Latest Pollution Headlines
All the headlines from our Pollution Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Sierra Club Dragging State Farm into Climate Change Battle
Aug 27 2015 // A State Farm executive is coming under fire from activists for his position on the board of what some consider to be a “climate denier” group. Sierra Club, a progressive investor group and other activist...
Judge Approves Exxon’s $225M New Jersey Pollution Settlement
Aug 26 2015 // Exxon Mobil Corp’s $225 million settlement with the administration of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie of a longstanding environmental pollution case won approval on Tuesday from a state judge, over the objections...
Texas Oil Field Chemical Supplier Rocked by Explosions
Aug 17 2015 // A series of explosions rocked an oil field chemical supply company north of Houston on Aug. 14, setting off a fire that sent a broad, dense column of thick, black smoke towering into the otherwise blue skies. DrillChem...
Declarations
Aug 17 2015 // Harpers Ferry Fire “I am totally grief-stricken for our community and for the shop and property owners affected by this terrible tragedy. I am, however, thankful that no one was injured.” —Harpers Ferry, W....
Washington City Sues Monsanto Over River Contamination
Aug 17 2015 // The city of Spokane is suing the international agrochemical giant Monsanto, which it blames for pollution in the Spokane River in Washington. The lawsuit, filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Spokane, alleges...
Ohio Land Owners Settle Whirlpool Pollution Lawsuit
Aug 10 2015 // A lawsuit against Whirlpool Corp. has been settled over contaminated land in northern Ohio near where dozens of children were sickened with cancer. The land owners settled their suit earlier this summer — months after...
Environmental Groups Concerned Over Renewed Oil Hunt in Florida
Aug 7 2015 // Renewed hunts for oil in sensitive Florida ecosystems have environmental groups raising questions about the state’s regulation of the oil and gas industry. A Miami company, Kanter Real Estate LLC, has submitted a...
Washington City Sues Monsanto Over River Contamination
Aug 5 2015 // The city of Spokane is suing the international agrochemical giant Monsanto, which it blames for pollution in the Spokane River in Washington. The lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Spokane, alleges that the...
Coal Plant Owners in Las Vegas Area to Settle Lawsuit for $4.3M
Aug 3 2015 // Owners of a soon-to-close coal-fired power plant outside Las Vegas, Nev. have agreed to pay $4.3 million to settle a lawsuit and clean up contamination that neighboring Native Americans blame for health problems and water...
Freberg Environmental Names Miller Senior Vice President in Colorado
Jul 31 2015 // Freberg Environmental Insurance has named Renee Miller to lead its environmental consultants and contracting program. Miller will be based in Denver, Colo. and lead Freberg’s environmental program providing general...
Is Climate Change Now Its Own Industry?
Jul 30 2015 // Interest in climate change is becoming an increasingly powerful economic driver, so much so that some see it as an industry in itself whose growth is driven in large part by policymaking. The $1.5 trillion global...
Transport Company Updates Public on West Virginia Oil Train Crash Cleanup
Jul 27 2015 // CSX is continuing to closely monitor the environmental impact of a fiery oil-train derailment in southern West Virginia, a spokeswoman said last week. The company held a public informational meeting that drew a sparse...
Prosecutors Request Guilty Plea Hearing for Executive in West Virginia Spill Case
Jul 24 2015 // Federal prosecutors want a judge to schedule a guilty plea hearing for the top executive charged in a massive chemical spill that contaminated West Virginia’s biggest drinking water supply last year. In federal court...
Environmental Groups Ask North Carolina Judge to Dismiss Part of Duke Energy Suit
Jul 24 2015 // A coalition of environmental groups is supporting Duke Energy’s effort to dismiss part of long-running lawsuit over pollution leaking from the company’s coal ash dumps. The Southern Environmental Law Center...
Crowdsourcing Pollutant Detection: A Look at the Promise & Perils of Citizen Science
Jul 20 2015 // Far from being a new idea of the 21st century, scientific research conducted by amateur or non-professional scientists has a long and distinguished history. (Think Benjamin Franklin or Charles Darwin, for example.) What is...
Investigation Underway in Fiery Tennessee Train Crash
Jul 6 2015 // About 5,000 residents evacuated after the derailment of a freight train carrying flammable and toxic gas in eastern Tennessee were allowed home on Friday as investigators looked into the cause of the fiery...
Spate of Climate Change Reports Ahead of Global Summit
Jul 2 2015 // Ahead of December’s big and much-talked about United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP21 or CMP11, it seems there’s been an information ramp up of sorts. I’m not just talking about Pope...
DuPont Transfers Pollution Liabilities for 171 Sites to New Company Chemours
Jul 2 2015 // When DuPont Co. announced plans to spin off its major chemical operations in October 2013, it said the move would create a cash-generating dynamo with the leading market share in most of its businesses. The spinoff would...
N.Y. Officially Bans Fracking, Ending 7-Year Environmental, Health Review
Jul 1 2015 // New York formalized its ban on high-volume hydraulic fracturing for natural gas on Monday, concluding a seven-year environmental and health review that drew a record number of public comments. “After years of...
Judge Won’t Recuse Prosecutors on West Virginia Chemical Spill Trial
Jun 30 2015 // A judge will let federal prosecutors keep working on a criminal case over a chemical spill last year in West Virginia, shooting down arguments that prosecutors should be recused from the case because they were among the...
