Air

"California Gov. Gavin Newsom tapped a veteran regulator Wednesday as the next chair of the powerful Air Resources Board, which implements the state’s ambitious climate change goals. Liane Randolph, 55, will begin the job in January."

"The Gulf of Mexico is littered with tens of thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells, and toothless regulation leaves climate warming gas emissions unchecked."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will finalize on Wednesday its overhaul of how it measures the costs and benefits of proposed new curbs on pollution, a move that is likely to sap the agency’s power to impose tough future regulations, according to a source familiar with the process."

"The U.S. air pollution monitoring network has fallen into disrepair after years of budget cuts and neglect, leaving tens of millions of Americans vulnerable to undetected bad air quality from events like wildfires to industrial pollution, the investigative arm of Congress said on Monday."

"The Trump administration on Monday declined to tighten controls on industrial soot emissions, disregarding an emerging scientific link between dirty air and Covid-19 death rates."

"A group representing major automakers on Tuesday vowed to work with President-elect Joe Biden on efforts to reduce vehicle emissions even as the industry remains split over whether to let California set its own emission rules."

Standard methods of monitoring air pollution are missing major pollution incidents.

"The fires sweeping across millions of acres in California aren’t just incinerating trees and houses. They’re also filling the lungs of California’s children with smoke, with potentially grave effects over the course of their lives."