Pollution

"Virginia’s air quality board on Wednesday voted to leave an interstate emissions-reduction partnership, bringing the state closer to fulfilling Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) vow to withdraw from the program earlier this year even as critics say the process needs legislative approval."

"The Permian Basin is ground zero for a billion-dollar surge of zombie oil wells." "As oil and gas companies weathered volatile oil prices last year, many halted production. More than 100,000 oil and gas wells in Texas and New Mexico are idle."

"A district judge in Genesee County tossed a pair of misdemeanor charges levied against former Gov. Rick Snyder for his involvement in the Flint water crisis, citing previous court rulings that state prosecutors incorrectly used a "one-person grand jury" to indict Snyder."

"Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s implicit threat of legal action against a proposed titanium dioxide mine on the flanks of Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp raises unresolved questions about the scope of the agency’s authority to protect public lands outside their boundaries, legal experts say."

"Truck manufacturers and an industry trade group privately lobbied to weaken U.S. climate policies while publicly promoting zero-emissions trucks, according to a new report from a think tank that tracks corporate influence on climate policy."

"An oil spill in a creek in northeastern Kansas shut down a major pipeline that carries oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast, briefly causing oil prices to rise Thursday."

"Virtually every river, creek and lake tested recently by South Carolina regulators was found to contain “forever chemicals,’’ materials once used by industry that today are being linked to a variety of toxic effects on people."

"Waste from fracking wells that used PFAS – commonly known as “forever chemicals”– has been dumped at dozens of sites across Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia — all of which could face contamination of soil, groundwater and drinking water as a result."

"Cathy McMorris Rodgers peered over the Lower Granite Dam here this August as tens of thousands of gallons of Snake River water roared like a locomotive over its spillway gates. She had some concerns."

"An agreement on cleanup measures at one of the nation’s most notorious Superfund sites is drawing blowback from some environmental advocates skeptical of provisions within the deal."