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A US court approves the biggest criminal fine in US history given to British oil giant BP as part of a settlement related to the fatal 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. In November, BP said it would pay $4bn (£2.5bn) to the US Department of Justice and agreed to plea guilty to 14 criminal charges. The sum included a $1.26bn fine.

Ford is joining with Diamler and Renault-Nissan to speed the development of cars that run on hydrogen. The three companies expect their alliance to bring affordable hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to market as early as 2017. Fuel cell vehicles run on electricity generated from hydrogen and oxygen. The only byproduct is water.

U.S. gasoline prices crept up by about 2 cents per gallon over the past two weeks, but higher crude oil prices are likely to mean more small increases on the horizon, the latest Lundberg Survey concluded Sunday.

Exxon Mobil briefly overtook Apple as the largest U.S. publicly traded company by market value on Friday as shares of the technology giant continued to fall.

If the latest week of earnings season has told investors anything, it is that strong banks and energy companies are getting stronger, while weaker banks and technology companies are far from conquering the challenges they have faced in the last few years.

Energy companies behind the oil boom on the Northern Plains are increasingly turning to an industrial-age workhorse - the locomotive - to move their crude to refineries across the U.S., as plans for new pipelines stall and existing lines can't keep up with demand.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, the Obama administration's chief environmental watchdog, is stepping down after nearly four years marked by high-profile brawls over global warming pollution, the Keystone XL oil pipeline, new controls on coal-fired plants and several other hot-button issues that affect the nation's economy and people's health.

Wave power is the oft-forgotten cousin of solar and wind power. It has huge potential, but it is not quite as far along as the better known sources of clean power, so it tends to be overlooked. But it shouldn't! To clean up our power grid we'll need all the help we can get. Granted, in many places where wave power would work, offshore wind power would also work, but that might not be the case everywhere (ie. very deep water), and if wave power's cost can be brought down enough, that might not even matter.

"They lied to the American people," Bishop said. Texas County Court at Law Judge Jack Sinz signed a temporary restraining order and injunction Friday, saying there was sufficient cause to halt work until a hearing Dec. 19. The two-week injunction went into effect Tuesday after Bishop posted bond. David Dodson, a spokesman for TransCanada, said courts have already ruled that tar sands are a form of crude oil. He said the injunction will not delay the project.

Exxon says the energy renaissance in the U.S. will continue and predicts that North America will become a net exporter of oil and gas by the middle of the next decade. The oil and gas giant’s latest long-term energy outlook, released Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012, says the rapid growth of production in the U.S., Canada along with improved energy efficiency will lead to more oil and gas being sent overseas.