"Members of a congressional oversight committee excoriated a former Environmental Protection Agency official on Tuesday for not responding more forcefully when she learned last year that Flint, Mich., was not adding a chemical to its new water supply that would have prevented the city’s pipes from corroding and leaching lead."
"The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it is dropping its year-old plan to allow companies to search and drill for oil and natural gas in the Atlantic Ocean off of four southeastern states."
"Five years ago today a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the coast of northeastern Japan unleashed a powerful, 30-foot-high tsunami that swept across the landscape, killing 15,000 people, displacing nearly 400,000 others, and triggering one of the worst nuclear disasters in history — a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant."
"Nearly one in five acres of Maryland farmland has enough phosphorus in its soil to potentially threaten local waterways and the Chesapeake Bay, according to new state data released Monday."
"The Senate backers of legislation to strengthen the government's open records laws are hoping to pass their bill on the floor in the coming week."
"At a town hall event in Ohio’s manufacturing hub on Sunday, Republican presidential candidate John Kasich criticized Secretary of State John Kerry for traveling to Paris to fight climate change, and said clean energy was too expensive for the region."
"Facing a backlash from Appalachian Democrats, Hillary Clinton's campaign on Monday tried to reaffirm her commitment to coal communities one day after declaring on national television she was going to "to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.""
"A record surge in temperatures in 2016, linked to global warming and an El Nino weather event in the Pacific, is adding urgency to a deal by 195 governments in December to curb greenhouse gas emissions to slow climate change, scientists said on Monday."
"The number of Zimbabweans requiring food aid has risen to 4 million, up from 3 million initially, a state-owned newspaper said on Tuesday, as the southern African nation grapples with its worst drought in more than two decades."
Renee Montagne interviews Gina McCarthy, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, about EPA's role in the Flint water crisis. McCarthy says Michigan's slow-walking response to the problem made it hard for EPA to intervene. McCarthy is one of several key witnesses to testify this week before the House Oversight Committee. Resigned Regional Administrator Susan Hedman will testify today.
