After an election and a Tennessee spill disaster in 2008, the Obama administration roared into office vowing to regulate electric utility coal ash. Now, as the tight 2012 election hinges partly on coal (and coal states), the administration's proposed regulations are on hold.
"Four environmental groups have asked North Carolina’s Environmental Management Commission for a ruling that would force Duke Energy to clean up groundwater contamination near ash ponds at 14 coal-fired power plants."
"NEW BEDFORD -- A long-departed manufacturing company will pay $366 million to clean the PCB-laden harbor here, the largest cash settlement for a single site in the history of the federal Superfund program, government officials announced Wednesday."
"Oil and gas companies will soon have to start telling U.S. EPA before they 'frack' wells, a development that has caught many in the industry off-guard and rekindled some drillers' most potent fears about federal intrusion."
"Budget cuts to the ozone monitoring department were $13.3m this year, the 25th anniversary of the Montreal protocol."
"WASHINGTON, DC -- Chevron [Tuesday] lost its U.S. Supreme Court bid to block global enforcement of a $19 billion judgment by an Ecuadorean court in a long legal fight over contamination of the Amazon rainforest."
"A high-profile Kentucky environmental enforcement action involving hundreds of alleged clean-water violations at dozens of mining operations in Eastern Kentucky apparently is coming to a close."
"Already under pressure to curb noxious air pollution, the owner of four coal-fired power plants in Illinois is facing new legal complaints about toxic chemicals and heavy metals leaching from decades-old waste ponds."
"Fifteen residents of Corpus Christi, Texas -- so sickened by pollution they have been deemed crime victims -- are asking a federal judge to force Citgo Petroleum Corp. to set up multimillion-dollar trust funds to cover medical and relocation costs, in a case with national ramifications."
"CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- State regulators in West Virginia have ordered Argus Energy to repair a water treatment system at a Lincoln County mine site after a blackwater spill killed fish."
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