Super-Pollutants - Inside Climate News

Biden Administration Backs Plastic as Coal Replacement to Make Steel. One Critic Asks: ‘Have They Lost Their Minds?’

By James Bruggers — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 09:05:00 +0000

After a Pennsylvania business scored $182.6 million in loan guarantees with promises the project would fight climate change, environmentalists called on Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to change course.

By James Bruggers

Jane Williams read the announcement with dismay.

In the First Community Meeting Since a Fatal Home Explosion, Residents Grill Alabama Regulators, Politicians Over Coal Mining Destruction

By Lee Hedgepeth — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 21:33:54 +0000

Dozens of residents expressed fear and frustration over what they call “mining mayhem.” The regulators and politicians acknowledged for the first time that there may be a need for changes.

By Lee Hedgepeth

Undermined: Eighth in a series about the impacts of longwall mining in Alabama.

Nonprofit Law Center Asks EPA to Take Over Water Permitting in N.C.

By Lisa Sorg — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 17:35:31 +0000

The unprecedented move highlights regulatory tensions between Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, and an environmental rule-making commission controlled by appointees of Republican state legislative leaders.

By Lisa Sorg

RALEIGH, N.C.—The Southern Environmental Law Center is petitioning the Environmental Protection Agency to take over the state’s water permitting authority, an unprecedented move for North Carolina.

Surging Methane Emissions Could Be a Sign of a Major Climate Shift

By Bob Berwyn — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 09:05:00 +0000

New studies suggest global warming boosts natural methane releases, which could undermine efforts to cut emissions of the greenhouse gas from fossil fuels and agriculture.

By Bob Berwyn

A 2021 pledge by more than 100 nations to cut methane emissions from anthropogenic sources 30 percent by 2030 might not slow global warming as much as projected, as new research shows that feedbacks in the climate system are boosting methane emissions from natural sources, especially tropical wetlands.

California Climate and Health Groups Urge Legislators to Pass Polluter Pays Bills

By Liza Gross — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 09:00:00 +0000

As the state’s legislative session draws to a close, activists urge their representatives to pass bills they call critical to protecting communities and the planet from fossil fuel extraction.

By Liza Gross

Dozens of activists gathered outside the state Capitol in the scorching Sacramento sun Monday to make a last push against the industry that’s largely responsible for the climate crisis shattering one heat record after another.

In Final Rock Springs Resource Management Plan, BLM Sticks With Conservation Priorities, Renewable Energy Development

By Jake Bolster — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 08:55:00 +0000

The controversial plan would also place new limits on the terrain open to coal mining and oil and gas drilling, mainly due to a lack of resources in the areas, irking many fossil fuel advocates in the state.

By Jake Bolster

The Bureau of Land Management, on Aug. 22, released its final Resource Management Plan for its Rock Springs District in Southwest Wyoming, spurring blowback from the governor and the fossil fuel industry, and drawing mostly praise from conservation groups.

‘It’s Just No Place for an Oil Pipeline’: A Wisconsin Tribe Continues Its Fight to Remove a 71-Year-Old Line From a Pristine Place

By Phil McKenna — Sun, 25 Aug 2024 09:05:00 +0000

A proposed reroute of a pipeline would still jeopardize the “Everglades of the North,” the EPA warns, including wild rice beds that the Bad River tribe depends on.

By Phil McKenna

ODANAH, Wis.—“This is the last turn and the end of the fourth hill of life, when Bad River, as a spirit, transforms into something other, something extraordinary,” Mike Wiggins said as he rounded a final bend in one of the largest and most pristine wetlands on the shores of Lake Superior, one of the biggest freshwater lakes in the world.

US District Court Throws Out Federal Agency’s Assessment Allowing More Drilling for Fossil Fuels in the Gulf of Mexico

By Aman Azhar — Sun, 25 Aug 2024 09:00:00 +0000

The lawsuit before the court showed the staggering scale of ecological damage a bad federal assessment can cause to endangered and federally protected sea creatures.

By Aman Azhar

The United States District Court for the District of Maryland has tossed a flawed environmental assessment that grossly underestimated harms to endangered and threatened marine species from oil and gas drilling and exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.

Houston’s Plastic Waste, Waiting More Than a Year for ‘Advanced’ Recycling, Piles up at a Business Failed Three Times by Fire Marshal

By James Bruggers — Sat, 24 Aug 2024 11:00:00 +0000

Houston seeks to be a national model for plastic recycling. But a program that started in 2022 hasn’t yet found its footing.

By James Bruggers

This story is a partnership between Inside Climate News and CBS News.

Coal Baron a No-Show in Alabama Courtroom as Abandoned Plant Continues to Pollute Neighborhoods

By Dennis Pillion — Sat, 24 Aug 2024 09:05:00 +0000

The son of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice was hailed as a hero five years ago when his family’s company purchased a troubled coke plant in North Birmingham that had polluted three historically Black neighborhoods. Now, a judge says the Justices’ Bluestone Coke is on a “superhighway to contempt.”

By Dennis Pillion

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.— Chief U.S. District Judge David Proctor is fed up.