"Nearly five years ago, the United States Department of Energy, or DOE, began an unusual partnership with the country’s largest lobbying group for the plastics industry." "Critics argue that the agency’s work with a lobbying group is a conflict of interest."

"The exponential rise in microplastic pollution over the past 50 years may be reflected in increasing contamination in human brains, according to a new study."

"A new lawsuit filed by more than 700 residents of East Palestine, Ohio, makes the first wrongful-death allegations in connection with the 2023 derailment that spilled toxic chemicals in the village."

"A coalition of U.S. power companies is demanding ​“immediate action” from the Trump administration to roll back federal regulation of toxic coal ash and rescind recent enforcement actions."

"In the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, the City Council of Arlington on Tuesday approved plans by French energy giant TotalEnergies to drill 10 new gas wells near a daycare center, residential neighborhoods and elementary schools."

"Shipments of uranium ore from a revived mining operation just south of the Grand Canyon are expected to resume in February after the Navajo Nation reached a settlement with the mining company, clearing the way for trucks to transport the ore across the largest Native American reservation in the U.S."

"Acting EPA Administrator James Payne has ousted all members of two of the agency’s most influential science advisory panels, giving President Donald Trump’s administration the opportunity to reshape them with its own appointees."

"The Florida mayor said the threat of legal challenges and other expenses made building a new waste-to-energy facility too difficult. She now recommends landfilling to meet long-term capacity needs."

"Oil giant Marathon Petroleum is fighting an expanded class-action lawsuit fueled by an investigation by the Guardian and Forensic Architecture, which examined a huge toxic blaze at the company’s sprawling refinery in south-east Louisiana in 2023."

"The chemical giant Chemours’s notorious West Virginia PFAS plant is regularly polluting nearby water with high levels of toxic “forever chemicals”, a new lawsuit alleges."