Koch stating that they’re not related to the brothers of the same name who famously finance tea party and libertarian causes

The governor of Nebraska said Monday that he will call a special session of the Nebraska legislature to take up the matter of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would cut through that state and cross over the Ogalala aquifer, which supplies nearly all the fresh water for the state.

After being tipped off by a recent Washington Blade article about GOP LGBT groups’ attempts to influence the Republican Party platform at the 2012 Republican

Renewable energy advocates and environmentalists praised the announcement, while noting that the renewable energy standard, or RES, is not stringent enough.

Bowing to the banking industry, House Democrats yesterday weakened legislation empowering bankruptcy judges to alter the terms of primary mortgages to prevent

Michael Riley got former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) on the phone to ask about the just-revealed assault charges against Marcus Epstein, the executive director

Appearing on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports just now, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) sounded an optimistic note about the prospects for comprehensive climate

If you did a free association test on political insiders and said Robert Byrd, 90 percent of them would probably respond immediately with coal. The