Environment

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Illustration on Russia's interference with global energy production by Linas Garsys/The Washington Times

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In this Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015, photo, oil pump jacks are seen McKenzie County, in western North Dakota. Roughly 60 rigs are drilling in surrounding McKenzie County, 40 percent of the rigs statewide. But now that those prices have tumbled, the shifting oil market threatens to put the industry and local governments on a collision course. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

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U.S. Marines from 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment in Husaybah, Iraq, Nov. 3, 2006. (Image: U.S. Marine Corps.) ** FILE **

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In this Friday, June 13, 2014 photo, a new cooling tower for a nuclear power plant reactor that's under construction stands near the two operating reactors at Plant Vogtle power plant in Waynesboro, Ga. Southern Co. said the firms building its new nuclear power plant in Georgia estimate the project will be delayed 18 months, potentially costing the power company $720 million in new charges, company officials said Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

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NORTH DAKOTA $502K -In this Wednesday, June 11, 2014, photo, James Lyons and Florence Reaves, from Kirkwood, Mo., hike to a stone lookout over the Little Missouri River inside the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, located in the Badlands of North Dakota. The park of more than 70,000 acres sits atop the Bakken shale, an oil-rich rock formation that for decades frustrated drillers who could not coax anything profitable from the ground. But advances in hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling have unlocked huge amounts of petroleum here. North Dakota is now the second-biggest oil producer in the U.S. after Texas. Oil development is strictly forbidden within the park itself, but park officials worry that the flares and noise from drilling just beyond the protected area sullies the natural spaces that drew Roosevelt here as a bespectacled young man in his mid-20s. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

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MARYLAND $419K -Wild horses roam on South Ocean Beach at Assateague Island National Seashore near Berlin, Md. on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)

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NEW JERSEY $539K -In this Wednesday, July 23, 2014 photograph people relax and play in the ocean in Atlantic City, N.J. Good weather and greater awareness that the Jersey shore has made huge strides in recovering from Superstorm Sandy helped make the second summer after the storm better than the first one, many shore merchants and elected officials say. Some business owners report profits up 20 to 30 percent in the summer of 2014 compared with 2013, when the shore was still in the early stages of recovering from the devastating Oct. 29, 2012, storm. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

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A woman holds a sign that reads in Spanish "I am Nisman" and "Justice!" near the funeral home where a wake is held for prosecutor Alberto Nisman in Buenos Aires. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

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A pine grosbeak rests in a tree near Sourdough Creek in Bozeman, Mont., Jan. 19, 2015. The pine grosbeak, a robin-sized finch, summers in the boreal forest of northern Canada, except for a small band extending south along the Rocky Mountains where the birds remain year-round. (AP Photo/Daily Chronicle, Ben Pierce)

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In this Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013, file photo, the Nest smoke and carbon monoxide alarm is shown at the company's offices, in Palo Alto, Calif. Google said Monday, Jan. 13, 2014, it will pay $3.2 billion to buy Nest Labs, which develops high-tech versions of devices like thermostats and smoke detectors. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

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A $1,500 Pioneer AVIC-N2, the first aftermarket navigation system based on XM Satellite Radio's NavTraffic service, is shown installed in a Toyota Scion in this photo in New York, Wednesday June 15, 2005. NavTraffic is advertised as offering up-to-the-minute traffic conditions based on reporting from local contractors in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas that account for 50 percent of the U.S. population. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

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A new analysis from the Competitive Enterprise Institute tracks the toll of federal regulations, and offers a new agenda for Congress (Image from CEI)

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QUEENSTOWN, NEW ZEALAND -In this Thursday, July 31, 2014 photo, skiers and snowboarders enjoy clear skies at The Remarkables ski area near Queenstown, New Zealand. The Remarkables is one of several large ski areas that has been making snow at record rates following the warmest start to winter ever recorded. Scientists said New Zealand's glaciers and ice are melting at alarming rates due to climate change. (AP Photo/Richard Savoie)

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BERMUDA -Local islanders sit on a wall at John Smith's Bay in Smith's Parish following Hurricane Igor in Bermuda, Monday, Sept. 20, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

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A small drone flying onto the White House grounds Monday, triggering an emergency response and raising fresh questions about security.

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Artist rendering of the Baku National Stadium currently under construction in Boyuk Shor, Baku, Azerbaijan.

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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie takes a question about the "epic" incoming snowstorm, with help from Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and other officials. (associated press)

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President Barack Obama is proposing to designate the vast majority of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as a wilderness area, including its potentially oil-rich coastal plain, drawing an angry response from top state elected officials who see it as a land grab by the federal government. (Associated Press)