The debate in Maine and the US at large over BPA, an estrogen-disrupting chemical common in plastics, may be shaped by a comment of Maine's newly elected, Tea Party-backed GOP governor, Paul LePage. "The worst case is some women may have little beards," he said.
"The Obama administration scaled back toxic air rules on heavy industrial boilers, a sign it may be willing to compromise with businesses and Republicans on future air pollution rules."
Hydrofluoric acid is a deadly chemical used in many petroleum refinery operations. When it escapes, it becomes a gas that can race long distances and kill people who inhale it. Safer alternatives are available to refineries. At the urging of petrochemical companies, Congress and the executive branch have kept the dangers largely secret from the at-risk public, so there has been little pressure for refineries to make their operations safer. In a joint investigation the Center for Public Integrity and ABC News found that worst-case scenarios filed by just 50 refineries showed some 16 million Americans at risk from accidental or intentional hydrofluoric acid releases.
"Lawyers for Bayer CropScience are trying to convince a federal judge the company's Institute plant is safe, even as a federal agency that investigated the facility continues to call for more inspections before Bayer's controversial methyl isocyanate unit is allowed to resume production."
"The Supreme Court declined [Tuesday] to take up whether federal regulators and courts take account sufficiently of the economic impacts of "critical habitat" designations under the Endangered Species Act."
"Protests against union-busting state bills and cuts to state programs are spreading from Wisconsin across the country today. In Montana, the environment is front and center as protesters challenge Governor Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, on his budgetary plans, which they say cut health, nvironmental, and labor programs to pay for corporate tax cuts."
"The EPA's Hydraulic Fracturing Public Informational Meeting was probably the strangest exhibition of performance art ever to grace the stage of the Broome County Forum Theater in Binghamton, New York."
"U.S. EPA will issue its controversial rules for toxic air pollution from industrial boilers [Wednesday], an agency official said [Tuesday] morning, despite a court order that required the rules be done by Presidents Day."
"Baby dolphins, some barely three feet in length, are washing up along the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines at 10 times the normal rate of stillborn and infant deaths, researchers are finding."
"BP has reneged on promises made in November to negotiate early payments to Louisiana to help rebuild oyster beds, repair damaged wetlands and build a fish hatchery to allow the state to respond immediately to the collapse of commercial fisheries in the wake of the BP Gulf oil spill, state officials said Monday."
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