Pollution

"Fifteen states and the city of Washington, D.C., on Tuesday announced an agreement that aims to make all new truck and bus sales emission-free by 2050."

"Global emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, soared to a record high in 2017, the most recent year for which worldwide data are available, researchers said Tuesday." "Scientists expect emissions, driven by fossil fuels and agriculture, to continue rising rapidly."

"The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to retain Obama-era air quality limits for ozone after rushing through a review of the standards that were set in 2015."

"More than 350 facilities nationwide have taken advantage of a temporary Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule that lets companies forgo monitoring their water pollution during the pandemic."

"Formosa Plastics, a Taiwanese plastics company, intends to build a complex St. James Parish, Louisiana, a region already known as "Cancer Alley." Environmental activist Anne Rolfes faces criminal charges for a protest action she took to call attention to the company's history of harm." "From Southeast Asia to the United States, activists have called attention in recent years to the harmful impact of chemical companies such as Formosa Plastics Corporation, a Taiwanese petrochemical company that operates throughout the world, including the US."

"As the EPA crafts a rule that would trim the agency’s oversight of methane gas, a Democratic-leaning group is demanding a recusal from the division head overseeing the process, accusing her of financial ties to natural gas distribution giant Enbridge Inc."

"The Senate on Thursday put off further action for weeks on its mammoth defense authorization bill that has become a battleground for efforts to address exposure to PFAS."

"A sewage-based coronavirus test could be an 'easy win' that would pick up infection spikes up to 10 days earlier than with existing medical-based tests."

"Dust storms—those billowing walls of sand and dirt often seen seen in the more arid regions of the world—doubled in the American Southwest between the 1990s to 2000s." "Respiratory ICU admissions spike in the wake of such storms, which are becoming more common across the American Southwest."

"Across the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, scientists are developing alternative sustainable solutions to the golden tide of Sargassum".