Uranium mining in the United States may be about to surge, a spike in claims being filed indicates.
In five Western states where uranium is mined, 43,153 claims were filed last year, up from 4,333 in 2004, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. The area of interest includes near the Grand Canyon, where U.S. Interior Department [...]

The U.S. Interior Department’s Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sales on Wednesday reaped a record $3.7 billion - the highest amount ever in a U.S. government lease sale - as oil prices hovered above $100 a barrel, the Minerals Management Service said.
Flush with cash from record crude prices, short on reserves replacement ratios [...]

Groups in Alaska have sued the U.S. Interior Department to block an offshore oil and gas lease sale that residents say threatens Arctic marine wildlife and the traditional Inupiat Eskimo way of life.
The North Slope Borough and the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage on Tuesday, claim [...]

The Denver-based federal agency that collects royalties on oil, gas and minerals extracted from public lands is seeking more than $32 million in unpaid royalties and interest from BP America Production Co.
In a news release Thursday, the Minerals Management Service — an arm of the U.S. Interior Department — said BP owes the money for [...]

The Bush administration, bowing to pressure from environmental groups, has offered to scale back a plan to expand oil and natural gas drilling on Alaska’s North Slope.
The U.S. Interior Department yesterday asked a court in Anchorage to allow the planned Sept. 27 sale of about 8 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve to go [...]