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Census: Oil-and-Gas Heavy North Dakota is Fastest-Growing State

The Hill: The U.S. Census Bureau said Thursday that North Dakota experienced the nation’s greatest population growth this year, with the domestic oil-and-gas boom a likely reason for the gains. As of July 1, North Dakota’s population increased 2.17 percent compared with the previous year. As a whole, the U.S. population rose 0.75 percent during that period. Oil-and-gas drilling in North Dakota’s Bakken shale formation has been a boon for jobs, attracting out-of-state workers by the thousands and transforming...

Green groups worry Congress will cut land conservation program amid drought

The Hill: Even as lawmakers fret this summer’s severe drought might cause another Dust Bowl, environmental groups are sounding alarms that Congress is slated to cut a program designed to prevent such a catastrophe from occurring in dry years. Both the House and the Senate aim to cut funding for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which pays farmers to take crop land out of production and instead use that acreage to plant trees and grass. Both the House and Senate versions of the five-year farm bill would...

Experts warn of long-term climate change impacts on food

The Hill: Experts working on a food security report for the United Nations warn climate change will cause disruptions to global food supplies beyond the U.S. drought this year, according to Reuters. The researchers note in a forthcoming chapter for the U.N.’s 2014 report on global warming that heat waves and massive downpours will become more common if nations fail to address climate change. That will make food supplies more unpredictable, which could cause volatile prices. "It has not been properly...

Natural gas boom could isolate US on climate change

The Hill: The domestic national-gas boom might thin the ranks of climate change advocates and put the United States at odds with the international community on the issue, an expert said Thursday. America's insistence that natural gas will play an important role in easing the effects of climate change runs counter to European views and will likely invite “friction,” Michael Levi, program director on energy security and climate change with the Council on Foreign Relations, said during a discussion hosted...