A new study by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reports that workers at 11 hydraulic fracturing sites in five states were exposed to high levels of crystalline silica dust.

Tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight, Federal Rights, and Agency Action will hold its first hearing on regulatory policy. The hearing, titled "Justice Delayed: The Human Cost of Regulatory Paralysis," will examine the important benefits of public protections and the very real costs of regulatory delay.

On July 25, energy services giant Halliburton agreed to plead guilty to destroying evidence related to the investigation of the 2010 BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. The company will pay a fine of $200,000, will be on probation for the next three years, and will make a voluntary contribution of $55 million to a wildlife conservation charity. Halliburton will also continue to cooperate in the U.S. Department of Justice's ongoing criminal investigation into the rig explosion and oil spill that killed 11 workers, polluted vast swaths of the U.S. Gulf Coast, and killed and injured untold numbers of sea birds and marine mammals.