Pollution

"BP shoulders most of the blame for the disastrous 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill by acting with "profit-driven decisions" that amounted to "gross negligence," a federal judge ruled Thursday in a decision that could quadruple the billions of dollars in penalties the oil giant faces."

"A U.S. judge has decided that BP Plc was “grossly negligent” and “reckless” in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill four years ago, a ruling that could add nearly $18 billion in fines to more than $42 billion (25.73 billion pounds) in charges the company took for the worst offshore environmental disaster in U.S. history."

"Halliburton, the company contracted by BP to cement the ill-fated Macondo oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, has reached a $1.1 billion settlement with thousands of businesses, individuals and local governments that suffered losses from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, the company and plaintiffs announced on Tuesday."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency staff said Friday that the nation should tighten smog rules significantly, a step that would improve air quality in California but force costly new requirements on government and industry."

"It began forming in May, when heavy spring rains loaded the rivers and creeks with fertilizer washed from farms and suburban lawns. It grew rapidly over the summer, as a broth of chemicals, animal waste and microbes simmered in the warm, slow-moving waters of the Chesapeake Bay."

"Royal Dutch Shell submitted a plan to the federal government on Thursday to try once again to explore for oil in the Alaskan Arctic, following years of legal and logistical setbacks as well as dogged opposition from environmentalists."

"PITTSBURGH - Six years into a natural gas boom, Pennsylvania has for the first time released details of 243 cases in which companies prospecting for oil or gas were found by state regulators to have contaminated private drinking water wells."

"There are some countries in the world where the air is so polluted you can forget about coming home with a healthy holiday glow."

"ExxonMobil Corp. has agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle federal claims arising from a 2012 crude oil pipeline spill in Louisiana."

"DuPont Co. has agreed to pay nearly $1.3 million in fines to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to resolve violations the EPA cited after a string of 2010 chemical leaks, including one that killed a worker at the company’s plant in Belle, EPA officials announced Wednesday."