Some chemicals that are common in commercial products and processes are known to find their way into the environment and seriously (even fatally) harm human health. Yet current U.S. law makes it hard for EPA to keep companies from using them. Sometimes the chemicals used to replace them are just as bad, but the law does not even require those to be tested. A vast regime of secrecy based on unchallenged claims of "confidential business information" makes the danger to public health worse. Often, not even the EPA employees responsible for protecting people can access information about the toxic chemicals. The chemical reform bills now pending in Congress won't fix the problem.

"A US government agency says it has attained the “holy grail” of energy – the next-generation system of battery storage, that has has been hotly pursued by the likes of Bill Gates and Elon Musk."

"The Senate has approved a bill overhauling federal energy pipeline rules and reauthorizing the main agency overseeing pipeline safety in a vote Thursday."

"In a significant victory for the Obama administration, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Thursday refused to block an Environmental Protection Agency regulation limiting emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from coal-fired power plants."

"When a whooping crane stands up, you notice. At 5 feet in height, it's America's tallest bird. Its wingspan is more than 7 feet, its body snowy white, its wingtips jet black. By the 1940s, the birds had nearly gone extinct. Biologists have worked hard to bring them back, by breeding whoopers in captivity and releasing them in the wild."

"Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is poised to sign on to a continental environment and climate-change strategy with outgoing President Barack Obama when the two leaders hold their first formal bilateral meeting in the Oval Office next Thursday."

"The U.S. Justice Department has forwarded a request from two congressmen seeking a federal probe of ExxonMobil to the FBI's criminal division."

"Marilyn and Jack Whitcher have been regular visitors to the glacier-carved valley of Yosemite National Park since they were dating more than five decades ago. This trip was different."

"A Senate panel voted Tuesday to advance legislation that would block states from imposing labeling requirements for genetically modified foods."

"Former Chesapeake Energy chief executive Aubrey McClendon, the embattled co-founder of one of America’s largest natural gas producers, died Wednesday morning in a fiery car crash one day after he was charged in an Oklahoma bid-rigging conspiracy."