Chemicals

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"As Texas stares down a water shortfall, its leaders are looking at vast volumes of brown, briney oilfield wastewater as a hopeful source of future supply. They don’t have many other options. But extracting clean water from this toxic slurry will require enormous amounts of energy, just as Texas fights to keep up with the rapidly growing power demands of a high-tech industrial buildout."

"Advocates fear the agency will “justify avoiding any enforcement whatsoever” of millions of tons of coal ash nationwide."

"A jury in Georgia has ordered Monsanto parent Bayer to pay nearly $2.1 billion in damages to a man who says the company’s Roundup weed killer caused his cancer, according to attorneys representing the plaintiff."

"The agency will no longer shut down “any stage of energy production,” absent an imminent threat, a new memo says, and will curtail efforts to cut pollution in poorer areas."

"Federal agencies will need fully-staffed teams to implement President Donald Trump’s order for the Interior Department and other agencies to expedite mining on federal lands, natural resources lawyers say. But massive staffing cuts could get in the way of Trump’s demand to mine more minerals domestically, and it could take years for agencies and companies to mobilize and begin digging rock."

"Sardines in the Mediterranean struggling for a decent bite of shrinking plankton are accidentally ingesting more and more microplastics and microfibres, scientists have found. And the root cause of all their problems? Well, it's climate change - of course."

"Styrofoam coffee cups, plates, clamshell takeout containers and other food service items made with expanded polystyrene plastic can still be found in restaurants and on store shelves, despite a ban that went into effect on Jan. 1."

"President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order intended to boost production of critical minerals in the United States and confirmed a deal to gain access to minerals in Ukraine was still on track.'