CORAL DAVENPORT

The Obama administration on Thursday unveiled a final set of regulations on offshore oil and gas drilling that are aimed at preventing the kind of equipment failures that caused the disastrous 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Global warming could lead to an increase in allergies and asthma, deaths by extreme heat and the proliferation of insect-borne diseases, such as West Nile virus, according to a scientific report released Monday by the White House.

Under fierce attack from the political right, and with even some Democrats questioning its competence, the Environmental Protection Agency is facing a tumultuous election year — with rising regulatory responsibilities, falling budgets and its very existence at stake.

The Supreme Court’s surprise decision Tuesday to halt the carrying out of President Barack Obama’s climate change regulation could weaken or even imperil the international global warming accord reached with great ceremony in Paris less than two months ago, climate diplomats say.

President Obama’s budget request to Congress will include a new fee on oil companies, requiring them to pay $10 to the federal government for every barrel of oil they produce, the White House said.

Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked action on a comprehensive energy bill that had drawn broad bipartisan support after lawmakers failed to agree on including a $600 million amendment to address the crisis over lead-tainted water in Flint, Michigan.

The delegates achieved what had been unreachable for two decades: a consensus on the need to move away from carbon-based fuels and a plan for the 195 nations to do so.

Delegates on Saturday were presented with the final draft of a landmark climate accord that would, for the first time, commit nearly every country to lowering planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions as a way to help stave off the most drastic effects of climate change.

Under a 1986 compact, the roughly 70,000 residents of the Marshall Islands, because of their long military ties to Washington, are free to emigrate to the United States, a pass that will become more enticing as the water rises on the islands’ shores.

India, the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas polluter, has emerged as a pivotal player in shaping the outcome of a deal on which Obama hopes to build his legacy — or whether a deal emerges at all.

The Obama administration on Friday ordered Volkswagen to recall nearly a half-million cars from the road, saying the German automaker used software intentionally designed to circumvent environmental standards for reducing smog.

The Obama administration on Tuesday is expected to announce a proposal to open up coastal waters from Virginia to Georgia for oil and gas drilling, while banning drilling in portions of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas off of Alaska.

Senate Democrats on Tuesday evening rejected a move to approve the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, rebuffing their colleague, Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., who had hoped to muscle the legislation through in advance of her uphill runoff election fight back home.

President Barack Obama's new plan to fight climate change depends heavily on states' devising individual approaches to meeting goals set in the nation's capital, a strategy similar to the one he used to expand health care, often with rocky results.

Here in West Virginia, residents were still reeling from the chemical spill that left more than 300,000 people without usable water for days, many of them still frightened and unsure whether official assurances that they could once again drink tap water or bathe their children were true.