Senators of Three Political Stripes Propose Climate Bill Framework
Three U.S. senators – a Democrat, a Republican, and an Independent – today released their framework for climate change and energy independence legislation in advance of President Barack Obama’s trip to Copenhagen next week to participate in the United Nations climate change conference.
Read More »U.S. Supreme Court Blocks Weak Bush-era Mercury Rule
WASHINGTON, DC, February 24, 2009 (ENS) – The U.S. Supreme Court Monday declined to consider a Bush-era rule that would have allowed a cap-and-trade approach to mercury, a toxic heavy metal emitted by power plants that burn coal and oil. Power plants are the largest source of mercury in the nation. The Supreme Court’s decision [...]
Read More »New York Men Jailed for ‘Rip and Run’ Asbestos Removals
UTICA, New York, February 16, 2009 (ENS) – A federal judge has sentenced two operators of asbestos abatement companies to prison for environmental crimes related to the illegal removal and disposal of asbestos in upstate New York. U.S. District Judge David Hurd for the Northern District of New York handed John Wood of Plattsburgh a [...]
Read More »EPA Revisits Bush-Era Denial of California Tailpipe Emissions Waiver
WASHINGTON, DC, February 6, 2009 (ENS) – In accordance with President Barack Obama’s order in January, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will reconsider its decision denying California permission to set standards controlling greenhouse gases from motor vehicles. The waiver request was made by California on December 21, 2005, to allow the state the right to [...]
Read More »Ohio EPA Launches Air Emissions Banking System
COLUMBUS, Ohio, January 21, 2009 (ENS) – The Ohio EPA has introduced a new online voluntary air emissions credit banking system to make it easier for companies to build or expand in Ohio counties that cannot meet federal air quality standards. Currently, 32 out of Ohio’s 88 counties do not meet federal standards for particulate [...]
Read More »ExxonMobil Fined for Violating Clean Air Decree at Four Refineries
WASHINGTON, DC, December 17, 2008 (ENS) – ExxonMobil has agreed to pay nearly $6.1 million in civil penalties for violating the terms of a 2005 court-approved Clean Air Act agreement, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today. “The Department of Justice will not tolerate violation of our consent decrees,” [...]
Read More »EPA Abandons Attempts to Change Clean Air Rules
WASHINGTON, DC, December 11, 2008 (ENS) – The Bush administration has dropped plans to adopt two Clean Air Act rules that would have allowed power plants and other polluters to increase smog and soot pollution. The first rule concerned the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review program. It would have allowed coal-fired power plants to [...]
Read More »California Leads States Demanding EPA Tackle Global Warming
SACRAMENTO, California, December 4, 2008 (ENS) – California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. once again is urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to use its authority under the Clean Air Act to combat climate change. With U.S. greenhouse gas emissions rising year after year, according to a report issued this week by the U.S. [...]
Read More »Governors Fume Over Bush’s Last Minute Air Pollution Rule
WASHINGTON, DC, November 24, 2008 (ENS) – A bipartisan group of six Northeastern governors is urging the Bush administration to abandon a plan that would relax pollution control requirements on power plants, saying the proposed rule would increase air pollution and threaten public health. The concerns raised by the governors echo worries expressed by environmentalists [...]
Read More »Democrats in Control: Climate, Clean Energy Top Legislative Agenda
WASHINGTON, DC, November 21, 2008 (ENS) – The order of business in the incoming 111th Congress is beginning to take shape. When lawmakers convene on January 6, 2009, Democrats will be firmly in control of both houses, although today the outcome of several elections is still unclear. When Democratic President-elect Barack Obama takes office on [...]
Read More »EPA Sued for Allowing Haze to Obscure National Parks
WASHINGTON, DC, October 22, 2008 (ENS) – Two conservation groups are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to force the federal agency to clean up emissions that cloud the air over national parks and wilderness areas. The National Parks Conservation Association and Environmental Defense Fund filed a lawsuit Tuesday against EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson in [...]
Read More »New Regulation Cuts Allowable Lead in the Air Ten-Fold
WASHINGTON, DC, October 16, 2008 (ENS) – Today, for the first time in 30 years, the U.S. EPA strengthened the nation’s air quality standards for lead, improving public health protection, especially for children, who are particularly vulnerable to lead poisoning. Lead is a pollutant that can cause organ, brain and nerve damage, lower intelligence, suppress [...]
Read More »Illinois Hazwaste Incinerator Permitted Despite Explosions, Fires
ST. LOUIS, Missouri, September 15, 2008 (ENS) – The Veolia hazardous waste incinerator in Sauget, with its long history of explosions and toxic chemical releases, was issued a clean air permit on Friday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The incinerator has been operating without a permit since 1995. Located on the Missouri-Illinois border next [...]
Read More »U.S. EPA Chills Progress Towards Regulating Greenhouse Gases
WASHINGTON, DC, July 11, 2008 (ENS) – The Bush administration today asked for public comment on a long list of options for controlling greenhouse gas emissions under existing federal law, but emphasized that it has no intention of pursuing any of them. The announcement confirms that the Bush administration will not move to regulate greenhouse [...]
Read More »White House Stifled Evidence of Climate Change Health Risks
WASHINGTON, DC, July 8, 2008 (ENS) – Officials in the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney’s office pressured federal health and environmental officials to edit congressional testimony to downplay the public health impacts of climate change, according to a former senior official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Senior Senate Democrats contend the allegations [...]
Read More »Georgia Judge Yanks Coal Power Permit on Climate Concerns
ATLANTA, Georgia, June 30, 2008 (ENS) – A Fulton County Superior Court judge today issued a decision that blocks construction of the first coal-burning power plant proposed in Georgia in more than 20 years. The judge ruled that the new plant must limit its emissions of the heat-trapping gas carbon dioxide. This is the first [...]
Read More »Automakers Make No Headway Against California Clean Car Law
SACRAMENTO, California, June 29, 2008 (ENS) – A federal judge has denied the latest attempt by automobile manufacturers to invalidate the California law that regulates greenhouse gas emissions from cars. Often called the California Clean Car Law, or the Pavley law because it was introduced by then Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, the measure was enacted on [...]
Read More »Green Power, Cleaner Cars, Carbon Trading in California’s Future
SACRAMENTO, California, June 29, 2008 (ENS) – By the year 2020, California utilities will produce a third of their energy from renewable sources such as wind, solar and geothermal, under a draft plan to address climate change released Thursday by the California Air Resources Board. Overall, the Climate Change Draft Scoping Plan aims to reduce [...]
Read More »Pfizer Pays First Fine Under New Pharmaceutical Air Rules
GROTON, Connecticut, June 25, 2008 (ENS) – The pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. has agreed to pay a $975,000 civil penalty to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Air Act at its former manufacturing plant in Groton, Connecticut. The company stopped making pharmaceuticals at the plant in January. The settlement is the first of its type [...]
Read More »Clean Air Awards Honor Ports, Tug, Tribe, Performing Arts
WASHINGTON, DC, May 29, 2008 (ENS) – Two of the largest U.S. ports are among 11 winners of this year’s U.S. EPA Clean Air Excellence Awards honoring innovative efforts that make progress in achieving cleaner air. “This year’s Clean Air Excellence Award winners’ dedication to creating a cleaner tomorrow is truly a breath of fresh [...]
Read More »EPA Chief Reluctant to Regulate Greenhouse Gases
WASHINGTON, DC, March 28, 2008 (ENS) – The public will have an opportunity to comment before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency takes any action to regulate the greenhouse gases responsible for climate change, EPA chief Stephen Johnson told members of Congress in a letter on Thursday. Johnson said he will solicit public input through an [...]
Read More »Kansas Governor Rejects Two Coal-Fired Power Plants
TOPEKA, Kansas, March 21, 2008 (ENS) – Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius today vetoed legislation that would have overturned a decision of her administration to deny an permit application to build two new coal-fired power plants because of the greenhouse gases they would have produced. The measure passed without a veto-proof majority of state legislators. Last [...]
Read More »Vehicle Emissions Fight Just Beginning, Auto Dealers Say
SAN FRANCISCO, California, February 11, 2008 (ENS) – The fight over fuel economy and vehicle tailpipe emissions is just beginning and America’s franchised new car and truck dealers are at the center of it, the head of the National Automobile Dealers Association said today. “This is no time for us to relax,” said incoming NADA [...]
Read More »Appeals Court Rejects EPA Mercury Cap-and-Trade Rule
WASHINGTON, DC, February 8, 2008 (ENS) – Environmental and public health groups as well as 14 states, one city, and native tribes declared victory as a federal appeals court today vacated two rules issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that failed to set strict limits on mercury emissions from power plants. The U.S. Court [...]
Read More »EPA Chief Blasted for Denying California Clean Car Waiver
WASHINGTON, DC, January 24, 2008 (ENS) – U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who chairs the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, introduced legislation today that would direct the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to grant California a waiver under the Clean Air Act to cut global warming pollution from motor vehicles. A host [...]
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