Disasters

"The Federal Trade Commission kicked off a review of its “Green Guides” aimed at helping companies avoid misleading and deceptive environmental claims about their products and services.

The FTC’ voted 4-0 on Wednesday to start a regulatory review of its Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims. The public will be able to comment on the 2012 version of the guides and recommend potential updates.

"Hundreds of thousands of Florida property owners face requirements to buy flood insurance under a precedent-setting bill approved Wednesday by the state Legislature. It’s the first mandate of its kind in the country."

"As California faces the prospect of a fourth consecutive dry year, officials with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California have declared a regional drought emergency and called on water agencies to immediately reduce their use of all imported supplies."

"Federal regulators have issued warnings repeatedly over the life of the Keystone pipeline that operators aren’t doing enough to prevent corrosion and don’t follow proper construction procedures."

"A shuttered Alabama coal products company with ties to Republican West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice would pay a $925,000 fine as part of a settlement to resolve a Clean Air Act lawsuit brought last year by local regulators."

"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged New Zealand to take a leading role in focusing on the environmental destruction his country is suffering as a result of Russia’s invasion."

"Florida’s property insurance market is in free fall. Florida homeowners pay property insurance rates that are three times the national average. Six companies have become insolvent and left the state in the last year."

"A massive winter storm blew toward the center of the U.S. on Monday, threatening millions of people with heavy snow, freezing rain and flooding."

"More than 200,000 Somalis are suffering catastrophic food shortages and many are dying of hunger, with that number set to rise to over 700,000 next year, according to an analysis by an alliance of U.N. agencies and aid groups."