EPA | Grist

Double the trouble

EPA reveals almost twice as many dangerous coal ash dumps as previously known 1
Posted 2 months, 4 weeks ago
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released information showing there are 584 coal ash dump sites across the country -- almost twice as many as previously identified.
monkeying around

‘Monkey trial’ petition tells EPA to ‘eliminate the taint’ 1
Posted 3 months ago
Calling for the “Scopes trial of the 21st century,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has delivered a petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a public hearing on the EPA’s proposed global warming endangerment finding.
Fearless Protest Shuts Down Mountaintop Removal Blasting

Tree-sitters do environmental regulators’ job 1
Posted 3 months ago
In a stunning blow to mountaintop removal blasting operations in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia this morning, two fearless protesters scaled massive trees and unfurled banners from their 80-foot-high platforms. Within 300 feet of the Massey Energy's Edwight mountaintop removal blasting site, above Pettry Bottom and Peachtree in Raleigh County, W. Va., the protesters called on the federal agencies to crack down on the scandal-ridden West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WV DEP) and the stop the unsafe and reckless blasting in the area.
coal creeps up

The clock has started ticking on mountaintop removal mining permits 0
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
We are told that the Environmental Protection Agency may start approving more than 80 new mountaintop removal coal mining permits within the next month -- or even sooner.
This little coal-fired light of mine

Religious leaders call for end to mountaintop removal 0
Posted 3 months, 4 weeks ago
As the brilliant lights of the White House shine across Pennsylvania Avenue Monday evening, generated by a coal-fired plant that uses coal stripmined from devastating mountaintop removal operations in Appalachia, religious leaders and organizations representing over 45 million Americans from across the country will hold a special candlelight prayer vigil at 7pm in Lafayette Park.
Small changes at EPA could have big environmental impacts 1
Posted 4 months ago
While climate change legislation works its way toward 60 votes in the Senate, President Obama's EPA has been quietly working on some serious revisions to the guidelines it uses to conduct cost-benefit analysis. Tweaks they might make to the powerful but low-profile Guidelines for Preparing Economic Analyses could have major impacts on the environment and could spur greenhouse gas reductions if the Senate fails to take action.
ashes to ashes

Crackdown on coal ash 0
Posted 4 months, 1 week ago
The crazy quilt of regulations governing coal ash disposal across the United States got a new patch this week when North Carolina lawmakers passed a law requiring stricter regulation of coal ash impoundments.
removing mountaineers from mountaintop removal debate

Does CEQ-EPA regulatory banter abet historicide? 0
Posted 4 months, 1 week ago
Mired in the acrobatics of regulatory doublespeak, the Obama administration's increasing oversight of the unbearable daily toll on Appalachian coalfield residents from mountaintop removal begs the question: Are Obama's well-meaning but irresolute environmental administrators abetting the crimes of human rights violations and historicide?
the danger of endangerment

The dangerous myth that the EPA’s endangerment finding can stop dangerous warming 1
Posted 4 months, 1 week ago
Over and over again, in e-mails and comments and blog posts, I hear some enviros saying that it doesn't matter if Waxman-Markey fails, since EPA can use the endangerment finding to regulate CO2 as well or better. That dangerously mistaken view would appear to be creating a dangerous apathy among many progressives and environmentalists, as I'll discuss shortly.
A Burning Concern

North Carolina governor calls for better regulation of coal ash dumps 0
Posted 4 months, 1 week ago
North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue (D) has endorsed legislation that would increase oversight of the state's coal ash dumps, the massive surface impoundments that power companies use to store the toxic waste left over after burning coal.
the sun'll come out tomorrow

The three things Cass Sunstein should do on his first day 1
Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago
After some minor drama, it looks like Cass Sunstein is finally on the road to confirmation for director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) after being nominated by President Obama in January.
Memo to Media: That's not “suppressing a report.”

The EPA ignored internal non-expert comments cut-and-pasted from anti-science deniers 0
Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Many of the top climate scientists in the world issued a major synthesis report reviewing the scientific literature since the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). They found "greenhouse gas emissions and many aspects of the climate are changing near the upper boundary of the IPCC range of projections." In short, actual observations show things are much worse than the IPPC found. Duh! and Duh! and Duh!
alabama's ashhole?

Decision to dump TVA’s spilled coal waste in Alabama community sparks resistance 0
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
The EPA approved a plan last week to dump 3 million tons of coal ash that spilled from a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant in eastern Tennessee in an impoverished, largely African-American community in Alabama.
You'll be sorry, Ms. Jackson

Rural county asks EPA chief not to make it ‘The Ash Hole of Alabama’ 2
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
The residents of Perry County in central Alabama are none too excited about the prospect of their home becoming "The New Ash Hole of Alabama."
From ProPublica

EPA attorneys criticize Obama nominee 2
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
The Obama administration's nomination of Ignacia Moreno to head the environment division of the Department of Justice is moving quietly through the confirmation process, with hearings expected to begin in the next few weeks. Moreno has worked for the environment division before, during the Clinton administration. But her most recent job -- as environmental counsel for General Electric -- has raised eyebrows among Environmental Protection Agency attorneys.
Poverty near the “high hazard” coal ash sites 0
Posted 4 months, 4 weeks ago
The public's right-to-know scored a victory this week when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally released the list of the 44 coal ash sites deemed "high hazard." This comes two weeks after a coalition of organizations including the Sierra Club filed a Freedom of Information Act request demanding the release of the list.

Since then we've been crunching some numbers to learn more this list of coal ash storage sites.
Waiver hello

EPA affirms California’s right to set tougher automobile emissions standards 1
Posted 5 months ago
The EPA announced on Tuesday that it will grant a waiver for California and 13 other states to set automobile emission standards that are higher than national ones. The move is important symbolically, even though it isn't likely to lead to emission reductions in the next few years.
Still spinning

EPA ‘suppression’ story grows, despite shoddy science in report 6
Posted 5 months ago
The peculiar story of a "suppressed" report at the Environmental Protection Agency continues to grow, despite the fact that the agency appears to have done nothing worse than holding its employees to professional standards.
And they call the other Buffett a parrothead

Warren Buffett repeats GOP talking points on energy plan 1
Posted 5 months ago
Billionaire Warren Buffett keeps saying cap and trade will hurt consumers, especially the poor. Report after report concludes he's wrong.
A look inside the right-wing message machine

Scant evidence for charge that EPA ‘suppressed’ dissent [Updated] 8
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago
The conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute has issued a release under the headline "BREAKING: EPA Suppresses Internal Global Warming Study." Wow! A huge story, right? Not so fast.