Air

"Tall smokestacks are one reason that emissions from coal-fired power plants are blown across state lines, making it more difficult for downwind states to clean up their air, a new Government Accountability Office study found."

"The Environmental Protection Agency, facing intense opposition from Congressional Republicans and industry over a broad range of new air quality regulations, said Monday that it was delaying by two months the release of a proposed rule on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other major pollution sources."

"Proposed federal clean-air rules could have a profound impact on American Electric Power, leading to an increase in electricity bills, the closing or partial closing of 11 power plants and the loss of 600 jobs, the company said."

"Summer air pollution could trigger more asthma attacks for children who live in industrial cities, and the Environmental Protection Agency would like stricter rules to cut smog."

"At first glance the results of the fourth edition of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s fourth National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment are sobering—the modeled data suggest that every person in the United States is at increased risk for getting cancer from outdoor air pollutants and that nearly a quarter of the population is at increased risk for certain noncancer health effects."

"Traffic congestion experts have long warned that pollution caused by idling vehicles on crowded roads was harming Americans' health. Now, for the first time, researchers at Harvard University have quantified the damage."
 

"First, Rabbi Daniel Swartz leaned toward the microphone at Tuesday's hearing on proposed federal rules to limit mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. By allowing emissions to continue, "we have, in effect subsidized the poisoning of fetuses and children," the Scranton rabbi said."

"Mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants is declining nationally after years of increases, prompted by laws in Illinois and more than a dozen other states that for the first time limited emissions of the toxic metal."

The Obama administration has decided to delay a rule that would cut emissions from power plants at major industrial facilities, the most recent in a series of decisions since the midterm election to postpone controversial environmental regulations and steer a more business-friendly course.

"The source is a Coachella Valley soil-recycling plant on tribal land, regulators say. Operators defend their enterprise, but agencies have cracked down."