Air

"Mercury levels in bluefish caught off the U.S. Atlantic coast dropped more than 40 percent over the past four decades thanks to federal restrictions on coal emissions, according to a new study."

"Air pollution in the Twin Cities contributes to about 2,000 premature deaths every year, and sends 1,000 people to the hospital for asthma, lung and heart disease treatments."

"Environmental Defense Fund-backed studies of 30,000 Barnett Shale wells shows the EPA has vastly underestimated emissions."

"The Canadian military has been called in to help fight wildfires in the Western province of Saskatchewan, where 112 active fires have forced the evacuation of more than 13,000 people and threatened several remote towns on Monday."

"The Obama administration moved Thursday to restrict the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), the most potent greenhouse gases emitted by human activity."

"The Supreme Court ruled [Monday] that the Obama administration unlawfully failed to consider compliance costs before it issued its landmark power plant emission limits for mercury and other hazardous pollutants."

"At the vast BNSF rail yard in Kansas City, Kan., dozens of trains stretch into the distance. You can feel them rumble. You can hear the roar of 4,400-horsepower diesel locomotives. And you can smell their exhaust."

"Trains heaped with coal pass through Richmond every week on their way to the city’s port. In Parchester Village, a largely black and Latino neighborhood in northwestern Richmond, residents say coal dust blows off the open mounds, covering the grass and coating their screen doors."

"U.S. EPA [Friday] unveiled proposed regulations that would tighten fuel efficiency standards to significantly cut carbon emissions from tractor-trailer rigs and other heavy- and medium-duty vehicles by 2027."

"Four years ago, in August 2011, U.S. EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced the first federal program to cut carbon emissions from the nation's biggest vehicles by raising the fuel standards those heavy-duty fleets must meet."