Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says spending cuts proposed by House Republicans are creating an obstacle for passage of a new farm bill.

Despite being hailed as a leader in "green" innovation, wind farms might cause a warming effect on local climates, concluded a new study released Sunday.

Last Thursday the Department of Labor withdrew a regulation proposed last September that would have imposed stringent rules on farm labor.

Millions of employers and health insurance policyholders will collectively receive $1.3 billion in rebates this year, as part of President Obama’s healthcare reform law, a research group reported Thursday. As the constitutionality of ObamaCare remains under contention, the White House and Democrats in Congress are touting the rebate scheme as an indication that the law is giving back to American consumers.

To rival the campaigning efforts of Mitt Romney and other GOP presidential hopefuls, President Obama’s reelection campaign is employing an array of high-technology tactics.

Last summer, the President’s reelection team hired dozens of engineers, developers, data scientists, and other specialists to bolster its new media and web development platform. "We need your help recruiting the folks that will wage the most innovative and effective digital campaign in history," Obama’s top digital strategist Joe Rospars wrote in an email to prospective staff members, "a team that will not just surpass but demolish our fundraising, communications, and organizing goals."

Is saving 30 percent on your car insurance enough to justify granting Big Brother access to your vehicle? That’s the question many consumers and industry analysts are asking, as more auto insurance companies offer new options that calculate premiums based on a person’s driving habits, rather than set variables such as age, gender, and past driving records.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu is claiming that scientific evidence for climate change is as convincing as ever — a comment that arrives just as controversies surrounding the renewable energy industry and new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules face staunch opposition from Republicans and industry groups.

President Obama drew praise from the energy industry on Friday after issuing an executive order to amend federal oversight procedures of hydraulic fracturing — commonly known as "fracking" — which injects water, sand, and chemicals deep underground to release vast quantities of fuel. The order creates an "interagency working group" that directs 12 federal agencies to collaborate in bolstering "safe and responsible unconventional domestic natural gas development."

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday unveiled its first-ever regulations to curb air pollution from hydraulic fracturing, the drilling process commonly known as "fracking" — or in the industry's parlance, "fracing." By 2015, natural-gas and oil drillers will be forced to invest in new equipment that curtails smog-forming emissions from fracing wells.

As turmoil in the Middle East endures, and as gas prices linger just below the $4-a-gallon mark, one U.S. oil company is offering a rather ambitious guarantee: "There is no Mideast oil in our products." The United Refining Company, based out of Warren, Pennsylvania, pledges that 100 percent of the gas it sells is refined from North American crude — meaning, the oil comes only from the U.S. and Canada.