Environment

WASHINGTON (AP) — Coal-fired power plants would be forced to capture smokestack emissions or shut down under a rule issued Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency. New limits on greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired electric plants are the Biden... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Forget about red hot. A new color-coded heat warning system relies on magenta to alert Americans to the most dangerous conditions they may see this summer. The National Weather Service and the Centers for Disease Control and... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Tuesday set out a new national goal for conserving and restoring the United States’ freshwater resources, including 8 million acres of wetlands and 100,000 miles of rivers and streams. Officials unveiled the plan as... Read More

WASHINGTON — As plants, trees and flowers continue to greet the season, one month into spring marks a worldwide occasion: Earth Day. Earth Day has been observed on April 22 every year since 1970 as a global moment to raise... Read More

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Biden administration said Friday it will restrict new oil and gas leasing on 13 million acres (5.3 million hectares) of a federal petroleum reserve in Alaska to help protect wildlife such as caribou and polar... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday designated two forever chemicals that have been used in cookware, carpets and firefighting foams as hazardous substances, an action intended to ensure quicker cleanup of the toxic compounds and require industries and others... Read More

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week issued a key air quality permit to Dominion Energy’s planned offshore wind project off the coast of Virginia Beach, Virginia. The agency issued the project’s final Clean Air Act Outer Continental... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 200 chemical plants nationwide will be required to reduce toxic emissions that are likely to cause cancer under a new rule issued Tuesday by the Environmental Protection Agency. The rule advances President Joe Biden’s commitment... Read More

DETROIT (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday awarded $20 billion in federal green bank grants to eight community development banks and nonprofit organizations to use on projects combating climate change in disadvantaged communities and helping Americans save money and reduce... Read More

Trillions of evolution’s bizarro wonders, red-eyed periodical cicadas that have pumps in their heads and jet-like muscles in their rears, are about to emerge in numbers not seen in decades and possibly centuries. Crawling out from underground every 13 or... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Biden-Harris administration on Wednesday rolled out an ambitious new regulatory regime aimed at bolstering the standards of electric and hybrid vehicles by placing new restrictions on tailpipe emissions. According to administration officials, who briefed reporters on the... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday finalized a rule to prohibit the ongoing use of chrysotile asbestos, the only known form of asbestos currently used in or imported into the United States. The ban is the first to... Read More

WASHINGTON — The number of wildfires driven by climate change has grown but the U.S. effort to control them has not, according to emergency response officials at a Senate hearing Thursday. At least not fast enough to prevent disasters like... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Department of Energy is extending a conditional $2.26 billion loan to Lithium Americas Corp. to support its effort to build a lithium carbonate processing plant in Nevada. Once operational, the plant, which will be located in Thacker... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday finalized tougher restrictions on ethylene oxide, a cancer-causing gas commonly used to sterilize medical devices. The new standards specifically target commercial sterilization facilities. The agency called them “the strongest measures in U.S.... Read More

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The U.S., Canada and several indigenous groups announced a proposal on Monday to address pollution from coal mining in British Columbia that officials say has been contaminating waterways and harming fisheries on both sides of the... Read More

RACINE, Wis. (AP) — Michigan Tech University biologists have been observing a remote Lake Superior island's fragile wolf population every winter since 1958, but they had to cut this season's planned seven-week survey short after just two weeks. The ski... Read More

A fast-moving wildfire burning through the Texas Panhandle grew into the second-largest blaze in state history Wednesday, forcing evacuations and triggering power outages as firefighters struggled to contain the widening flames. The sprawling blaze was part of a cluster of... Read More

WASHINGTON — Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are raising questions about the implementation of the Biden administration’s electric vehicle charger subsidy program. In a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, a trio... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it is distributing another $5.8 billion for water infrastructure projects around the country, paid for by one of its key legislative victories. The new allocations will go to projects in all 50 states,... Read More

WASHINGTON — Environmentalists sued the Environmental Protection Agency this week in federal court in Washington, D.C., seeking information about health risks from forever chemicals in fluorinated plastic containers. The two groups that sued accuse the EPA of withholding information about... Read More

GREEN RIVER, Utah (AP) — A plan to extract lithium — the lustrous, white metal used in electric vehicle batteries — in southeast Utah is adding to an anxiety familiar in the arid American West: how the project could affect... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday proposed adding nine PFAS, or "forever chemicals," to its list of hazardous materials. The "hazardous" designation under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act means PFAs will get tougher regulatory scrutiny. They were... Read More

DETROIT (AP) — More than 4,700 auto dealerships across the United States urged President Joe Biden in a letter Thursday to halt the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to enforce stricter vehicle-pollution standards. The missive comes just weeks before the agency’s... Read More

In the United States, transportation accounts for close to 30% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, if we’re going to achieve our carbon reduction targets, addressing and solving the problems associated with transportation sector-based carbon emissions is imperative. It has also been... Read More

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A dangerous Arctic blast will continue sweeping across the U.S. on Monday and linger through at least midweek, prolonging a bitter cold that set record-low temperatures in parts of the country and threatens to further disrupt... Read More

A year after pleading no contest to criminal charges, one of Pennsylvania’s leading natural gas companies is poised to drill and frack in the rural community where it was banned for a dozen years for polluting the water supply. Coterra Energy Inc.... Read More

SEATTLE (AP) — The U.S. government said Thursday it plans to spend more than $1 billion over the next decade to help recover depleted populations of salmon in the Pacific Northwest, and that it will help figure out how to... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The cancellation of two large offshore wind projects in New Jersey is the latest in a series of setbacks for the nascent U.S. offshore wind industry, jeopardizing the Biden administration’s goals of powering 10 million homes from... Read More

For more than a year, the Environmental Protection Agency investigated whether Louisiana officials discriminated against Black residents by putting them at increased cancer risk. Federal officials said they had found evidence of discrimination and were pressuring the state to strengthen oversight of... Read More