Pollution

"The Interior Department issued plans Thursday to throttle future coal mining in the nation’s largest coal-producing region." "The Bureau of Land Management proposal would end new federal coal leases in the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming, which dominates U.S. coal production."

"In the DRC’s copper belt, pollution from the mining of cobalt and copper, critical minerals for the energy transition, is on the rise and polluters are ignoring their legal obligations to clean it up. Cases of pollution have caused deaths, health problems in babies, the destruction of crops, contaminated water and the relocation of homes or an entire village, residents and community organizations say."

"In the first two months of the year, the pipeline company Targa Northern Delaware vented more climate-damaging natural gas from its operations in New Mexico than all other oil and gas producers in the state combined — 250% more, an amount equivalent to the carbon footprint of nearly 26,000 gasoline-powered cars driven for a year."

"A barge slammed into a bridge pillar in Galveston, Texas, on Wednesday, spilling oil into waters near busy shipping channels and closing the only road to a small neighboring island. No injuries were reported."

"Beyond a chain-link fence topped with spiraled barbed wire, swaying coastal grasses conceal a cache of buried radioactive waste and toxic pesticides from a bygone chemical plant."

"The U.S. government has a specialized plane loaded with advanced sensors that officials brag is always ready to deploy within an hour of any kind of chemical disaster. But the plane didn’t fly over eastern Ohio until four days after the disastrous Norfolk Southern derailment there last year."

"Maryland’s Brandon Shores can’t close down — even though its owners want it to. The coal plant is a poster child for how poor grid planning stalls climate progress."

"A coalition of Republican state attorneys general on Tuesday announced two lawsuits against the Biden administration and the state of California challenging emissions rules for trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles."

"House Democrats are probing President Trump’s request for $1 billion in campaign cash from major oil companies."

"Wendella engineer Miguel Chavez climbed down a ladder and over a small dock to pull up a trap floating in the Chicago River near the Michigan Avenue Bridge. The size of a standard garbage can, the trap is designed to collect trash and can hold up to 44 pounds."