EPA

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DDT Dumped Decades Ago Off LA Coast Is Still Potent

Broad effort tries to assess the Pacific Ocean contamination introduced decades ago

(Newser) - Research revealed this week confirmed some scientists' worst fears about the dumping of barrels of DDT off the California coast in the 1940s and '50s: Much of the banned toxic chemical remains in its most potent form. "We still see original DDT on the seafloor from 50, 60,...

EPA Downgrades Air Quality in Colorado, Forcing Changes

Tweaked gasoline blend will cost consumers more

(Newser) - After missing a deadline last summer to improve air quality, Denver and the northern Front Range of Colorado are in for tougher federal regulations. The Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday that the areas now are classified as "severe" violators of air standards, the Denver Post reports. Refineries will have...

Supreme Court Hands Loss to Green Advocates

Justices limit EPA's ability to limit emissions from power plants

(Newser) - In a blow to the fight against climate change, the Supreme Court on Thursday limited how the nation's main anti-air pollution law can be used to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. By a 6-3 vote, with conservatives in the majority, the court said that the Clean Air...

SCOTUS Hears Case That Could Doom Biden Climate Plan

Case against EPA could severely restrict power of federal agencies

(Newser) - The Supreme Court heard a case Monday that could end up limiting the power of the Environmental Protection Agency—and every other government agency. The court heard two hours of arguments on whether the EPA should have the authority to regulate power plants, and some members of the court's...

A Controversial Pesticide Is Banned From Food Crops

EPA prohibits use of chlorpyrifos, overruling the Trump administration

(Newser) - A long-running battle over a controversial pesticide is over—the EPA has banned the use of chlorpyrifos on food crops, reports NPR . The insecticide has been used for decades on crops, particularly soybeans, fruit trees, nut trees, broccoli, and cauliflower, per the AP . However, studies have linked it to neurological...

EPA's First Climate Update Since 2016 Is Dire

'Americans are seeing and feeling the impacts up close with increasing regularity'

(Newser) - The EPA's website dedicated to climate change indicators wasn't updated once under the Trump administration. Now, it's been given a facelift —and a disturbing one at that. The US is in unprecedented territory with the effects of climate change intensifying even since 2016, according to the...

Trump Administration Won't Tighten Air Quality Standards

EPA scientists were among the experts who wanted a change

(Newser) - Despite evidence of the harmful effects of air pollution on people with COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses, the Trump administration has decided against tightening soot standards. The Environmental Protection Agency instead will lock in limits put in place by President Obama's administration in 2012 for another five years. Experts...

Water Protections in Place for Decades to Be Gone Within Days

Lawsuits expected to follow rule change under Trump

(Newser) - In the end, government scientists couldn't sway him. President Trump's administration is expected to finalize a change to an Obama-era regulation protecting many US wetlands and streams as soon as Thursday. "More than half the nation's wetlands, and hundreds of thousands of small waterways" will lose...

Trump: EPA's Looking Into Toilets That Need Repeat Flushes

What also has apparently gone down the toilet: chance WH lawyers show at impeachment hearing

(Newser) - The White House has RSVP'd, sort of, to an invite to send lawyers to the next impeachment hearing before the House Judiciary Committee. "House Democrats have wasted enough of America's time with this charade," White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote Friday in a note to committee...

EPA to Block California From Setting Emissions Standards

State has had tougher rules to fight air pollution for decades

(Newser) - Since smog in Los Angeles became unbearable in the 1960s, California has set its own vehicle emissions standards—limits that were stricter than the federal government permitted elsewhere. The Trump administration now is moving to end that practice. The EPA will revoke that authority Wednesday, the Washington Post reports, citing...

This EPA Rollback Has a Twist
This EPA Rollback
Has a Twist
Aug 29, 2019 8:30 AM CDT

This EPA Rollback Has a Twist

Agency moves to loosen methane regulations, but big companies like Exxon oppose the idea

(Newser) - The EPA has begun the process of overturning an Obama-era rule on the emission of methane at oil and gas operations, reports the Wall Street Journal . The move is in line with the Trump administration's anti-regulatory philosophy, but environmentalists are incensed because methane is seen as a major contributor...

EPA Mandate to City: Hand Out Bottled Water ASAP

In Newark, NJ, filters to keep lead out didn't work, leading to recommendation for bottled water

(Newser) - In what the New York Times calls "an echo of Flint," a New Jersey city that's handed out nearly 40,000 filters to help protect residents whose water flows through old lead pipes now says those filters might not be working and is moving to Plan B....

EPA Makes Contentious Decision on 'Cyanide Bombs'

Trump administration reauthorizes M-44 traps to kill predator wildlife

(Newser) - The Environmental Protection Agency has just reupped authorization of a controversial device designed to protect livestock from predators, but which critics call a "safety menace" against other animals and humans. CBS News reports the EPA has given the green light for the USDA's Wildlife Services, as well as...

California Cuts Its Own Deal With Automakers, Ignoring EPA

Trump administration wants to freeze standards

(Newser) - Four major automakers have reached a deal with California to increase gas mileage and greenhouse gas emissions standards, bypassing the Trump administration's push to freeze requirements at 2021 levels. Ford, BMW, Honda, and Volkswagen signed the deal with the California Air Resources Board, the state's air pollution regulator,...

EPA Watchdog Puts Price on Scott Pruitt's Travel

Suggests agency try to recover $124K over former chief's expenses

(Newser) - Scott Pruitt resigned as EPA chief in July over allegations that included improper spending on travel. On Thursday, the agency's watchdog put a price tag on that: $124,000. The EPA's inspector general looked at 40 trips Pruitt took or scheduled in 2017 that cost a total of...

EPA Moves to Weaken Limits on Toxic Mercury Emissions

The Obama-era rules are "not appropriate and necessary," the agency says

(Newser) - Have you been missing mercury pollution in the air? If so, there’s good news out of Washington DC: The Trump administration is laying the groundwork to weaken restrictions on mercury and other toxic emissions from coal-fired power plants, the New York Times reports, adding that the Obama-era Mercury and...

Trump Says Former Coal Lobbyist Will Be Next EPA Head

Andrew Wheeler, acting head since July, will need Senate confirmation

(Newser) - President Trump says he will nominate Andrew Wheeler to be the next administrator of the EPA, an agency that Wheeler has led on an interim basis since July, The Hill reports. “He’s done a fantastic job,” Trump said Friday when making the announcement during a White House...

White House Takes Third Step to Ease Greenhouse Gas Rules

Administration plans to weaken restrictions on the release of methane gas

(Newser) - The Trump White House thinks the previous administration went overboard on rules about greenhouse gases, and it's about to make its third big move to correct that. After earlier moves on carbon dioxide pollution from autos and coal plants , this time it's all about methane, reports the New ...

Watchdog: Massive Spending on Pruitt's Security Not Justified

Office of the Inspector General report released

(Newser) - A whopping $3.5 million was spent on round-the-clock security for former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, one of many agency expenditures that made waves before Pruitt departed the role in July—and a new report from the EPA's internal watchdog says the agency failed to prove the security spending...

EPA: New Rule May Result in More Premature Deaths

'New York Times' looks into the fine print of new coal pollution rules

(Newser) - President Trump visits West Virginia Tuesday, and it's a safe bet he'll be trumpeting the proposal his administration just unveiled to ease up on coal plants. The Affordable Clean Energy Rule would roll back an Obama-era plan on emissions deemed too heavy-handed by the Trump administration, reports the...

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