Anaerobic digester loans showed “significant delinquency rates,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture said, while environmental groups see the technology driving an expansion of large-scale animal farming operations.

By Steven Rodas, Lisa Sorg

The federal government’s pause on new loans for anaerobic digesters, the controversial method of converting animal manure from large-scale feeding operations into biogas, will now extend through the end of the year.

USDA Extends Pause on Loans for Controversial Digesters That Turn Manure Into Biogas

The population has plummeted over the past seven years as climate change triggers mass starvation in warming Arctic waters.

By Blaine Harden

SEATTLE—Exceptionally skinny gray whales—enfeebled by starvation and mangled by blunt-force trauma—are washing up this spring along the coast of Washington state in numbers that alarm marine-mammal scientists.

Malnourished Gray Whales of the Eastern North Pacific Are in ‘Serious Trouble’

Observers believe regulatory failures contributed to catastrophic sewage and fuel leaks in the watershed. The river was recently named the most endangered in the nation.

By Aman Azhar

The warning signs were years in the making. And yet, regulators failed to heed the writing on the wall, according to Dean Naujoks.

Sewage and Fuel Leaks Contaminate the Potomac River, Source of Drinking Water for More Than 5 Million People