Air

"Federal regulators on Friday unveiled a program to monitor air quality during the remaining cleanup at the Freedom Industries facility along the Elk River in Charleston, but they said their effort suffers from the same lack of data about potential health efforts of the chemical MCHM as did testing of the region’s drinking-water supply after the Jan. 9 leak."

"A study in a rural Ohio county where oil and gas drilling is booming found air pollution levels near well sites higher than those in downtown Chicago."

"More than 5 million Californians — most of them in Los Angeles and Kern counties — live near an oil or gas well, and expanding drilling in the state could increase their exposure to health risks, according to a report released Wednesday by a national environmental group."

"ODESSA, Texas -- Elaine Beadle initially thought the odor creeping into her home on this city's west side was a sewer leak."

"Texas environmentalists faced off in court this year against a coal-fired power plant with more than 6,500 alleged exceedances of the federal Clean Air Act limits on opacity, an indicator of fine airborne soot."

"As concerns mount over people’s exposure to the plasticizer bisphenol A in everyday products, it’s also contaminating the air near manufacturing plants: U.S. companies emitted about 26 tons of the hormone-disrupting compound in 2013."

"The Obama administration is preparing to unveil an air pollution rule shortly after the midterm elections that could be among the most costly and controversial in history."

"A surprising hot spot of the potent global-warming gas methane hovers over part of the southwestern U.S., according to satellite data."

"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent potential changes to the standard for ground-level ozone to the White House Office of Management and Budget on Wednesday."

"Methane emissions from oil and gas wells on federal lands and waters jumped 135 percent from 2008 to 2013, an analysis shows, driven by a drilling boom in New Mexico and North Dakota that has outpaced the building of pipelines and processing centers."