Chemicals

"Once the world’s top aluminum producer, the U.S. is now making much less of it — just as cleantech industries drive up demand for the metal and advocates try to drive its emissions down."

"The deal would place 40 percent of California’s idle wells in the hands of one operator. Campaigners warn this poses an “immense” risk to the state — which new rules could help to mitigate, depending on how regulators act."

"Use of petroleum-based chemicals skyrocketed during the postwar era, most of them entering the market with little concern for safety. Now, mounting evidence links petrochemicals to the rapidly rising prevalence of a slew of chronic and deadly conditions, a review published in the New England Journal of Medicine warned earlier this month."

"The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday announced a comprehensive ban on asbestos, a carcinogen that is still used in some chlorine bleach, brake pads and other products and that kills tens of thousands of Americans every year."

"Residents already hit with disease are fighting the multibillion-dollar corporation DR Horton, America’s largest homebuilder".

"President Joe Biden’s administration has conditionally agreed to loan more than $2 billion to the company building a controversial lithium mine in Nevada with the largest known U.S. deposit of the metal critical to making batteries for electric vehicles key to his renewable energy agenda."

"Plastic manufacturers have received $9 billion in subsidies for new or bigger facilities since 2012."

"Sarah Stogner plucked a piece of cement off a rusted steel pipe jutting from the ground on a West Texas ranch. The chunk, part of the plug for a long-dormant oil well, crumbled in her hand."

"At least 3,000 more chemicals are in plastics — from food packaging to toys to medical devices — than previously estimated by environmental agencies, a report published on Thursday found, raising questions over pollution and consumer safety."

"High-profile lawsuits have accused pesticides of causing cancer and Parkinson’s. But three states are now considering bills that would prevent these lawsuits."