Democrats victorious on environment WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Democrats knocked four provisions they considered anti-environmental out of a spending bill Tuesday, including one that would have blocked the Interior Department from raising royalties paid to the government by oil companies drilling on federal land. But their victories seemed temporary as the mostly Western and pro-industry proponents of the blocked amendments planned to reintroduce at least some of them, including the oil royalties measure, in slightly different form. And in a victory for the mining industry, Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, killed an effort by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and others to leave intact an Interior Department ruling that limits the size of the waste sites many hard-rock mining companies can establish on federal lands they use. See full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560460010-218>
