"The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday approved a nearly $700 million plan to remove all lead water pipes in the Denver region, saying the local water utility’s approach for reducing lead levels is succeeding and making swift progress. It’s a recognition that cities can effectively address the lead pipe crisis if they try."

"The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed increasing the amount of ethanol and other biofuels that must be blended into the nation’s fuel supplies over the next three years, a move welcomed by renewable fuel and farm groups but condemned by environmentalists and oil industry groups."

"Sixteen Puerto Rico municipalities filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court against major oil companies, alleging companies like ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron colluded to suppress evidence of climate change that has devastated the island, including 2017’s Hurricane Maria."

"Pennsylvania’s most active gas driller pleaded no contest Tuesday to criminal charges, capping a landmark environmental case against a company that prosecutors say polluted a rural community’s drinking water 14 years ago and then tried to evade responsibility."

"Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's incoming administration aims to create a new Federal Police unit focused on environmental crimes, the transition team's public security chief told Reuters."

"At the Dec. 7-19 gathering in Montreal, about 195 countries will be tasked with finalising a new global biodiversity deal to halt damage to plants, animals and ecosystems - similar to the 2015 Paris Agreement to tackle climate change."

"President Biden pledged Wednesday that he would preserve the Spirit Mountain area in southern Nevada, which contains some of the most biologically diverse and culturally significant lands in the Mojave Dese"

"The canvassers are backed by the oil industry in its quest to stop a new law that bans wells near residential areas and imposes new environmental controls. If petition circulators succeed in gathering enough signatures, the law would be blocked until the 2024 election."

"The Biden administration declared the northern long-eared bat endangered on Tuesday in a last-ditch effort to save a species driven to the brink of extinction by white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease."

"The Justice Department today sued Jackson, Miss., for violating federal safe drinking water rules and floated a plan with the city and state to appoint a third-party manager to run the city’s beleaguered water plant as negotiations continue."