"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's enforcement activities have dropped sharply since 2018, as criminal fines and civil penalties paid by polluters dropped to new lows, a Washington D.C. watchdog group said Friday in a report."

"The Supreme Court today dealt a blow to a pipeline developer, deciding against hearing a dispute over environmental reviews for infrastructure projects."

"Two controversial mining concessions on Indigenous land were canceled after Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that residents were not consulted."

"Three in four people worldwide want single-use plastics to be banned as soon as possible, according to a poll released on Tuesday, as United Nations members prepare to begin talks on a global treaty to rein in soaring plastic pollution."

"Lawmakers from Massachusetts and New Jersey want to set up a new grant program to help develop technology that assists in saving a rare species of whale from extinction."

"Documents show that Ascend Performance Materials, the nation’s largest emitter of nitrous oxide, is still emitting significant amounts of the climate super-pollutant."

"Efforts by the nation’s largest emitter of nitrous oxide to rein in the release of the potent greenhouse gas are behind schedule, allowing the emissions, which are relatively easy to eliminate, to continue to fuel climate change.

"Federal auditors announced an investigation Friday of how the government has dealt with lead contamination of drinking water in Benton Harbor, an impoverished, mostly Black city in southwest Michigan."

"Faced with an outcry from neighborhood activists, federal civil rights investigations and pressure from the Biden administration, Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Friday blocked a clout-heavy scrap shredder from opening on Chicago’s Southeast Side."

"The Biden administration is indefinitely freezing decisions about new federal oil and gas drilling as part of a legal brawl with Republican-led states that could significantly impact President Biden’s plans to tackle climate change."