"Data Center Boom Raises Environmental Justice Concerns In Maryland"
"As Staci Hartwell sees it, her community has much more to lose than to gain from the development of a massive data center."

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"As Staci Hartwell sees it, her community has much more to lose than to gain from the development of a massive data center."
"Public utility commissions have a ton of influence over utility rate hikes and power plant construction, but only a handful of states let voters decide who’s on them."
"There’s a new front in the war over the safety of chemicals used to make nonstick pans." "The war over forever chemicals in cookware has seen celebrity chefs, major cookware makers, and state legislatures enter into battle. Now, a new front has opened over advertising claims."
"In 1782, when the United States adopted the bald eagle as its national symbol, anecdotal accounts stated that the country may have had as many as 100,000 nesting eagles. By the mid-1900s, habitat destruction, illegal shooting, and DDT contamination had driven bald eagles near extinction."
"EPA’s efforts to undo Biden-era climate rules for power plants could get a major overhaul before they clear White House review, according to some insiders watching the process."
"Illinois lawmakers last week passed a new law establishing more robust requirements for monitoring per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — better known as PFAS “forever chemicals” — in wastewater discharges at major facilities across the state. The deciding 64-34 House vote came just days after the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed rescinding limits for select toxic PFAS compounds in drinking water — a decision that environmental advocates, and the Illinois EPA, immediately rebuffed."
"At a virtual public comment hearing hosted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, a long line of environmental advocates voiced strong opposition to proposed new regulations weakening requirements that utilities must follow in cleaning up toxic coal ash residue at hundreds of sites across the country at which coal was burned to produce electricity."
"Michigan may be known as the Great Lakes state, but most of its residents have a river to thank for their hometown’s existence."
"The administration is spending at least $67 million worth of fees paid by visitors to national parks on fixing D.C. fountains and the Reflecting Pool."
"A new Trump administration plan to ditch Pfas drinking water regulations and instead attempt to destroy “forever chemicals” on a wide scale tears a page from the fossil fuel industry’s carbon capture playbook, and will benefit the industry while harming public health."
"GOOCHLAND, Va.—Deborah Blackburn leaned on her cane in a line to enter the Central High Cultural and Educational Complex, angst-ridden over a giant transmission line proposal for reasons that are common refrains here: It’s all to benefit data centers in Northern Virginia, and it will disrupt the rural character here outside Richmond."
"The U.S. Supreme Court has approved a settlement package designed to rein in groundwater pumping along one of North America’s longest rivers and ensure enough water reliably makes it from New Mexico to Texas, ending a long-running dispute over management of the Rio Grande."
"Brazil’s government announced Wednesday that it will invest $75 million in the BR-319 highway cutting through the Amazon rainforest, a project environmentalists say could accelerate deforestation and worsen climate change."
"At least one person has died, nine people were injured and nine employees remain unaccounted for after a large tank of chemical treatment product, including hazardous materials, ruptured at a paper and packaging facility in Washington state, fire officials said."
"The Trump administration is planning a government-wide nondisclosure agreement that would bar federal workers from sharing a wide array of “confidential government information,” according to a draft notice posted to the Federal Register on Tuesday by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management." "The rule, aimed at cracking down on leaks to media organizations, would expand nondisclosure agreements instituted at the Pentagon and other agencies."