Environmental Protection Agency

Environment

The EPA's new 'good neighbor' rule targets downwind pollution by power plants

2:11pm March 15, 2023

by The Associated Press

Nearly two-dozen states will have to cut harmful industrial emissions of nitrogen oxide and other pollutants, improving air quality for millions of people living in downwind communities.

A truck sprays water on part of the burning landfill during the EPA's work to smother the site in dirt.

A months-long landfill fire in Alabama reveals waste regulation gaps

6:30am March 12, 2023

by Zoe McDonald

An unregulated landfill that accepts vegetative waste has burned underground for months. Neighbors were inundated with smoke and left wondering why the site wasn't regulated in the first place.

Queue Listen Now

Residents of southwest Pakistan move through floodwaters in September 2022. People with less wealth are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including more severe rainstorms.

Environment

Why the EPA puts a higher value on rich lives lost to climate change

10:40am February 08, 2023

by Rebecca Hersher

There is one number that the Environmental Protection Agency relies on to decide which climate policies to pursue. So why does that number assume the lives of richer people are worth more?

EPA chief Regan speaks at North Carolina King Day observance

9:13am January 15, 2023

by Associated Press

The drive for clean water and air for minority and low-income residents is inexorably linked to the march toward racial equality that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. championed, U.S.

A flare to burn methane from oil production is seen in August 2021 on a well pad near Watford City, N.D.

Environment

Biden tightens methane emissions rules, even as the U.S. pushes for more oil drilling

11:53am November 11, 2022

by The Associated Press

Oil and gas production is the nation's largest industrial source of methane, the main component of natural gas, and is a key target for the Biden administration as it seeks to combat climate change.

At the Upper Tenmile Creek Mining Area Superfund site in 2018, water contaminated with arsenic, lead and zinc flows from a pipe out of the Lee Mountain mine and into a holding pond near Rimini, Mont.

Environment

The EPA begins rolling out billions to clean up Superfund sites

3:55pm December 18, 2021

by Deepa Shivaram

Starting with $1 billion, the EPA announced that 23 states and Puerto Rico would be getting money to clean up Superfund sites in a previously unfunded backlog.

Environment

EPA unveils strategy to regulate toxic 'forever chemicals'

4:01pm October 18, 2021

by Matthew Daly, Associated Press

Farmers have been spraying chlorpyrifos on crops, including strawberries, apples, citrus, broccoli, and corn since 1965.

EPA Will Ban A Farming Pesticide Linked To Health Problems In Children

10:29pm August 18, 2021

by Vanessa Romo

Agency officials issued a final ruling on Wednesday saying chlorpyrifos can no longer be used on the food that makes its way onto American dinner plates. The move overturns a Trump-era decision.

Refrigerators on sale in 2018 in Pennsylvania. The Environmental Protection Agency is planning to phase out the use of cooling chemicals that are powerful greenhouse gases.

Science

EPA Moves To Cut A Group Of Powerful Greenhouse Gases

1:08pm May 03, 2021

by Rebecca Hersher

The EPA plans to phase out hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, which are used in refrigerators and air conditioners. When HFCs are released into the atmosphere, they are extremely good at trapping heat.

Tia Tate is a computational biologist currently working in a postdoctoral position at a federal agency in North Carolina.

Science

Why Having Diverse Government Scientists Is Key To Dealing With Climate Change

4:38pm April 30, 2021

by Rebecca Hersher

Climate and health policies rely on scientific expertise. But the federal science workforce has been shaped by decades of political interference, underfunding and race and gender bias.