Latest Pollution Headlines
All the headlines from our Pollution Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Steelworkers Union Sues to Reverse EPA Weakening of Chemical Plant Rules
Jan 10 2020 // The United Steelworkers sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in federal court on Thursday in a bid to reverse its gutting of a safety rule at chemical plants, the union said. The largest U.S. industrial...
New York Governor Lays out Aggressive Climate Change Plan
Jan 9 2020 // New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is proposing an aggressive climate change-fighting campaign for his state that includes a $3-billion bond act that would be put on the ballot this November. Cuomo, who says that money would go to...
Trump Wants to Speed Infrastructure Projects by Dropping Climate Impact Assessment
Jan 9 2020 // The Trump administration on Thursday unveiled a plan to speed permitting for major infrastructure projects like oil pipelines, including by dropping consideration of their potential impact on climate change. The plan,...
Insurance Journal’s Top 10 South Central Region Stories of 2019
Jan 2 2020 // It almost seemed like there was a major fire or explosion per month at one petrochemical facility or another in the South Central region last year. That’s not really the case, but there were a number of high-profile...
Honeywell to Pay Georgia $4M for Pollution in Coastal Marsh
Dec 27 2019 // A company has agreed to pay the state of Georgia $4 million for environmental cleanup of a former chemical plant. The Brunswick News reports Honeywell International has filed the settlement with the state Department of...
BP Alaska to Pay $125K Over Hazardous Waste Violations
Dec 27 2019 // BP Alaska agreed to pay a little more than $125,000 in fines over hazardous waste violations on Alaska’s North Slope, officials said. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it reached the agreement with...
New York Tweaks Clean Water Plan as Suppliers Call for More Time
Dec 24 2019 // New York would not issue violations against certain water suppliers who notify the public that they have too-high levels of certain industrial and synthetic chemicals under the latest plan to be proposed by state...
Notre Dame Fire Reveals Global Safety Lapse Over Dangers of Lead Dust
Dec 23 2019 // PARIS (AP) — It took a blaze that nearly destroyed Paris’ most famous cathedral to reveal a gap in global safety regulations for lead, a toxic building material found across many historic cities. After the Notre...
DuPont Asks Delaware Judge to Toss Chemours Environmental Liabilities Suit
Dec 23 2019 // The DuPont Co. is asking a Delaware judge to dismiss a lawsuit claiming that it massively downplayed the cost of environmental liabilities that Chemours would be saddled with when DuPont spun off its former performance...
U.S. Government Backs Bayer in Bid to Overturn Roundup Cancer Verdict
Dec 23 2019 // The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department said a federal appeals court should reverse a lower court verdict finding Bayer AG liable in the case of a California man who blamed its Roundup weed...
Texas Regulators Want Stiffer Penalty for Owner of Port Neches Plant That Exploded
Dec 20 2019 // Environmental and watchdog groups have long criticized the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for taking it too easy on polluters — and the TCEQ has often countered that its job is to coax industrial facilities...
Steel Mill Sued over Chemical Spill in Indiana Lake
Dec 17 2019 // Two environmental groups are suing a steelmaker for allegedly violating the Clean Water Act at its northwestern Indiana facility more than 100 times in the past five years, including an August spill that killed more than...
Bayer Asks Appeals Court to Toss $25 Million Roundup Cancer Verdict
Dec 17 2019 // Bayer AG on Monday said it has asked a U.S. federal appeals court to throw out a $25 million judgment it was ordered to pay to a California man who blamed the company’s Roundup weed killer for his cancer. In a filing...
Probe Finds Intercontinental Terminals Fire Near Houston Began with Broken Manifold
Dec 13 2019 // A March fire at a petrochemical terminal that spread a blanket of black smoke across Houston began when part of a manifold, which includes a pump and motor, on one storage tank broke, according to a report by local and...
AXA XL Adds Novoa, Delaney to Environmental Insurance Team in New York
Dec 12 2019 // AXA XL has welcomed Senior Underwriters Odette Novoa and Erica Delaney to its Environmental insurance team in New York. Both have joined AXA XL’s Northeast regional environmental underwriting team and report to Hiral...
Plastics Manufacturer Settles Retired Texas Shrimper’s Lawsuit for $50M
Dec 9 2019 // A federal judge has approved a historic settlement agreement between Taiwan-based plastics manufacturer Formosa and an environmental activist represented by indigent legal services nonprofit Texas Rio Grande Legal...
Texas City Again Issues Voluntary Evacuation Order over Chemical Plant Blast
Dec 6 2019 // Concerns over air quality have prompted a voluntary evacuation order that was in effect on Dec. 5 for a Texas Gulf Coast city where a pair of chemical plant explosions occurred last week. Port Neches issued the voluntary...
Companies Face Class Action Suit Over Sugar Field Burns Plaguing Poor Florida Towns
Dec 5 2019 // For residents of the Glades, a string of poor, predominantly African American rural towns dotting the southern shore of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee, the beginning of the annual sugar cane harvest in October means the...
Texas Chemical Plant Shut by Explosions, Fire to Be Rebuilt, Company Says
Dec 5 2019 // Petrochemical maker TPC Group Inc will rebuild the Texas plant shut last week by devastating explosions that ignited fires that burned for six days, a spokeswoman said on Dec. 4. The last fire at the Port Neches plant was...
County Official: No Plans to Sue over Texas Chemical Plant Fire
Dec 4 2019 // The top official of an east Texas county that evacuated 60,000 residents last week after a petrochemical plant exploded and caught fire said on Dec. 3 he does not plan to sue the company, and will leave potential...
