"Until earlier this week, most residents of this town east of Asheville had no drinkable tap water for 52 days. After the storm damaged infrastructure around the region, water had been partly restored in mid-October. It was good for flushing toilets but not safe for consumption. In some places, sediment left the water inky like black tea."

"A rule proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday could better protect communities against pollution from natural gas plants. For the first time in almost two decades, the rule would update emission limits of nitrogen oxides, a group of gases that are harmful air pollutants produced from burning fossil fuels."

"Many nations hope to reduce the half a billion tons of plastic made each year. But pushback from plastic and oil producers, and Donald Trump’s election, could scuttle an agreement."

"The Biden administration promised to release a new standard for ocean drilling that could help clean up a growing number of old oil and gas wells, but the first-of-a-kind rule has yet to arrive with just two months before President-elect Donald Trump reenters the White House."

"The U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles has filed felony criminal charges against Phillips 66, accusing the company’s Carson refinery of illicitly dumping oil and grease into the county sewer system."

"Oil and chemical companies who created a high-profile alliance to end plastic pollution have produced 1,000 times more new plastic in five years than the waste they diverted from the environment, according to new data obtained by Greenpeace."

"Entergy proposes a new $3.2 billion natural gas plant to run a ‘game changing’ data center in northeast Louisiana; critics question the move"

"The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should be doing more to help address potential climate change-related risks to hundreds of hazardous waste facilities across the country, according to a recent government watchdog report."

"For many years, wealthy places like the United States and Europe have had the biggest historical responsibility for global warming and have been tasked with taking the lead in stopping it. China’s astonishing rise is upending that dynamic."