Air

"The blue, cloudless skies over the Coachella Valley most days hide a darker truth: The area has serious, chronic air pollution challenges."

"A federal appeals court today struck down a Bush administration rule for controlling industrial emissions that form smog."

"Pollution from burning wood in stoves, fireplaces and elsewhere is the top cancer risk in Oregon's air, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency analysis."

"A federal appeals court yesterday upheld nearly all U.S. EPA designations of areas where airborne soot concentrations exceed national standards, rejecting challenges from state and local governments and industry groups."

Should youth practice or play sports outdoors on days when the EPA cautions them against heavy exercise?

"Studies Are Homing in on Which Particles Polluting the Air Are Most Sickening -- and Why"

California this week put in place the toughest restrictions in the world on smog from ships, requiring reductions of more than 80 percent of soot from foreign and US ships out to 24 miles from shore. Tankers, cargo vessels and cruise ships burn bunker fuel, which has sulfur content as much as 1,000 times higher than on-road diesel. The US is moving forward to copy California's rules by 2015. Paul Rogers reports in the San Jose Mercury News.

"A judge has ordered Chevron Corp. to stop work on its controversial oil refinery expansion in Richmond, [Calif.], handing environmentalists their biggest victory in a long fight over the project."

"The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing tougher rules to reduce air pollution from large oceangoing ships, including oil tankers and cargo vessels."