Laws & Regulations

"Shrimpers see obstacles that will make their jobs tougher, more dangerous; regulators vow to listen"

"Offshore oil derricks dotting the California coastline continue pumping despite a history of catastrophic spills and vows from generations of politicians to send them to the scrapheap. They’ve even survived a modest attempt by state officials more than a decade ago to offer incentives to oil companies that chose to abandon their costly operations."

"Billions of these tiny plastic pellets are floating in the ocean, causing as much damage as oil spills, yet they are still not classified as hazardous".

"The EPA can shield some records regarding a former official’s role in pesticide policymaking from a conservation group, a divided Second Circuit ruled Monday. Messages between staff about how the agency should communicate its policies are protected by the deliberative process privilege, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit."

"Environmentalists on Monday accused the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of imperiling hundreds of vulnerable species when it expanded hunting and fishing on 147 national wildlife refuges and fish hatcheries under President Donald Trump."

"At least a third of the scientists and staff at EPA’s specialized forensics lab have quit or retired over the past five years, an exodus that threatens the unit’s central role in solving some of the nation’s most difficult environmental crimes."

"The Biden administration’s oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico last week doesn’t just lock in decades of future drilling and greenhouse gas emissions, it also opens up more extraction in an area where chemical companies dumped tons of hazardous industrial waste."

"ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST PARISH, La. — As white smoke wafted from a massive oil and gas refinery that sits near his backyard, Michael Coleman reminisced about the sweet days of his childhood, before sugar cane fields that stretched for miles were sold and replaced by chemical companies that wiped out the “nice little community we had here.”

"The Tennessee Valley Authority received the final regulatory approval it needs to remove tons of coal ash from ponds in Southwest Memphis and transport them along Shelby Drive to a landfill in Southeast Memphis."

"A coal phaseout by 2030, more electric vehicles and rapid renewables expansion: Germany's new coalition has promised a climate bonanza. But can the ambitious targets be hit?"