Air

New sulfur dioxide standards set by Alberta in December 2010 are far weaker than some members of an advisory panel hoped for, environmentalists say. They suspect the oil industry has gotten to Alberta Environment.

Environmentalists say mercury emissions from the TransAlta coal-burning electric power plant in Washington state are dangerous.

"The current air quality standards for carbon monoxide (CO) are strong enough to protect public health, U.S. EPA said today as the agency issued a proposal to keep the existing limits."

"U.S. EPA's air division has made headlines under President Obama for its push to limit greenhouse gases and toxic pollution, but the busy office is running late with new limits on asthma-inducing soot, close observers of the rulemaking process say."

"A new study ranks West Virginia fourth in mercury pollution, a chemical closely tied to a number of health risks."

"Texas officials granted an air permit for a proposed Corpus Christi power plant Wednesday despite calls from federal regulators to delay approval of the controversial request."

"A federal judge on Thursday rejected the Obama administration's request to delay by more than a year controversial new regulations targeting emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants from industrial boilers."

"It's not the kind of crime that's likely to appear on CSI. But counterfeit vehicle-inspection stickers that end up in Dallas County have links to deadly drug gangs in Mexico and human smuggling. They contribute to health-threatening pollution problems that also constrain business development in North Texas."

"More than 30 years after Congress set a goal of clearing the pollution-caused haze that obscures scenic vistas at some of America's wildest and most famous natural places, progress is still slow in coming."

"As temperatures drop well below freezing during [Afghanistan's] harsh winter, bombs and bullets from a near-decade long war against a Taliban-led insurgency are not the only threat -- just trying to light a home and stay warm can be deadly." Heating and cooking with solid fuels like wood and coal kills some 54,000 Afghans a year, most of them children under five. By contrast, 2412 civilians were killed by conflict-related violence in the first 10 months of 2010."