Pollution

The Supreme Court temporarily put on hold on Thursday an Environmental Protection Agency plan to curtail air pollution that drifts across state lines, dealing another blow to the Biden administration’s efforts to protect the environment.

The ruling followed recent decisions chipping away at the agency’s authority to address climate change and water pollution.

Chemical pollution emitting from the East Palestine, Ohio, train crash in 2023 rained down on 16 different states, according to a study released Wednesday.

A Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed and crashed in East Palestine in February 2023, sending plumes of black smoke rising over Ohio and Pennsylvania. The smoke carried the chemicals and polluted 16 states, spreading over roughly 540,000 square miles of land, according to a new study published in Environmental Research Letters.

The EPA finalized a rule to mandate coal ash cleanup at inactive power plants, part of a group of related rules announced Thursday by the administration.

The rule seeks to close a loophole created when the Environmental Protection Agency issued a coal ash cleanup rule in 2015. That rule set criteria for existing and new coal ash landfills, but didn’t address inactive facilities.

Coal ash is the residue from coal burnt to generate power. The ash is typically stored in specially-built landfills.

On this 54th Anniversary of America's first Earth Day celebration, it is a time to reflect on how we moved from a consensus on the urgent need for environmental protection across the country to woefully underestimating the need for action about climate change.

As the world turns its attention to the environment we share on this Earth Day, the tide of public opinion is turning toward decisive climate action. Statewide carbon-neutral goals, emerging carbon credit markets and incentive programs for renewable energies are quickly becoming the new reality.

April 22 marks the 54th celebration of Earth Day. Unfortunately, there should be much more to celebrate five decades later. 

For the first time ever, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday it is issuing a national regulation limiting the amount of certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, found in drinking water.

Commonly called "forever chemicals," PFAS are synthetic chemicals found nearly everywhere – in air, water, and soil – and can take thousands of years to break down in the environment.

Norfolk Southern has agreed to pay $600 million in a class-action lawsuit settlement for a fiery train derailment in February 2023 in eastern Ohio, but local residents worry the money won’t go very far because their potential health needs down the road may be tremendous.

“It’s not nowhere near my needs let alone what the health effects are going to be 5 or 10 years down the road,” said Eric Cozza, who had 47 family members living within one-mile of the derailment.

The company whose freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, causing a massive chemical spill last year has reached a $600 million settlement agreement with residents.