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"BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — In autumn of 2013, a senior executive from a powerful coal company and a lawyer from one of the state’s most influential firms hashed out a strategy for avoiding a serious — and expensive — problem."
"The controversial – but now complete – Bayou Bridge Pipeline has drawn another legal challenge from the Atchafalaya Basinkeeper environmental group, which questions why the pipeline was allowed to begin operating on April 1 without having an approved emergency response plan."
The latest release of the annual endangered rivers list provides boatloads of environmental reporting angles, including climate change-related threats like flooding and drought. This week’s TipSheet has the backstory and the new top-10 list, plus 10 suggested starting points for stories and a half-dozen key reporting resources.
"A bipartisan group of Florida legislators introduced a bill Monday that would ban offshore drilling along Florida’s coast."
"Hurricane Maria was the rainiest storm known to have hit Puerto Rico, and climate change is partly to blame, according to a new study."
"South Carolina’s Republican-majority Senate advanced a measure on Wednesday that would require the state to block new infrastructure to transport or process offshore oil and gas as state lawmakers fear the Interior Department will open the Atlantic coast to offshore drilling."
"The Court of Federal Claims dismissed Taylor Energy’s lawsuit to reclaim more than $430 million remaining in a trust fund to clean up its massive 14-year oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico."
"The country’s largest electric company says it’s challenging an order by North Carolina’s environmental agency to excavate coal ash from all of its power plant sites in the state."
"A prominent environmental group announced new evidence Thursday that methane emissions in New Mexico are climbing amid a surge in oil and natural gas production in the Permian Basin drilling zone that straddles the state boundary with Texas."
"The kickoff of a big solar-plus-storage plant in Florida — following one in Arizona and another in Arkansas — means that a new power duo is climbing the charts among electric utilities."
