The Stream, June 7: U.S. Energy Policy

The U.S. Department of State will hold public meetings in five states before it decides whether to grant permission for the Keystone XL pipeline, which will transport Canadian oil sands petroleum to refiners in Texas, Reuters reports.

Meanwhile, The New Yorker’s Elizabeth Kolbert argues that “just about every decision that [the Obama] Administration has made on energy and the environment has been wrong.”

Faced with power shortages, China, the world’s biggest consumer of coal, has accelerated importing the fuel from abroad, Bloomberg reports.

Chinadialogue reports on the worsening water crisis in Kathmandu, where urbanization and pollution are destroying rivers, and groundwater overuse is sinking the valley.

An innovative monitoring system that detects leaks in water supply networks is gaining popularity in Australia, Europe, Latin America and Israel, The Economist reports.

The Stream is a daily digest spotting global water trends. To get more water news, follow Circle of Blue on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.