Laws & Regulations

"A week before major UN talks on climate change, EPA extends comment period for rule to cut carbon pollution from plants."

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday rejected a senior federal expert's recommendation to shut down California's last operating nuclear power plant until the agency can determine whether its twin reactors can withstand powerful shaking from nearby earthquake faults."

"LIMA, Peru — The authorities here are investigating the killing of an environmental advocate and indigenous leader who died along with three other men in a remote region of the Amazon jungle that he had sought to protect from illegal logging."

"CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Department of Environmental Protection officials plan to announce as early as Tuesday a proposed rule outlining a focused plan for mandated inspections of thousands of chemical storage tanks across West Virginia and — Tomblin administration officials hope — ease concerns about implementation of the state’s new tank safety law."

A Massachusetts prosecutor dropped charges against two protestors who claimed global warming was so dire they had no choice but to block a coal shipment. The prosecutor made the announcement clutching an article by Bill McKibben, which he said convinced him that “Climate change is one of the gravest crises our planet has ever faced.”

"The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has started to review new regulations for hydraulic fracturing on federal land, the last step before the rules can be made final."

"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."

"The White House won’t use the law on federal environmental impacts assessments as an effective tool for executive action on climate and clean energy projects. The Council on Environmental Quality has let four years go by without acting on proposed guidance to federal agencies on permitting of energy projects under the National Environmental Policy Act, rejecting appeals to take stronger action and leaving the playing field tilted in favor of the fossil fuel industry."