"Virginia lawmakers have approved legislation to require the state’s largest electric utility to excavate and clean up unlined coal ash pits."

"Energy Transfer, the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline and other controversial projects, has failed to fix problems that were uncovered after an explosion on one of its projects in Pennsylvania, state regulators said."

"The Chesapeake Bay Foundation downgraded the health of the nation’s largest estuary Monday from a C-minus to a D-plus, blaming the dip in its latest report card on increased pollution from extraordinary amounts of rainfall in 2018."

"Add one more item to those “Out for 2019” lists : plastic straws. D.C. banned plastic straws in restaurants and other businesses effective Jan. 1, 2019, becoming the second major U.S. city to do so. Seattle made the change six months ago."

"ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A board of high-ranking Maryland officials on Wednesday rejected a proposed pipeline across the western part of the state that would carry natural gas produced in Pennsylvania to West Virginia.

The Board of Public Works voted 3-0 against an easement for TransCanada’s pipeline. It would run under the Potomac River near Hancock, Maryland, and extend about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from Columbia Gas’ network in Pennsylvania to Mountaineer Gas’ distribution system in West Virginia.

"Lee Martin loved her 104-acre farm in Wetzel County, West Virginia. The family raised chickens there and rode horses. The kids played in mud puddles. They all took walks in the woods. ... Then, starting in about 2012, Martin had to begin sharing the farm with Stone Energy."

"A Trump administration proposal to roll back protections for some marshes and streams could affect more than 30,000 acres of wetlands in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, according to a new report."