PITTSBURGH (AP) — One of America's corporate giants is investing billions of dollars in the new boom of oil and gas drilling, or fracking. General Electric Co. is opening a new laboratory in Oklahoma, buying up related companies and placing a big bet that cutting-edge science will improve profits for clients and reduce the environmental and health effects of the boom.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A new report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has dramatically lowered estimates of how much of a potent greenhouse gas is being leaked by the natural gas industry despite rapid growth in production.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Artists Against Fracking say the group and supporter-celebrities, including Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon, haven't been told to register as lobbyists in their campaign to stop gas drilling in New York, but will if required to continue their cause.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Celebrities belonging to the group Artists Against Fracking be wielding star power to influence New York law, but they may also be running afoul of it.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The University of Tennessee wants to allow hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas on a state-owned tract of rolling woodland, raising the hackles of environmentalists who question its stated goal of raising funds to research the environmental impact of such drilling.

RIFLE, Colo. (AP) — Three hours west of Denver, across the Continental Divide, the Rocky Mountains begin the long transition into high desert plateaus.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A good-government advocate and two experts in lobbying law are calling on New York to examine whether celebrities opposing gas drilling should reveal their finances.

For the past four months, www.ShaleReporter.com, published by Pennsylvania-based Calkins Media (parent company of WWSB), and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting have been investigating the international practice of natural gas extraction, Hydraulic Fracturing, commonly known as fracking.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An executive from the company that was BP's cement contractor on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig says he learned of some "irregularities" in tests that the contractor's employees performed after the massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland (AP) — Talks on a sweeping trade deal between the European Union and the United States, the world's two largest trading partners, are to get underway in Washington next month, President Barack Obama and top European Union officials said Monday.