Air

"Under orders from President Biden, EPA has taken its first overt step to revisit one of the Trump administration’s most bitterly contested air quality rollbacks."

"The Biden administration is planning to unveil new emissions rules for cars tomorrow [Thursday] during an event at the White House featuring industry officials and electric vehicles, according to three sources."

"A group of 139 Democratic lawmakers is urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to “promptly” reinstate California’s ability to set its own vehicle emissions standards — which is expected to increase electric vehicle adoption."

"In a major step against climate change, President Joe Biden is proposing a return to aggressive Obama-era vehicle mileage standards over five years, according to industry and government officials briefed on the plan. He’s then aiming for even tougher anti-pollution rules after that to forcefully reduce greenhouse gas emissions and nudge 40% of U.S. drivers into electric vehicles by decade’s end."

"Northern California regulators on Wednesday directed two of the state’s largest oil refineries to slash their fine particulate air pollution, which will require costly modifications at the plants."

"Smoke and ash from massive wildfires in the American West clouded the sky and led to air quality alerts Wednesday on parts of the East Coast as the effects of the blazes were felt 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) away."

"Wildfires raging across the western United States and Canada, including a “monster” two-week-old blaze in Oregon, on Tuesday belched smoke and soot that gusted eastward and caused harmful air pollution as far away as New York City."

"New research, using machine learning, helps project how the buildup of greenhouse gases will change clouds in ways that further heat the planet."

"Scientists know that global warming is changing clouds, but they haven’t been sure whether those changes would heat or cool the planet overall.

"Unrelenting heat waves are boiling cities across the U.S. this summer, spiking ozone pollution levels and threatening the fighting power of air quality safeguards."

"The European Commission has fined Volkswagen Group and BMW $1 billion for colluding with Daimler to hold back the development of technology that could have reduced harmful emissions from their vehicles."