"Illinois has nearly 1.5 million lead service lines. A new report estimates replacing the unsafe plumbing has the potential to create 90,000 jobs."
"State regulators have allowed the Beaver County ethylene plant to keep exceeding limits on damaging nitrogen oxides while the official permitting process has taken seven times its original timeline."
Bugs may get a bad rap, but a serious possible global decline in their populations is making clearer what may be lost for ecosystems and human societies. Issue Backgrounder peers beneath the detritus to find what insects do, how we try to kill them and how they survive, and why it’s so hard to pin down the data around their shifting numbers.
"A year ago, federal environmental regulators told West Virginia officials that their plan to clear sulfur and smog from skies over the state’s national wilderness areas wasn’t good enough because a dozen coal plants didn’t analyze whether they needed better pollution controls."
"Trump officials are heralding a potential new coal plant in Alaska, but the project faces mounting opposition and tricky data center politics."
"A Wisconsin project dubbed the “world’s largest manure biogas project” emits nearly 5,000 metric tons of climate-warming methane annually, roughly equivalent to emissions from 30,000 gasoline-powered vehicles, according to state data that adds to concerns about the impacts of large-scale manure digesters."
"More than 10,700 staffers left EPA and the Interior and Energy departments under a Trump program that incentivized resignations."
"Hardly anyone in the natural wine world is talking about environmental justice for those who pick the grapes, labor advocates say. The Guardian Vital label aims to change that."
"The Trump administration says one of the world’s biggest natural gas–fired power plants will come to Ohio. But financial risks, permitting hurdles, and uncertainties about the project’s access to equipment have critics doubting when — and if — the plant will come online."
"The DOE just ordered the TransAlta coal plant to keep running. But it has been offline since December, and a new state law would make it too costly to turn back on."
